Average customer rating:
- Murder She Wrote Three Strikes and You're Dead
- great read, holds your attention yet relaxing
- Three Strikes - A Real Winner
- Another winner!
- Follow the Bouncing Bat
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Murder, She Wrote: Three Strikes and You're Dead (Murder She Wrote)
Jessica Fletcher , and
Donald Bain
Manufacturer: NAL Hardcover
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0451219678 |
Book Description
Jessica goes out to the ballgame-and comes through in the bottom of the ninth-in a brand-new mystery in the USA Today bestselling series.
Visiting her old friends Judge Jack and Meg Duffy in Arizona, Jessica watches their foster son hit the winning run for the Mesa Rattlers in a AA league playoff game. She and the Duffys are thrilled at Ty Ramos's success, but team owner Harrison Bennett is not. His son Junior and Ty are bitter rivals, and the tension at the team dinner later that evening threatens to empty the dugouts.
By the next morning, Junior Bennett is dead, and Ty is the prime suspect. Jessica finds it hard to believe that such a fine young man would wreck his life in a moment of anger-and when she starts looking into the Rattlers' recent season, she finds out that for some people, baseball is more than just a game.
Customer Reviews:
Murder She Wrote Three Strikes and You're Dead.......2007-03-30
Loved the book, arrived quickly and in excellent condition.
great read, holds your attention yet relaxing.......2007-01-04
Love murder she wrote have all the books and dvds, Very smooth read yet holds your attention and makes you want to read more
Three Strikes - A Real Winner.......2006-12-02
Another excellent book by Mr. Bain. Twists and turns, never new what was coming. Thanks again "Jessica" your the best.
Another winner!.......2006-11-02
I enjoyed THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE DEAD and did not want it to end. I like the series and hopes Mr. Bain sends Jessica to my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. I bet Jessica would find it an enjoyable trip, regardless of the murder. If you have time to read a book this year, make sure one of the books is this one. Even if you don't like "brainless entertainment." It is good old-fashioned fun.
Amanda
Follow the Bouncing Bat.......2006-10-27
I once heard a joke about a man named Leroy who knew everybody and apparently he was related to Jessica Fletcher because she has friends everywhere. In this entry in the "Murder She Wrote" series Jessica is visiting friends in Mesa Arizona and has plans for a wonderful vacation. Part of her itinerary involves taking in some minor league baseball because Ty Ramos, the foster son of her Mesa friends plays for the local AA team. Problems arise however because Ty plays shortstop as does Junior Bennett who just happens to be the son of the team owner and the tension on the team rises to a fever pitch when the manager replaces Junior with Ty late in the championship game.
Junior is an obnoxious and rotten character and you can see his death coming from a mile away just as you will be able to figure out that Ty is going to be the chief suspect. Subtlety is generally not one of Mr. Bain's strong suits but that hardly detracts from these stories once you are used to it. Jessica as you can imagine, jumps right in and starts trying to prove Ty's innocence and her sniffing around soon begins to pay off. Just her mere presence helps Ty in court because the judge just happens to be a huge fan of her mystery books. In the end it all boils down to who had access to the an aluminum baseball bat that was used to kill Junior but Jessica still has to do a lot of thinking because at one time or another almost everyone involved seems to have had that bat.
This is a highly enjoyable book but unfortunately it sometimes fails to draw the reader into the story the way it should. As usual Mr. Bain does an excellent job of portraying the characters and the setting but it seems that Jessica just happens to bumble into the solution for this case rather than getting the job done with her considerable detective skills. While she does have to put her deductive skills to work she wouldn't have solved this one without some plain old good luck. There are really just too many coincidences in this story for it to be considered one of the best books in this series, but it is still a very good book and one that no fan of the series will want to pass up. As an added bonus the author finally seems to explain why Mort Metzger's wife has a different name on TV from the one she has in the books. That disparity was a mystery truly worthy of the attentions of the astounding Jessica Fletcher.
Customer Reviews:
The Word on Prospects.......2002-08-16
This book is the best out there, by far, on evaluating a team's farm system. While 30 players certainly isn't comprehensive, almost all worthwhile prospects are in there (though it depends on how many legitimate prospects a team has). In the front, they rank teams on their overall farm system, and then have a series of Top 50 prospect lists (with several of their writers each having a say). I'm writing this well into the season, but its still worth picking up (I think they dropped the price several times, now its pretty cheap)-or if you're reading this deciding whether to get the 2003 edition when it comes out (should be more of the same).
