Jack’s Comments (group member since Mar 13, 2014)

Jack’s comments from the Baseballia group.

Finished this one.

I liked it because it had a variety of stories. There were stories from the early days, such as Ty Cobb; the Golden Era of the 40's and 50's; and into the modern era, well late 80's anyway.

I especially like the way this book ties in with the first one. Many of the same characters mentioned in the first book made an appearance in this one several times. Goes to show that the 40's and 50's were a very special time in baseball.

There were a few slow stories mixed in that I could have skipped, but overall I thought it was a good read.

Some of the stories make me want to delve into more details, such as Yogi Berra, Ty Cobb and DiMaggio.

Anyway, thought it was good.

I can only handle one book at a time and started NOS4ATU by Joe Hill. Going to finish that one first. Won't receive the new BB book until Friday anyway.

The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond by various authors.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Baseba...

Looks like a good collection of Baseball stories, both true and fictional. Reviews looked encouraging.

Finished the book.

I agree with Jeff; it's really three books in one.

The autobiographical section about Kahn's childhood, family, newspaper life and so on was mildly interesting if only to set the scene for Brooklyn in the time period. I like reading about history, but I thought this was a little boring when I was expecting stuff about the Dodgers. But I slogged through it.

Once Khan started covering the Dodgers, things got more interesting for me. It was interesting to read about baseball life in the 40's and 50's and the initial integration of blacks. Seems the Military and Sports were the initial great equalizers long before the Civil Rights movement in the 60's. Interesting.

Then we moved to the "Where Are They Now" part of the book. Again, I though that was pretty good, finding out what the 50's Dodgers were doing by the early 70's. I also was interested reading about how the Dodgers made the move to LA from Brooklyn and why. In retrospect, it's the same reason all the teams move: money and stadiums.

I also appreciated the update at the end that at least brought me up the late 90's.

Overall a pretty good read. I learned a lot about baseball in that age, the Dodgers themselves and about integration; something I actually never considered too much.

When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's black players on the Pirates were my sports heroes: Clemente and especially Willie Stargell. I never really gave it a thought what Jackie Robinson and Campy and Joe Black went through to enable guys like Stargell and Roberto and Al Oliver and all the rest to play. Although it really doesn't surprise me what those pioneers in integration went through, it's just that I never really considered the depth of the ugliness they had to endure on and off the field.

Good pick, David!

Although I liked some of the background color of Brooklyn 'way back when', I think there is a bit much of an autobiography of the author and not enough baseball.
Now that I'm over halfway through, the book seems to have refocused on baseball and particularly the Dodgers of the early 50's.

Oh Josh! Way to go man! WAY TO GO!!!

Started it today. So far, so good. Interesting to read about life in Brooklyn for a kid in the 30's.

Ok. Got the book. Will start as soon as I finish the one I'm raw dub for work.