No More Mr. Nice Guy: A Life of Hardball

by Dick Williams, Bill Plaschke

There are many in baseball who will question whether Williams ever was Mr. Nice Guy, for he stepped on a great many toes in his 20-year managerial career. Yet he will always be acknowledged as a winner in both leagues with great teams like the Oakland A's of the early '70s and awful ones as well, like the Seattle Mariners of the mid-'80s. Because, as he notes here, he is a battler and disdains players who are not, he feels out of step with today's pampered, moody, overpaid athletes. The outspoken Williams, writing with freelancer Plaschke, even blasts certain owners, rare in a baseball autobiography: Tom Yawkey, Charley Finley, Ray and Joan Kroc, among others. But he has heroes, too, like Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson and Goose Gossage, his type of stars.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Biography, Autobiography

344 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1990

Reviews

[Pierre Ranger]

All fans of baseball should read this book. It is really funny.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great baseball book, covering the turbulent years in baseball from 1960 thru 1980, as told by one of the best managers of all time, Dick Williams. He's definitely not afraid to name names when it comes to slackers, idiots and fools, although at this point, only a real baseball aficionado like myself even would remember most of them. But it's still a great read, especially if you're a Red Sox fan and would love to get the inside story of the Impossible Dream year. It also covers those crazy Athletics of the early 70s.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of left field comes a great baseball book. Purchased from a bargain bin, the book sat in a box in my basement for years. I guess Dick Williams voice needed to be heard. I logically segued to this book after reading Carl Yastrzemski's tepid autobiography, "Baseball, the Wall and Me". To my genuine surprise and joy, this book was incredibly entertaining throughout. Irreverent, witty, unforgiving in its subjective honesty, it is Dick Williams completely. Written in an effective, first-person barstool style, yet still extremely well edited and consistently engaging. The book is very often hilarious and filled with clever punchlines, one-liners, and twists and turns of humorous prose. If you love baseball and followed it closely during Williams' long tenure as a MLB manager, you will feel as if you hear his voice and can see him in the dugout as he tells his unique story. And you will finish the book with the impression that you know Williams as well as anyone can from the written page. Surely the book accomplished wonderfully what Williams and Plascke hoped it would. What more could you ask of a baseball bio?

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick Williams was a very successful manager in the major leagues. His highest moment was his first one, when he led the Boston Red Sox to the American League pennant in his first year as a manager in 1967. When the season started, the Red Sox were underdogs as they finished in ninth place the year before. They were competitive in 1968 and 1969 and would likely have challenged for the pennant if star pitcher Jim Lonborg had not broken his leg after the 1967 season. In 21 years as a manager, his teams won four pennants and 2 World Series titles, far better than some Hall of Fame managers.
This book is his autobiography, and he states his position on everything, including the all-important will to win as it has changed over time. Williams had a 13-year career as a player starting in 1951 before he began managing so he experienced the days when the pay was low and World Series money was relatively enormous compared to yearly salary.
Williams is very honest regarding his experiences with players and how he tried to motivate them any way he could. At times, the players resented his methods and other times they responded with better play. He is also candid about how drug use became a serious issue in the major leagues and how so many people in the upper management ranks simply turned a blind eye. Williams also calls out the whiners and complainers as well as the players that in his opinion lacked the guts and fortitude to be winners.
This is definitely a tell-it-like-it-was book, Williams also does not always spare himself in stating what went wrong and why. The best sections are those when he was the manager of the Oakland Athletics and had to deal with the most obnoxious owner of the time, Charlie Finley. Even though the team was winning, Finley was never satisfied and was a compulsive meddler. One thing is certain, Williams was never a nice guy.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for the history....zero stars for Williams as a person. What a jerk. If this wasn't an AUTObiography, I'd consider it a hatchet job. He makes himself look really bad. He has no problem smearing everyone he disliked, which was apparently almost anyone he ever worked for or with in his entire career.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

raised by an overbearing dad this forms his life. makes the major leagues, does a little time in the army, then back to baseball. a bench heckler. gets hurt so the rest of his career he aspires to get by. moves on to management and gets teams to the world series many various situations.

eventually manages seattle, it is a different game. does a season in the senior league. insights. b/w images.

[Orrie Yaugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was truly an old school delight. A manager with quite the history, Dick Williams shares (very openly) his experiences in MLB from players all the way to owners. I found myself laughing quite a few times as names from my childhood infatuation with baseball were recalled.

[James McAndrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dick Williams autobiography No More Mr. Nice Guy tells the story of the Hall of Fame manager who guided the, Boston Red Sox to a pennant, the Oakland Athletics to two consecutive World Series wins and the San Diego Padres to their first Pennent. Even with all his success he comes across as a very angry person from his gripes with the Red Sox owners the Yawkes, Oakland’s infamous owner Charles Finley and his constant battles with his players like Bill Melton who got Williams fired from his job with the Angles, Steve Rogers for whom he had little respect or Terry Kennedy.
While No More Mr. Nice Guy is worth reading for its view of four decades of baseball go in knowing the author has scores to settle with many of the people he encountered during his long and successful baseball career.

[David]

Gifted by Ron Forsythe, my college professor and friend.