Where have you gone, Vince Dimaggio?

Author Edward Kiersh offers vignettes of over 50 former big leaguers in this remarkable look at both the game and life after baseball. Some of these ex-players were recent baseball retirees; others had left the game decades earlier. The assembled players range from top stars (Warren Spahn, Harmon Killebrew, Willie McCovey) to established players (Ernie Broglio, Leon Wagner), to marginal performers like Hector Lopez and Pumpsie Green. The author succeeds in getting the players to really open up with details of both their baseball careers and current lives. Nearly all left the game before the big salaries arrived, and thus needed to earn a living in their life-after-baseball. Some made a smooth transition, but others faced challenges ranging from unemployment, to alcoholism, to financial troubles. Bernie Carbo opened a hair salon, John Blanchard overcame drinking problems to work in sales, and Dean Chance was happy to have a job with a traveling carnival. As for the oldest DiMaggio brother, he was happily retired and studying his bible - sadly, he passed away at 74 in 1986, not long after this book arrived. This is an entertaining, sad, and heartwarming look at over 50 baseball personalities. It makes for a great read, and we could use a newer edition today.

I'm surprised this book and its author aren't better known. This is a SUPERB collection of interviews with baseball players of the past -- some of them famous (e.g. Banks, Maris, Spahn, Stottlemyre, McCovey, Bunning, Killebrew, Cepeda, Dick Allen), others not (John Blanchard, Walt Dropo, Pumpsie Green, and yes Vince DiMaggio, plus many more). Mr. Kiersh is an extraordinary interviewer and observer, and the writing is full of subtle and nuanced observations of each player. Each chapter is an amazing little slice of life and gives us a rare kind of vivid acquaintance with the former players. The author does a particularly great job of eliciting the players' personal reactions to their problems and tragedies, such as Karl Spooner's meteoric rise and immediate descent. A book like this would be worthwhile even if it were mediocre, with its interviews and little biographies of so many players (a total of more than 50). But the quality of the interviewing and writing put it truly over the top. People with any interest at all in articles on baseball figures of yesteryear will treasure this book.

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A COLLECTION OF STORIES ABOUT BASEBALL PLAYERS AFTER THEIR CAREERS ENDED. THE PLAYERS COVERED ARE FROM THE 40'S 50'S 60'S. FROM HALL OF FAMERS TO SOME OF THE WORSE PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. SOME HAVE MADE A SMOOTH TRANSITION TO EVERYDAY LIFE AND OTHERS HAVE BECOME ALCOHOLICS AND HAVE SETTLED FOR MUNDANE JOBS TO MAKE ENDS MEET. THIS IS A VERY INTERSTING AND ENTERTAINING READ. RECOMMMENDED.