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 enlarge | Author: Lawrence S. Ritter
Creator: Various
Publisher: HighBridge Company
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.33
You Save: $11.62 (39%)
New (13) from $18.33
Avg. Customer Rating:  71 reviews
Sales Rank: 82197
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 4
Pages: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 1598875922
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9781598875928
ASIN: 1598875922
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
Superb Baseball History May 5, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This superb oral history of baseball circa 1900-1920's contains many priceless tales. After Ty Cobb died in 1961 author Lawrence Ritter (1922-2004) took his tape recorder and traveled the USA to interview 22 surviving players from that remarkable era. We hear from top stars and established players, including Ed Roush, Sam Crawford, Smokey Joe Wood, Chief Meyers, Sam Jones, Bill Wambsganss, etc. Each player reminisces in his own way, recounting games, teammates, owners, managers, crowds, ballparks, etc. Some talk at length while others are briefer, but each is articulate and illuminating. I particularly liked Rube Marquard's memory of visiting the Chicago firehouse where he'd once slept as a transient, Stan Coveleski's view that baseball kept him from the coal mines, and the remembrances of Davy Jones and Jimmy Austin. It was also interesting to see how these players viewed superstars Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth. This book provides readers with a superb sense of baseball before night games, air travel, TV, radio (except after 1922), farm systems, and in some cities, Sunday baseball.
Ritter set a standard with this superb oral history. The players interviewed here have all departed (the last in 1988), but their memories live on in this superb book. Fans might also enjoy BASEBALL WHEN THE GRASS WAS REAL, a similar effort about a later era by Donald Honig.
Amazingly Fun. May 3, 2007
This book was a lot of fun to read, it showed a different side of the sport of baseball other than statistic. Told by the people themselves who played the game and in their own words. The author just let them go on for as long as they pleased with any stories they might have to tell. If you enjoy baseball history this is a must read.
The Glory of Their Times March 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mr Ritter's time was well spent for all to enjoy! His efforts have made an unbelievable event for many to think upon. The times past thru the voices of the men who kicked up the dirt of the old ball fields live on thru his work! Here's to Mr. Ritter, "You won't be denied any of the past, only the fulfilment of it's Diamond Warriors"...Denny Walsh San Antonio, Tx.
One of the Best Non-Fiction Books I Ever Read March 4, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Unlike other sports, professional baseball tries hard to maintain continuity with the past, so that today's accomplishments can still be ranked on a scale with those of a hundred years ago (after adjusting for steroids).
But there's more to continuity that just being able to compare statistics across generations. What if we could compare baseball personalities and anecdotes? Does Buckner's error at first base have any parallels from Babe Ruth's time? How does Barry Bonds compare with Ty Cobb as a teammate?
In the mid-1960's, the deaths of Ty Cobb and of his own father led Lawrence Ritter to realize that direct knowledge of the early years of major league baseball had a finite life span. In order to preserve some of it, he set out with a tape recorder to interview twenty-six baseball players who played in the major leagues between the 1900's and 1920's. At least seven of them are now in the Hall of Fame. The result is like no other sports book -- a real picture of the game in its early years, told from multiple perspectives by the players themselves. We learn about the personalities, the contracts, the managers, the travel, the food, the stadiums, the reporters and the fans. For several famous plays, we get to hear the versions of players from both teams who were on the field or in the dugout at the time. Amazingly, almost all of these men tell their stories as if they happened yesterday --- the details were still fresh and vivid in their minds, decades later.
If you have an interest in the history of baseball, or of grass roots America one hundred years ago, this book is a delight.
Don't Miss This One January 15, 2007
If you have only two baseball books in your library, the first one should be the "Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia". This should be the second.
If you have only one audio baseball book, let it be this one.
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