The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond is a 2001 compendium of baseball stories edited by Jeff Silverman. The book is 326 pages long and was edited in New York. It has so many funny stories that it will appeal to baseball fans and may also appeal to non-fans. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond starts and finishes strong and has some good stories written by famous authors in the middle. Do you think this book will make a good reference for you?
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond lists some great stories. It starts and ends strong and has great stories in the middle. In all, there are 30 great stories written by some of the best authors in sports history in the book are listed in order here:
- Who’s on First? (Abbott and Costello)
- Wait Till Next Year (Dorris Kearns Goodwin)
- The Web of the Game (Roger Angell)
- Alibi Ike (Ring Lander), Ty Cobb’s Wild
- Ten Month Fight to Live (Al Stump)
- Hub FansBid Kid Adieu (John Updike)
- Casey at the Congress (John Updike)
- Going to the Moon (Bill Barich)
- The Birth of Joe Hardy (Douglass Wallop)
- A Scotchman, A Phantom, and a Shiney Blue Jacket (Willie Morris)
- On Jackie Robinson (Red Barber)
- A Mickey Mantle Koan (David James Duncan)
- The Catch (Arnold Hano), Old Well-Well (Zane Gray).
- His Most Prized Possession (Ron Shelton)
- Was That ’54 Eddie Keith? (Pete Harrell)
- Baseball Players Call Her Ma (Pete Hamill)
- The Pitcher and the Plutocrat (James T. Farell)
- One Down, 713 To Go (Damon Runyon)
- Roger Maris (Jimmy Cannon)
- Home Run Fever (Gary Smith)
- Woman Whiffs Ruth and Gherig (William E. Bradt)
- The Silent Season of a Hero (Gay Talese)
- A Native Son’s Thoughts (Richard Ben Cramer)
- K as in Koufax (Vin Scully)
- The Rockey Road of Pistol Pete (W.C. Hines)
- One Vote for Morgana (Red Smith)
- Yogi (Roy Blount Jr.)
- The Thrill of The Grass (W.P. Kinsella)
- The Green Fields of the Mind (A. Bartlett Giamatti).
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond starts strong. Who’s on First? is one of the greatest skits of all time. It is hilarious and will appeal to everyone. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond ends strong. A. Barlett Giamatti was the President of Yale University before he became the commissioner of baseball.
The Rest of the Story
The story in the book about Mickey Mantle is about Mantle doing something nice for the author’s dying brother. The story ignores Mantle’s drunken womanizing. The short story about Roger Maris does cover his historical and successful home run chase of Babe Ruth’s single season home run record but neglects the fact that the home run chase in 1961 nearly killed Maris and was spurred on by his teammate, Mickey Mantle.
There is a story on Pete Rose missing. Baseball’s all-time hit leader was banned from baseball for betting on the sport by baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. It is funny that a woman stuck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but it should be pointed out that those two were two of the greatest players in baseball history.
Conclusion
Despite the few shortcomings of The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, the book has some great tales. It should be a useful reference for baseball fans and does have some stories in it that will appeal to everyone. Somebody needed to put these tales together, and Jeff Silverman did it in an enjoyable and digestible format. Silverman writes informative introductions for the stories in The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, which is useful.
