Baseball's Forgotten Heroes

This is a book written by someone with a lot of love for the game of baseball. It will mostly benefit others with the same love: Salin has found sufficiently obscure figures that I had only heard of half of them. Where feasible, he lets them tell their own stories, thus preserving their style of speech and bringing them to life (very important as most are very elderly or since deceased).Salin must be a persuasive fellow and is certainly a persistent one; he wangled an interview with the very reclusive Pete Gray, who played major league baseball with only one arm (true story). He has gathered a collection of amusing and interesting stories that tell a lot about the times in which his subjects played.And as if all that weren't enough, there's a great bonus at the end: a pronunciation guide to baseball people's names. How is someone like myself, born in the early 1960s, supposed to know how to pronounce a lot of the names of the past? What a superb inclusion, and the list is both long and phonetically clear. I couldn't believe my good fortune when I got to that part, having thought that the book was over, and was so pleasantly surprised. It was like a performer coming out for a superb encore.Well worth the money and time for enthusiasts of baseball history. I'm going to keep my eye on this author, and I hope we get more.

Tony Salin's collection of stories in "Baseball's Forgotten Heroes" is a reminder that baseball's charm is created by more than the superstars that the media cling to when trying to get the average fan's attention. As much as I enjoy reading about Williams or DiMaggio, Baseball's Forgotten Heroes is a fresh approach that I hope will set a standard for future volumes. Throughout history, baseball has presented many men with fascinating stories that have been otherwise overlooked. Fortunately, there is at least one author with the desire and perseverance to publish some of these unsung-heroes' stories. The style of this book would appeal to anyone regardless of his or her degree of passion for baseball or knowledge of the sport, but it is a "must-have" for any baseball enthusiast's library. I hope Salin is able to produce many sequels to this wonderful model of baseball literature. HOF!

This book has enough facts and statistics to satisfy the most hard-core baseball fan, and enough charm and heart to interest anyone else. These stories -- many presented as first-person accounts -- are captivating glimpses into baseball, history, and the personalities of some real characters. It is clear that Mr. Salin has a true love of baseball, and a true respect for his subjects. Baseball's Forgotten Heroes is a great read.

Tony Salin has compiled a compelling group of former ballplayers, from forgotten major leaguers to globetrotting minor leaguers. Mr. Salin gives each player his own chapter and each chapter has its own style to match something of the character of its subject. The book has the feeling of looking at a box of old photographs; it jogs the memory of precious moments forgotten. I highly recommend this book.

I met the author several years ago and read the draft of his manuscript and have been eagerly awaiting the publication ever since. Anybody who has read Lawrence Ritter's "Glory of Their Times" knows the wonderful stories old ballplayers can tell. Tony Salin has found some of the more intriguing people who have played the game.