Me and Dimaggio: A Baseball Fan Goes in Search of His Gods [Hardcover]

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1992

A year long behind-the-scenes look at the players, owners, promoters, reporters, and game of baseball.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

All real baseball fans can conjure up the moment the game first cast its spell on them. For Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, it came through the static of the radio, spurring his imagination to witness vividly a three home-run performance in the late 1940s by the great Joe DiMaggio. Cut to half a lifetime later: Lehmann-Haupt, a New York Times book critic, decides to set off on a year-long journey into the heart of America's national pastime. Less intent on recapturing that first moment as on exploring the game's sometimes mystical and continual appeal, he follows a season from spring training to winter meetings. Me and DiMaggio is memoir cloaked in reportage, a tricky melding of genres that's never quite sure whether it's journal or journalism. Still, there are so many good insights into the game here--and a fascinating, if oddly sad, encounter with the elusive DiMaggio himself--that if Lehmann-Haupt doesn't quite reach the fences, he at least gets himself into scoring position. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Throughout Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's season of innings spent as a baseball reporter, he was haunted by the 1948 game that first made him a fan - a game in which Joe DiMaggio hit three home runs against the Cleveland Indians. Ultimately, he found himself confronting DiMaggio with a story that he did not want to believe, but that had brought him face-to-face with the fantasies of an entire generation of baseball fans.Me and DiMaggio narrates this remarkable series of adventures and misadventures that took New York Times book reviewer Christopher Lehmann-Haupt around the country on an unusual personal mission - to follow a year in baseball and all its rituals, from spring training through the World Series and to the winter executive meetings. The result is a behind-the-scenes look at the entire cast of a season: the players, the owners, the promoters, and, of course, the reporters.By turns funny, audacious, gossipy, and eloquent, Me and DiMaggio takes on a dramatic year and makes it into an experience for all seasons. (6 X 9, 304 pages)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 303 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671505041
• ISBN-13: 978-0671505042
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,877,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile late-70s look at baseball and writing, January 21, 2001

By 

C. S. Richardson "CSR" (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Me and Dimaggio (Paperback)

This unusual memoir from Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, book reviewer for the New York Times, explores his relationship with the game of baseball, and with his hero, New York Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio. The defining event of the story is the afternoon of his childhood, when he became a baseball fan while listening to a New York Yankees game on the radio. On that day, DiMaggio hit three home runs against the Cleveland Indians. From that point, Lehmann-Haupt explores his feelings about the game, and eventually takes us with him on a tour through the 1979 season, including his encounter with Joltin' Joe himself. I would guess I have read at least a hundred baseball books; this is not the greatest one, but none are much like it, either. It's worth your time and money.