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Title: More Than Merkle: A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season in Human History by Keith Olbermann, David W. Anderson ISBN: 0-8032-5946-8 Publisher: Bison Bks Corp Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: 1908 baseball season loses sparkle - mundane and repetitive
Comment: Despite the extraordinary excitement of dual pennant races and enough controversy to last decades, the pivotal baseball season of 1908 emerges as a washed down, mundane experience in David Anderson's uninspiring "More than Merkle." Overwhelmed with esoterica and dragged down by prosaic writing, this history will appeal to lovers of trivia, but cannot stand the test of appealing to a larger audience.
Anderson commits the cardinal error of minimizing narriatve flow; instead, he trudges us through a month-by-month description (which borders on pitch-by-pitch, of every team) of the pennant chase. Lost are the tension and violence of the era; the reader never is invited to understand the physical toll "dead ball" exacted from its participants.
What the reader receives is little more and little better than a Sporting News summary. Facts abound and statistics flow, yet "More than Merkle" is stragely wooden, stilted. Even the title character, Fred Merkle, whose baserunning blunder stands as one of the true milestones of the emerging national pasttime, hardly receives sufficient biographical treatment. Reverence for numbers cannot substitute for making players come alive.
Dry, badly in need of editing and affectless, "More than Merkle" does contribute to our understanding of the role umpires played in pivotal contests, but does little else. The proclaimed "most exciting season in human history" will have fans leaving in the middle of the seventh inning.
Rating: 5
Summary: A story that needed to be told
Comment: The authors have brought to life the excitement of this great season, when three teams went to the wire in both leagues. There are fine synopses of all 16 teams in the league, backgrounds on play at the time, and bios of the umpires, whom the authors contend had much to do with league outcomes- and not just in the Merkle game. A marvelous reliving of this great summer, told with accuracy.
The only thing missing from the book is the mention of the strange situation on the last day of the American League race. Cleveland was eliminated from contention, despite its 90-64 record, by teams with fewer wins. Detroit (89-63) was about to play Chicago (88-63), and whoever would win would have a better percentage than unlucky Cleveland. But the excitement definitely comes through. What a year!
If you love this book, Scott Longert's "Addie Joss" covers the Cleveland angle, Charles Alexander and Ty Cobb himself cover Detroit's, Christy Mathewson's book, as well as bios of John McGraw, take the Giant's view of the NL race, and the De Valeria's "Honus Wagner" covers Pittsburgh's side. Why oh why, in a city of journalists, has no one written anything from the White Sox or Cubs view?
Rating: 3
Summary: A Good Book, But Certainly Not A Classic
Comment: Another book written on a particular year. As the title suggests, there was more to the 1908 baseball season than the Merkle incident. The book reviews each major league team, the umpires, managers, and what fans were like during this Dead Ball era year. The author makes the case for the custom of not touching 2nd base on a game winning hit due to getting off the field as soon as possible before being mobbed by the fans on the field. Also, he questions why Manager McGraw of the Giants didn't warn his players about the necessity of touching 2nd base on a game winning hit since a similar incident happened prior to the Merkle game between the Cubs and Pirates. The introduction begins with a quote from Cubs' shortstop Joe Tinker who the author identifies as "second base, Chicago Cubs." Also, on the last page of the book the author spells the name of Tigers' pitcher Denny McLain as Denny "McClain." Errors such as this bother me and make me question other details I may not be aware of.
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Title: The Unforgettable Season by Gordon H., Fleming ISBN: 003056221X Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: February, 1981 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Baseball: The Golden Age by Harold Seymour, Dorothy Z. Seymour, Dorothy Jane Mills ISBN: 0195059131 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups : A Complete Guide to the Best, Worst, and Most Memorable Players to Ever Grace the Major Leagues by Rob Neyer ISBN: 0743241746 Publisher: Fireside Pub. Date: 02 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis ISBN: 0393057658 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 10 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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