You're Missin' a Great Game

Rating:
Summary: Don't wait another day. Buy it now!
Review: As a baseball fan in general, and a Cardinal fan in particular, you've got to love Whitey. I almost went into mourning when he quit managing the Cardinals in '90, and reading this book is just like having him back. The only problem is that he isn't the GM and Manager of the Cardinals right now! If the "powers to be" in baseball had any sense, they would hire this man as the Supreme Commander and let him go crazy. Nothing but good would happen. While I don't necessarily agree with all of his ideas (what's up with the World Series/Bingo Parlor stadium idea?) he has the track record and the insight to give baseball the kind of vision it needs to correct it's flaws. Whitey is one of us.... a regular guy who has also seen and done most everything there is to do in the game of baseball. Not only does baseball need him, but the fans want him and his style of play. If I had 1 tip to give Cardinals ownership it would be to bring him back tomorrow and let him run the show. Before too long, we'd see the Runnin' Redbirds, good fundamental baseball, winning seasons, and 3 million + attendance figures. Great book by a great guy. If you like baseball, you can't miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: Now hear this Mr. Selig!
Review: I just finished reading this book and I will admit that I found it an easy book to read. I remember watching a Game of the Week on NBC about the time Bart Giamati was selected as Baseball Commissioner. I think it was Marv Albert who did a dugout interview with Whitey Herzog and there was much made of the apparent fact that Whitey was on the final list of candidates for Commissioner. Although his Cardinals beat my beloved "Harvey's Wallbangers" in the 1982 World Series, they did it fair and square. I had seen and heard enough about Herzog to look forward to his opinions on the state of Major League Baseball. Whitey does have a lot of good ideas and I wish there was some way that Kennesaw Mountain Selig and his cronies could me made to take them seriously. From the problems with youth baseball in America to the negative flipside of the recent home run explosion, Whitey had me agreeing with all of his insights. There are, however, some short comings to the book. First of all, it should be noted that Mr. Herzog had a co-writer. This seems to be standard fare in sports books written by athletes and the theory is that the co-writer will edit the book into readable form. I'm not sure how this book has been helped by the co-writer, Jonathon Pitts, who really must be the pits. The down home folksy style is way overdone. I challenge any reader to keep score because I think the word "ass" was used more in this book than the word "baseball". Another problem was Whitey's grudges that he obviously can't let go of. His attitude of the KC Royal owner Kaufman comes across like sour grapes. Everyone who watched the 1985 World Series between St. Louis and Kansas City knows that the Cards got robbed. They probably feel sorry for Whitey. They can get over that sympathy by reading this book. Whitey brings it up too often (the Denkinger call for those of you who missed it) and even suggests that it is the sole reason that he's not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Finally, I expected a better ending. I can't believe the one they came up with. Well, enough said. I'm not from Missouri but you don't have to show me that Whitey Herzog was and is a great man of Baseball. If you don't think so yourself then read his book.

Rating:
Summary: Could he be any MORE full of himself?
Review: I wanted to like this book - I really did. But I can only count so high - I lost track of the times Herzog referred to himself after the third chapter. At least I know there's an ex-player more self-aggrandizing than Joe Morgan. Sheesh.

His cloyingly stupid 'down-home' phrases get thoroughly annoying...does he think he's more honest or trustworthy because he refers to someone as a 'sumbuck'? Hey Whitey - talking like a down-home good ol' boy doesn't lend you credibility, it makes you seem like a moron.

Granted, the man could manage, but if he had cried anymore about Denkinger and the Series he was robbed of, he could have stood in for Swaggart when he sobbed from his pulpit. Any respect I had for Herzog kind of went down the drain when he offered up a weak defense for the firecracker throwing episode of Vince Coleman, and I almost threw the book out the window when he said he thought the White Sox announcers, Harrelson and Paciorek, were good! Maybe he SHOULD have called his book The White Stuff...only people who use it would agree with that statement!

Blech...I feel ill for having read this whole thing. At least I know how important the Hall of Fame is to him since he spent pages crying about how he belongs there. Hey Herzog, you sumbuck...ever heard of modesty?

Rating:
Summary: REAL BASEBALL
Review: Look, this book is for serious baseball people, not just the occasional fan who thinks Ken Burn's is real history. Sure Whitey can irritate, he's supposed to. I know it's a strange concept today to talk about such things as accountability, a work ethic and responsibility to your employer, but he does. He also tells the absolute truth about the problems in the only great game we have, problems that are killing it. The history is excellent, his knowledge superior, and the book great. As I said, a lot of people won't get it, but that's their problem. For the person who wrote the scathing and adolescent review and said Whitey was a conservative manager, he must not have ever seen those Cardinal teams. That was real baseball, not the silly, amusement park, homerun hitting, steroid nonsense of today. Buy the book and read it once a year to remind you of how good the game once was and can be again.

