Customer Reviews

Cy Young: A Baseball Life

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I'm sure that if your "into the game and history of baseball," someone has asked you the following question...... "Who do you think is the greatest baseball player? Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb." Browning realizes that there have always been great players of the game. However, by the ending of the book, he proves that Cy Young's name should be up there with Cobb and Ruth. Mays, Ryan, Bonds, Koufax, Aaron.... outstanding players. However, for reasons that I'll not go into here, you need to read the book, to understand why there are many great players that are true legends.... Walter Johnson, Ted Williams. However, No one has come close to Ruth, Cobb, and Young, when you look at the big picture. Ruth was bigger than life, and I remember my grandfather talking about taking a train to New York just to set in the grand stadium known "as the house that Ruth built," and watch Ruth come up to the plate. A lot of the old-timers talked about Cobb playing the game more like a civil war battle. As for Young, at this point in time, there is no one living who can remember him as a player in his prime. The possible youngest person to see him perform in a major league game, would be at least 95 to 100 only to remember him as a player in his mid-forties with quite a gut. Browning states that this is one of the problems. Sure, there are still those baseball players that remember talking to the legend back in the 1950's when he was in his eighties, but one point Browning makes is that those who remember Young the pitcher are all gone. He also tells why Cobb and Ruth are usually remembered more, and have many books and movies of them, unlike Young. Ruth could drink and curse and raise hell with the best of 'em, and could usually be found at a whore house when not at home. Cobb who refused to play even exihibition games againt colored people, and was well known for his hot temper, and his hatred of anyone who crossed him (and that was almost everyone). Anyway the point here, is that an interesting life on and off the field makes more of a sensation to read about or watch. Cy Young, who was never thrown out of a game, led a very quite and normal life off the field. On and off the field he was a gentleman...... Not usually the stuff interesting books and movies are made of. Please don't think this book is about comparing Young, Ruth, and Cobb. this is only the opening of the book. Even though Young was a "gentleman" he didn't take any crap off anyone either. Cobb who was well known for his aggresiveness, and crowding the plate, years later said that he knew when Young warned me.... I'd best move out some or I'd be hit and hard. It's really a great book about a true baseball hero on and off the field. One final point Browning shows....... Young was not just great because of his records, of at least five that will probably never be broken. He was the greatest flexible player. Baseballs rules changed more in the 1890's and 1900's more than any other time. Read the book. Unreal that this man could remain at the tops from 1890-1911 with all those changes. Perhaps my review has bored you..... I promise if you love the game and the history of baseball, you won't want to put the book down.

This book is for baseball fans. It answers the question of Who was Cy Young? Every year Major League Baseball gives an award in both leagues and I doubt that the vast majority of baseball fans can write two sentences about Cy Young. I found his accomplishments stunning in an era when pitchers started every third day, the good ones threw more than 400 innings a year and finished their own games.

Baseball was clearly not the game then that it is today. This tells how it has changed. For example, in Young's day, fans were called "cranks." I think this is an apt description of even today's fans! It was common to call the police to settle on-field arguments! Wow! Read this before the season starts if you are a fan. If you aren't a baseball fan...why not?

Jim

Cy Young spent most of his life in a small Ohio village. He left in 1890 to play baseball for the Cleveland Spiders, and returned in 1912 after racking up a truly impressive pitching career: 511 wins, pitched the first perfect game, won more than 30 games a season five times.

This modern biography (written in 2000) is equally impressive for focusing on his baseball career instead of making spurious accusations about his psychological makeup and personal life. It also gives an excellent historical background and explanation of the rule changes during the period, and touches on a few personal areas without going into excessive detail; his life from 1867-1890 and 1912-1955 is covered in just two chapters.

Of the six baseball biographies I've read recently it truly stands out. The author did a great job of explaining how baseball worked back then, both in terms of the game itself and the teams/managers--and, as you can imagine, professional baseball was more than a wee bit different in 1890 than it is today. He uses copious references and footnotes, and makes it clear when he's speculating rather than writing based on fact. (In particular we don't know for sure what player salaries were like during the time. He has a helpful appendix explaining his reasoning.)

If you have any interest in baseball history pre-1920, or are just curious, it's well worth reading. It's one of the best modern biographies I've read.

Browning does a great job for the subject he had. I loved the amount of information. The research seems to show that Young was a nice guy to know, but he wasn't very entertaining himself. I think Browning does well in telling Young's story and I recommend it to anyone interested in either Young or early baseball history. That said don't expect a feature movie out of it. My only real complaint of the book itself is that the material to tell the full story seems almost nonexistent so Browning is forced to do some guess work.