There are plenty of things to like in the team sections. They give a good run-down of the organization's condition and what the future may hold. The prospect reports contain a lot of good stuff, including reports from instructional league and accurate scouting info. BA tops the statheads, who aren't really in the same league. I can remember a few years back, people looking at spreadsheets and calculators claimed Torii Hunter would never hit...slap hitter at best...would fight for a 4th outfield job...good defensively. It was BA that kept ranking him high, even as he hit .230 in AA. Turns out: Gold Glove, 27 homers last year, looking at 30+ this year, MVP candidate, etc. Tools matter.
There are a few things I found to be a bit off. First of all, they put more weight on pitchers than I would like. There are very few impact pitchers in the Bigs, but if you read this prospect book on its own, you would think there's about 100 more on the way. Obviously thats not the case...injuries take a toll and many simply don't pan out (or don't meet expectations). Then there's unheralded guys who come through...position players are much more projectable and thus should recieve more benefit of the doubt. One slight complaint: I would like a bit more draft info, maybe a list of all players that signed and the level they are expected to start at (there is a brief draft review for each team already).
Pick a prospect, any prospect.......2002-03-09
If the kid is a prospect, he's in this book. Detailed scouting reports of the top 30 prospects of each team. Also contains an analysis of each team's farm system and projections for the future. If you want to find the stars of tomorrow, start here.
Book Description
Deric McKamey's Minor League Baseball Analyst is the first book to fully integrate sabermetrics and scouting. A long-term Bill James disciple and graduate of Major League Baseball's scout school, McKamey provides his unique brand of analysis for over 1000 minor leaguers. For baseball analysts and those who play in fantasy leagues with farm systems, the Analyst is designed exactly for your needs.
Book Description
An enthusiastic, irreverent, but exhaustive guidebook to all the stadiums of Minor League Baseball, following up on the success of the first Ultimate Baseball Road-Trip book, which was dedicated to Major League stadiums.
Customer Reviews:
FANtastic!.......2007-07-22
My husband and I just used this book for a week-long trip around the Carolinas and it was absolutely invaluable.
Great Book for Any Bush League Fan.......2007-05-13
Clearly a labor of love, this books gets to the heart of the minor league experience, rating the food, mascots, seats and campy promotions that make the bush leagues so special...and it does all that in the framework of a helpful travel guide, while also providing the full history of every minor league team and ballpark. I also really enjoy looking at all of the great photos of the minor league parks across the country. A must read that was long over due for baseball fans...enjoy!
Book Description
Felix knows his dad was a famous baseball player in Cuba—and that his father risked everything to send Felix to America. But his mom won't reveal anything else. When a team with Cuban players comes into town, Felix wonders if they knew his dad, and sneaks into their locker room to ask. That's when the players mistake him for their new batboy.
To uncover his father's story, Felix runs away from home to become the team's batboy. His bittersweet adventure glows with the friendship of a miraculous dog, the warmth of a mother's love, and the magic of baseball.
Customer Reviews:
WOW! is all I can say..........2006-10-06
Free Baseball By: Sue Corbett
Free Baseball was I warm story about I Cuba boy who escaped. Felix, the boy, was the main character in this great story. Felix was a boy whose dad was a Cuba baseball star, and dreamed about nothing but baseball. Sue Corbett wrote this story well, and I really treasured it.
One part I liked was the part where Felix had just escaped on the bus. He ran away from his "evil" babysitter and was named the new ball boy of the opposing team. Felix slides in a small compartment and hides till the bus stops. Felix realizes it was foolish to do it because it got hot and un-cozy.
The next part I really liked is when he met the team mascot who was a dog named Miracle. Miracle was really important to the team because he was the only reason fans came to the games. He would run around the bases when one of the players hit a homerun. He also lived right in the stadium and could catch fly balls.
The last part was when Felix met a Cuban named Diaz. Diaz didn't speak much English but understood what people were talking about. Felix and Diaz became kind of best friends while Felix was a run away. Diaz was known as the team slugger and was one of the newer players. Diaz also said he met Felix's dad.
In conclusion Free Baseball was an about a boy named Felix who ran away from home during a baseball game. Felix was soon known to be the ball boy while he traveled with the team. He met a man named Diaz and met a "miracle" of a dog on his journey. Free Baseball was one of the best books I ever read.
