Customer Reviews

Rogers Hornsby: A Biography

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Charles Alexander, an outstanding baseball historian (see Ty Cobb), attempts to give the reader an insight into one of baseball's all-time greats -- no small feat. Hornsby's career spanned over one-half of this century and the book offers great insights into the game and its stars, warts and all. However, the book's enigmatic subject remains virtually impossible to get to know or even to comprehend -- an man whose aloofness most of his contemporaries probably could attest to. But he was baseball, 100%, and this book is a fine read for fans, despite the unwillingness of its subject to allow the reader to really delve into his heart and mind.

I have come to expect nothing less from Charles C. Alexander than near perfection. His research is impeccable and thorough, as always. I have always had difficulty capturing the real Rogers Hornsby. Many, decidedly classified him as a wonderful hitter, a lazy fielder, and a difficult man. Alexander pretty well nailed him right on. This book represents a pure and near perfect baseball machine and an absolutely flawed and pathetic human being. If you are at all interested in Rogers Hornsby, this book is a must read. Anthony DeMedeiros, Toronto, Ontario

Mr. Alexander extensivly researched the life of Rogers Hornsby. This book represents the fruit of his labor. The book can get dry in places while describing Hornsby's on field achievements-letting the feats speak for themselves; just as Hornsby would have wanted it. This is hardly a flaw for those who want to know the truth and not the myth of the best righthanded hitting machine EVER.

While not hated like Ty Cobb, Hornsby certianly had just as few friends. He was cold, short with people, humorless and offensivly blunt. His personality got him traded, fired, divorced and shunned. Alexander doesn't try to add personality where Hornsby didn't have one. He let Hornsby's baseball tunnel vision be the focus. Blunt- just like Hornsby.

This is an outstanding biography of the hitting machine, Rogers Hornsby, perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). The story that Charles C. Alexander tells explores the rise and fall of this remarkable baseball player, an individual who could work magic on the diamond but had real difficulty off of it.

Signed out of Texas to the St. Louis Cardinals, he had a "cup-of-coffee" with the team at the end of the 1915 season, hitting a measly .246. Hardly a stellar debut, but after working hard all winter the next year Hornsby made the Cardinals and batted .313 while becoming the everyday second baseman. He went on to compile a career batting average of .358 and established the highest single season batting average when he hit .424 for the Cards in 1924. Indeed, from 1921-1925, Rogers' overall batting average was .402, a truly amazing accomplishment. In 1925 Hornsby became player-manager of the Cardinals and the next year his team captured its first National League pennant by edging Cincinnati in the final week of the season after an August spurt had shot them into pennant contention. The season was made perfect by the Cards' first victory in the World Series, coming at the expense of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the rest of the New York Yankees.

Always an abrasive force on the Cardinals, the year after his World Series success the owner shipped him off to the New York Giants for Frankie Frisch and Jimmy Ring. It was only the first time in which Hornsby's personality led to adversity for him. But there was room for only one massive ego on the Giants and within a short time manager John J. McGraw shipped him to the Boston Braves. From there he went to the Chicago Cubs, back to the Cardinals, and then to the St. Louis Browns. He finally retired in 1937. Hornsby lived another 26 years after retiring from MLB, always hovering around the fringes of it but never truly a part of it. He eventually died in 1963, bitter about his fate.

Charles C. Alexander is an outstanding historian, the author of several other books on baseball as well as on other subjects. This is a superb addition to his path-breaking series of studies on a range of subjects.

This bio of Hornsby was very disappointing for the simple fact the author doesn't tell us much of anything about why Hornsby was so great. Did Hornsby have great eyesight, bat speed, determination, other factors? I suppose, but you don't find any attempt by the author to explain to the reader why Hornsby was so great. Like a lot of modern-day authors books, you read more about the athlete's off-field activities than the on-field ones. When I read about an athlete that did great things, I want to know more than just that the did it, I want to know how he did it. Alexander really falls down in these areas. I assume records from the time, especially the Cardinals world series championship season, are available. Alexander breezes through Hornsby's six years reign as batting champ including including incredible stats like he was writing a two paragraph bio for an obituary. I want more info. Why was Hornsby so superior to other hitters? Alexander does not provide that info, and therefore this book fails in that respect.

