It's What's Inside the Lines That Counts: Baseball Stars of the 1970s and 1980s Talk about the Game They Loved

"The heroes and the stories of baseball in the 1970's and 1980's as told to the former commissioner of baseball Fay Vincent by the stars themselves - Seaver, Weaver, Williams, Marichal, McCovey, Baylor, Smith and Ripken. This is the third volume in the Baseball Oral History Project covering the 1930's through the 1980's."

This is the third installment of interviews transcribed to words with people from the baseball industry. Note: In addition to ballplayers this volume includes men whose fame came from managing not playing... an umpire... and a union organizer. Though the "author" says they "tried to faithfully record the comments of the interviewees, correcting minor grammatical mistakes and occasional errors caused by the inevitable lapses of memory after several decades"... the wordsmith's involved did not do near as good a job as they did in the prior volume "WE WOULD HAVE PLAYED FOR NOTHING" which was a classic. The chapter subjects are Willie McCovey (Hall of Fame player)... Juan Marichal (Hall of Fame player)... Dick Williams (mediocre player, Hall of Fame manager)... Earl Weaver (Hall of Fame manager)... Tom Seaver (Hall of Fame player)... Don Baylor (player)... Ozzie Smith (Hall of Fame player)... Cal Ripken Jr. (Hall of Fame player)... Bruce Froemming (umpire)... Marvin Miller (union organizer). While it's impossible not to include a lot of interesting and inside stories... the writing/transcription is at times rambling and meandering. At other times the statements contradict themselves or seem to disconnect with no connecting point. Some examples: Willie McCovey states that in 1969 he "batted 320 fifth in the league"... and later in the same paragraph he states: "the only guy that had a higher batting average, I think, was Pete Rose." Juan Marichal says: "The guys you didn't want to see come to home plate were Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Billy Williams, Willie Stargell, Tony Davis-I don't know if you remember Tony Davis before he broke his ankle. Man, he was awesome, what a hitter." REVIEWER'S CORRECTION: It wasn't Tony Davis... it was TOMMY DAVIS of the Los Angeles Dodgers who led the National League in hitting in 1962 and 1963. One minute Dick Williams is telling you how he "went to elementary school, about three blocks from Sportsman's Park in St. Louis"... and went to so many games... and then half-a-page later he says out of nowhere that he "graduated in 1947 and our commencement exercises were in the Rose Bowl." I must have re-read that half-page or so three times trying to figure out if I missed something or there was a different Rose Bowl than the one in Pasadena, California. Pages later he mentions he moved to California. In numerous other examples the editor's allowed the words to be transcribed as they must have been said... which does not shine brightly on the speakers... nor do justice to the reader. If a potential reader is an old-school baseball fan and has accepted the shortcomings, there are tasty gems to be had. It's always enlightening and enjoyable to read about who the hero's of the hero's were... McCovey's was Jackie Robinson... Dick Williams's was Ducky Medwick (my Mom's favorite also)... Tom Seaver's was Sandy Koufax and Henry Aaron... Ozzie Smith's was Roberto Clemente... Cal Ripken's was Brooks Robinson. The common thread