D. Williams
Free Baseball.......2006-08-25
She read it to us at school, and it was really great. It made our teacher cry. I loved it.
A baseball book with depth.......2006-05-15
Sue Corbett's middle-grade book Free Baseball is the story of Felix, an eleven-year-old Cuban-American who stows away on a minor league team bus and steps in for the new bat boy who never showed up for work. It's sort of a Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler-kids-hiding-overnight-in-the-museum for the sports set. Typically, I have a hard time swallowing such fantasies as realistic, and thus my enjoyment of these kind of stories is always muted. But as charming or as impossible as the idea of living in a ballpark and working behind the scenes at a professional baseball game might be, there is so much more to this story that such issues are quickly left behind.
At the heart of this story are the diplomatic issues between America and Cuba, and the social turmoil those politics leave in their wake. Felix and his mother were "boat-people," Cuban immigrants who took a secret, overcrowded, and ultimately perilous boat ride to seek refuge in America. They left behind Felix's father, a star outfielder on the Cuban National Team, thinking he would be able to defect and join them during the team's travels. But it's been years now - Felix was an infant during the night-crossing - and he despairs that his father will never be able to join them.
The book then becomes something of a father quest - always a good pairing with baseball (see Field of Dreams, et al.) - as well as an exploration of Felix's strained relationship with his mother and his world. Yet despite settling into these well-worn spots in the outfield, Free Baseball stays on its toes and keeps the reader there too, managing to be pleasingly predictable and surprising at the same time. It's an atypical baseball book for this age group - it's not about winning a big game with a clutch hit, but instead about finding one's home in the dugout, and one's family in the stands. A story about that oddly redemptive power of a simple yet multi-faceted game, and the many ways in which it can touch all those who come into contact with it.
Highly recommended for all readers, but particularly those who have already tasted the magic of baseball.
Winning Streak for the Miracle.......2006-03-20
My 13-year-old son and I both deeply enjoyed this book.
There's much to take from Free Baseball -- a peek behind the scenes of a minor-league team, reminders on the sacrifices that people make from freedom, tips on taunting umpires, insight into relationships torn by immigration and politics.
Tightly written and fast-paced, it's amazing that Free Baseball can construct such a vivid world in such a short book. Our only criticism is that we would have been happy to have read twice as much about Felix and The Miracle.
Great Read!.......2006-03-17
Felix Piloto misses his dad so much. He thinks about his dad all the time. He feels close to his father when he is playing baseball. Felix and his mother are refugees from Cuba. His father, a famous baseball player for the Cuban national team, did not escape with them to the U.S.
Living in Florida, Felix's mami is working long hours at a computer company help desk and going to school. Felix is alone a great deal of the time. His mom does not have time to come to his baseball games or even take him to the hometown team's season opener when he wins free tickets. He is so anxious to go to the game that he agrees to the supervision of a loathsome teenage babysitter whose goonish boyfriends pick on Felix all night. When the game is over, he gets to go down on the field and run the bases. Curiosity leads him into the visiting team's dugout where he is mistaken for their new batboy. Felix seizes this opportunity to make a change in his life and stowsaway on the team bus.
This is such a warm-hearted story. The reader aches for Felix and his mom. As he finds acceptance and happiness with the team, he must reconcile with his mother and learn the real story about his family and his father.
I loved this book. It will have huge appeal to elementary and jr. high readers. Your heart does not have to thrill to baseball to enjoy this beautiful story but if you are a fan, you will enjoy it even more.
Book Description
In A False Spring, Pat Jordan traces the falling star of his once-promising pitching career, illuminating along the way his equally difficult personal struggles and quest for maturity. When the reader meets Jordan, he is a hard-throwing pitcher with seemingly limitless potential, one of the first “bonus babies” for the Milwaukee Braves organization. Jordan’s sojourn through the lower levels of minor-league ball takes him through the small towns of America: McCook, Waycross, Davenport, Eau Claire, and Palatka. As the promised land of the majors recedes because of his inconsistency and lack of control, the young man who had previously known only glory and success is forced to face himself.
Customer Reviews:
A great book with no closure.......2007-04-01
Pat Jordan wrote this book about his three years playing minor league baseball trying to live up to the giant bonus the Milwaukee Braves had given him to be a pitcher for them. He chronicles what days he can remember spent in small towns, meeting interesting people, and going through the struggles any 18 year old boy must go through with the extra added pressure of having to throw a small white ball past a professional athlete.
