Breaking the Slump

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Baseball History
Review: It goes without saying that baseball's history dwarfs that of any other sport, and Charles Alexander has done an excellent job of covering the period of baseball during the 1930's and up to the beginning of the U.S.'s entry into World War II. It's true that this time period has been covered in other books, but it still is a very worthwhile read for anyone interested in baseball history regardless of whether you have read about this era or not. The advent of night baseball and the birth of baseball's Hall of Fame took place in the 1930's. Many of the game's players were suited for work in baseball and nothing else. As pitcher Waite Hoyt stated, "The trouble with baseball as a life's work is that it takes the player's best years and trains him for nothing else." It is also the story of the racism that prevailed, not only in the major leagues, but in the country as well. Many of the greatest players such as Satchel Paige, James "Cool Papa" Bell, and Josh Gibson toiled in the Negro Leagues because they were denied entry into the lilly white major leagues by a "gentlemen's agreement" that owners denied even existed. Baseball struggled during the lean years of the 1930s, but many great players took part in the game and played for salaries that were better than workers in other paying jobs were receiving even though the reserve clause tied players to the club that signed them. The author hints that baseball during the '30s may have been better than any other time period, and many players feel the same. I guess players from any era feel their era was the best, but I would have to say the era following World War II may have been even better. I don't see how baseball could have been best during the 1930s when a large portion of the population was denied entry into the so-called national pastime. What I especially liked about the book was the author didn't bore the reader with an endless account of games and how runs were scored. I haven't liked all of Charles Alexander's books (in my opinion his book on Rogers Hornsby came up short), but this is a book you will enjoy if you enjoy baseball and its history.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking The Slump
Review: The post depression era of baseball was one of the most turbulent times the sport has ever known. From the near collapse of some major league teams, to the invention of night baseball, Alexander's new book is like reading 12 years worth of newspaper sports sections, all crammed into one book. Charles has a great way of bringing light to some very interesting facts in baseball history, but some sections of the book could get a little monotonous. In a yearly breakdown of events preceding the Great Depression, we are taken through the 1930's, and into the early 1940's by way of yearly statistical leaders, brief synopsis of team standings, and a few other major tidbits. Along the way, Alexander occasionally plugs in some personal insight, as well as some excellent lost trivia, that some baseball historians may not know. He has also dedicated one chapter to the Negro leagues of the era (Shadow Ball), which I found to be very interesting and deeply fascinating. Overall, I would recommend the book to all baseball enthusiasts.

Rating:
Summary: A Thoughtful Perspective On A Pivotal Era
Review: What made the 1930's such an important era for professional baseball? How did the game evolve as both a sport and a business? How did the developments of this era influence the shape of the game in the decades that followed? These are some of the themes explored by historian and baseball fan Charles Alexander in "Breaking The Slump."

Alexander's greatest gift seems to be for biography; his lives of John McGraw and Ty Cobb are true standouts in baseball literature. In trying to cover the sweep of an entire decade in this volume, he sometimes loses sight of his larger perspectives, but on balance, this is a very worthwhile effort. Alexander's prose is clear, it flows well, and he does have a knack for digging out forgotten nuggets of the game's history.

If you want to know more about the heyday of Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott and Dizzy Dean, this is a worthwhile, mostly satisfying book.--William C. Hall