Customer Reviews

Amazin': The Miraculous History of New York's Most Beloved Baseball Team

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Twenty years ago this week, I went to my first-ever baseball game, at Shea Stadium. I broke away from the Yankee-rooting faith of my dad, and have been a Mets fan for twenty years. Buying this book was a no-brainer. While I don't regret the purchase, I do wish I'd had a chance to edit this book before it was bound and sold to others!

Peter Golenbock has written oral history before, most notably about the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Casey Stengel Yankees. This is good because it enables Golenbock to mail in the first hundred pages of this new book, a lengthy recap of those two earlier ones. The history of New York City baseball is traced slowly, from 1880 through 1960, as we revisit scenes from "Bums" and reread profiles on Stengel and first Mets General Manager George Weiss from "Dynasty".

Golenbock's strength in those earlier books wasn't so much his descriptions of individual games as it was the ability to draw detailed memories and strong quotes from players and fans. In "Amazin'", we read lengthy passages from a lot of memorable names in Mets history: the first three players interviewed are Rod Kanehl, Ron Hunt, and Ron Swoboda (and later on, we meet Ron Gardenhire. A pattern?). Al Leiter is the only post-1990 Met interviewed, and 66 of the book's final 67 passages are from him. Al's a terrific storyteller and I'd love to read his biography one day.

Other interviews are more suspect. That's because Golenbock simply reprints pages from the earlier autobiographies of Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Lenny Dykstra. Strawberry's ghost-writer employed particularly dramatic prose, so Darryl's quotes stick out dramatically from all the other conversational recollections.

Many minor facts in this book are flatly incorrect, from the misnaming of Tom Seaver to the descriptions of Game 6 of the 1999 playoff series against the Braves. Golenbock describes the game one way, and then is contradicted by Leiter. This happens frequently throughout the book. Also odd is that Bob Murphy, the first voice ever heard broadcasting a Mets game on radio, and now in his 41st year of service, is mentioned exactly twice in the book. Also mentioned exactly twice is Michael Kay, a Yankee broadcaster for 11 years and never an employee of the Mets. Where's the Murph? Also omitted is the furore over the 1992 trade of David Cone, although this is perhaps the only omission of a major turning point in Met fortunes throughout the book's 625-page length.

You can learn a lot about Mets history from "Amazin'", particularly from the chapter on Bill Shea, and from the chapters on the recent Bobby Valentine years, the first such chapters written about the current team. On these levels, "Amazin'" is groundbreaking. On other levels, it seems rushed: the book ends abruptly with Leiter discussing the final out of the 2000 World Series, and there's no author afterword or conclusion.

The first half of this book, up to the resurgence of the Mets in the mid to late 80s, is excellant. Many observations from a lot of players give a good overall view of the terrible 60s, leading up to great victory in '69, an almost victory in '73, and the decline after that. However, the focus on the late 80s is much too reliant upon a few memior/biographies, and less on the oral interviews of the earlier chapters. The oral interview comes back for the Mets' playoff teams of the 1999/2000. But with no interview subject except Al Leiter, these chapters lack the multiple perspectives of the earlier pages. And it is clear that this book was rushed into the bookstores for the 2002 baseball season. It has to be the worst edited book I've read in a long time, with many small factual errors.

Three players have spanned the entire history of the New York Mets -- Ed Kranepool (1962-1979), Mookie Wilson (1980-1989) and John Franco (1990-present). No season has taken place without one of them on the roster for at least part of the year. And nowhere in this supposed oral history do their thoughts appear.

Three of the most popular, longest serving, most identifiable players in team history. The three guys who can be said to have seen it all. Peter Golenbock doesn't bother with them.

That should tell you what a slipshod affair "Amazin'" is.

That's what's not in there. What is in there is stuff like this: The implication that the Mets' troubles with the Braves of the late 1990s dates back to Claudell Washington leaving New York to sign with Atlanta in 1980. Rambling reminiscences from Ron Gardenhire on what it was like in Tidewater in 1983. And more errors than John Valentin playing first base.

The work of Peter Golenbock and his editors gets half a star for dredging up bizarrely fascinating tidbits like Craig Swan's objection to serving as birddog for Joel Youngblood while the two were hunting. Half a star goes to the cover design and the subtitle of the book, which is enough to [attract] any true Mets fan. And one star goes to the Mets' actual history which is too good to be trampled by the likes of lazy, inaccurate fatcat authors who don't pay their subject matter a whit of the respect or attention it deserves.

Peter Golenbock is the worst thing to happen to Mets history since Bobby Bonilla. May neither ever get another assignment in baseball.

I'm a huge Mets fan, and if i had to summarize this book in word, it would be "uneven." Because it's an oral history, you frequently only are presented with one viewpoint. That's understandable, but it's Golenbock's job to then bring up the counterpoint, which he does not often do.

The book is rife with spelling errors and factual mistakes. Who edited this? The last few chapters covering the Bobby Valentine era are pretty much an Al Leiter showcase, as NO other players from that era are quoted.

Poor showing by Golenbock. Suitable only for the diehard Mets fan who just wants a refresher of what he already knows/read.

Great book for Mets fans, though the book does make you grit your teeth at times, mostly because of the factual errors already mentioned by other reviewers here and because of Golenbock's overreliance on the published memoirs of others, particularly the horrifically written Strawberry's. I also think that too few members of the Mets are or would consent to be interviewed. For instance, what's a history of the NY Mets without the POV of Ed Kranepool, who spanned three distinct eras of the team?

