Customer Reviews

The Long Season

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read Mr. Brosnans book in the year it was published. My opinion of it has not changed in the last (could it be true) almost half a century. In "Long Season" Mr. Brosnan gives us what seems to be a very believable and accurate account of what major league baseball was like in the almost now forgotten days of the mid twentieth century. As a pitcher for the St Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds, Mr. Brosnan (I cant bring myself to call him Jim) gives what is a humorous and thoughtful insight what it is like to be a non-marquee player on teams that were quite frankly, less than steller. The Book, which is written in diary form, is an easy read. It flows from start to finish in a very readable manner. Mr. Brosnan has the talent to make everyone of his teamates and coaches come alive. As the reader, you feel that you are sitting in a bar, sipping on an adult beverage and listening to the author tell you of his everyday life in a now forgotten world of professional sports.
I guarantee you will become a fan of bullpen pitchers and oversized, bespeckled and hard-throwing righthanders within the first 10 pages.
My recomendation, is for you to grab this book and its sequal Pennant Race" before any other basebll books that are available anywhere. You wont be sorry, and once you have read it, you will be sucked into the history of baseball totally.

This insightful diary by pitcher Jim Brosnan recounts his struggles on the mound for the 1959 St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. Jocks weren't supposed to write books, but this college-educated ballplayer (uncommon in the 1950's) wrote a very good one. Brosnan's mild irreverence annoyed the game's overseers in an era when ballplayers earned modest paychecks and rarely popped off. Older fans may enjoy reading about long-forgotten ballplayers playing in now-demolished ballparks like Forbes Field and Sportsmen's Park. Brosnan followed this book with "Pennant Race," a diary from the 1961 season. Some alledge that the Chicago White Sox tried to insert a clause in Brosnan's contract banning him from publishing anything, while others say he was blackballed from the game after 1963 for his writings. Readers may also enjoy "Ball Four," pitcher Jim Bouton's funny and more combative diary of the 1969 season.

I really enjoyed this book, which is a milder, tamer, less controversial book written 10 years before Jim Bouton's Ball Four. Both books are written by good, but not great relief pitchers named Jim. Both are written in diary form while the pitchers toil for less than stellar teams. Funny, and at times irreverent, Brosnan's book is worth the time to read! Teaser: I love the nickname Brosnan's wife gave him. :-)

While Brosnan ruffled some feathers with this book, it isn't anywhere near as controversial or raunchy as Jim Bouton's "Ball Four." Brosnan does mention his difficult contract negotiation, but it's not as bitter as Bouton discussing contracts. Brosnan has an elephant-like memory for conversations and the batting history of every hitter he faces. You get to see every aspect of a game, from the pitchers discussing how to pitch to a batter to who's got the best pitch to the manager's pep talks before the game. Brosnan has an excellent grasp of the language and even perplexes some of his not as scholarly teammates with some of his words. Overall, a great read from a talented pitcher and author. I look forward to reading "Pennant Race."

I read this and Brosnan's Pennant Race as a kid - a must for anybody growing up as a baseball fan in the late 50's, early 60's - the era of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, etc. - a daily journal of Brosnan's career as a reliever for the Cubs, Cards, and Reds all in one long season - 1959.

Although "The Long Season" predates "Ball Four" by ten years, it's been all but forgotten by baseball fans in general. And that's too bad.

When Jim Brosnan wrote "The Long Season," he was 29 years old and approaching the midway point of a respectable major league pitching career. Brosnan was entering his first full season with the St. Louis Cardinals when he wrote his diary of the 1959 season, but was traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the year.

Lots of people compare "The Long Season" with "Ball Four," which is unfair to both because you're comparing apples to oranges. Although "Ball Four" is in general a funnier book than "The Long Season" (and more profane by far...there is little swearing and no sexual escapades in "The Long Season," making it safe for your 10-year-old nephew Billy to read), I think Broz's book is a little bit more literate and urbane...and please don't take that as a knock on Bouton. This is not as breezy a read as anything Bouton has written, but it's worth digging a little deeper to see what's going on. The humor is a little more subtle, too. Where Bouton might have simply made some wise comment about Frank Crosetti giving a convoluted speech about sign language from the third-base coach's box, Brosnan writes what Johnny Keane actually said and lets it stand without comment. The same point is made, but with a different methodology.

I give this one four stars because (as one reviewer notes) it CAN drag a little in places, but "The Long Season" isn't that far behind "Ball Four" as the best baseball diary ever written...and it's better than diaries also written by Sparky Lyle, Bill Freehan and others. A very good book, but not necessarily something that will appeal to a peripheral baseball fan. If you are really into the game, however, go ahead and buy this one. You won't be disappointed.

Then buy Brosnan's "Pennant Race," his book about the 1961 Cincinnati Reds.

The Long Season by Jim Brosnan was the first of the baseball insider's diary type of books that was actually written by major league relief pitcher Jim Brosnan.

This diary of his 1959 National League season was not whispered into a tape recorder, it was actually written, pen to paper during the 1959 season by up and coming relief pitcher Jim Brosnan.

The Long Season details the failures and triumphs of pitching relief in the Major Leagues by a young man who seems to be on the verge of becoming a bullpen star if he could just gain control of what he throws and, at the same time, have his manager and coaches believe that he is able do the job.

It also details the lives and careers of his bullpen cohorts, some of whom are banished to the minor leagues and replaced with other pitchers starving for a taste of life at the major league level.

Brosnan's diary also reveals his relationship with the media people, both writers and announcers, who's job it is to bring the game to "all those wonderful fans." For those of us who have been around for a while, it is a little jarring to hear one broadcaster usually referred to as "beloved" described here as "old tomato face," but that's the business of professional sports or the business of anything else, I guess.

The Long Season was published in 1960 and although Brosnan never really
slammed anyone it was a controversial book for its time. Brosnan took a fair amount of heat on and off the field for the book but it remains as the standard for sports diarys so far as I am concerned.

I think, however, the best part of The Long Season is the section when Jim Brosnan, up and coming relief pitcher, is traded from a young team, thought to be on he rise, to a team with established stars, trying to stay in the pennant race one more season.

A startling development to our hero and his young family and an upsetting personal experience to say the least. I think that Brosnan demonstrates vividly that while a trade like this is routine to most fans, it can be a shattering experience to the actual players and the families involved.

As I have said, The Long Season is a groundbreaking book and still is an entertaining read to anyone who likes baseball. In the history of the game, this 50-year old diary has proven to be an invaluable, entertaing record of the way it was.

wonderful baseball expose of the era. fascinating, riveting and, best of all - true! not some Bernard Malamud fictional account, this author was a major league pitcher for 9 season. Not a great pitcher, but an average one. Fortunately, he's a great author.

This is flat out the best baseball book I have ever read.

I also enjoyed Ball Four. Ball Four

What a joyous book for baseball fans. I've read it probably twenty times. Brosnan brought to life the players who were just pictures on baseball cards. The book reads as a breezy, humorous, conversational diary written from the inside of baseball. Where else would you go for a contemporary account of how one pitched to Mays or Aaron? Want to know what kind of teammate Stan The Man was? Or how cold and windy it was playing at Candlestick Park? That and much, much more is in this page-by-page gem alongside the other players, umps, the managers, wives and fans of late-50's baseball.

"Twist, belly-button, block." A major league relief pitcher taught me how to hit a baseball. An excellent book during an excellent time in Baseball.