Baseball Eccentrics: A Definitive Look at the Most Entertaining, Outrageous and Unforgettable Characters in the Game [Hardcover]

Bill "Spaceman" Lee (Author), Jim Prime (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

Baseball Eccentrics is a celebration of the characters who have graced the game over the years, as told by one of the biggest of them all. Bill Lee also decries the scarcity of interesting personalities in today's game and examines some of the roots causes for this lack of spontaneity. His hilarious collection is a tribute to flakes past and also a call to today's players to loosen up and have some fun.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Bill Lee was a good major-league pitcher before chronic arm problems did him in after 14 years. But whatever he accomplished on the field was overshadowed by his reputation as an eccentric, as a guy who revered the game but never took himself--or his teammates, coaches, and managers--too seriously. This is a laugh-out-loud collection of outrageous behavior, head-scratching logic, practical jokes, and great wit. For example, there's a tale involving drinking buddies Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin in which a mule was euthanized and two cows were categorized as collateral damage. Former Cubs manager Lee Elia's profanity-laced diatribe against Cubs fans and their employment status is transcribed here, as is Earl Weaver's not-for-public-consumption spoof of his own radio call-in show. Mix in an array of Yogi Berra's fractured aphorisms, Jay Johnstone's practical jokes, and even some weighty philosophical issues (Dan Quisenberry: "I've seen the future and it's much like the present, only longer"). Lee never had much of a fastball as a pitcher, but he writes a 95-smile-per-hour book. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher

"[I thank God] for giving me a good right arm, a strong back and a weak mind." -Dizzy Dean at his Hall of Fame induction.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157243953X
• ISBN-13: 978-1572439535
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection of eccentric baseball stories heard over the years, April 24, 2008

By 

John Shaw "Mr. Bones" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baseball Eccentrics: A Definitive Look at the Most Entertaining, Outrageous and Unforgettable Characters in the Game (Hardcover)

I do own the book but this review is a response to the only other reviewer.

Although none of these tales are new they are not collected in print anywhere but here so it is a great book to have if you love these stories

And the tale don't judge a book by it's cover is as true today as it was back in the day. whoever thinks that a book about eccentric baseball players is kid friendly really doesn't know much about baseball at all no matter what the cover looks like, my prime examples are Wade Boggs a sexaholic who required a woman and a large bucket of KFC original recipe chicken before every game and The Buffalo Heads this group of red sox eccentrics are the farthest from kid friendly they were drugged up adulterers.

This book is great for fans of the personality of the ballplayers and is not the same old memoirs like every other baseball book. A must buy for any baseball fan but not kid friendly

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't Let The Cover Fool You, April 21, 2007

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Baseball Eccentrics: A Definitive Look at the Most Entertaining, Outrageous and Unforgettable Characters in the Game (Hardcover)

I appreciate Bill Lee's sense of humor and genuine love for the game of baseball. However, I base my rating of only two stars on the fact the vast majority of the stories are found in numerous other books and have been told in similar form for years. There are few original stories if you have already read humorous anecdotes about baseball in other books. In addition, the cover of the book showing Yogi Berra smiling while reading a three dimensional comic book leads one to believe this would be a book suitable for kids to read. On the contrary, the book is laced with profanities. If this doesn't bother you, and you are not already familiar with funny baseball stories, then you probably will enjoy the book and give it a higher rating than I did.