Customer Reviews

Baseball: An Illustrated History

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A tour de force of a book to accompany the PBS video series. This book is one of the best to examine the history of baseball and its impact on America and the American people. Highlights include the coverage of Jackie Robinson and the Negro Legues, particularly the interviews with Buck O'Neil (who should be in Baseball's Hall of Fame). The only disappointment was that it was a bit short on information about Mickey Mantle. Still, this is a major work that belongs on the coffee table of baseball lovers everywhere.

I've read Ward & Burns' book twice. I could look at the historic photos for hours. It is NOT filled with stats, batting averages, or on-base percentages. I was amazed at the true origins of my favorite sport. The quotes are thought provoking and it takes me down memory lane each time I pick it up. If you want to smell the green grass on a summer afternoon, hear the crack of a wooden bat smothered by the roar of the crowd or wipe the dirt from your uniform after you slide into second, then read Baseball:An Illustrated History.

BASEBALL HEROES AND EVERYDAY PLAYERS AND THE PART THAT HISTORY EVOLVES AROUND THE GAME MAKE THIS BOOK ONE OF THE BEST THAT I HAVE READ. THE PICTURES THEMSELVES ARE INCREDIBLE AS THEY PORTRAY THE GAMES GREATEST MOMENTS AND THE GAMES MOST DISAPPOINTING EVENTS. THE TEXT IS COLORFUL AND FULL OF IMAGES THAT BRING BACK THE GAME AS IT WAS PLAYED AT THE START AND EVENTS FROM THE LAST TWO DECADES ARE BROUGHT BACK INTO MEMORY AS GREAT GAMES THAT I REMEMBER SEEING. THE EVOLUTION OF THE GAME IS INCREDIBLE TO SEE AS WELL AS THE CHANGES THAT TECHNOLOGY HAS BROUGHT TO THE GAME. FINALLY IT BRINGS GREAT RECOGNITION TO THOSE UNFORTUNATE THAT BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE WERE NOT RECOGNIZED AS BASEBALLS GREATEST DURING THEIR ACTIVE PLAYER CAREERS. THIS IS A MUST FOR THE AVID BASEBALL FAN. (GERARDO MAGANA

I must respectfully disagree with the following on-line review:

"Yes, Booklist, there is a MUCH better volume on baseball than this one and (in particular) the Baseball Encyclopedia. It is Total Baseball!!! For that matter, I found the books "Ball Clubs" and "Baseball Uniforms of the Twentieth Century" to be better books. Nevertheless, this book is still a good one. It's just not THE greatest. . ."

I am familiar with these books and am stunned with this perspective. These books are great if you're interested in dry and boring facts and figures. They read like history text books.

The strength of this book is that is it about people. Their feelings, their passions, their loves, their hates, their strength, weaknesses, histories, successes, and failings. Oh, and by the way, all these people also happen to love and play baseball.

The Ward/Burns is unique in that it reads like a novel not another boring collection of jock stories with stats and pictures pasted here and there.

Case in point. I always thought that Babe Ruth was greatly over rated as a player until I read this book. Now I understand why he is the greatest baseball player to ever lived and why he ever shall be so.

I also finally understood why my intense primal hatred of the Giants and Yankees. I now understand that I am firmly in the tradition of the Dodger faithful from time immortal. In honoring the traditions of the game - like this one - I honor every player baseball fan and player who has ever loved the game as I do. I too am part of the baseball story. I am part of the ongoing saga.

If stats and boring facts are your thing then by all means pass on this book. However, if you love people and love life this book will make your heart sing, break, quiver, and fly like a Mark McGwire home run or a Wally Moon moonshot.

