Customer Reviews

You're Missin' a Great Game: From Casey to Ozzie, the Magic of Baseball and How to Get It Back

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After a promising start about his relationship with the "Old Perfesser", Casey Stengel, Herzog's account reads more like a long winded sermon. I expected more substantial content rather than a rambling diatribe about how much the game has deteriorated. After a while, I couldn't stomach Whitey's egoistic rants about his slant on baseball strategy. Yes, he was a great manager but he is not the sole proprietor of baseball genius. It is a meandering read and a major disappointment.

Whitey tells it like it is. You gain the perspective of an old-school pro. You'll understand why the skill set of the modern-day player, and the control of today's pitcher, is so shoddy. You'll understand how the accelerating salary structure hamstrings GMs, especially in small markets. Finally, you'll see how the game could be improved. But, Whitey, do you need to tell us so many times? Where was your editor? Despite the repetitiveness, this is a must-read to see how the game has changed and how to heighten its quality.

I still cannot figure out which is larger....Whitey's opinion of himself or Whitey's perception of others' opinions of himself. He was an excellent manager but contrary to his opinion, he did not come close to revolutionizing the game. On more than one occasion I got the impression that Whitey believed his Cardinal teams of the 80's were the biggest dynasty in baseball history. For example he rants about the Braves and how they are basically a mediocre team with very good pitching yet the Braves in the 90's have accomplished just as much, if not more, than his beloved Red Birds. Basically, this book appears to be an aging sports figure's last chance to make some money by telling a few stories and reminiscing about how much better baseball was 40 years ago.

The title refers to what baseball players often say to umps when they get calls wrong, but has a double meaning on the way the game is changing. Whitey weighs in on:

Little ball vs. home run/ team budgets/revenue sharing: he played little ball with the Cards and went to the world series. He sees the home run chase as not very good for the game, as it puts the whole attraction on one player as opposed to the team. The cards and the cubs are uncompetitive. This has to do with the large market issue, and here I think he's got it wrong. The leagues are creating all these teams in a quest for revenue, but there are so many teams, a lot of them are in markets that can't support them. It's not the fault of the big market teams (most of whom predate the expansion era) that this overexpansion occurred, and there are markets that can't support teams. The answer is simple, slow down the expansion, let teams move, and if there needs to be fewer teams on an economic basis, so be it. But his idea of big market teams forking over 15-20 million is just comic.

Player salaries: The players make an awful lot of money, and it goes to the beginnings of free agency, and critical moves that were made early on to strengthen the players' position. Player salaries are a reflection of the overall economic condition of the game, and won't go down unless business starts turning bad which is unlikely. But he's in favor of lessening the players right to arbitration, and requiring them to stay with teams longer earlier in their career, which is a good idea.

DH/difference between NL and AL: He's cockeyed about the DH. He thinks that the NL is better because there's more strategy for the manager. Well, it's more interesting from a manager's perspective, but more boring for the fans. Hello-o!

Interleague play: Real reason for it was the fact that Arizona and Tampa Bay were added in the same season, creating leagues with 15 teams each, which didn't divide evenly into 162. So when you look at both leagues together, you get an even number which balances out. I agree. Interleague play rots. It's especially bad for the Eastern division clubs, which play eastern division interleague teams, and wind up having a harder schedule than say, central has.

Playoffs: He doesn't like the playoff setup, in which the 5th best team in baseball can (and did) win the World Series twice (I think Minnesota and Marlins). He thinks the wild card team should be penalized in the playoffs. Ludicrous. But he's right that the whole playoff process does not reflect the character of the season, which is a marathon, and subjects the best teams to flukes, which is what happened to the Yanks in '97 against Cleveland. But the playoffs seem to be an economic fact of life that's hard to fight.

Owners/commissioner: The owners seem to not know what they're doing a lot of the time, the best example being the '94 strike, when they absorbed huge losses and caved anyway. Total inability to PR their side, which was very defensible, that the players were flat out greedy. But owners with a head, like Steinbrenner and Angelos can make it work.

There's a talent shortage, especially among pitchers; kids don't play the game the way they used to. The international scouting world has become critical to maintain talent.

Bottom line, the game is changing, not all for the better. But the game Whitey remembers is a different one that was played in the `20's. Which is better? Winning counts, and little ball still gets you there. Talent costs money, but money is coming in-The Yankees get $55 million in TV money, but some teams get as little as $3 million, even none. The money will buy players, and that's a fact of life. The DH is a fact of life. Interleague play, not a great idea that should go. The playoffs-a fact of life. But we should be keeping an eye on what's changing, and hang on where we can.