What makes this book stand out from other such books is that Jordan is an extremely strong writer. Some of his landscape descriptions bring back Steinbeck and his tales of dankness Dreiser. He is very talented and I finished the book in about four days because of its easy flow.
The biggest disappointment was that many parts of the story are left unresolved. About halfway through the book he drops a major bomb after calling an old girlfriend and yet nothing more about it is ever mentioned. The ending too is sort of dropped on us, almost as though there is was another chapter that got cut off. I know this is a non-fiction book and sometimes real life is unresolved, but it seems as though there are parts left out. I only hope some of the answers are contained in his sequel to the book written almost 30 years later entitled "A Nice Tuesday".
HE PLAYED THE GAME.......2004-06-11
Those of us who are profesional sportswriters spend a lot of time in press boxes with other writers who criticize what they see on the field, but either never played the game or never played it well. "The Suitors of Spring" is brilliantly written by Pat Jordan, who did play the game. It also brings to mind some of the best sports books ever. "Ball Four's" Jim Bouton played the game. "North Dallas Forty's" Peter Gent played the game.
Having stood on the mound, facing down a hitter with the bases loaded, the crowd yelling, the opposition hurling insults, your future on the line and the hair standing up on the back of his neck, is an experience known by few. Jordan knows it.
Here he writes about pitchers, his specialty. He writes about superstars like Tom Seaver, playboys like Bo Belinsky, hardthrowing drunks like Steve Dalkowski, 6-6 lefties who never lived up their potential, like Sam McDowell, and prep phenoms from his home state of Connecticut who met the same fate as the author.
Jordan's talent is not one that can be learned in a literary class. He is of the school of hard knoocks, rough hewn, real, human. Bravo, Pat.
STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
ONE OF THE GREATEST SPORTS BOOK OF ALL TIME.......2004-06-11
"A False Spring" is so good I cannot do it justice here. It is, along with "Ball Four", "The Suitors of Spring" (also by Pat Jordan) and "Bo: Pitching and Wooing" by Maury Allen, one of the best baseball books ever written. This book describes minor league baseball, the hopes and dreams of a young athlete, youthful sex, raunchiness, crushing disappointment, and Americana. I read this book and memorized it, then went off to play minor league ball myself and totally lived all of it. My experiences in the Cardinal and A's organization did not resemble Jordan's, they rhymed. This book tells the story of thousands of young hopefuls who live amongst us, and many more of us can relate to it than can relate to the superhuman life and accomplishments of Barry Bonds.
A True Classic.......2003-11-19
I first read excerpts from "A False Spring" about 30 years ago when they appeared in three consecutive issues of Sports Illustrated. From the moment I began reading that first installment, I was entranced. It is hard to describe exactly why, but I am sure that the baseball action in the book was not the reason. Instead, I remember Jordan's vivid portrayls of such seemingly mundane things as a prarie thunderstorm, an afternoon fishing in the swamplands of Florida and the glow of the instruments on his dashboard. These depictions riveted me, I'm convinced, because they put into words how I saw the world. As an 11 year-old, this was a unique and novel experience for me.
Jordan's portrayal of his own feelings of dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, rage and finally resignation also resonated with me. Most of the reading I had done up to that point portrayed life's events in a linear fashion that was totally at odds with what I had already experienced. I was fascinated that Jordan could take an accessible subject matter and weave all of these other elements into it.
Mind you, all of this came to me from reading the three SI excerpts. I never did read the book until, by chance, I was searching on this site and came across a name I remembered. So, 30 years later, I got a copy and tried to find out whether this book would have meaning for me anything like what I experienced as an 11 year-old.
Some pompous windbag spoke at my college graduation ceremony about the test for what he called "clahsic stahtus." According to this guy, any writing qualified for that status if one could read the work at widely spaced intervals and still feel the same spark as in the previous readings. He assumed, I guess, that peoples' perceptions and interests change over the years and that only writing that had a certain breadth would be able to appeal to a reader who had undergone those changes.
"A False Spring" certainly passed the test. All of the vivid descriptions -- the hand-me-down uniforms, the barracks-like atmosphere of minor league spring training, the experience of pitching in frozen northern outposts-- remained as vital and gripping as before, as did Jordan's portrayal of the unravelling of his baseball career. With the benefit of 30 years' experience, I was able to understand the author's struggles in more than the visceral way I did as an 11 year-old. Further, I got the strong sense -- confirmed in Jordan's later memoir, "A Nice Tuesday" -- that Jordan himself had not figured out exactly why things had gone so wrong for him.
