Zim: A Baseball Life

Rating:
Summary: ZIM
Review: A summary of my book is about Don Zimmer's life. Don zimmer was a professional baseball player. Don Zimmer is now the bench coach for the new York Yankees. People consider Don Zimmer a Baseball mastermind, but he disagrees he quoted in his book that if he was a baseball mastermind he wouldn't have hit a 257 batting average. But I think he is because you can tell that he knows what he is talking about from reading the book. Bill madden (author) Wrote about all the important things that happened in his life from he was born to now. He considers himself as an average baseball player only because he had a 257 career batting average, but he is an a lot better player then average. He played with Jackie Robinson (the first African American player to enter the Major leagues. He played in the pros for a long time and he had excellent experience so when he tells a big leaguer something they better listen because he knows what hes talking about.
I enjoyed reading "ZIM" He gave the readers good tips and I know he gives the Yankees great tips. This book was probably my favorite book that I ever have read because it was really interesting when he told stories about times in his life. I also like the book because he loves baseball and so do I.
By,
K.C

Rating:
Summary: Not just stories, but insight into his character
Review: After reading Zim: A Baseball Life, I was not surprised by the things that happened with Don Zimmer in the 2003 post-season. He's a tough old guy who knows what he thinks, and he has his own reasons to be upset at a pitcher who throws at people's heads (Zimmer was once nearly killed by a pitched ball). Zimmer is willing to own up to his mistakes, and he is the one guy who made a public apology after the incident with Pedro Martinez. It's also not surprising that he threatened to quit because of Steinbrenner's treatment of the coaching staff - the book has several examples of Zimmer leaving jobs when he felt he wasn't being treated right.

Zimmer finds something nice to say about most of the people he's worked with, except for Bill Lee. He hates Bill Lee, who named him The Gerbil. Lee is a counterculture type, the sort I would expect to get under Zimmer's skin. I was disappointed but not surprised to learn that Zimmer finds Bill Lee to be not just insufferable, but almost sub-human.

Rating:
Summary: Last Of The Breed
Review: Don Zimmer is a true gentleman in the sport. He is old school and brings the experience of playing when players barley got paid.

Rating:
Summary: Last Of The Breed
Review: Geez, what a great, great book. What a great story and what a great life. Don Zimmer is the last of the best generation of ball players, the ones who played because they loved the game and focused on it all the time. It is a major loss that he's still not on a bench somewhere imparting his wisdom. This is by far my favorite baseball book and made me feel young again. I mean, who doesn't love the Zim? One thing though, while reading it. Major League Baseball should give the wives a pension too for all the support they give their husbands over the years. Just buy the book, I promise you, you won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining book from a great baseball man
Review: I never was a big Don Zimmer fan until I saw the event that led to the caption of this book. I watched the game where he got hit in the head with a ball, and then came back out in a pith helmet. From that moment on, I was a Zimmer fan (as I am a Torre fan, even if I'm not a "Yankee" fan). Anyway, this book is a good read - Of course, I skipped to the chapter on his year or so as a Texas Rangers manager, which was my primary interest in reading the book. However, it's a lot more than that. If you get a chance, pick it up. It's good stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Full of Wondrous Stories
Review: This book is the autobiography of a man who in his own words was "a liftime .235 hitter." But oh what a .235 hitter! A man who played with Jackie Robunson, Pee Wee Reese, and several other famous Brooklyn Dodgers, who while managing the Red Sox had a pitcher who called him a "gerbil," and dealt with a "clueless owner" while managing the Rangers, and who was fortunate enough to be part of the Yankees' late 90s dynasty. And the stories he tells in this book are ones worthy of a man who has been in baseball over 50 years. His times with the Dodgers, his reign as manager of the perenially hopeless Chicago Cubs, his times as bench coach with the Yankees. And yet he has a kind word for virtually everyone he has either played with or against, or managed or coached, with the exception of Bill Lee. It's apparent the two did not get along, then again I'm not sure how I'd handle being called a "gerbil" either.

This book shows "Zim" to be a delight both on and off the baseball field and a man who has seen virtually everything in his baseball life.

Rating:
Summary: ENTERTAINING
Review: This is a great book for baseball fans. Don Zimmer's years in baseball span a tremendous amount of time, and of change. Don Zimmer is someone with a great love of the game, which comes across in his wonderful stories which outline these changes

Rating:
Summary: Zim- A Baseball Life
Review: This is a great book for baseball fans. Don Zimmer's years in baseball span a tremendous amount of time, and of change. Don Zimmer is someone with a great love of the game, which comes across in his wonderful stories which outline these changes

Rating:
Summary: What baseball is all about!
Review: Who's the answer to more baseball trivia questions than anyone else in history? Don Zimmer, of course. "Zim: A Baseball Life" is 52 years' worth of anecdotes from the one guy who's been everywhere and seen it all.

Zim's the only man to have been in uniform at all three New York Yankees' perfect games (the first and last of which were 43 years apart); he played a pivotal role in the Brooklyn Dodgers' lone World Series victory (by coming out of the game early); he was the first to play third base for the New York Mets (hundreds have followed, and, like Zim, none lasted very long); and he managed the 1978 Boston Red Sox when Bucky Dent hit that pop fly over the Green Monster on October 2nd.

"Zim" is a fast read, spilling over with Zim stories on every page. It's written on a very simple level, but is meticulously researched and, as a result, is completely authoritative. A couple of factual errors pop up, yes, which co-writer Bill Madden probably could have caught (Zim is said to have received roses when the Yankees won the 1999 season opener; news that is surprising when you remember the Yanks lost that game), but overall the errors, like strands of Zim's hair, are few and far between.

The 2002 baseball season is about to begin and, no surprise, Zimmer will be there in uniform again. He's a funny guy (and a funny-looking guy) and it does the troubled sport of baseball a world of good that Zimmer is still around, the link between Pee Wee Reese and Derek Jeter, Clem Labine and Mariano Rivera, Sal Maglie and Roger Clemens, Walter O'Malley and George Steinbrenner. Here's hoping Zim has another half-century's worth of stories left in that massive belly of his.

Rating:
Summary: Fat, Bald, and Funny
Review: Who's the answer to more baseball trivia questions than anyone else in history? Don Zimmer, of course. "Zim: A Baseball Life" is 52 years' worth of anecdotes from the one guy who's been everywhere and seen it all.

Zim's the only man to have been in uniform at all three New York Yankees' perfect games (the first and last of which were 43 years apart); he played a pivotal role in the Brooklyn Dodgers' lone World Series victory (by coming out of the game early); he was the first to play third base for the New York Mets (hundreds have followed, and, like Zim, none lasted very long); and he managed the 1978 Boston Red Sox when Bucky Dent hit that pop fly over the Green Monster on October 2nd.

"Zim" is a fast read, spilling over with Zim stories on every page. It's written on a very simple level, but is meticulously researched and, as a result, is completely authoritative. A couple of factual errors pop up, yes, which co-writer Bill Madden probably could have caught (Zim is said to have received roses when the Yankees won the 1999 season opener; news that is surprising when you remember the Yanks lost that game), but overall the errors, like strands of Zim's hair, are few and far between.

The 2002 baseball season is about to begin and, no surprise, Zimmer will be there in uniform again. He's a funny guy (and a funny-looking guy) and it does the troubled sport of baseball a world of good that Zimmer is still around, the link between Pee Wee Reese and Derek Jeter, Clem Labine and Mariano Rivera, Sal Maglie and Roger Clemens, Walter O'Malley and George Steinbrenner. Here's hoping Zim has another half-century's worth of stories left in that massive belly of his.