Cult Baseball Players: The Greats, the Flakes, the Weird and the Wonderful

Rating:
Summary: A Two-base Hit
Review: Anyone wanting to wax nostalgic about baseball's past, particularly the 1940's, 50's and 60's, should pick up Peary's book. Anyone looking for a compendium of baseball's cult figures, particularly the weird or offbeat, may be disappointed. Each player gets a short revealing chapter penned by a different author. Like any compilation, the quality varies from chapter to chapter, from sports-column bland to personal reminiscense. But the range of major leaguers--from unknowns to certified greats--is broad enough to interest any fan. The gamut runs from legends like Mantle, Mays, Williams, Ruth, to middlings like Kluszewski, Colavito, Waitkus, to bottomers like Ueker, Throneberry and Bilko. There are the burn-outs too: Fidrych, Spooner, Belinsky; and most importantly the weird cases: Piersall, Lee, and my favorites, Joe Charboneau, and Steve Dalkowski. In fact, the book suffers from not including more of the latter, that is, those unknowns who have either an unusual flair or a distinctive story to tell. The greats have had their stories told many times over, making their inclusion seem unnecessary. It's the bottomers and oddballs where the real gold lies. Theirs are the stories that add genuine color and spice, showing that the game is defined by real human beings, not by the gods of hitting and pitching--and given baseball's rate of turnover, I'm sure their ranks are legion. (Good example not included in the book- Ryne Duran, whose 100mph fastball, Coke bottle eyesight, and Jack Daniels restbreaks, sent opposing players wild-eyed and running for cover.) Peary doesn't define cult as in cult ballplayers, but his successful film series defines cult movies by their distinctive qualities, not by their popularity or excellence. I wish he had applied more of those same standards to the fertile field of baseball. As it stands, the book remains something of a promising though unfulfilled project.