<div dir="ltr"><div>All</div><div>Please find below Alan Zaremba's review of <i>They Played the Game </i>by Norman L. Macht. <br></div><div>Thanks</div><div>Duncan</div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif" align="center"><b><i><span style="font-size:10pt">They Played the Game</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:10pt"> by Norman L. Macht<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:10pt"><span> </span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:10pt">Review by Alan Zaremba. Associate Professor,
Northeastern University.<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:10pt"><span> </span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">Norman Macht’s, <i>They Played the Game</i> 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.<span> </span>The subtitle of the book is “Memories from 47
Major Leaguers.”<span> </span>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.<span> </span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">The author deserves much credit for being able to secure and conduct these
nearly fifty interviews over a period of close to thirty years.<span> </span>The players were involved in baseball anytime
between 1912 and 1981, and were interviewed at various times between the 1980s
and 2008.<span> </span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">I am glad I read this book and I believe fans of the game will find it a
similarly enjoyable read.<span> </span>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.<span> </span>I imagined my dad sitting in his chair,
smiling throughout as he went through, <i>They Played the Game.</i><span> </span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">The anecdotes are often amusing. <span> </span>Bob
Turley claimed that after a season in the minors his club took on a local team
in an exhibition. <span> </span>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. <span> </span>In a minor league game, pitcher Monte Weaver
took a line drive to his face. <span> </span>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, <i>The
Washington Post</i> wrote that a player “saved a hit diving to his right for a
hard-hit ball and threw to first.” <span> </span>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. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">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.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">Many of the players came from rural locations and several of these were
from southern states who played before Jackie Robinson entered the league.<span> </span>It is unfortunate that more interviews did
not discuss issues of race.<span> </span>I think it
would have been valuable to the reader to hear how these players felt about black
players and integration.<span> </span>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.<span> </span>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.<span> </span>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.”<span> </span>No egalitarian thunderbolt there.<span> </span>The interviewee commented that “trying to
hurt Robinson was costing us games.”<span> </span>If
a goal of the book was to depict an era via these interviews, a weakness is an
absence of discussion about race.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">The arrangement of the book is also interesting. The interviews are
presented in alphabetical order. Joe Adcock is first, Don Zimmer last.<span> </span>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.<span> </span><span> </span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">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?<span> </span>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.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">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.” <span> </span>Some memories are several pages, others—like
Zimmer’s-- only a couple.<span> </span>Why did that
interview end abruptly while others rambled on?<span>
</span>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.<span> </span>Why do some
players talk about their careers after baseball and others do not?<span> </span>Some players like Roseboro were not all that
welcoming, how did the author entice the players to speak to him?<span> </span>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. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black">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.<span> </span>I liked that.<span>
</span>The stories are what the player remembers and taken collectively they
inform the reader about the times and the game.<span>
</span><span> </span>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.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span><span></span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black"><span> </span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;color:red"><span> </span></span><span style="font-size:10pt"><span> </span></span><b><span style="font-size:10pt"><span> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-size:10pt"><span><br></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10pt"><span></span></span></b>Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past<br></p><br>Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.<br>Professor of History<br>Book Review Editor<br><i>AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature</i><br>Asby hland University<br>Ashland, OH 44805<br>USA<br></div></div>