Baseball Days: Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime [Paperback]

Garret Mathews (Author), Garret Matthews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

For this book of baseball recollections, Garret Mathews asked many household names to share memories of playing baseball while they were growing up. Dozens of celebrities contributed recollections, including Charles Schulz, Robert Goulet, and Dave Barry. Anyone who remembers breaking in his or her favorite glove and choosing up sides will enjoy this nostalgic look at growing up with baseball.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Garret Mathews has a favorite baseball memory. When he was a boy, he lived next to Gail Harris, a big leaguer with the New York Giants and Detroit Tigers. Harris once told him that on the last game of the year he had 19 runs and wanted to hit his 20th. The opposing team's catcher, Earl Batty, was a friend. "Earl knew I'd probably never hit that many again... so he agreed to give me a chance." The next pitch was a fastball, and Harris drove it over the right field fence. Mathews remembers, "I was in heaven. He had given me something more precious than balls and bats. He had shared a piece of baseball lore."

Mathews asked 64 people, including LeRoy Neiman, Don Larson, Dick Vitale, and W.P. Kinsella, to share their own pieces of baseball lore. The result is Baseball Days, a nostalgic look at the national pastime. The pieces range from the sad (Bill Bradley remembering how his team had to stay in a dive hotel during a Little League playoff because the better places wouldn't accept the team's black players), to the poignant (Robert Goulet remembering his dad pulling him out of a game to go to his piano lessons), to the funny (sportswriter Hale Brown's "I took up baseball at the age of eight and gave it up after 2 minutes, the length of time it took me to take the field at shortstop and get hit in the nose with an errant ground ball. I ended up with no hits, no runs, one chance, and one error."). A sweet tribute to America's game. --M. Stein

About the Author

Garret Mathews is a columnist for the Evansville (IN) Courier & Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: NTC Business Books (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809225611
• ISBN-13: 978-0809225613
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,949,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Garret Mathews writes for The Evansville, Ind., Courier & Press. Born in Abingdon, Va., he graduated from Virginia Tech and worked on the Bluefield, W. Va., Daily Telegraph before coming to Indiana. In 2000, he was named Columnist of the Year for Scripps-Howard newspapers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball Days, March 13, 2000

By 

Lindsay (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball Days: Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime (Paperback)

While remembering the childhood innocence that has left so many of us behind, this book reflects the simple joys of the great American pastime, playing baseball. I highly recommend the reading of this book for a sure source of entertainment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 Stars, March 12, 2000

By 

Bill Drebus (Evansville, Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball Days: Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime (Paperback)

Down to earth; Entertaining; The breaking the window brought back fond memories of the first time of owning up to "my" transgressions and the good feelings it brought even though I was punished for the transgression.

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball Days: Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime, March 30, 2000

By 

Gerardo Fernandez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball Days: Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime (Paperback)

I found the Book very interesting and most of all the Photographs including the Photograph on page 14, of George Vecsey sitting and reading The New York Times/Sports Section ,which I photographed.