Baseball for the Love of It: Hall-Of-Famers Tell It Like It Was

It is hard not to compare "Baseball for the Love of It" to "The Glory of Their Times". They both are based on the recollections of Hall of Fame baseball players. In "The Glory of their Times" the recollections were presented in their entirety one after the other. In "Baseball for the Love of It" the recollections are categorized by subject (rookie season, managers, umpires, World Series, fans, media, Negro Leagues, life on the road, retirement, etc). I liked the subject-focussed format but I preferred the completeness of "The Glory of Their Times". BFTLOI adds comments from members of the Negro Leagues which are very helpful. It also adds the comments of many new HOF'ers that TGOTT didn't. (Indeed, I noted only about 3-4 common contributors to both books). My favorite, for his candor as much as anything else, were the comments of Eddie Matthews. There a number of more contemporary players like Whitey Ford, Mickey mantle, Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, etc although I think the greatest strength of TGOTT were the very old HOF'ers that were contributors; people before Ruth or who were finishing their careers when his began. Yet the comments of players we "know" is interesting in its own way. There were also a number of comments of people who were in the management part of Major League Baseball although some had their own stellar careers as a player before becomming manager. Joe Cronin, John McGraw, Connie Mack, and others made up this category. "Baseball for the Love of It" is hard to put down because there is so much lore and knowledge shared in every page. Get ahold of this one if you can, it is an excellent baseball book.