At times, reading this book was like watching someone reliving some horrible nightmare. At other times, it was simply a pleasant experience to read Jordan's description of day-to-day life in small town America in the late 50s. Throughout, the book was just as gripping as those SI excerpts that grabbed me 30 years ago.
I have read that Pat Jordan set about to create a persona in this book and that the portrayal of that persona was calculated and not always accurate. Even so, this book reveals enough of the real experiences of the man that it withstands the test of time. I'm not so interested in absolute historical accuracy when I come across a book that can hold my attention and bring me back for more 30 years after the first reading.
Pat Jordan's Lost Seasons.......2002-12-21
Like so many baseball books, this really isn't just about baseball. It's about a young mans' journey growing up. It's about what happens to a "can't miss" prospect when he does miss. Pat Jordan looks back 15 years after he threw his last pitch--trying to figure out what happened. He's still not sure-I got the feeling he wrote this book for theraputic reasons. But we learn a lot about Mr. Jordan, and some of it is not too flattering. It's obvious he's still searching for the answers, and that's what I like the most about the book-because YOU understand while reading that he just didn't have what it takes to be a big league pitcher. A wonderful peek inside Mr. Jordan's "coming of age." Highly recommended!
Book Description
During the 1980s, the geography of minor-league professional hockey changed radically, moving from its roots in the Maritime provinces and in the New England and midwestern states into the American south. In addition to cities like Oklahoma City, Dallas, Charlotte and Norfolk, which had long traditions of minor-league hockey, unlikely places such as Biloxi, Baton Rouge, Little Rock and Augusta hosted teams. Over an 18-year period, minor-league hockey was played in 72 different southern cities, and at one point there were more minor-league teams in Texas than in all of Canada. Yet the players—and owners—have always been predominantly Canadian.
Hockey Night in Dixie examines this phenomenon with an historical overview of the period, including interviews with people involved in the founding and early years of each of the 13 leagues. There are also in-depth portraits of four teams, one from each of the four lower minor leagues that played during the 2005-06 season. These portraits feature interviews with owners, coaches, players, officials, fans and reporters. Amply illustrated with photographs, Hockey Night in Dixie paints a vivid picture of this extraordinary development in minor-league sports.
Book Description
In THE AMERICAN GAME, Ira Rosen turns his lens on the minor leagues. In a lavishly illustrated book Rosen visits notable minor league stadiums and interviews notable major and minor leaguers on their time in the minors. This wonderful and beautiful book will appeal to baseball fans the world over.
Customer Reviews:
The American Game, A Celebration of Minor League Baseball.......2007-05-12
Beautifully illustrated book of the best minor league ball parks in the country. You can almost hear the crack of the bat, smell the hot dogs and feel the warmth of a summer evening. Ira Rosen has captured the essence of what makes minor league baseball such an important part of American culture.
Limited in Scope.......2007-03-20
This book combines Studs Terkel-style commentary by baseball professionals with some background facts and pictures of selected minor league parks and the author's admittance tickets. Of all of the parks highlighted, I believe only one park falls outside of the Eastern Time Zone. No pictures of any of the parks in the Texas League, Pacific Coast League, or Pioneer League. Independent teams are limited to the Northeast. A great addition would have been John O'Donnell Stadium, located on the Mississippi River in downtown Davenport, Iowa or Bowen Field in Bluefield, West Virginia. Too many parks are Yankee affiliates or northeastern parks. With a title like "The American Game" and a Smithsonian imprint, I expected wider coverage.
The American Game: A Celebration of Minor League Baseball.......2006-12-02
Photographs, statistics, player statements, and ties to the major leagues; this book has it all! The author has expanded on his first book, Blue Skies, Green Fields: A Celebration of 50 Major League Baseball Stadiums with a comprehensive collection of minor league ballparks and their teams. He has really done his homework on the minors, with history, organization, and players from each team who moved on to the majors. Highly recommend both books for every baseball fan.
Great Book to spend hours reading.......2006-11-07
Enjoyed this author's first book and enjoyed his second one even more! Great pictures with great interviews of present and past ballplayers with their memories of minor league parks. Can spend days looking through this great book filled with so many great pictures. Enjoy as I did!
