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Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself

Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself

1 rating: 3.0

A book by Michael Shapiro

Fifty years ago, as baseball faced crises on and off the field, two larger-than-life figures took center stage, each on a quest to reinvent the national pastime In the late 1950s, baseball was under siege. Up-and-coming cities that wanted teams of their … see full wiki

Tags: Books, Sports, Baseball, Baseball History, Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel

Author: Michael Shapiro

Genre: Sports

Publisher: Times Books (May 12, 2009)

1 review about Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey...

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Historic Baseball Moments

Apr 10, 2009

by plantsandbooks

Rating:

BOTTOM OF THE NINTH is a baseball fan's dream. The book is filled to the top with historical moments, lore, and characters that shaped America's national pastime. The books spans several years in one of baseball's defining moments in history.

This book is not for everyone, as it is loaded with players, managers, political figures, prominent city people, cities, states, and their little (or big) stories and motivations. With the sheer volume of stuff going on in this book it is hard to keep track, but the mastery of the writing is almost magical. The author, Michael Shapiro keeps dumping data, quotes, stories, and reports, and accounts but it never gets lost or overpowering because the way it is all integrated into the story and the chapters. Reading this book is truly like reminiscing about the good old days of baseball, which is further supported because most of the people involved in the main two story arcs aren't even big name baseball players! It's like sitting around a bar listening to people talk about the phenomenal game of baseball in the Micky Mantle era.

BOTTOM OF THE NINTH is a tale of a sport (and the men and women associated with it) defining themselves for the next several decades. I learned so much from this book that I am amazed. I never knew that there was serious consideration for the development of a third baseball league, the Continental League. There is so much history about politics and baseball cities. The stories of Casey Stengel are classic. His personality and the way the players and public viewed him is captured perfectly. Reading the pages you can feel the disgust, contempt, and appreciation that various people felt at any given moment.

This is a wonderful tale about the people of baseball in the 50s. There are enough play-by-play of classic great games that any baseball fan, no matter how die-hard, will enjoy this book. If you get chills from hearing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" you will enjoy this book more than others. If you just like baseball, then you may be discouraged by the massive amount of information conveyed in each chapter.

Good reading,

Plants and Books

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DesignDude April 10, 2009

Very informative review! It occurred to me that you might like some of @drifter51's reviews, and his take on a book called 27 Men Out came to mind. He's a big history buff who occasionally dips into sports. Enjoy!

plantsandbooks April 10, 2009

Thanks for the kind comments. I will take a look at drifter's reviews. I really enjoy reading history and learning more; unfortunately I do not read nearly as much in that area as I wish. All it takes is a couple well written reviews to change that, though... right?

DesignDude April 10, 2009

I think there's a lot here you'll find inspiring, as we have the beginnings of a very rich book reviews community. Our books category is pretty robust, and you can narrow your focus on areas of interest by resorting at the top of the main column or exploring the Related Tags box in the right column.

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