The best account of the Mets, though only up through '73, remains Leonard Koppett's THE NEW YORK METS. If you're interested in details and a solid analysis of the Mets transformation from bottom dogs to World Champs, Koppett's the one to beat.

I can't believe what a slapdash, lazy, and woefully unenjoyable read "Amazin' " is. As a lifelong Mets fan, I'm glad I know a lot about the history of the Mets, because it's clear that Peter Golenbock doesn't! This overlong book, which really could have used a decent editor and a fact-checker, is LOADED with so many factual errors that I actually threw the thing to the floor. Just a few incredible goofs from this book: Bobby Pfeil is described as an OUTFIELDER; it's stated that when the trade of Jerry Grote took place in 1977 that "all the remnants of the 1969 Champions were gone," when even casual fans know that Ed Kranepool played until 1979; and it claims that Joe Frazier was fired as Mets manager at the end of the 1977 season, and that Joe Torre was hired to replace him--when Frazier actually managed 45 games DURING 1977 and Torre replaced him during the season! This is a sloppy piece of hackwork, loaded with overlong quotes from the same players over and over. Dates of the "down" years are muddled and glossed over; one passage moved from 1975 to 1976 and back again (again with errors in the facts) so many times that I got dizzy. I'd tell you more about the Mets' later years, as described in this lousy book, but I'm not going to bother reading it if Golenbock didn't bother to research his facts. Just horrible! This is the worst Mets biography I have ever read, and if non-sports people like Publishers Weekly or the like give it a good review, don't believe it for a second. Why doesn't some smart publisher simply re-release Dick Schaap's FAR superior "The Year The Mets Lost Last Place" instead of releasing horrible stuff like "Amazin' "?

"Amazin': The Miraculous History..." contained some good history of the Mets, but a lot of the history was missing. Very little was said about the Met's lean years from 1977 to 1982 and the 1990's. There is enough history for the casual Mets and baseball fan, but for someone with a knowledge of the team and its history, this book was disappointing.

This book would have been more interesting if each year from 1962 to 2002 had its own chapter. Along with a chapter on how the Mets came into existence, and a closing chapter with thoughts from the author, the book would be shorter, more concise, and contain more history. I did not see the need to write about the 1880's Metropolitans, nor the history of the New Yok Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers; they were not the subjects of the book, except how they left New York and this made way for the New York Mets.

There were some good interviews from Mets past, but not as much as would be expected for a history. As other comments stated, where were Kranepool, Seaver, Jones, Wilson and others, especially Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner, Mets announcers who have seen every game the Mets played? Having only Al Lieter as the only interviewee for the last several chapters was really short-sighted. That's not a history; that's an opinion of one player.

The book was poorly edited. There were too many grammatical errors, fractured and incomplete sentences, erronious facts. I understand that most of the qoutes were from the actual interview of players, but there were too many vulgar words for me to enjoy this book. Those words could have been eliminated and the message would still be clear.

I jsut wish I had read all the reviews first. I doubt if I would have purchased this book.

I gave this 2 stars for its extremely uneven nature. When Amazin is good, it is a delightful and well-researched book. When it is bad, the book is almost unreadable.

The good parts are wonderful mini-biographies of George Weiss, Rod Kanehl, Gil Hodges, Casey Stengel and Bill Shea. The whole segment on Shea is incredibly illuminating stuff. Strangely enough though, the book ignores Weiss' great reluctance to integrate the Yankees in the 50's. But Golenbock succeeds in shedding a great deal of light into this private man.

The book also goes into the original New York Metropolitans of the 19th century as well. Maybe too well, as I found it boring.

Golenbock also covered the 1969 Miracle Mets and 1986 teams decently. There is lots of good stuff from Swoboda, Seaver and Koosman on the 1969 Mets, Backman, Strawberry, Gooden and Carter on the 1986-era Mets.

But there are two major problems with this book, which may matter a little or a lot to a reader.

First off, it is far from comprehensive. Several seasons are almost ignored, if you are doing a "full" story of the team, then you did not do the job stated. When you give a season in the 19th century more ink than one ib the mid-70s, you are not comprehensive.

The other major fault is that the book contains a very small amount of sources. For reasons only known to Mr. Golenbock, there were few people willing to talk to him on the record in this book. The best oral biographies (See "Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto) have a wide variety of people quoted on the record.

In even the best sections, there are only 4-5 people talking. That is way too few and takes away greatly from the book. After a certain point, each source starts pushing their own agenda. The more sources, the less apparent that becomes.

The last 62 pages of the hardcover edition, covering the 1997-2001 seasons are a monologue by Al Leiter, occasionally interrupted by Golenbock. There is NO other source quoted in that section.

Now Al Leiter may be a decent pitcher and a nice guy, but he pushes his own agenda quite forcefully. Half the time he sounds like a self-serving jerk and there is nobody to disagree with him. There is absolutely nobody there to lend some objectivity. It is the Al Leiter show and if you like to hear him rant on and on, that is great. But if you are looking for something more, put away the book after page 564.

In his customary fashion, the author wrote forty-five informative and entertaining chapters. Unfortunately, the book has fifty-one chapters. The last five must have been sub-contracted, as they bear no resemblance to the rest. Only one subject, Al Leiter, is interviewed for the last six chapters, and the clear writing and insights disappear. There is no ending - he just stopped writing.

This shopper will purchase future books by the author only after waiting for reviews and careful inspections, steps not needed until now.

Let me get this straight. Golenbock interviews six or seven Mets, quotes EXTENSIVELY from past Met biographies and autobiographies, and turns it into a book. Where's the effort?

Almost all the quotes are lifted, with the bibliography hidden in the back. Very unimpressive journalism.