Review of "Strikeout Story," by Bob Feller

 Review of

Strikeout Story, by Bob Feller

Four out of five stars

The early years of Feller’s career

 Hall of fame pitcher Bob Feller made his major league debut at the age of seventeen on July 6, 1936, striking out 8 in three innings. He won 24 games in a season before he turned 21, so his debut was not a fluke. The two best hitters of the time, Stan Musial and Ted Williams, called him the best pitcher of his generation. If he had not enlisted in the Navy and spent almost four years in the military where he saw action in the Pacific, he might have entered the record books as the best of all time. If you interpolate an average of 25 wins per season over those years, he would have added 95 wins to his record of 266 wins. He pitched 3 no hit games as well as 12 one-hitters.

 This book is an autobiography of Feller’s life from his early years until the start of the 1947 season. While he does cover his time in the military, he generally passes it by rather than delves into the details. He was the first professional athlete to enlist after the Pearl Harbor attack and insisted that he serve on a combat vessel rather than pass the time doing baseball related actions. In this area, Feller is quite humble about what he did.

 The interactions with his teammates and others in the baseball community are generally presented in the manner typical of the books written before the bombshell by Jim Bouton. While there are some conflicts and disagreements, Feller presents them in a low-key manner. At the time, the Cleveland Indians were considered one of the best teams in the American League and there was reason to believe that the reason they failed to win pennants in Feller’s early years was because they never really gelled as a team. Feller hints at this but does not dive deep into the issue.

 While this is a good book about the early history of one of the best baseball players of the twentieth century, it is not an enthralling page turner. Feller is very matter of fact about his achievements.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of "The Autumn Dead," by Ed Gorman

  Review of The Autumn Dead , by Ed Gorman, ISBN 0345356322 Four out of five stars An aging ex-cop is handed a case to retrieve a case   Jack Dwyer is an ex-cop that now works for a private security agency. Most of what he does is bust shoplifters and other petty criminals. He is a bit overweight and has few prospects to improve his situation. However, he has an interesting past that is focused on his high school years.   A woman that was a flame of his in high school and has retained her beauty suddenly pops back into his life. She offers Jack a significant amount of money to retrieve a suitcase from the house of a man she had been living with. Since she has a key and claims that the suitcase is really her property and she still has a significant sway over Jack, he agrees to take the job.   When he gets there he finds the owner unconscious from a blow on the back of the head. This is the first hint that the case is much more complex than Jack thought. Hi...
Read more

Review of "The Forty-Minute War," by Janet and Chris Morris

  Review of The Forty-Minute War , by Janet and Chris Morris, ISBN 0671559869 Three out of five stars Absurd initial premise and bad ending   This book begins with an absurd premise, not the event, but the context. A group of committed terrorists manage to acquire a nuclear weapon and a plane. The manage to fly it from Saudi Arabia to Washington D. C. where they detonate it. Distraught over the knowledge that his wife and family have been killed, the American President orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. They retaliate and it is all over in 40 minutes. After ordering the strike, the American President takes a gun and kills himself.   There are two reasons why this premise is absurd, one major and the other minor. The major one is that the intelligence services of the United States were aware of the nuclear weapon and had an elite anti-terrorist team on the ground ready to take out the terrorists. However, the team was given a stand-down order. Whil...
Read more

Review of "Heat," by Mike Lupica

  Review of Heat , by Mike Lupica, ISBN 9780142407578 Five out of five stars More about life than sports   Satchel Paige is arguably the all-time best baseball pitcher. One of his teammates once said, “The good lord didn’t give Satchel an arm, he gave him a whip.” Michael Arroyo was also born with what his father said was, “the arm.” Even though he is still young enough to play Little League baseball, Michael can throw an 80-mph fastball and he has excellent control. His goal is to help his team move on to the Little League World Series.   While baseball is his joy, his life is complicated. His father brought Michael and his seventeen-year-old bother Carlos with him in an escape from Cuba and they now live in New York City. Their father died suddenly of a heart attack and the boys are terrified that social services will learn of their plight and either separate them into foster care or send them back to Cuba.   With the help of some kindly neighbors, the ...
Read more