Day 12: 30 baseball books in 30 days of April
The book: "We Would Have Played For Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Love"
The author: Fay Vincent
How to find it: Simon & Schuster, 327 pages, $25
Where we'd go looking for it: We'll go with Powell's online bookstore.
The scoop: Baseball's former commissioner has a followup to his 2006 book, "The Only Game in Town: Baseball Stars of the 1930s and 1940s Talk about the Game They Loved," and we can only surmise there's another one a couple years from now that covers the 1970s and 1980s.
Its an offshoot of something called the Baseball Oral History Project, where Vincent interviews 11 former players on videotape and then had their stories transcribed. The project is financed by Herb and Vincent Allen, of the investment banking firm Allen & Company, who have donated all sales proceeds to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Vincent says his work is simply following the template set by Lawrence Ritter when he recorded interviews for his book, "The Glory of Their Times."
As for the title, "We Would Have Played for Free," we're not sure which player said it, even after reading through everyone's testimonial. It's kind of ironic anyway. Vincent dedicates the book to Marvin Miller, the former head of the players' union who almost single-handedly caused salaries to skyrocket during his tenure. Second, almost all the players interviewed speak with some astonishment about how little they were paid at the time during their careers.
Frank Robinson, who became baseball's first black manager in 1975 with the Cleveland Indians, discloses he was paid only $20,000 to do that job. He already had a player's contract for $180,000, and GM Phil Seghi said he could only give him $200,000 total. Robinson, a player-manager, reluctantly accepted because he knew if he turned it down, it would be used against any future black managerial hirings -- if Robinson turned it down, who else is qualified?
Former Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine says he believes Robinson wouldn't have been the first black manager had Roy Campanella not been permanently disabled by his car accident that paralyized him in 1957.
Billy Williams also talks about sitting out five days during spring training because the Chicago Cubs wouldn't give him a $100,000 contract for the 1971 season, the year after he hit .322 with 42 homers and 129 RBI -- all three career best single-season numbers.
The others who contribute with stories are former Dodgers Duke Snider and Ralph Branca , former YankeesWhitey Ford, former New York Giants and Angels manager Bill Rigney, plus Brooks Robinson, Robin Roberts, Lew Burdette and Harmon Killebrew.
How it goes down in the scorebook: A ringing double off the right-field tin wall at Ebbets Field.
Comments
Don Miguel is wondering whatever happened to Mark Scott?
Posted by: m2spts | April 12, 2008 2:23 PM
gone to the great ballpark in the sky, which ended the series...
Posted by: Tom Hoffarth
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April 14, 2008 9:06 PM