Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir [Paperback]

Terry Pluto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

* First time in paperback *

A son, a father, a baseball team . . .

This memoir will touch the heart of any baseball fan who has ever shared a love for the game with a parent or child.

Sportswriter Terry Pluto grew up with the Cleveland Indians. He also grew up with a stern, distant father who was often difficult to understand, let alone love. All they shared, it often seemed, were a pair of seats in the Municipal Stadium grandstands and a steadfast devotion to the Tribe—a woeful team that for decades did little to earn that devotion.

By 1997, so much had changed. The Indians were in the World Series. Terry Pluto was in the press box covering the national event. Tom Pluto was trapped, nearly mute, in a body now crippled by stroke. But father and son were, finally, coming closer together.

This book traces the parallel stories of father and son and the team they shared, through joy and struggle (onfield and off), resulting in a timeless story about reconciliation.

For so many people, baseball remains an important bridge across generations, sometimes the only topic of conversation when all other topics seem threatening. This story celebrates our ability to make that connection.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the miracles of the National Pastime is the way it can tie us to our home teams with a blood-knot of allegiance; we live with them in good times ... and die with them the rest of the time. Of course, being a Cleveland Indians fan over the course of the last half-century has demanded a good deal more of the dying. And Terry Pluto should know--he's covered the Tribe for years as an award-winning sports columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal. On the surface, his memoir is a solid baseball book, a fascinating tour through a historic franchise and some of the more interesting characters who've worn its colors: Lou Sockalexis (the original Cleveland Indian), Tris Speaker, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby (the first black in the American League), Rocky Colavito, owner Bill Veeck, and on to today's Omar Vizquel and Manny Ramirez. But like the best baseball books, it's about more than the game; it's about what the game means to us, how it ties generations together, and, on the most intimate level, how it links a father to his son.

In the case of Pluto and his father, the link is a complex, sometimes tense one of clashing generations often played out in front of the TV set, beside the radio, or in the stands--and it's one that the son bravely analyzes. "For us," he writes, "it was easier to go to a baseball game and pour salt on popcorn rather than old wounds." Ultimately, Pluto figures out that it is within the rhythms of the game that a son, over time, comes to know--and to accept--his father. Which is another one of baseball's miracles. --Jeff Silverman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Baseball is often a bridge between generations, a common ground where parents and children are able to abandon their differences for nine innings. Pluto, a veteran journalist with 17 books to his credit, has written the definitive book on the connection between baseball, fathers, and sons. Pluto grew up a Cleveland Indians fan, and he weaves a history of the Tribe's mostly disappointing postwar years into an examination of his relationship with his father, a hardworking World War II veteran. There were baseball moments for the child and the father, but the game never really worked its magic until the elder Pluto had a stroke that left him unable to speak and physically challenged. Pluto and his brother cared for their father, and it was as a caregiver that Terry began to understand the courage and the sacrifices made by his father and his generation. The history of the Indians provides a context for Pluto to reveal aspects of his father's life. The profiles of Bill Veeck, Larry Doby, and other Indian notables have Pluto's unique stamp as a sports journalist, but this volume is, at its core, an emotional, sincere tribute to a man who served his country without complaint, worked at an onerous job so his kids wouldn't have to do the same, and, in the end, was buried with a Tribe cap in one hand and his son's book, The Curse of Rocky Colavito (1994), in the other. A beautiful, absolutely unforgettable memoir. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Gray & Company Publishers (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188622871X
• ISBN-13: 978-1886228719
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,277,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pluto speaks for all Tribe fans with "Our Tribe.", December 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir (Hardcover)

If you're reading this, you or someone you know is a fan of the Cleveland Indians. As if he's nodding to another person wearing Chief Wahoo, Pluto's book is by a Tribe fan, about the Tribe and Tribe fans, for Tribe fans. Old-timers will remember the exuberance of the Cleveland teams of the '40's through the mid-50's, while for younger readers, it is a good primer on the old names and places you've only heard about in passing. ANY Tribe fan will enjoy this book; it's not just about our Indians, but it is all about our Indians. You'll see what I mean when you read it. The real reason this book exists is as a salute to Pluto's father, and it is a touching, poignant, and entertaining read. I think we all can remember Game Seven, and the other agonies of seasons gone by. It's great to read a well-written book that reflects our feelings about the Indians.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Being a Fan is a Birth-Right, January 10, 2001

By 

Alan Bartholomew (Brunswick, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir (Hardcover)

If you went to the baseball game with your Father, this book will strike a chord in your heart. Beside reactivating some old memories (fortunately they become better with time), this book also illustrates why Indians fans are Indians fans, by birth-right. We are fans becouse most of us were born near Cleveland and went to the stadium with our dad's, neighborhood friends, college friends, clients, and yes our kids.

This book reminds you why Indians fans are so special. We didn't pick the Indians, they were given to us. In a day where the team was yours for life. When every spring you got excited at the chance that a miracle just might happen this year. When you didn't dare like the Yankees even if it seamed to be an easy way out to happiness. Being an Indians is more valuable than that. Thanks Terry.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read for baseball fans., June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir (Hardcover)

Pluto's book captures the essence of what it has been like to root for a real loser for so many years, then to be rewarded with a great team for the mid and late 90s. He rightfully dismisses the foolish crying of Red Sox fans, who at least had good teams, good players, and a modicum of hope. Pluto is extremely touching when he writes about how his dad introduced him to the game and how the game held their relationship together, especially in his dad's last years.

As for the baseball, he is so right when he notes that real Tribe fans, when the team was 2 outs from a world title in '97, had real doubts even about the POSSIBILITY of the team coming out on top....which they did not! We'll get 'em this year, however.