Customer Reviews

Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Clifton Blue Parker hits a homerun with this book on the Waners. Parker does a great job telling the story of the Waner brothers and has a wonderful use of quotes from both brothers throughout the text. He frequently uses unpublished materials from Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times interview with Paul Waner.

Much like one of the other reviewers, I read through this book quickly. An absolute must for Pittsburgh Pirate fans!!!

P.S. - The only historical error of significance is that Parker is not familiar with the 1934 Goudey baseball card set.

Parker is a lively and engaging writer who also knows his subject matter as well as anybody I've come across in a long time. The Waners are two of the most overlooked Hall of Famers who played during baseball's most colorful era. Both the details and the historical context help set the record straight about the Pirates and the Waners. Few know, for example, that Paul Waner holds the record for extra base hits in consecutive games. It's much more than statistics and records. This book is about people and history. Through many anecdotes, interviews and tons of old newspaper and magazine clippings, we learn who Paul and Lloyd Waner are and how this game was played back then.

It's this kind of detail that makes this book a swift and enjoyable read.

I'm not sure what the prior reviewer was talking about -- actually Parker quotes another writer that 1 in 10 ballplayers had SOME connection to Oklahoma (he never says "from" only "passed through"), as defined by being born there, living there, going to school there, playing in the minors or college there. (Read "Glory Days" by Royse Parr et al -- that's the author Parker quoted.) It's common knowledge that the Dean brothers lived in Oklahoma as well as Texas and Arkansas at various points in their lives, that Carl Hubbell went to high school in Oklahoma near the Waners, that Warren Spahn retired to a large ranch in Oklahoma, etc. So what's the big deal? As a reader, I'm glad Parker went to the trouble to give us the full story and everything I read was thoughtfully done. Excellent job!

This book contains tons of info about the days of baseball back in the 1920s and 1930s. The Waners were fascinating, often forgotten today. I'm glad we get books like these and not more of the usual stuff on all the guys who get too much ink, like Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle.

I loved this book. Unlike so many baseball biographies, it captures the good and bad alike about the players, offers interesting, fascinating nuggets of information about the game and even American history. Excellent job Clifton Blue Parker! I think this guy's one of the best up-and-coming baseball historians.

Magnificient -- I read this book in two days flat. It's written beautifully with deep attention to the cultural history of baseball in the '20s and '30s.

Clifton Blue Parker's "Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers" is a much needed and welcomed biography of two brothers that don't get much publicity any more: the Waners. In their time, the late 1920s and 1930s, they were considered a force to be reckoned with for any team that played Pittsburgh: Paul being the better hitter, Lloyd being the better fielder. Each brother's ability in the other brother's expertise, though, was close enough for teams to acknowledge that the Waners could beat you with their bats, gloves, arms or speed on any given day. They were greatly respected around the league for their conduct, too, something harder to win than ability and to be treasured more. While Parker's book describes the live and time of the Waners and America (a plus) and does a fine job of displaying how good the Waners were, the book is not without its faults. My major complaint is the frequent referemces to Paul's drinking. Yes, Paul had a drinking problem, although it seldom affected his play and never seemed to affect his personality, which is a large plus. I had read before about his drinking, but perhaps others had not, and it's a fair topic to bring up in an autobiography. Perhaps kids will read the book and need to know that this is a conditionn that they need to avoid in the future, which is fair. But how many times can this be brought up before alcoholism becomes a heavy-handed, repetitous story? The book's focus on this matter becomes a prime point if this were a kid's instructional book, but it's not: it's an adult's biography, we know after the first couple of mentions that both brothers drink and the point really doesn't have to be driven home as frequently as it does. Other than this point, though, this is a fine book that does its subjects much justice, and is fine reading for anyone who wants to read about baseball and its stars when they were a lot close to being average folks than those playing today.

This book was a very enjoyable read, especially for those who are interested in this era of baseball history. Mr. Parker writes in a clear style which gets across all the important facts about the Waners. I also like that Mr. Parker does not treat the subject matter as a holy writ. He humanizes the Waners giving a decently rounded description of their exploits, good and bad. (Lloyd more good and Paul more bad.) Fortunately, he rarely falls into the common pitfalls of baseball writers by regurgitating box scores. I do feel that it lacks the magical spark of the greatest baseball books, but it makes up for it by examining an often overlooked part of baseball history. It definitely helps you appreciate that there were other teams besides the Yankees in 1920's although Yankees fans would like you to believe differently.

Good book - very interesting story about two brothers from a small town in Oklahoma who make it together in the big leagues - and into the Hall of Fame!

Excellent portrayal of American baseball history through the rollicking lives of Paul and Lloyd Waner. Fun to read!

As I started to read this book, I am alarmed with his love fest for Oklahoma. Stating that 1 out of 10 Baseball players came out of Oklahoma? The Deans for example were born and lived in Arkansas. Warren Spahn was born and grew up in Buffalo NY. Carl Hubell was born in Missouri. I want to believe in the author and trust in his information but with his wild exageration about Oklahoma being the hotbed for baseball I begin to wonder if his research will be flawed as well. I have been to Oklahoma and stayed the night many times but I am not from there! For him to steal Paul and Dizzy Dean from Arkansas raises questions. They always claimed Arkansas as home.