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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Worth Reading, March 3, 2001
There is a lot of history in New York City and the surrounding area, much of it baseball and the author certainly covers it well. Although much of what is in the book can certainly be found in other baseball books it is still a worth while read. I realize it would have added much to the size of the book, but I would have liked to see more pictures such as of the present site of Lou Gehrig's birthplace on page 162 and of The Lambs' Club on page 212. I found a few errors of which a few are inevitable, I suppose. On page 196 the author says Bob Friend was the winning pitcher after the Giants' last game in the Polo Grounds (1957) and nine years later he was the winning pitcher in the first game at Shea Stadium (1964). This would be seven years. On page 73 the name of Billy Jurges was spelled "Jurgez". The most glaring mistake, however, came on page 80 when it is mentioned that Lou Gehrig was honored at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1940. The correct year, of course, is 1939. I would give the book a tough three stars, maybe even closer to four, but that Gehrig mistake really bothered me.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Loaded with Mistakes, March 16, 2005
This is a very unreliable book. I'll offer one example: the article on the original Polo Grounds at 110th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The article gets that location right, and that's about all. (1) Contrary to what the author says, the Metropolitans played at the Polo Grounds from the beginning of the club. (2) The author hasn't figured out which team was which. Jim Mutrie did not call the Metropolitans "giants," and they did not become the Giants. The Giants were a separate team, also organized by Mutrie and his money-man Day. The Mets were around for three years (1880-82) before Mutrie and Day founded the Giants, getting them a slot in the National League while assigning the Mets to the American Association. The Giants started out being called the "New Yorks," or the "Nationals" for their membership in the National League; and they were the ones Mutrie or Day called "giants" and who acquired that as their name. (3) So it's wrong to say that "It turned out that the Polo Grounds also served as home to another local team of note, the Nationals." The Nationals were the same team as the Giants, and they didn't "turn out" to play at the Polo Grounds too--Mutrie and Day decided to have both the Mets and the Giants play at the Polo Grounds from the moment they founded the Giants. (4) The park wasn't a "rectangular sliver of land," which makes it sound much skinnier in one dimension than the other. One side was the crosstown block from 5th to 6th Avenues, one eighth of a mile. The other side was the two uptown blocks from 110th to 112th Street, totalling one tenth of a mile. That is, the park was 528 feet in one dimension and 660 feet in the other--a 4-5 ratio, which isn't much of a sliver; it's not all that far from a square. Elsewhere the author refers to the park's "vast expanse of land," which is correct but makes "sliver" sound even stranger. (5) Further on he tells us that the Mets "joined the American Association in 1882 and the following year, at about the same time they became the Giants, joined the National League." Dead wrong, as we've already seen--they were two separate teams in two separate leagues. (6) Finally, he tells us "A more unfortunate fate awaited the Polo Grounds, which burned down in 1889." This is false. The Polo Grounds met its demise when New York City decided to complete the street grid in that area--much of which had only existed on maps before this--and sent city inspectors to cut down the Polo Grounds fence to make room for 111th Street to pass through. Day and Mutrie fought the city and even got the state legislature to pass a bill granting the Giants a variance and suspending the construction of 111th Street; but the governor, an advocate of local rule, vetoed the bill and the Giants lost their home. This was early in 1889, and it was in that season that the Giants moved uptown to the new park at Coogan's Bluff, which was named the Polo Grounds after the old park even though polo would never be played there. The only Polo Grounds that burned down was one of the versions of the Coogan's Bluff park, which burned in 1911, twenty-two years after the original Polo Grounds ceased to exist. Clearly the author has done some cursory reading in the sources on the old Polo Grounds, but he's misunderstood or forgotten most of what he read, and gets almost the whole story of this first park of the New York Giants wrong.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A "must" read for serious baseball fans., November 10, 1999
By A Customer
Having borrowed the book from a friend and having read it with great pleasure, it has been placed on my Christmas wish list. It will provide me with a guide on future tours into New York to see the many sites related to baseball events that Reisler has done such an excellent job of describing.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A wonderful book., September 1, 1999
By A Customer
In amusing vignettes, the author takes us from place to place, and from one era to another, in the annals of baseball. Each page opens the reader to entertaining narratives of baseball's interesting locations and exciting personalities. A grand slam.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
NYC and Baseball a Great Double Play!, May 2, 1999
By A Customer
Resisler uses crisp, clean prose to lead us on a fascinating tour of New York City sites relating to baseball--from Lou Gehrig's birthplace to where Billy sunday preached to where Rusty Staub served ribs it all here in a great book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Captivating journey through history you thought you knew, March 9, 1999
By A Customer
The author guides the reader on a riveting journey through New York City's fabled baseball history, but not along well-worn paths. Rather, he takes you to the scenes of episodes both famous and forgotten and retells the stories of what happened there, and why it matters. He colors each vignette with fascinating detail (the beaning death of Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman is reported from the pitch to Chapman walking off the field to his subsequent collapse; we watch an ailing Lou Gehrig struggle heroically to make a difference working for the Parole Board) . We relive famous moments in baseball history. The book is written with obvious affection for the subject --- Reisler clearly loves baseball --- and in jaunty, exilerating prose. A book to read and savor and pass on to your own kids, this is history at its most intimate and revealing. A home run!
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