[ARETE] They Played the Game

[Duncan Jamieson]

All
Please find below Alan Zaremba's review of *They Played the Game *by Norman
L. Macht.
Thanks
Duncan

*They Played the Game** by Norman L. Macht*



*Review by Alan Zaremba. Associate Professor, Northeastern University.*



Norman Macht’s, *They Played the Game* is a collection of interviews the
author conducted with former major league baseball players. Sometimes the
players who are interviewed, coached or managed as well.  The subtitle of
the book is “Memories from 47 Major Leaguers.”  Except for brief prefatory
paragraphs that precede each player’s interview, the book is just
that--nothing more or less--reflections of players about their days in the
game.



The author deserves much credit for being able to secure and conduct these
nearly fifty interviews over a period of close to thirty years.  The
players were involved in baseball anytime between 1912 and 1981, and were
interviewed at various times between the 1980s and 2008.



I am glad I read this book and I believe fans of the game will find it a
similarly enjoyable read.  I was most attracted to players I’d seen play or
heard about and thought, consequently, that those readers of an older
generation might enjoy the book even more.  I imagined my dad sitting in
his chair, smiling throughout as he went through, *They Played the Game.*



The anecdotes are often amusing.  Bob Turley claimed that after a season in
the minors his club took on a local team in an exhibition.  He struck out
every batter in the first five innings and in one inning, nobody but the
first baseman and the catcher bothered to take the field behind him. Joe
Adcock raised horses and called one, “Touch ‘Em All” because that is what
his first base coach used to say to him as he passed by the bag in a
homerun trot.  In a minor league game, pitcher Monte Weaver took a line
drive to his face.  Out ran the manager who also paid the bills and was the
groundskeeper. When he reached Weaver, ostensibly to offer help or at least
comfort, the multi-tasking manager’s advice was succinct: “Don’t get blood
on your uniform.” Sid Hudson, a pitcher in the ‘40s and ‘50s commented that
he was able to get on a hot streak during which he almost pitched two
no-hitters. In recapping one, eventually a one hitter, *The Washington Post*
wrote that a player “saved a hit diving to his right for a hard-hit ball
and threw to first.”  Quipped Hudson: “I never saw [that guy] dive for
anything in his life.” Hudson also played for a manager with one of the
more intriguing nicknames; Bill “Rawmeat” Rodgers, so dubbed because the
manager liked to eat raw steak.



There’s a good deal of talk about pitchers knocking down hitters, miserly
owners, and how, “modern players” can’t slide or bunt or do other
fundamental things that players used to work hard at. Most of the players
are self-deprecating, or at least attempt to be. But I was amused by a few
comments like this one from Richie Ashburn: “The best bunter I ever saw was
me.”



Many of the players came from rural locations and several of these were
from southern states who played before Jackie Robinson entered the league.  It
is unfortunate that more interviews did not discuss issues of race.  I
think it would have been valuable to the reader to hear how these players
felt about black players and integration.  John Roseboro, a black catcher
for the Dodgers in the ‘50s and ‘60s talks about race, and Billy Bruton
another black player comments that when he stopped playing in 1964, there
were no coaching jobs available for black players.  Another player refers
to his manager as “a good manager” but someone who had it out for Robinson
and instructed his players to harm him.  The manager only retracted his
edict when Robinson seemed to thrive on the targeting. Only then did the
manager tell his players, “let’s play everyone the same way.”  No
egalitarian thunderbolt there.  The interviewee commented that “trying to
hurt Robinson was costing us games.”  If a goal of the book was to depict
an era via these interviews, a weakness is an absence of discussion about
race.



The arrangement of the book is also interesting. The interviews are
presented in alphabetical order. Joe Adcock is first, Don Zimmer last.  It
might have been more valuable to present these in some chronological order,
with perhaps an accompanying commentary. Those who played during the
depression vs those who played during the war, and those who played post
integration.



I thought of a number of questions as I read through the book. Why did the
author pick these particular players? They all are interesting in one way
or another but so are hundreds of others so why these and not others?  Were
any interviews excluded because of comments made? Were euphemisms used to
protect players who might have spoken in ways that could be deemed
offensive.



There is no information about how the players were guided if they were.
Extrapolating from the content, it seems like the author might have just
said “talk about your experiences” and if there was hesitation said, “why
not begin with how you got started in the game.”    Some memories are
several pages, others—like Zimmer’s-- only a couple.  Why did that
interview end abruptly while others rambled on?  I wondered how much, if at
all, the author prompted or prodded the player to talk about this or that
beyond the few bracketed questions the reader can see while reading.  Why
do some players talk about their careers after baseball and others do
not?  Some
players like Roseboro were not all that welcoming, how did the author
entice the players to speak to him?  Macht comments that he did some minor
editing for the sake of clarity. It must have been difficult at times
because a number of the memories are disjointed as if the player went on
tangents and the author had to piece together segments making the memory a
composite as opposed to a fluid reflection.



The author deliberately did not fact check the stories and is clear in a
short preface that a reader might want to do that, but he does not.  I
liked that.  The stories are what the player remembers and taken
collectively they inform the reader about the times and the game.   A fan
of baseball will enjoy this book. If you are looking for some synthesis you
may be disappointed, but readers can assume the challenge of drawing their
own conclusions.



Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past

Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.
Professor of History
Book Review Editor
*AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature*
Asby hland University
Ashland, OH  44805
USA
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