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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How much we've lost, June 30, 2005
This is a depressing book. Not because its subject is depressing; we're not talking about the Ukranian famine of 1932 here. No, this is a "You are there" book written at the end of baseball as we knew it. We weren't aware of that at the time, though we could see that things were changing. But we thought, and were repeatedly assured, that the changes would work themselves out. However, if you're over 40, you know they didn't, and baseball is a far less fun activity as a fan than it was then. There are innumerable little tidbits that make you see how much things have deteriorated. Tom Seaver pitches 12 innings. 12! A manager today would have the talk radio hordes ready to unman him for that, but it is only one of many. Steve Carlton threw 30 complete games in 1972. Contemplate that. 30. More than most teams, heck, probably more than most divisions today. He won 27 games on a team that won 59 total. Unfathomable. But unlike the managers who fear their million dollar boys will throw out their arms, Carlton came back and achieved that for more than another decade. Sure he was a great. But there are innumerable tales through here of guys who weren't greats, just solid players, performing in ways that would be unheard of, or at the minimum, worth millions of dollars, today, and doing it happily, without whining, griping, complaining, simpering or gloating.
Angell chronicles 5 wonderful seasons in the history of baseball, the years of Finley's Athletics and the Big Red Machine, and a new owner for the Yankees named George Steinbrenner, the arrival of Robin Yount and Mark Fidrych and George Brett and oh so many others. But because it is reporting, he also documents the arrival of guys who flashed briefly and then vanished. Baseball is like that.
But it is the creeping arrival of ugliness that hurts to read. Reggie's showboating. Young kids who don't respect their manager. And big money. The sports page went from stories about hits and errors to tales of contract negotiations, threats, and free agency. I know money has always been a part of the game, and there were drunks, wife-beaters, and thugs in baseball since the beginning. But the big contracts and big payrolls have made all the teams change their perspective, and though throughout this book the players assure us we won't think differently about them as a result of these changes, we do. Teams are no longer teams as they once were, a reliable group of guys who continued for years together and added the missing piece or replaced the aging veteran incrementally. They are an assemblage of whomever can be gathered up to make a winner. Because we still want a winner, but we no longer care about the guys who do the winning. How sad. And for me and many of my generation, how boring. Baseball just isn't what it was, and it isn't the DH or the long season or frigid World Series games. No, it's money, and the game has been permanently corrupted by it. So read this to see how it once was, how glory and honor could be achieved on the field rather than in the contract.
And feel disheartened for what we've lost, with nothing good to replace it.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Baseball fans who haven't read this book are missing out!, June 30, 2001
Roger Angell's love for the game flows throughout this fine book. Every bit of his prose is a joy to read, and the tales are enchanting. Covering five seasons, Angell brings to life the ebb and flow of the game and the people who make it great - from the players, the coaches, the management personnel and not the least, the fans. If you want to read a book that captures what baseball means, pick up this one. You won't be disappointed!
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The Master" does it again..., October 22, 2001
Part two of Roger Angell's 15 year written love affair with baseball...this book picks up where "The Summer Game" left off and doesn't miss a beat, covering the 1972 through 1976 seasons. Each chapter has all the classic written/observed anecdotes that Angell is famous for, as well as expert detailed coverage of the game(s) and the ever-discouraging front-office activities that the 70's were famous for (the Reserve Clause, the advent of Free Agency...etc). Still, Angell's ability to write insightful and elegant observations are what make this and The Summer Game standout and really makes all other baseball writing pale by comparison. For this book, he also adds something different when he takes on small projects such as following a Major League scout around the country, visiting with three Detroit Tiger fanatics and detailing the almost tragic rise and fall of Steve Blass, the Pittsburgh Pirate hero from the 1971 World Series. Each of these off-normal stories essentially "tells" itself, but Angell frames each in his own inimitable style that really defines "story-telling". I have such high regard for his writing that I wish he'd take on other projects (like history writing in general), as I'm sure that he'd excel there too (of course, being in his 80's probably has a lot to do with which projects he chooses to undertake). I read recently that Angell hates being called the "Poet Laureat" of baseball writing, but I can't think of a finer term for so marvelous a writer. This book should be combined with "Summer Game" and re-issued as a single volume for future writers to use as a model for taking a subject and turn it into expert storytelling. Highest recommendation!
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