Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine: The Twenty-Year Friendship of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer and Orioles Manager Earl Weaver [Hardcover]

Jim Palmer (Author), Jim Dale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

The story of the prickly friendship between Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer and team manager Earl Weaver recalls their frequent bouts of shouting, threats, pouting, and more that marked their record-making professional relationship. 100,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Palmer and Weaver met in 1967, when the pitcher, who had put in two years with Baltimore and developed a sore arm, was sent to the Rochester farm club, where Weaver was managing. In 1969, Palmer was back with the Orioles and Weaver was named their manager. They remained together until 1982, when Weaver retired for the first time (he un-retired in 1985, but by then Palmer had gone). Superficially, they were vastly different: Palmer was cerebral, tall and handsome; Weaver was emotional, short and not so handsome. Yet they had their similarities: stubbornness and single-minded devotion to winning. They fought in the clubhouse, on the field, in the press, but their mutual will to win helped the Orioles be the most successful major-league team of the '70s. This is a fast-moving and witty account of those years.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 169 pages
• Publisher: Andrews Mcmeel Pub; F edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836207815
• ISBN-13: 978-0836207811
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rather disappointing look at the Orioles of the 70s!, February 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine: The Twenty-Year Friendship of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer and Orioles Manager Earl Weaver (Hardcover)

During my childhood I worshipped the Baltimore Orioles and especially Jim Palmer. As I grew older, Palmer lost some of his heroic stature and seemed more arrogant than special. This book provides the finishing touches on his fall from grace. The stories in here often seem mean-spirited and down-right nasty. Earl Weaver is treated as a bumbling, coarse, win-obsessed maniac while Palmer portrays himself as the voice of reason in a very sarcastic tone. Unfortunately, the technique backfires. Instead we begin to feel sympathy for Earl and begin to despise Palmer for his arrogant attitude. I rate this a three only for Oriole fans as there are a few nice stories about those Great Orioles' teams from an insiders point of view

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Looks like Earl was right..., March 26, 2011

By 

Nathan G - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine: The Twenty-Year Friendship of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer and Orioles Manager Earl Weaver (Hardcover)

In middle school, I used to make daily entries into a log, which did little more than describe what happened during my day and whatever else came to mind. Years later, when I looked back on the ramblings, it was through the lens of age and experience and maturity that allowed me a much greater insight into why certain teachers or family members did what they did as opposed to simply what happened. In the here and now, everything is inflated; in hindsight, the bigger picture becomes apparent.

In "Together, We Were Eleven Foot Nine", Jim Palmer has basically taken the equivalent of my middle school thoughts and stuck them on pages. There is no hindsight, there's no appreciation for the big picture, and there's a certain shortage of anything resembling respect. A common complaint that Earl Weaver had for Palmer during their years together was that Palmer needed a diaper more than anything, and in reading this book, I'm inclined to agree. It's below a celebrity roast; at least with a roast, certain stories are either embellished or ignored in order to heighten the comic effect, and that's usually followed by a sincere statement of appreciation toward the roastee.

This book, however, simply spins stories in order to underscore the statement that "the only thing Weaver knows about pitching is that he couldn't hit it." And we're not talking funny stories or stories that can be made funny, just a collection of ones that come across as mean-spirited and vicious. It reads more like a teenage girl complaining about why she hates her parents for not buying her something rather than the intelligent writings of a man who was 50 years old when this was written.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the other side of the coin, October 6, 2008

By 

J. C. Robinson "MrToad" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine: The Twenty-Year Friendship of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer and Orioles Manager Earl Weaver (Hardcover)

This book goes great with Earl's; there's a certain amount of overlap, and it's most interesting to see both sides of the story. Sure, Jim is arrogant and self-centered, but that's what helped make him great. At least he has a sense of humor about it, just like Earl does. In the end, they both (along with so many of their great teammates) gave me countless wonderful memories which this book bring back. I enjoyed it immensely, _almost_ as much as Earl's..