Customer Reviews

My Bat Boy Days: Lessons I Learned from the Boys of Summer

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What a fun little book!

What we've got here is a short tale from Steve Garvey about how he worked as a bat boy for a few major league teams while he and his parents lived in Florida. His father drove a bus and was hired to drive around some big leaguers during spring training. The first team he ran into was the Brooklyn Dodgers from the Boys of Summer era of the team.

After this short tale of being asked to be the bat boy for a day, how much it meant to him as a boy, and how it has stuck with him ever since, Garvey speaks about a few individuals from the Boys of Summer teams as well as Mickey Mantle and Al Kaline. They are his heroes, pure and simple, and the story is presented in a pure in simple fashion.

Garvey chooses a certain superlative to describe each of the players he idolizes and talks about his experience with them that illustrate the descriptive word he's chosen. Also contained within the passages are biographical stats of the players which illustrate their statistical dominance as well as the more personal qualities that made them heroes to the Garv.

The prose is easy to read and relate to. For anyone that doesn't know the story of Roy Campanella or why Koufax had to retire at 31, these are also presented as part of the illustration of the virtues Garvey holds in such high esteem. It's a very short read but very much worth the time to take a peek into the idols of a man who was an idol for many youngsters once upon a time.

In itching for the baseball season to start, I picked up this quick read to learn a bit more about historical figures of the game. Garvey targets mostly (Brooklyn) Dodgers, a Yankee (Mickey Mantle), and a Tiger (Al Kaline). Each profile is short and is a positive look at one generation's baseball heroes. Having followed baseball for years and been disappointed by the Steroid Era generation in many ways, Garvey's rosy impression was good to read. Garvey still alludes to some of the personal problems of the stars in vague terms ("...while he had his share of problems with alcohol..."), I still found it a good read just to learn about these players' contributions on the field. Maybe it would have raised the production values of the book, but I would not have minded a photograph or two of Garvey from then as well as a photograph of each player at the start of their respective chapters.

Because of the innocent tone of the book, I'm surprised that it's not actually aimed at youths. My local libraries shelve this in the regular (i.e., "adults") sections, yet I could easily see this being something a late grade-schooler with an interest in baseball history would enjoy. I would also admit that I grew up watching Garvey but don't know that much about him. I do remember a few paternity suits and I see that Cindy Garvey's "The Secret Life of Cindy Garvey" is available and is now on my reading list. I raise this point because Steve Garvey's written a book about virtues he learned from each of his baseball idols, but it seems that fidelity was one that was overlooked. Nobody's perfect, though, and I was able to put this hypocrisy aside enough to enjoy the book, and if your young ones read this, it won't be obvious to them.

Garvey et al will never replace William Faulkner, but to a man who grew up watching the players mentioned, the book warmed my heart. Additionally, the author shares some insider info that even I, a devoted fan, hadn't known.
An easy read that's worth the low, low Amazon price to recapture moments from one's youth.
Another hit for Popeye arms.

Being a Dodger fan, I was really looking forward to reading this book. The book is interesting for the first twenty pages as Steve Garvey tells about his experiences as a Dodger bat boy. However, most of the book contains a chapter on Brooklyn Dodger players and Garvey tells very little about his experience with each player. The chapters contain mostly known facts about each player. The book ends with Garvey telling about his experiences with Mickey Mantle and Al Kaline which are interesting. But for a book only containing 146 pages, only around forty pages are about Garvey's days as a bat boy.

This is a delight.

I didn't know from 1956 to 1961, that Dodger great Steve Garvey was a bat boy for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers.

He tells stories about the following showing these virtues.

Pee Wee Reese leadership
Gil Hodges dignity
Carl Erskine honesty
Jackie Robinson passion
Duke Snider persistence
Roy Campanella compassion
Sandy Koufax faith
Mickey Mantle fortitude
Al Kaline perfection

It captures the excitement of baseball and would be good to read to kids.