Rating:
Summary: You're Missin' a Great Book if You Don't Read This
Review: The title refers to what baseball players often say to umps when they get calls wrong, but has a double meaning on the way the game is changing. Whitey weighs in on:

Little ball vs. home run/ team budgets/revenue sharing: he played little ball with the Cards and went to the world series. He sees the home run chase as not very good for the game, as it puts the whole attraction on one player as opposed to the team. The cards and the cubs are uncompetitive. This has to do with the large market issue, and here I think he's got it wrong. The leagues are creating all these teams in a quest for revenue, but there are so many teams, a lot of them are in markets that can't support them. It's not the fault of the big market teams (most of whom predate the expansion era) that this overexpansion occurred, and there are markets that can't support teams. The answer is simple, slow down the expansion, let teams move, and if there needs to be fewer teams on an economic basis, so be it. But his idea of big market teams forking over 15-20 million is just comic.

Player salaries: The players make an awful lot of money, and it goes to the beginnings of free agency, and critical moves that were made early on to strengthen the players' position. Player salaries are a reflection of the overall economic condition of the game, and won't go down unless business starts turning bad which is unlikely. But he's in favor of lessening the players right to arbitration, and requiring them to stay with teams longer earlier in their career, which is a good idea.

DH/difference between NL and AL: He's cockeyed about the DH. He thinks that the NL is better because there's more strategy for the manager. Well, it's more interesting from a manager's perspective, but more boring for the fans. Hello-o!

Interleague play: Real reason for it was the fact that Arizona and Tampa Bay were added in the same season, creating leagues with 15 teams each, which didn't divide evenly into 162. So when you look at both leagues together, you get an even number which balances out. I agree. Interleague play rots. It's especially bad for the Eastern division clubs, which play eastern division interleague teams, and wind up having a harder schedule than say, central has.

Playoffs: He doesn't like the playoff setup, in which the 5th best team in baseball can (and did) win the World Series twice (I think Minnesota and Marlins). He thinks the wild card team should be penalized in the playoffs. Ludicrous. But he's right that the whole playoff process does not reflect the character of the season, which is a marathon, and subjects the best teams to flukes, which is what happened to the Yanks in '97 against Cleveland. But the playoffs seem to be an economic fact of life that's hard to fight.

Owners/commissioner: The owners seem to not know what they're doing a lot of the time, the best example being the '94 strike, when they absorbed huge losses and caved anyway. Total inability to PR their side, which was very defensible, that the players were flat out greedy. But owners with a head, like Steinbrenner and Angelos can make it work.

There's a talent shortage, especially among pitchers; kids don't play the game the way they used to. The international scouting world has become critical to maintain talent.

Bottom line, the game is changing, not all for the better. But the game Whitey remembers is a different one that was played in the `20's. Which is better? Winning counts, and little ball still gets you there. Talent costs money, but money is coming in-The Yankees get $55 million in TV money, but some teams get as little as $3 million, even none. The money will buy players, and that's a fact of life. The DH is a fact of life. Interleague play, not a great idea that should go. The playoffs-a fact of life. But we should be keeping an eye on what's changing, and hang on where we can.

Overall, Whitey does us a great service by outlining the issues and making us think about the problems. I could have used a little less fawning over the Cardinals players he managed; here it's also a bit of ancient history. But we can live with that; Whitey Herzog has one of the finest minds in baseball, and since he's too smart to sit in the dugout anymore, we can take him any way we can get him.

Rating:
Summary: He calls 'em as he sees 'em
Review: This book has a few weird ideas (World Series stadium and bingo parlor?; teaching the spitball to upgrade the Rockies' pitching staff?) and several factual/numerical errors. Part of the time it reads like an advertisement for Whitey, Inc. He also plays the "should've" game when he seems to believe that his teams should have won two or three additional World Series. But, you expect this sort of opinionation in a clearly subjective book.

I have to agree with just about everything else Herzog says. His thesis is that the wild expansion of revenues available to SOME baseball teams is not only wrecking competitive balance, but is also changing the way the game is played, resulting in a sloppy style of baseball that revolves around the home run. For example, last year's Cardinal team, led by Mark McGwire, set a new National League home run record, but finished with only an 84-78 record! In contrast, look at the style of play in the NFL, which is more varied and complex than ever, due in part to the fact that wealthy franchises can't outspend the rest of the league and bowl teams over with talent alone. I'm certainly not a total fan of NFL-style socialism, but baseball's distribution of revenues is way too skewed in favor of certain teams. Herzog's remedies may or may not work, but, if changes aren't made, lets see what happens when lockout/strike time rolls around again. Or, maybe we'll see a franchise or two go belly-up.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be "timely". While most baseball people are still basking in the glory of last year's "Greatest Season Ever", Whitey plays the role of the canary in the coal mine as he delves into baseball's deeply troubled underpinnings. On the bright side. baseball has survived management by successive generations of blithering idiots for over a hundred years. Whether you're an optimist (Yankee fan) or a pessimist (Pirate-Expo-Twin-Royal fan), read this book now so you will have a better grasp of the problem when baseball's financial and stylistic walking pneumonia flares up and sends the Game back to the intensive care unit.