Meticulously researched, and brilliantly realized, this is an excellent history of the early days of baseball, and a great account of Cy Young's career. I do agree with other reviewers that Cy Young's life had little flair or panache, and there are no secrets hidden in his closet that will shock you. He was just a great baseball player, and I believe Reed Browning gives an accurate portrayal of the man.

As well, Browning builds suspense both during pennant races within a given season, and within individual games Cy Young pitched. Considering it all happened a century ago, this is no minor task, and one that many other baseball books have failed at, notably, David Halberstam 'October 64' which never even gets around to talking about baseball.

This book is an accurate portrayal of Cy Young, and a wonderful history of baseball around the turn of the century. Reed Browning was my advisor at Kenyon College and I eagerly purchased this book, ready to read it with an extremely critical eye. I assume that like most people he may have talked a hard line, but that the reality of his writing would show some flaws of research, or that flawless research would lead to a dull book. I was completely wrong. This is history as it should be written, with care and verve, but with an eye always towards accuracy.

Considering that one of baseball's most prestigious awards was named after this man, it's astonishing that no comprehensive biography ever was written about him - until now. There was a juvenile bio here and there, a brief excursion through Young's life by Ralph Romig in 1964, but nothing else.

Professor Reed Browning filled the gap, and he did so admirably. Some argue that Cy Young was such an uninteresting person that he left biographers little about which to write. But if you're truly a baseball fan and a student of the game, the basic facts of Young's life and career are inherently fascinating. Even for that period in baseball history Young's accomplishments and feats of endurance were extraordinary enough that they help the book write itself.

In this scholarly work Professor Browning highlights the contexts in which Young lived and played the game of baseball. He ties together the strands of Young's long career in a well-organized and engrossing format. He avoids wandering and speculation and binds his commentary close to the available data.

I thoroughly enjoyed this work and it clearly is a major contribution to the research on baseball history.

In my opinion even the casual fan of baseball, who wants to understand the history of the game better, will prize this book.

Mark Wernick, Ph.D.

Imagine a major league pitcher winning twenty games for twenty years. That would still put him 111 wins behind Cy Young. It's about time we had an authorative book on baseball's winningist pitcher. The author did a lot of research on this book, and it's true that the casual fan will find he is being told more than he wants to know about Cy Young. Young says the secret to his longevity as a pitcher lies in taking care of his body and not throwing more pitches than necessary to get a batter out. Hence, he never set any strikeout records. If you consider yourself interested in the history of baseball, add this book to your library with biographies of other great players. If you are a casual fan you might want to try something that is lighter reading.

THis book really is pretty boring, I have been an ardent baseball fan for over 50 years.Denton T. Young was a very boring person.My definition of the word is steady, hardworking,solid as a rock and honest as the day is long.I am sick and tired of reading about the Sammy Sosa,s and Kobe Bryant scandals. Boring is really good.
THis is a fascinating book in many ways.The author does the best possible to illuminate the man AND the times, no easy thing to do with so little material.Young got up at 5am and went to bed at 9, his favorite summer "hobbies" were chopping wood and digging for coal in the coal rich soil near his home in a tiny burg in Ohio.Poorly educated and a very simple man, "Cy" just got it done.Time after time after time. 511 wins .
THis book is really best for serious fans for much of it is the tedium of schedules,managers,other personalites of the times, number of wins etc etc etc.FOrtunatly,the author does uncover and write well about a simple, honest,quiet, hard working man who happened to have a great bent for throwing pitches.What is really missing is what should have been the soul of the book.What was he really like as a pitcher?How did he approach various hitters, what was his favorite pitch, when did he rely on his curve etc etc.This is all missing in the tedium of statistics.
When "Pee Wee" Reese, of DOdgers fame died a few years ago, Bob Feller said, "They don,t make men any better than Pee Wee Reese.Surely the same can be said for Denton T. Young. Surely most managers of today would build a forest for this man off season if "all" he could do was win 22 games a year and not be a lush,steroid popper or whatever.We would not have been.

Considering the lack of material, Mr. Browning does an excellent job recounting Cy Young's life. While he is forced to make a number of guesses, they are all well reasoned. Some biographies give a game by game description of what the subject did year by year. Mr. Browning thankfully does not do that, instead focusing on the high points of each year. The book includes a number of informative discussions about the evolution of the rules in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

Cy young won more games than any other pitcher ever has, or ever will. The award for best pitcher in each league is named for him. This is the story of his life and career.

To love the sport of baseball is to love history. The players' performances always are being compared to their own previous years and to other players', even from a century ago. Reading about these early Hall of Fame players provides information about how the game was played decades ago, and how it has changed.

The author of this book is adulatory, as is to be expected. This is information without a lot of analysis, but well worth the read.