As a big fan of baseball history, especially the pre-1920s era, I was excited to find this biography of baseball legend Rogers Hornsby and expected to learn ever more about the man and the period in which he played/lived. Well, I did learn quite a bit in terms of rote knowledge, but unfortunately finishing the book become more of a chore than anything after the first 100 pages or so.

One of the major characteristics that author Charles C. Alexander dotes on constantly throughout the book is how blunt of a character Hornsby really was. Perhaps, then, Alexander was trying to match his writing style to his subject, but that only amounted to a book as bland as the words on the page.

That being said, I cannot imagine a baseball biography being more thorough or in-depth than this one was. Along with Hornsby's on-field exploits, Alexander also delves heavily into the man's personal marriages, battles with baseball management, and a life-long addiction, of sorts, to the horseracing track. Every "i" is dotted and "t" crossed in terms of Hornsby's life.

Thus, if you are strictly looking to learn a whole bunch about Rogers Hornsby, then this writing style will be right up your ally. If you prefer to be entertained along the way, though, please look elsewhere.

Just like his book on Cobb, Alexander's bio on Hornsby is excellent. What I especially like about it is that the author provided considerable info. on Hornsby's personal life during and after his career as a player. I don't feel that Hornsby was "colorless." He had an abrasive, stubborn insensitive personality and his interests were generally confined to baseball and horseracing. Still he managed several major league teams and married three times. I think Alexander really captured the essence of Hornsby. you were actually able to feel Hornsby's one track obsession with baseball and human failings that his contemporaries saw. If Hornsby had been able to contain his horseracing gambling addiction, he would have become a wealthy man after he retired as a player instead of struggling. Yet Hornsby was always able to find someone- in baseball or out to hire him.

The author's writing style makes for an easy read. Alexander's research is excellent. This includes interviews with players who played for him. There's just enough detail about his career to make the chronology of his baseball career complete- without a boring recitation of every game he played. And in contrast to one reviewer, I don't find the author's omission of Hornsby's baseball statistics or discussion of his saber metrics a problem at all. There are many other sources for such information.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought the author did a marvelous job of capturing the essence of Rogers Hornsby's personality, warts and all. By the time I finished it, I felt that I really knew what Hornsby was like.

I also had a small personal connection to Hornsby that served to increase my enjoyment of this book. When I was ten years old in 1960, living in the Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood, my grandfather, who was retired and living with my family, somehow became friends with Rogers Hornsby. What was the one common interest that brought these two guys together? You guessed it - playing the horses! Almost everyday, from the time they met in 1960 until Hornsby died in 1963, he would drive his car to our house, and then ride together with my grandfather in my grandfather's car to Arlington Park Race Track. Knowing of my love for baseball even at the age of ten, my grandfather introduced me to Mr. Hornsby and even had him sign a baseball for me - unfortunately long since lost! I also spoke to him numerous times on the phone when he called our house.

Mr. Alexander makes it vividly clear that, other than his love for baseball, the major constant in Hornsby's live was his addiction to playing the horses. It's now very clear to me why these two old codgers became fast friends - their love of horseracing.

Alexander captures Hornsby and his times perfectly. While not as readable as the author's previous "Ty Cobb", this is due more to Hornsby's general colorlessness than in Alexander's writing. As enigmatic as Hornsby was, Alexander does a great job in telling the life of the man who hit for the highest average in the 20th century.

This is the third book I've read by Alexander, which I suppose is evidence that his books are readable.

In the end they all share the same strengths and weaknesses.

For a straightforward narrative of the key points of Hornsby's career and life, this is perfectly OK.

But the book really stays on the surface. For example, there is never any in-depth discussion of techniques of batting or fielding. It's like reading a book on Napoleon without finding anything about the nature of warfare in the period.

Also, there is very little meangingful discussion of Hornsby's relative baseball greatness. Alexander doesn't need to become a zealous SABRmetrician, but some basic statistics about Hornsby and others (beyond saying what the average batting average for the league was in a given year) seems called for. Alexander doesn't even include a table or appendix with Hornsby's basic statistics.

I've given this 3 stars, because for the general reader it's OK. If I were rating it as serious history, I'd give it a 1. You come away from this book unaware that there have been lots of serious books written about baseball and its relation to society. Alexander's attempts to provide historical context are embarassing--on the order of, "The same continued hot, dry weather than made the Great Plains a Dust Bowl was present on Opening Day 1936 [my paraphrase, to be honest]".

In short, there is the same strain of intellectual laziness in this book that I saw in his others.