Rating:
Summary: Error: Editors
Review: What keeps this from being a thoroughly splendid read are the frequent errors. In a reference to football, it has Bud Grant losing three Super Bowls. The actual number is four. It claims G. Templeton is the only player to get 100 hits from each side of the plate in a season. Yet Willie Wilson (one of Herzog's prize pupils) did the same. It has Lou Brock's highest base stealing total for a year at 114, when the real number is 118. And in the craziest of them all, Herzog has St. Louis leading KC 2-1 going into the ninth inning of Game 6 in 1985. It was 1-0; 2-1 was the final score. The Denkinger call is one of the defining moments of Herzog's career and the facts are still wrong!
However, IF one can get past the false information, this is a quick, insightful read. True, Herzog inevitably comes out looking good in his dealings with owners and players. But the main focus of this book is on what's wrong with baseball.
While baseball types have been complaining about the "modern game" since the 1850s, Herzog cites specific examples as to why the game today is hurting. From agents to the gutting of the scouting system to millionaires throwing to the wrong cutoff man, Herzog tells us what's wrong with baseball and how to fix it.

Rating:
Summary: WASTE OF TIME
Review: What this book has going for it is its author. Herzog is brash, his language is salty, he is unapologetic and he is interesting - he has something to say and, goddamit, he's going to say it.

Unfortunately, that's about it. Herzog is convinced, like so many others, that the way HE played the game, and the way it was that HE played it, is the only way it should be done and the only way it should be. That is the downfall of this book, like it is for so many other "The Way Baseball Should Be" soapbox pieces.

Some of his concerns are legitimate, some aren't. Some of his criticisms are appropriate, some are way off - it's the usual mix'n'match you get when one man presents his Blueprint For Baseball. For example, his elegy for the baseball scout is just useless, and shows a startling lack of understanding for the ways the game and the country as a whole have changed. Far too many such works basically end up as a demand for the repeal of every innovation, with the exception of integration, since 1919, and this one is little different - it would have been no surprise to read Herzog demanding woollen unifroms, travel by train only and the reinstatement of the reserve clause.

Herzog fails to understand that the "Magic of Baseball" goes deeper and yet is more ephemeral than the concerns he addresses, and that much of what he proposes is just window-dressing and posturing. Since the 1870s, people have railed against how the game has changed. I have heard people proclaim the death of the game on the following occasions:

- the end of the fair/foul rule - the introduction of the curve ball - lighter bats and better balls - racial integration - the Giants & Dodgers moving west - night baseball - expansion - free agency - astroturf - foreign players - divisional play - the wild card - today's home run explosion

None of it is true. The game endures - that's kind of the point. Yes, many of Herzog's concerns - and others - need to be addressed, but by someone of less intransigent views who doesn't see his own experience as having been the only true golden age. His name is Bob Costas.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book But Whitey Got Carried Away At Times
Review: Whitey Herzog's book absolutely savaged contemporary baseball. His roadmap for constructing the 1982 Cardinals was a path all too forgotten. Just ask whoever signs Texas Ranger Alex Rodriguez's $250.0 million paycheck.

Whitey's essential theme is that wining baseball begins with complementary chemistry, good defense and the ability to move over and ultimately drive home a run in a close game. All feed into the basic premise that a good quality pitching staff, managed well ensures pennants will fly.

Some of the stories are priceless. Trading Ted Simmons; dealing with Gary Templeton; and, understanding Joaquin Andujar are "geez, I can't put this down" stories. Don't read too fast -- the "Pete Rose moment" in this book is priceless.

The most compelling read, however, is how Whitey destroys the concept of statistics for statistical purposes. Winning baseball and certain good statistical performance from key players, notably home runs, do not always correlate -- a theme that runs through this book over and over again.

While this book should be the bible for gerenal managers and others constructing baseball teams, it gets occasionally carried away in excessive collequialisms. Whitey at times forgets substance is more important than style.

But the style excesses are far overwhelmed by the substance that Whitey offers into the business of baseball. It's a must read, especially if you're a Cub fan trying to understand why your team hasn't won a World Series in nearly a century.

Rating:
Summary: A must for anyone who loves baseball the way it should be.
Review: Whitey takes baseball apart but manages to provide constructive ways to improve the game. Cardinal fans will absolutely love this book but anyone who enjoys the game is in for a real lesson and a great experience with this book.