Overall, Whitey does us a great service by outlining the issues and making us think about the problems. I could have used a little less fawning over the Cardinals players he managed; here it's also a bit of ancient history. But we can live with that; Whitey Herzog has one of the finest minds in baseball, and since he's too smart to sit in the dugout anymore, we can take him any way we can get him.

I hate to rain on everyone's "Whitey parade", but I was disappointed with the book. Maybe my expectations were too high; knowing Herzog to be a baseball "lifer", I was expecting a book filled with insights about today's game and "inside baseball". While there are some gems , they are hard to find. Too much of the book is filled wth Herzog's rants about almost every facet of the game today and anecdotes that often are not amusing nor insightful except to expose Herzog's enormous ego.His constant self aggrandizement detracts from his message. Maybe self aggrandizement is his message.

What this book has going for it is its author. Herzog is brash, his language is salty, he is unapologetic and he is interesting - he has something to say and, goddamit, he's going to say it.

Unfortunately, that's about it. Herzog is convinced, like so many others, that the way HE played the game, and the way it was that HE played it, is the only way it should be done and the only way it should be. That is the downfall of this book, like it is for so many other "The Way Baseball Should Be" soapbox pieces.

Some of his concerns are legitimate, some aren't. Some of his criticisms are appropriate, some are way off - it's the usual mix'n'match you get when one man presents his Blueprint For Baseball. For example, his elegy for the baseball scout is just useless, and shows a startling lack of understanding for the ways the game and the country as a whole have changed. Far too many such works basically end up as a demand for the repeal of every innovation, with the exception of integration, since 1919, and this one is little different - it would have been no surprise to read Herzog demanding woollen unifroms, travel by train only and the reinstatement of the reserve clause.

Herzog fails to understand that the "Magic of Baseball" goes deeper and yet is more ephemeral than the concerns he addresses, and that much of what he proposes is just window-dressing and posturing. Since the 1870s, people have railed against how the game has changed. I have heard people proclaim the death of the game on the following occasions:

- the end of the fair/foul rule - the introduction of the curve ball - lighter bats and better balls - racial integration - the Giants & Dodgers moving west - night baseball - expansion - free agency - astroturf - foreign players - divisional play - the wild card - today's home run explosion

None of it is true. The game endures - that's kind of the point. Yes, many of Herzog's concerns - and others - need to be addressed, but by someone of less intransigent views who doesn't see his own experience as having been the only true golden age. His name is Bob Costas.

Whitey's book starts off well enough, with good stories of his days as a player and a scout. His perspectives as a manager, however, are too narrow for anyone who isn't a die-hard Cardinals fan. And don't get him started on calls that went against the Cards, different styles of play, and other ball parks. Too bad this book isn't better for a broader audience.

It's not a coincidence that the KC Royals, St Louis Cards, and the Anaheim Angels all got into the world series pretty much after Whitey got involved. If you know baseball and what really matters, you know Whitey's ideas will work. It's a shame the Royals owner Ewing Kauffman (and mainly Muriel K) couldn't accept baseball greatness over pride and prestige. For the reviewer who thinks there are sour grapes....what are you talkin about? You must not be from KC. The guy wins head over shoulders more than any manager in KC and then when Whitey suggests how to improve a division winner even better, the owner and Joe Burke refuse to help him and make Whitey manage with one arm tied behind his back and then come in second place by 3 games, then fire him!?! Ewing and his old lady didn't really know what they had. They wanted some shoe kissing choir boy and you see what that got them. They got the profits from a team that Whitey built and nurtured. I'm glad history shows the truth on this. This is a great book by a true baseball intellect. Whitey cuts through the BS and brings it home right down the middle with his takes on the money game, rules changes, owner idiocy, smart owners, player agents, player critiq and even fishing. I heard it best from a Frank White interview, when he said Whitey was a player's manager and didn't get in the way of players but let them do their stuff, which contributed to winning more than anything else. This book tells how the key is scouting and once that's done, they do the rest if they have the fundamentals down. Whitey was a master at not only finding talent but bringing out the best in it all the time. That's kinda like a gardner taking care of his garden and nurturing it. Get the book. You won't find too many with so much straight talk about the truth of baseball. Baseball needs a Whitey Herzog type. It makes sense why he's so smart now that I know from this book that he was one of Casey Stengel's pupils. No wonder he made the rest of the managers look like kiddies. He is the White Stuff.

Whitey takes baseball apart but manages to provide constructive ways to improve the game. Cardinal fans will absolutely love this book but anyone who enjoys the game is in for a real lesson and a great experience with this book.

Boy, talk about going back in time. Being a Cardinal fan for over 50 years it was nice to relive the magic of the eighties. I feel Whitey did an excellant job to describeing the current state of baseball. His points are well taken, and I only wish the current commissioner would take heed.