Donald Honig

I picked this up at a used bookstore and it’s the best 3 dollars I’ve spent in a long time. It’s film noir, on paper, as the author really captures the feel of the times in this hardboiled crime fiction set in NYC in the months leading up to opening day, 1947, with Jackie Robinson playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s a good story that moves along quickly, and would make one hell of a good movie. ESPN, are you listening?

This is a wonderful anthology of Honig's works with players from the 30's, 40's and 50's. Some of the interviews were with Hall of Fame players such as Billy Herman and Lefty Grove. Others were with players that were just really good, like Vic Raschi and George Case. Each of the interviews offer a little insight in what it was like to come up to the majors, often during the Depression and war years and fight to keep a job.

This is a big book, over 600 pages, with many, many great interviews, show more but my favorites would include Billy Herman, who was very insightful and included really interesting details about his long career, Pete Reiser who doubtless would have been a first round hall of famer if his career hadn't been cut short by injury, and Vic Raschi the great Yankees pitcher of the late 40's. Gene Conley is also interviewed, and his is particularly worth noting because he not only pitched in the major leagues, but played an important role on the great Boston Celtics teams of the late 1950's-a rare two sport pro.

The work that Honig and Ritter did by seeking out these participants in baseball history are so important, so valuable and simply change the way I see the game. Dunno, maybe it's just my age. show less

2230 The National League: An Illustrated History Revised and Updated, by Donald Honig (read 6 Sep 1989) This book is mostly pictures. It tells the story of THE major league, and scarcely ever mentions the World Series. It is full of interesting information, but the highlight of the book for me was the spine-tingling description of Gabby Hartnett's home run against the Pirates in 1938. How well I remember how ecstatic I was when I heard of that great victory. The book is chock full of show more interesting and great things and wastes no time on that other league. show less

2098 Baseball When the Grass Was Real, by Donald Honig (read 9 Sep 1987) The Library Journal's blurb on this book says: "If you read one baseball book this season, make it this one." I really enjoyed it. It is just what 18 players from the 1920', 1930's and 1940's had to say in 1975, and it is full of interesting things. These players are nearly all guys I followed in 1938, 1939, 1940, etc., and so they were familiar to me. One not very familiar to me was George Pipgras, who was born Dec. show more 20, 1899, in Ida Grove, Iowa. He was a pitcher on the 1927 Yankees. Pete Reiser's story is the 18th in the book, and one of the best. This book is a successor to The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter--which I must read, {But as of now have not yet!}. show less