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Rating:  Summary: like a Sudden Sam McDowell fastball Review: Absolutely wonderful weaving of an at times diffcult father-son relationship (congrats for telling it like it was!) and the history of the Cleveland Indians. Never gets bogged down in year-to-year stats and his way of comparing Shoeless Joe and Manny Ramirez's careers was brilliant. The stories about Manny are priceless.
Like all his other sports books, Terry Pluto is easily the best sportswriter on the planet.
Rating:  Summary: For all Baseball fans - not just Cleveland ones Review: I am definitely not a fan of the Indians,but I loved the book. If you are a fan of any team, you should enjoy this. Pluto drops fun anecdotes of Indians history and trivia throughout Our Tribe. He also comes to grips with his relationship with his father. An enjoyable read.
Rating:  Summary: When Being a Fan is a Birth-Right Review: If you went to the baseball game with your Father, this book will strike a chord in your heart. Beside reactivating some old memories (fortunately they become better with time), this book also illustrates why Indians fans are Indians fans, by birth-right. We are fans becouse most of us were born near Cleveland and went to the stadium with our dad's, neighborhood friends, college friends, clients, and yes our kids. This book reminds you why Indians fans are so special. We didn't pick the Indians, they were given to us. In a day where the team was yours for life. When every spring you got excited at the chance that a miracle just might happen this year. When you didn't dare like the Yankees even if it seamed to be an easy way out to happiness. Being an Indians is more valuable than that. Thanks Terry.
Rating:  Summary: More of a Father-Son Story Review: This book is an homage to Terry's dad, a man who passed away from the effects of several strokes. His dad and the author spent many years on different sides of what was once called, "the generation gap". Pluto's father fought in WWII, then came home and built a life for his family. Terry grew up in the era of Vietnam. Many people fought that war too. Terry's dad was a baseball fan and introduced Terry to the Indians at an early age. It was one of the few things they found in common. This book is a history of the Indians, intertwined with Terry's narrative of his dad's life and his illness. My dad passed away a few years ago, of the effects of a stroke, similar to that of Terry's dad. Some parts of the book hit home quite hard. It is a different side of Terry Pluto. He is a wonderful writer, a mezmerizing storyteller. If any of you want further evidence of that, pick up "Loose Balls", his hysterical oral history of the ABA.
Rating:  Summary: A great read for all fathers and sons Review: This book is as much a story about a son and his relationship with his father as it is about baseball, and tells each of those stories wonderfully. For basball fans it is an entertaining history of the Cleveland Indians and is full of colorful players, managers, and even owners. From the perspective of this one baseball team, the reader has a ring side seat on how much our country, society, and professional sports have changed and grown over the last 75 plus years. Just from the standpoint of the baseball Terry Puto is as good as Ken Burns or George Will. But the story within the story is really about the author and his father. That relationship is one that is full of joy and sadness, wonderful memories and yet regrets. The author comes to better understand and appreciate his father after a stroke makes it impossible to talk to his father. In a cruel irony, when the time came that the author was ready and wanted to share stories and talk to his father, he was not able to. All fathers and sons should read this book. A final comment on Terry Pluto's writing style. I have read three of Mr Pluto's books and appreciate the way he writes in a clean, no non-sense style and yet fills his books with so much detail and color.
Rating:  Summary: A Touching Book Review: This is a fantastic book for any Indians fan who grew up watching games at the old Stadium. It's for all of us who grew up rooting for a sad team who had never won anything before and was never likely to do so in the future. It helps us to remember those days when the important thing wasn't how good the team was or if they had a chance at the Series, but rather spending time with our fathers watching the game. Maybe, just maybe, this book will help us to remember what is really important once again.
Rating:  Summary: A Touching Book Review: This is a fantastic book for any Indians fan who grew up watching games at the old Stadium. It's for all of us who grew up rooting for a sad team who had never won anything before and was never likely to do so in the future. It helps us to remember those days when the important thing wasn't how good the team was or if they had a chance at the Series, but rather spending time with our fathers watching the game. Maybe, just maybe, this book will help us to remember what is really important once again.
Rating:  Summary: Not just a great baseball book Review: This is a superb book because it goes beyond being a great sports book. Terry Pluto's weaving of his relationship with his father into his lifetime love of the Cleveland Indians makes it a book that readers will think about long after they've finished reading it. It's not necessary to be a Tribe fan to enjoy this book. I'd even go as far to say that a reader need not be a baseball fan to feel empathy and self-reflection on his or her parent-child relationship, regardless of whether the person is the parent or the child. I've also read the author's "Loose Balls", a wonderful look back at the American Basketball Association, and recommend that to those who remember the ABA (go Oakland Oaks!) and to those who weren't around to enjoy those years.
Rating:  Summary: Not just a great baseball book Review: This is a superb book because it goes beyond being a great sports book. Terry Pluto's weaving of his relationship with his father into his lifetime love of the Cleveland Indians makes it a book that readers will think about long after they've finished reading it. It's not necessary to be a Tribe fan to enjoy this book. I'd even go as far to say that a reader need not be a baseball fan to feel empathy and self-reflection on his or her parent-child relationship, regardless of whether the person is the parent or the child. I've also read the author's "Loose Balls", a wonderful look back at the American Basketball Association, and recommend that to those who remember the ABA (go Oakland Oaks!) and to those who weren't around to enjoy those years.
Rating:  Summary: Book's title is apt Review: Yes, Terry Pluto writes about his family, particularly his father, but he also writes _for_ family -- i.e., for Clevelanders who feel bonded to each other by their love of the Indians. What he refers to in the title as "our Tribe" is, of course, the Cleveland Indians. But "our Tribe" is his immediate family as well. At the same time, it's also this extended family of lifelong Tribe fans, whose zealous attachment to the baseball team that represents Cleveland is out of all proportion to the team's place in the conventional history of baseball. Pluto's narrative works on two levels. His description of what it felt like to root for the Tribe in old Municipal Stadium will resonate with anyone who has spent time in any ballpark rooting for the hometown team. But it strikes a special chord that can be heard only by someone who has spent time with _this_ team in _that_ stadium. He manages to speak to the larger audience of baseball fans in general while at the same time singling out his "family" and exchanging with them the familiar handshake.
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