The High Hard One

Rating:
Summary: Hooray for this reprint
Review: I read The High Hard One while I was in high school, and then again about 15 years ago, both times in library copies. Immediately after I read it the second time our local library purged it, and I have been looking for a copy ever since. This biography of Higbe stands out from all of the saccharine self-righteous hackneyed sports biographies to which we have been exposed. Higbe tells what it was like to be a working man and a baseball player. Higbe does not claim to have been a role model or a hero. He describes his life as he went from poverty to major league baseball to prison, and his skills, his gifts, and his personality flaws are all on display. He was not a nice man, but his life story sheds accurate light on the prejudices and beliefs of the people that fans turn into heroes. His willingness to look honestly at his life, even though that look was not complimentary, shows admirable courage.

Rating:
Summary: It's all relative
Review: It's interesting to read other people's reviews of this book. Kirby Higbe was my great uncle. I never met him- in fact, he was always referred to as crazy... but that just goes with being a Higbe, I think. I asked my dad for a copy of this book when I was younger, and he told me it would be impossible to find. Chances are, he just didn't want me to see any of the skeletons in the closet. It's odd seeing Uncle Kirby's face and seeing my dad, and uncle, and grandfather's features there. I think the book had a different meaning for me than it would for other readers. It was more a search for family history rather than learning more about baseball.

Rating:
Summary: Brutally Honest
Review: You've got to hand it to a man who admits if he could do it all over again, he would still oppose Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. And who uses his autobiography to mention he sold prescription drugs to inmates when he was a guard.
As offensive as his stances and actions are, you know you're not getting any pretenses with this guy. Higbe had only a seventh-grade education, so he had plenty of help from Martin Quigley in sounding eloquent, and Quigley does a good job there.
This isn' t a groundbreaking work, but it is a quick, enjoyable read.