Average customer rating:
- REAL baseball giants and the mysterious Mr. Lindell
- Grand Minor League truly is Grand!
- The Grand Minor League
- the grand minor league
- Another outstanding effort by Dick Dobbins!
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The Grand Minor League - Cloth
Dobbins
Manufacturer: Duane Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:
REAL baseball giants and the mysterious Mr. Lindell.......2002-06-10
Dick Dobbins does the job right in "The Grand Minor League", a retrospective of the old Pacific Coast League (PCL).
The PCL still exists today as a AAA league - one step below the majors - but it is purely an adjunct minor league system to the two major leagues.
However, this book is about the PCL's glory days, largely originating during the Depression and spanning the second world war and the first twelve years of the post-war era until the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to the West Coast.
The PCL financed operations by charging admission for its own games and by selling contracts of its more promising stars to the established major league teams. But some visionaries had dreams of attaining major league status for the PCL, and it could have happened. A disproportionate amount of major-league level talent could be found on the West Coast, and PCL scouts were busy signing it up.
While one PCL owner was dryly reputed to have the reputation of throwing dollars around as though they were manhole covers, the pay could be more generous (the players whose contracts were sold to the majors even received a percentage of the sales price) and the opportunities for stardom could be GREATER than that which was available in the majors; moreover, the Pacific Coast was "home" to many of its players. Hence, some major leaguers sought to return there.
And when the majors reluctantly granted the PCL "open classification" status, players drafted by the majors were accorded the option of waiving the draft and remaining with their respective PCL teams and were often rewarded with bonuses for doing so. The PCL could have evolved into a third major league, but the opposition from the established major league owners, who saw the potential for expansion or relocation to the West Coast long before moving the Giants and Dodgers there, was too great to overcome. The moves themselves sounded the death knell for the traditional conception of the league.
Its legacy includes the players who became stars or near-stars in the big leagues, such as Lefty O'Doul, Dolph Camilli, Maury Wills (amazingly enough, he was only an adequate shortstop and a sometime base-stealer during his PCL days, who didn`t reach stardom until he went to the Dodgers), and of course, Joe DiMaggio.
Startlingly, Dobbins fails to remind his readers that years before he electrified the country with his 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio was thrilling West Coast fans with a 61 game hitting streak in the PCL. Both records are among the few that have withstood the test of time.
One can observe other ironies. Long before Tommy Lasorda and Sparky Anderson did battle, in their respective roles as managers of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine", for Western Division supremacy during the 1970's, they were teammates on the Los Angeles Angels, working together to establish geographical supremacy against the arch-rival Hollywood Stars.
And speaking of managers, debate rages among baseball historians about Casey Stengel's managerial acumen. Was he an adept, if incomprehensible, managerial genius or a bum who failed miserably in Boston and who only attained success by piggy-backing on the vast talent of some super Yankee teams? The story of Stengel's stewardship of the 1948 PCL Champion Oakland Oaks is a huge point in his favor.
Dobbins draws some of his history from the records but most of it from the recollections of the old-time players who consented to be interviewed. My only real criticism is that it took someone too long to undertake this project. The passage of time limits the sources from which Dobbins could draw.
And how trustworthy is human memory? There is a reference in one of the narratives supplied to Dobbins about a player named Johnny Lindell who alternated between pitcher and outfielder and who "would have been in the big leagues" if he could have only hit more consistently.
Who would dare observe, in response, that the record book shows that during the 1940's, an outfielder-pitcher named Johnny Lindell played in the majors, chiefly for the Yankees (this included several World Series appearances), on a part-time basis for 12 years and that he retired in 1954 with a respectable lifetime batting average of .273, having twice led the league in triples?
He couldn't hit well enough for the major leagues. Or could he? Were there two Johnny Lindells answering to the same description?
My favorite chapter was about the old ballparks. If you are a displaced and discouraged Giant fan who lives in the Los Angeles area, you can carry the book and its pictures of the ballparks to the corners of Beverly, Fairfax and Genessee and try to envision the Hollywood Stars' Gilmore Field having once stood there. The intersections now are home to a little company known as CBS - Television City, and there isn't even a marker anywhere to show that Gilmore Field ever existed.
