My Team: Choosing My Dream Team from My Forty Years in Baseball

It is a great read and you have to remember the criteria used to select the players. It is guaranteed to cause arguments and disagreements about who was left out, which is what makes sports great. The author has a great writing style and has credibility in the sport. Very enjoyable for any baseball fan from any generation.

Having once been a devoted baseball fan, like many, I became disillusioned with way the game is played today. Between the overpaid egos, skyrocketing prices, steroids and poor league management, I had about had enough. Then, 3 years ago at the all star game, the commissioner of baseball decided the fans were less important than the game itself and declared the game a tie, sending a loud and clear message to the fans that they just don't matter to Major League Baseball anymore. I haven't watched a game since. But I still love the game and will always have wonderful memories of my first time at Wrigley Field, watching Nolan Ryan pitch his 7th no-hitter and seeing my childhood hero, Willie Mays, inducted into the Hall of Fame. It was these memories that made this book, MY TEAM: CHOOSING MY DREAM TEAM FROM MY FORTY YEARS IN BASEBALL by Larry Dierker, catch my eye. A few months ago, I found a similar book on the best 50 quarterbacks by the Sporting News that was a pleasure to read, so I picked this one up with high hopes. For the most part, I was not disappointed. Dierker begins with the first 25 pages spent detailing his criteria for the roster. This is needed later on in the book to understand why a few guys like Sandy Koufax are noticeably absent. Dierker then goes through each position and gives the reasoning for why some made the team and other notables did not. Overall, I can't find much fault with Dierker's assessments, and his 40 years, both as a player and later as a manager, certainly make him far more qualified than me. Like the Sporting News book on the 50 greatest quarterbacks, however, books like this never solve anything as dissenting opinions will surely abound, but they are great for sparking debate!