OT: Any Suggestions on Good Baseball Books for Gifts

[JimStinson]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

My personal favorite from the book...

"Smoky Burgess was fat. Not baseball fat like Mickey Lolich or Early Wynn. But FAT fat. Like the mailman or your Uncle Dwight. Putsy Fat. Slobby Fat. Just plain fat. In fact, I would venture to say Smoky Burgess was the fattest man to ever play professional baseball. Of course, he was not always fat; when he was a catcher...he was merely plump, the way good hitting catchers can afford to be.

But as Burgess grew older a curious tendency began to manifest itself...the older he got and the fatter he got, the better his hitting seemed to become, until at the age of thirty-eight Smoky weighed close to 300 pounds and was hitting over .320.

I don't have any idea what Smoky is doing these days (he retired finally in 1967), but I can tell you one thing for sure, he must be an interesting and instructive sight, now that he's been out of baseball for a few years and has had the chance to really get out of shape."

The funny thing is I have not even THOUGHT of this book in 20 years and after you mentioned it I SIMPLY CAN'T STOP LAUGHING .....Made my day

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by JimStinson

The funny thing is I have not even THOUGHT of this book in 20 years and after you mentioned it I SIMPLY CAN'T STOP LAUGHING .....Made my day

+1 - great stuff. Anytime anyone mentions this book, the first thing I think of is the image of the Unitas card.

[JimStinson]

TOO MUCH....didn't they call him the "Blondest Man Alive" or something like that in the book ?

I just bought two vintage copies of the book off of e-bay for Holiday Gifts, they were $5.00 each plus shipping.

Unitas looks like they just signed his release papers from the mental ward in that card.

[JimStinson]

How about this one from the book...JESUS MCFARLANE who batted .087, with the warning to parents to NOT name their children after famous people because they never live up to expectations....

[byrone]

Originally Posted by Runscott

+1 - great stuff. Anytime anyone mentions this book, the first thing I think of is the image of the Unitas card.

"Is his hair too tight?"

[JimStinson]

RFLOL.....thats it !

Unitas Looks like Charles Manson with a crewcut dosen't he ?

[grainsley]

If you like both baseball and history, give Banzai Babe Ruth a try, by Rob Fitts. I found it a fascinating behind the scenes look at the All Stars Tour of Japan in the early 30's. Complete with personal glimpses of the players and owners and a healthy dose of pre-WWII espionage in there too..think Moe Berg. A good read.