Ron Kittle's Tales from the White Sox Dugout

Thank you.

Ron Kittle was one of my favorite players growing up as a White Sox fan. Yet I suspect that few fans know what he went through to get to the big leagues. It says a lot about a player's level of determination if he can make it to the big leagues after breaking his neck in his first professional game. This sets the stage for the amazing story of Ron Kittle. While much of this book centers around the 1983 Western Division Champion White Sox season, the book gives tremendous insight into the career of Ron Kittle. He took a path to the big leagues that would be nearly impossible to follow today. Growing up in Northwest Indiana, "Da Region" which is known as one of the toughest areas in the country, Kittle worked in the steel mills along with his father after high school graduation. His love of baseball was with him even as the steel mills toughened him. Despite the obstacles in his path, he made the big show in time to be one of the leaders of the 1983 division winning White Sox. While the seasons that followed the 1983 season never were matched in personal or team success, Kittle found success after baseball. Running Northwest Indiana Sports Charities continues to make an impact in "Da Region" where Kittle grew up. The storytelling is a little redundant at times. I found myself saying, "Didn't I just read this?" on a number of occasions. Also, I would have like to have seen Kittle write more about his time in the major leagues besides the magical 1983 season. Aside from these flaws, I truly enjoyed this book.

OK, in the overall landscape of sports books, this is light Chi-town baseball reading, but really, really fun and really, really worth buying to own. I'm the Executive Director of Chicago's Old Timers' Baseball Association, and Ron has been a member and guest for a long time; he's a regular guy who'd you'd want to go drinking with, so this collection of stories is so accurate in detail that you'd swear you were part of the club and watching it all unfold. Kitt's collection of stories serve as a jumping on point for new Sox fans to get a quick overview of South Sider history and all of the color that went into "Winning Ugly." Two notorious annoucers got toasted by management as "the scum that they are" and when I read it, I laughed out loud. One of those announcers migrated to the north side and I still don't forgive the Cubs for letting him in their gates; LaRussa and the boys on the south side should have polished him off for a better world. Great for the fact-finding reader and Sox fanimal.

This book will probably not interest you if you are not a die-hard baseball fan because it basically just covers the 1983 pennant-winning season for the White Sox. At times it gets a bit old because there's only so much a reader wants to read about 1 baseball season. It does go on and on about that '83 season, but a lot of the stories are entertaining. However, there was a part in the book that broke my heart. Kittle tells a story about how when he was 19 and in the minors a neighborhood kid he befriended couldn't overcome the problems he had at home and took his own life. I couldn't get that story out of my mind. I can't imagine the emotional pain that Kittle went through after that. Kittle writes that he's now busy running his charity for kids with cancer. I wish Kittle would've mentioned a website or something where readers can donate money to his charity. Overall, Kittle seems like a genuinely good person who cares about others and enjoys life at the same time. Kudos to him for all the good work he's done on and off the field and for all the smiles he's brought to people's faces over the years.