Review of "The Funniest Moments in Sports," by Herman L. Masin

 Review of

The Funniest Moments in Sports, by Herman L. Masin, ISBN 0871311526

Four out of five stars

Good, generally retreaded jokes

 As someone that has been reading sports fiction, fact and humor for decades, I have read a great deal of all types. There is one fact of humor and that is that if a joke is not based on some new social or technical achievement, it is probably an old joke simply being retold. At most, the context has changed.

 That is the case with this book. For example, there is the story about a rookie catcher where each of the first six batters all swung at the first pitch and got a hit. When the manager asked the catcher, “What kind of pitches is he throwin’,” the catcher replied, “I don’t know, I haven’t caught one yet.” This is a story that is more well-known where the great Yogi Berra was the catcher. The validity of the story has been confirmed by Berra himself.

 There is another story about a man impersonating the giant outfielder Frank Howard, not known as a good fielder. Howard is supposed to have replied, “Hit him a fly ball.” A similar quote has been attributed to the goofy Babe Herman, the man that once doubled into a double play.

 Nevertheless, these jokes are still amusing independent of the personalities making up the context. The jokes are clean, simple and will be amusing the next time they are recycled by featuring another generation of players.

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