Customer Reviews

Brushbacks and Knockdowns: The Greatest Baseball Debates of Two Centuries

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(2)
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This book is really sensational! It's the most stimulating baseball book of the year. I loved Clearing The Bases, but I think this book is even better. The chapters on Yogi Berra and Barry Bonds are terrific, but the chapter on the New York Yankees and the myths surrounding them is alone worth the price of the book.

A wonderful baseball book that combines personal reminiscence, statistical analysis and even some social commentary. Barra is not afraid to tackle some controversial topics. I particularly enjoyed the essays about Yogi Berra, competitive balance, Barry Bonds' unprecedented performance, and the degree to which luck and "scrappy" play, rather than brute dominance, enabled the Yankees to win so many championships over the past few years.

I got this book for my father and he loves it. The chapter on the Yankees makes more sense than anything I've ever read on them. This is the most entertaining baseball book I've read all year.

Drinking and driving isn't a good idea. Also not a good idea: drinking and reading this book -- and then driving. The chapter about the Yanks is first-rate. His thoughts about Yogi Berra are right on. This is a great read. A prep book for those bar room discusions of who's better, i.e., Bonds or Ruth. Folks, this book is loaded!

Allen Barra is a bright man with an interesting idea for a book, and I'm glad he wrote it. But it's a frustrating book in many ways. As an earlier reviewer mentioned, his Yankees chapter is infuriating. I don't necessarily hold it against someone that he's a Yankees fan, but to allow being a Yankees fan to interfere with your impartiality in this sort of book is inexcusable. For example, he makes the preposterous claim that the Mets have exactly the same advantage of market that the Yankees do. The Yankees have so many more fans because of a much longer, very successful tradition. Before the Mets ever existed, the Yankees were the team of Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle and so many others. The Mets can never hope to compete with that. Also, Barra misspells the following names in his book: George Sisler (he spells it Sissler); Ryne Duren (Duran); Dick Stuart (Stewart); Juan Gonzalez (Gonzales); Rafael Palmeiro (Raphael); Jim Edmonds (Edmunds); Gavvy Cravath (Gavy); Lave Cross (Lay); and even a football player, Dwight Clark (Clarke). His conclusions are as careless as his spelling. But it was still fun to read.

Parts of this book are very good, particularly when he analyzes the game in the manner of Bill James. However, he includes one, very long and very uninteresting chapter called "Don't Blame the Yankees." In it, he is completely out of control, like a drunk in a bar. Sure, his editor should have killed the chapter but Barra has to take the blame for ruining what could have been a pretty good book.