And you can drive to 42nd and Avalon and marvel at the human and urban sprawl that has overtaken the area. Wrigley Field, home to the ORIGINAL Los Angeles Angels and named and constructed after its more famous Chicago namesake, has been torn down, and a community center named after a politician has been erected in its place. Again, no marker commemorates Wrigley Field. Soccer, not baseball, is the recreation of choice for the locals, and the excited cries of the players and spectators are not being delivered in English.
Is there any marker on the corner of 16th and Bryant in San Francisco to memorialize Seals Stadium?
"The Grand Minor League" is a fitting tribute to the REAL baseball giants of the West Coast and to a time when baseball was a "melting pot" language, when the game was played, not by overpaid egotistical prima donnas, but by men with working-class ethics, and when teams were managed by men and not "Dustys". Where have you gone, Rugger Ardizoia?
Grand Minor League truly is Grand!.......2000-05-23
In this book, Dick Dobbins took a cue from the book, "The Glory of Their Times," interviewing numerous ex-PCL players and umpires about the league. This oral history of the league is an excellent look back. Reading this book takes you back to a different era of baseball and shows why the PCL deserved to be called the "Grand Minor League."
The book has chapters on the league's various ballparks over the years, the league's great teams and rivalries. There are numerous pictures of various players, managers, umpires and team owners throughout the book. There are also pictures of various teams' uniforms, hats and other assorted memorabilia.
Dick Dobbins put a lot of hard work and dedication into this book and it shows. Any baseball history fan will love this book.
The Grand Minor League.......2000-05-06
This ia an absolute must for anyone who enjoyed the old PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE.The photographs of the old P.C.L.ballparks are worth the price of admission.This is an excellent companion piece to Dobbins other book on the P.C.L. Nuggets on the Diamond.
the grand minor league.......2000-05-06
If you are a fan of the old Pacific Coast League, this book is a must. Great photos, interesting interviews with former players. If you own Nuggets on the Diamond also by Dick Dobbins, this is a great companion piece. Just to see pictures of the old coast league ball parks is worth the price of admission.
Another outstanding effort by Dick Dobbins!.......2000-04-09
Dick Dobbins again captures the essence of the old Pacific Coast League. By using an "oral history" format, he is able to capture the true nature of this "major" minor league. The best section in the book consist of short interviews with former players and managers regarding some of the great and notorious players in the league. The same is also done for the managers, stadiums and teams. My favorite aspect of the book is the numerous historical photographs from Mr. Dobbins collection. This book is a must buy for baseball fans!
Book Description
Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey chronicles the uniquely wild adventure of Doug Smith, who was determined to realize his dream of playing professional hockey, despite the fact he didn?t start skating until the age of 19. Armed with a burning desire and his only marketable athletic abilities ? those honed as an amateur boxer ? Doug defeated impossible odds to win a championship ring and play in the world?s second-best hockey league. Goon gives a raw and revealing insider?s look at the riotous world of minor league hockey and the most peculiar role in all of sport ? the Goon, whose job is to protect teammates from opposing ruffians. Come along as Doug Smith, an outsider in the hockey world, literally fights his way to the highest level of minor league hockey. You may never view the game in the same light again.
Customer Reviews:
Goon-Great book.......2006-07-22
There are some great stories, I was shocked coming from Johnstown,Pa how many references and quotes there were from former Chiefs and guys whose names I hadn't heard in years..truly could not put it down!
awesome book.......2005-12-31
I bought this book for my dad who is also the father of a Junior A hockey player in Montana. He LOVES this book- quotes from it and laughs so hard he can barely talk. Highly recommend this one!
Loved it.......2005-06-03
Excellent book. Well written, first-person account of life in the minors. Really enjoyed it. This is the first book I've ever read start to finish in one sitting. It ain't Shakesphere--and that's a good thing. I hate Shakesphere. This is an easy read, fun and enjoyable.
Roger Snow
Las Vegas
A Great Read!.......2005-02-20
Doug and Adam do a wonderful job of bringing you into the world of minor league hockey thuggery. If you're a lover of the sport, regardless of whether you are a fan of the boys that drop the gloves, it's a must for your library.
Goon is Good!.......2004-04-10
I just finshed the book and wished Doug had played for more teams over the years so the story could continue. Doug comes across as a very likeable guy who happens to get his thrills by dropping the gloves with anyone who wants to go. Great insight into the workings of minor league hockey. The book's not expensive, it's easy to read, and very entertaining. Thanks for your memories, Doug!
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