Rating: 
Summary: Simply Fantastic
Review: I'll be blunt. This is the single greatest baseball book I've ever read. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the best baseball book ever written. This book conveys the tone of baseball's early days. The players tell their stories in their own voice, oft-times a considerably different manner of speaking than we use currently. I greatly enjoyed the slang words the old ballplayers used. They taunted rookies by calling them 'bushers'. One player warned another (speaking of Nap Lajoie) 'Watch out for the Frenchman.' Priceless! Outside of the words, the stories themselves paint a glorious picture of baseball at the beginning of the century. The lesser ballplayers, the Hans Loberts and Chief Meyers', give their impression of the all-time greats; Wagner, Lajoie, Mathewson, Cobb, Jophnson, Bender, Waddell, and Shoeless Joe. Much of what we now know about these legends came directly from the recollections in this book. This is a baseball treasure and belongs in every serious fan's library.
Rating:
Summary: Baseball...The Way It Was Meant To Be!
Review: Words alone cannot describe what I have read. Smoky Joe Wood, Rube Marquard, Wahoo Sam Crawford, and many others. We are talking legends of a game gone by. True hero's when a baseball world needed hero's. Many thanks to Lawrence Ritter for capturing moments in time with these baseball legends. I'm sure that they all had a million stories to tell, but I'll settle for just the few that are represented in this book. In today's baseball world of outright sheer greed and selfishness, it was so refreshing to hear stories about baseball's yesterday when times were simpler and the game was just a game. How I miss those days. How I miss those players. Thank you to them for allowing a little boy to dream the dream. Thank you for a memorable look at a simpler time, Lawrence.
Rating: 
Summary: Great history, so-so sound.
Review: It is awesome to hear the real old-timers talk about baseball's early days. They are old enough to be candid, to be sure. The interviewer does an admirable job of staying in the background, asking prompting questions only when needed and these are show his excellent preparation without making him seem like he's their (baseball) equal.
My only complaint, having heard this on CD (and I did that because I very much wanted to hear their actual voices) was that the audio was not done too well, mostly too faint except on extreme volume settings. Anyway, it was definitely worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely THE BEST Baseball Book Around!
Review: This classic book provides any baseball fan, from the casual to the truly obsessive a real treat. Baseball at its most beautiful, told in the voices of ball players who truly loved playing the game. Their stories will make you laugh, learn, and more than anything wish you were with Lawrence Ritter when he sat down to talk with these baseball greats. I have read a lot of baseball books and this one is an absolute must for any baseball fan.
Rating:
Summary: GOES GREAT WITH THE AUDIO BOOK!
Review: I have heard so many stories about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, I can't tell fact from fiction. Lawrence Ritter and undertaken an extremely long journey to bring you a true record of the early days of baseball. Packed with stories from legends Goose Goslin, Harry Hooper, Joe Wood, Hank Greenberg, Sam Crawford and others the spirit of baseball past comes to life. Ritter's ability to bring baseball alive is nothing short of spectacular. Probably the best baseball book I have ever read, The Glory of Their Times, is more than a amazing collection of stories. You'll read about how baseball has transformed from a love of the game to love of money. Each story has so much packed into it that I found myself re-reading each chapter just to make sure I got everything. I am so very proud that I have had the opportunity to read and review this extraordinary work on baseball. Thank you so very much Lawrence Ritter!
Rating:
Summary: Truly a "Hall of Fame" book
Review: Sometimes the best histories are the ones where the participants in that history are allowed to talk and the history's author just listens. Such is the case with this book. And oh the stories these old ballplayers tell. Stories of an era in baseball from long ago: what it was like to play with Honus Wagner or Ty Cobb or Lou Gehrig; what it was like to play for John Mcgraw; or get a new persepctive on an infamous play like the Fred Snodgrass muff or a dropped ball that led to a World Series win. And funny how you get a sense too from reading this book of what life and the people in it were like back in the early part of the 20th century, as well as what the baseball was like. I was highly entertained and intrigued from the moment I opened the book to reading the last page in it. And I'm thankful the author thought to preserve this era for all of us before it was too late. Dick Dobbins used this "oral history" approach to great advantange in his now out of print book about the old Pacific Coast League called The Grand Minor League. It's an approach I used to a lesser extent some years ago when I wrote a history of a local volunteer group in the late 1990s. I've wanted to read this for years, and I'm glad I did. If this isn't the greatest baseball book of all time, it's pretty darn close.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important baseball books ever written
Review: I read once that Lawrence Ritter decided to research and write The Glory of Their Times when he realized that the great players of the dead ball era were dying off. He wanted to preserve their memories while it was still possible. He did us all a favor - The Glory of Their Times is one of the finest books ever written about baseball history. Ritter was a good oral historian - he knew how to draw his subjects out. Where else can you read first-hand accounts of what it was like to play with Ty Cobb?
Rating:
Summary: A+
Review: The interviews form a tapestry evoking the baseball era before WWII and the feel of the national pastime is captured. Brilliant journalism. Warm yet realistic, and laugh out loud funny.
Rating:
Summary: Mark It Down: The Best Baseball Book Ever
Review: In short: There has never been a book that made me feel as justified about my love of the game as "The Glory Of Their Times". Lawrence Ritter gets the job done by getting out of the way and letting the greats of the game from 1900s-1930s tell their stories. Review after review of this book calls it the best baseball book ever and let me add my voice to that chorus. Baseball in the deadball era when the fences were so far out that the league leading home run hitter hit 4 home runs; all of them inside the park runs. Baseball when you got one ball to play with. Fred Snodgrass' story *alone* is worth the price of the book, but you also get to hear what it was like to play with Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth (with the Red Sox), lots of dirt on Ty Cobb and Christey Matthewson....... Each of these stories is like a summer day and makes you feel like grabbing a ball and mitt and heading outside. What else is there to say? Pick it up!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Baseball Book - Period
Review: This is, and will always be, my most favorite baseball book ever. Read all of the previous reviews and you will understand why so many readers love this book. Read the book and you will realize why you love baseball so much. If you are debating whether or not to read The Glory of Their Times ask yourself this question, do you know who Charles Victory Faust is? No? Then read the book. That alone is worth the price of admission. I have reread this book a number of times and there is still a Germany Schaefer story I love to tell any baseball enthusiast who hasn't heard it. But that is just one of many great stories told by a colorful collection of great players who help make baseball the great game that it is.
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