“I have done a report of some kind on the Fred Merkle story, whether in print, on radio, or on TV, on or about its anniversary, September 23, virtually every year since I was in college. The saga has always seemed to me to be a microcosm not just of baseball, nor of celebrity, but of life. The rules sometimes change while you’re playing the game. Those you trust to tell you the changes often don’t bother to. That for which history still mocks you, would have gone unnoticed if you had done it a year or a month or a day before. That’s who Fred Merkle is. I have often proposed September 23 as a national day of amnesty, in Fred Merkle's memory.”—Keith Olbermann, from his foreword.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"David Anderson’s book is a winner in its own right. Not only does it enlighten us about a season that might really have been ‘the best and most exciting’ of all time, it gives us the feeling that we’re standing hatless among the overflow crowds of nearly a century ago, rooting for Matty, Rube, the Big Train, the Flying Dutchman, the Georgia Peach, and all the other flannel-clad immortals of days gone by. . . . Anderson has fashioned as close to a masterpiece of baseball research and analysis as any first-class author has produced in a long time."—David Shiner, HaroldSeymour.com
(David Shiner HaroldSemour.com )"A fascinating archival account of what baseball and America were like nearly a century ago."—New York Times Book Review
(New York Times Book Review )"Those not acquainted with the dramatics of the 1908 campaign might find Anderson''s hyperbolic title a bit extreme until they read of the many astonishing events that took place that year. To wit: three NL teams finishing within a half game of each other (forcing the first-ever playoff game) and an AL race decided by .004 percentage points. Toss in the exploits of legendary figures Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and other future Hall-of-Famers and the book''s description more resembles an exercise in prosaic restraint."—USA Today Baseball Weekly
(USA Today Baseball Weekly )"Baseball enthusiasts will enjoy this."—Library Journal
(Library Journal )"As his title suggests, there was more to this memorable season than an infamous blunder."—Sports Illustrated
(Sports Illustrated )"The arrival of a new baseball season serves to rekindle an old question: Which was the most exciting season ever played? In a book called More Than Merkle, David W. Anderson comes up with an answer that will startle many fans: the season of 1908. Just to make things perfectly clear, he subtitles his opus ''A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season in Human History.'' Of course, the centerpiece is Fred ''Bonehead'' Merkle, whose ''boner'' of not running from first to second base while the winning run was scoring cost the New York Giants a pennant. Both leagues had close races that year, and the author covers them in exuberant detail. He also focuses on such star players as Christy Mathewson, Three-Finger Brown and Johnny Evers, not to mention more obscure figures, such as a pitcher with the fascinating name of Orval Overall, who won two games for the Chicago Cubs in the World Series (their last World Championship). Baseball antiquarians will relish the book."—Parade
(Parade )
About the Author
David W. Anderson is a telecommunications consultant in northern Indiana. He is also an umpire for Indiana high school and Babe Ruth league baseball. Keith Olbermann is anchor for Fox Sports.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Another Look at Baseball's Most Storied Season,
By Jim Klann (Glendale Heights, Illinois) - See all my reviews
This review is from: More than Merkle: A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season in Human History (Hardcover)
Baseball fans remember the 1908 season for two reasons: It featured the famous "Merkle game", in which a New York Giants player's failure to touch second base cost his team the National League pennant, and it marks the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.David Anderson's book attempts to restore the Merkle game to its proper context, as the centerpiece of a season which featured two of the most exciting pennant races in baseball history. The neglected 1908 American League race saw three teams battle into the season's final week, with the Detroit Tigers nosing out the Chicago White Sox on the final day. The Chisox bid--anchored by pitcher Ed Walsh, the last 40-game winner in major league history--marks the closest Chicago has come to an all-Chicago World Series since 1906. Dead-ball era baseball presents problems for writers and historians. The players involved are all dead, and only a few left behind recollections via ghostwritten memoirs of questionable accuracy. Sportswriters in this era seldom quoted players in game accounts. As a result, Anderson's writing lacks the "insider feel" we associate with sports reporting today. "More than Merkle" nevertheless provides an interesting story and sheds new light on early 1900's baseball in general and the Merkle incident in particular. His discussions of umpiring and gambling scandals during the 1908 season break new ground. Baseball buffs will enjoy this book.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Lurking Disappointment,
By
This review is from: More than Merkle: A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season in Human History (Hardcover)
Interested in the men who played the national game in 1908, I eagerly plunged into "More Than Merkle." What I found was a book filled with syntax errors, either of the author's creation or of the publisher, the University of Nebraska Press. While most of these errors were minor, many served as great distractions from the reading of the text. The biographies of the men involved in baseball at the turn of the century really turned into nothing more than a verbal recapitulation of the statistics found in the "Baseball Encyclopedia" or "Total Baseball." Finally, the author seemed intent in finding a new villain or a new victim, or maybe even a new mystery to the ending of the 1908 National League season. Much of his argument proves to be superficial, often trivial, and sometimes just plain nonsense. On the positive side, the book does also examine the American League race of 1908, something that is often lost in the wake of the Merkle incident.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story that needed to be told,
By
This review is from: More than Merkle: A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season in Human History (Hardcover)
The authors have brought to life the excitement of this great season, when three teams went to the wire in both leagues. There are fine synopses of all 16 teams in the league, backgrounds on play at the time, and bios of the umpires, whom the authors contend had much to do with league outcomes- and not just in the Merkle game. A marvelous reliving of this great summer, told with accuracy. The only thing missing from the book is the mention of the strange situation on the last day of the American League race. Cleveland was eliminated from contention, despite its 90-64 record, by teams with fewer wins. Detroit (89-63) was about to play Chicago (88-63), and whoever would win would have a better percentage than unlucky Cleveland. But the excitement definitely comes through. What a year! If you love this book, Scott Longert's "Addie Joss" covers the Cleveland angle, Charles Alexander and Ty Cobb himself cover Detroit's, Christy Mathewson's book, as well as bios of John McGraw, take the Giant's view of the NL race, and the De Valeria's "Honus Wagner" covers Pittsburgh's side. Why oh why, in a city of journalists, has no one written anything from the White Sox or Cubs view?
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