/fwa

"Baseball: An Illustrated History" is the companion volume to Ken Burns' PBS documentary. The narrative, written by Geoffrey C. Ward, is based on the documentary filmscript by Ward and Burns. What this means in practical terms is that everything you hear and a lot of what you see in the celebrated series is in this book, plus a lot more. Each chapter/inning ends with an essay, such as Bill James on "Stats," Doris Kearns Goodwin on being a "Fan," George F. Will on "Fifties Baseball" and Gerald Early on "Baseball and African American Life." There is also an interview with Buck O'Neil, who emerged from "Baseball" as the game's greatest living good will ambassador. What you will appreciate the most are the little touches: when talking about the dominance of the Yankees in the 1950's we get a full page of choice quotes presenting "The Wisdom of Casey Stengel...and Yogi Berra." There are ads featuring Babe Ruth, pictures of old tobacco cards, the complete "Casey at the Bat," and dozens of other little gems sprinkled throughout the book. As opening day approaches each year my annual rite of spring is to watch "Baseball," and I always take out this companion volume and leaf through it as I watch a century of baseball history. This volume can stand on its own, which might be the single best testament to how good of a baseball book it happens to be.

This book could always have more added to it over the ages, and one could always say 'What about... Why wasn't that included in the book?', but nonetheless this book is a treasure. I dearly loved every page I turned and every paragraph I read. It is loaded with photos of a great many heros of the game, and enlightening backgound and stories. It obviously was a great effort to put this book together, and I consider it a worthy tribute to the subject. Baseball is a sport of emotion and devotion. It has grown with America, and therefore is an integral part of our nation's soul. More can always be told about history of the game, and more should be told, but this is a wonderful presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anyone who ever played or watched the game cannot fail to be moved by the rich tapestry of baseball legend that comes to live in the text and especially the illustrations of this book. The essay by Doris Kearn reminiscing about the Brooklyn Dodgers, and tying that into the love for her family is haunting and very beautiful, while Thomas Boswell's reflections on his mother's love for the Washington Senators is moving as well as dryly hilarious. In its essence each player discussed in detail comes to life in poignant detail. A must for anyone who cares deeply for the game.

This is the best book on baseball that I have ever read. I have other books on baseball but this is the one that I keep coming back to again and again and again.

You've read the rest, here's the best!

Very well put together. Has excellent pictures and a delightful interview with Negro Leagues legend Buck O'Neil. Great companion for the PBS series.

This volume contains a lot that is very good. Its structure is a bit forced (nine innings, or periods, of baseball history). The 9th inning, as others have noted, covers a large time frame compared with earlier "innings." I'm not sure that the decade is the best way of organizing baseball history, either. Still and all, that's more a matter of taste than anything else.

The book's authors candidly observe that they will focus on eastern teams, e.g., Boston Red Sox and Brooklyn Dodgers, "because we felt their stories especially rich in the human drama that accompanies the history of every team." However, I agree with a reviewer (who bears the name of one of Detroit's best first basemen ever) who laments that this really does slight the deep baseball history that covers much more territory than New York to Boston. Again, though, certainly not a fatal flaw by any stretch in this book.

This book is seen as complementary to the documentary series on PBS, designed to elaborate certain issues in ways not possible in the TV medium. Some of the special features in both the documentary and book are the recollections of Buck O'Neil; interviews with historians, writers, managers, and players. Finally, essays by a number of "guests" represent an interesting twist. Roger Angell has a wonderful Introduction, "Hard Lines," in which he juxtaposes the apparent ease of playing baseball with the harsh realities of players often fighting just to stay in the big leagues or losing the joy for the game (note the brief discussion on Carl Yastrzemski). He observes that: "Once we understand how really hard it is, we become citizens of baseball, admiring its laws and just paths, even when the luck of the day hasn't gone our way." Other guest commentators include George Will, Bill James, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

But the book is about baseball, so the nine innings are themselves the heart of this book. The early years, up until 1900, feature a strange game to us today, with very different rules--as well as the origins of racial segregation in the game (the issue of race is one of the main themes of the book). The second inning discusses the game as "Something like a war," when players played and fought hard. And so on. No need to provide a full chronology. Some special segments: the role of Babe Ruth, in the Fourth Inning, helping baseball dig out from under the disaster of the Chicago Black Sox, who threw a World Series. The Sixth Inning features the end of segregation in baseball, with Jackie Robinson's big league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

A final quotation from Buck O'Neil illustrates how the game can be addictive--to players (and even to fans), when he says: "There is nothing in life like getting your body to do all the things it has to do on the baseball field."

All in all, an ambitious work, trying to capture the spirit of baseball, its sins, and its contributions. While I do have some questions about this volume, as already noted, it ends up not quite being a home run, but it surely is extra bases.