Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit

I'm surprised it took me so long to learn of this book (that's the magic of the internet, I guess). Most of the gentlemen the author interviewed for this book have since passed away, which makes the life stories of players like Chief Hogsett, Charlie Gehringer, Eddie Wells, etc., all the more poignant. These men describe a game and an age that is long past, and growing more distant by the moment. What I particularly liked was the fact that the author didn't just interview some of the big names, but also several lesser lights, like John Bogart (who pitched a handful of games in 1920) and Ed Mierkowicz (sp?), who replaced Hank Greenberg for an inning in the final game of the 1945 World Series and never tired of talking about the experience. Hats off to the author for getting these reminiscences between covers before these players from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s died. The men talk not only about baseball but also about life in general---the good, the bad and the ugly---which separates Bak's book from dozens of similar efforts, which concentrate on stories on the diamond. (My favorite chapters are Chief Hogsett, Marv Owen and Billy Rogell, who come across as fully formed human beings who just happened to play baseball for some pretty great Tiger teams in the 1930s.) In an unusual format, the first 100 pages of the book provides a lively written preface that puts the interviewees' comments in historical perspective.

I'll just echo what others have said - Bak's book is wonderful. It combines a narrative history of the Tigers from the late 20s through the early 50s, recounting the glory years of the 1930s in greatest detail. The second part of the book is a series of oral histories with Tiger greats and unknowns during this period. It is very well written and organized, and for anyone interested in baseball during this period is a sure bet.

If Richard Bak was to write 10 books about the Detroit Tigers, I'm sure my top 10 favorite books on the team would be those books (with my appologies to Ernie Harwell). Unlike any other Detroit Tiger author, Bak puts you at the feet of the greats he talks about or interviews and makes you feel like you are at Tiger Stadium during the 1930s. He has just the right blend of personality and historical fact to each book he publishes. In Cobb Would've Caught It, Bak talks to several Tiger greats and not-so Tiger greats and puts you in the seat next to him while he interviews them. I almost catch myself wanting to ask questions to the players as each story continues on. When Bak writes a book about Detroit basball, I immediately buy it - and I am never upset. David Troppens

Mr. Bak outdoes himself on this spellbinding autobiography of 22 "greats" of Baseball Legends. Few writers can make the pictures and words come to life. Bak should be commended, as he does quite well at this. He not only gives the reader a sense of time and place, but prefaces players' interviews with a short history as well, and the paths the city and professional baseball took from the end of WWI through the early 50's. Beautiful and yet haunting pictures of the way baseball was. An extra bonus was the almost-forgotten Black professional teams as well. Good reading, and one you'll go back to read and reference time after time after time.