Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York…

Underwhelming. There's a good story to be told about the disastrous first year of the New York Mets -- several good stories, probably -- but this isn't it. Since Jimmy Breslin wrote this one before the 1963 season even started, he was probably still too close to the story, and the lack of perspective hurts the book. Indeed, there barely seems to be enough material here to make a book out of: the now-famous "yo la tengo" incident isn't even mentioned. A few personalities do come through, like Casey Stengel, Joan Payson, the team's first owner, and maybe even poor, cursed Marvin Thorneberry, as does Breslin's obvious love of baseball. Still, he spends a lot of time in a nostalgic mode, complaining about how big money has changed the game for the worse. Of course, this was decades before Alex Rodriguez got a contract that might have allowed him to purchase one of baseball's smaller franchises, and I sort of wonder what he makes of it now. Also, I was expecting something straightforward and newspaper-ish, but Breslin's prose, while appropriately masculine, often seems curiously padded and stagey. I picked this one up to get myself mentally prepared for baseball season, and I suppose it did its job, but I can't really recommend it. Fans of stories involving athletic calamities and lovable losers are advised to search elsewhere. ( )

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? by Jimmy Breslin. 124 pages, non-fiction (and proof that truth can, indeed, be stranger than fiction!)

In 1962, the baseball world was taken by storm by the unique phenomenon that was the first year of New York Mets baseball. (When I say "storm," think of a DISASTER.) The 1962 Mets set a whole new standard of ineptitude for Major League Baseball. They were also, almost certainly, the most beloved losing team in MLB history -- perhaps in all of pro sports.

This is Jimmy Breslin's classic baseball book, written between the 1962 and 1963 seasons, and re-issued in 1982 as part of the Penguin Sports Library (the edition I own). It is laugh-out-loud funny at times as Breslin describes (in his inimitable style) the improbable progress of games on the field (think of Keystone Cops playing baseball), and shares off-the-field comments by those close to the team and ordinary fans. A two-page appendix lists the dubious records which the Mets set in their rookie season as a team.

However, this book is also thought-provoking. At times, it is clear that it was written in a totally different era. Breslin's description of the wages of those laborers constructing Shea Stadium (then in progress) suggested great expense to readers at the time -- but it is all well below minimum wage for workers today. But much of the commentary sounds familiar to today's fan, as Breslin mourns the fall of "sport" and the rise of "business" in the major leagues. It was his contention that the Mets were beloved in 1962 because of, not in spite of, their shortcomings. In an era when pro athletes were already becoming too "perfect," too "professional," these were ballplayers to whom fans could relate.

One statement, however, has perhaps proved false, if my choice to re-read this book is any indication:
"Someday, when George Weiss's cold, automatic methods of running an organization turn the team into just another boring winner, everything happening now probably will be forgotten."

On the contrary, it was the memory of the 1962 Mets that made the world-champion 1969 Mets such a miracle for fans. And I do believe the memory still lingers on today.

This book is still a fun read; it's a blast from the past, well written, with something to say that's still worthwhile. ( )