Books: Wonderful Baseball Stories To Start The Season

 

Photo by Jason Schott.

Baseball season is upon us, which is a perfect time to catch up on the history of America's pastime. There are two books on the legends of the game that we will feature here that will enhance your appreciation for the game,  A Time For Reflection: The Parallel Legacies of Baseball Icons Willie McCovey and Billy Williams, by Jason Cannon, and Talking Baseball with Major League Stars, by Wayne Stewart.

A Time For Reflection: The Parallel Legacies of Baseball Icons Willie McCovey and Billy Williams

By Jason Cannon

Rowman & Littlefied Publishers; 300 pages; hardback, $35.00; eBook, $33.00

Jason Cannon is a teacher and writer, whose first book, Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs, won the 2023 Larry Ritter Award. His articles have also appeared in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture.

In the new insightful book A Time For Reflection, Cannon looks at the incredible lives and careers of Willie McCovey, who starred for the San Francisco Giants, and Billy Williams, who was a major face of the Chicago Cubs. It is rare to find two people who impacted their sports and cities as deeply as this pair of legends in the same era.

Williams and McCovey were both born in 1938, just a handful of miles apart, as they grew up in Mobile, Alabama. They overcame heinous racism in the Jim Crow South to become part of the second generation of African-American major leaguers who followed in Jackie Robinson's footsteps.

"Their similar paths from Alabama to Cooperstown created a wonderful pairing," Cannon writes. "I have encountered non shortage of incredible stories involving McCovey and Williams on and off the field over the past several years. McCovey launched home runs further than a lot of players and fans had ever seen go. 'Over the scoreboard' is not an uncommon description of where those homers landed. Williams once went 8-for-8 in a doubleheader against Houston, and an Astros pitcher finally settled on having his catcher tell him what pitch was coming next as their only strategy of getting him out. Off the field, Williams and McCovey were both humble and kind. 'They came out of the same mold,' notes Joe Amalfitano, who spent time with both of them in the Cubs and Giants organizations. Amalfitano's perspective was echoed to me by many people.

"A special blend of class and fierce competitiveness, Billy Williams and Willie McCovey fashioned incredible baseball careers and, in doing so, established themselves as superstars in two of America's most consequential cities: Chicago and San Francisco. Their breathtaking feats on the field, along with their extensive work for the Cubs and Giants franchises after their playing days and the personal relationships they built with people in their communities as citizens, make them enduring icons in our collective public memory. Friends since their teenage years, the lives and careers of Williams and McCovey are essential to baseball history, and their impact will endure for generations to come."

In addition to their legendary status on the field, they took stands for racial progress that had an impact, and which continue to resonate today. It was this leadership and dedication to the baseball community that endeared them to their teammates and fans.

Cannon conducted original interviews with family members, teammates, friends, and Williams himself (McCovey passed away in 2018) to present the complete scope of their monumental accomplishments on the baseball field.

Talking Baseball with Major League Stars

By Wayne Stewart

Rowman & Littlefied Publishers; hardback, 232 pages; $32.00

Wayne Stewart is a professional writer and sports historian who has written for USA Today/Baseball Weekly, Baseball Digest, and the SABR Research Journal. He is the author of forty books, including Wits, Flakes and Clowns: The Colorful Characters of Baseball (our review in April 2020); Remembering the Stars of the NFL Glory Years: An Inside Look at the Golden Age of Football; and All The Moves I Had: A Football Life, written with Raymond Berry.

Stewart's new book, Talking Baseball with Major League Stars, is an entertaining and illustrative look at the game through the eyes of the players themselves. Stewart has gotten the chance for more than 45 years to talk to legendary players, including Hall of Famers, like Hank Aaron, Greg Maddux, Joe Torre, and Nolan Ryan about what life was like in the Majors and what it took for them to get there.

There is a also a deep dive into the history, tactics, and inside stories of the American game, with unique perspectives only players, managers, and coaches of this stature can provide. They discuss the most difficult pitchers they faced, the unwritten rules, baseball's wildest characters, cheating, the intimidation factor, players they most admire, racism in and around the sport, and their fears and doubts, along with candid stories never revealed before.

The book is divided into discussions on hitters, pitchers, fielders, and managers, all done in a conversational style that makes it quite enjoyable. For example, in the hitters section, there's a discussion on unique batting stances, including those of Ichiro and Jeff Bagwell, that you'll instantly remember. In the pitchers section, you will read about the changeup and how Trevor Hoffman became and dominant closer because of it, and sidearmers, such as legendary Pirates closer Kent Tekulve and Chad Bradford, who pitched for the A's and Red Sox.

In this excerpt, Stewart writes of how hitters prepare for the game with some familiar faces to New York fans: Paul Goldschmidt not only won the MVP Award in 2022, he also finished in the top six in the voting on five other occasions. He summed up his attitude on prep work: "I can control my preparation, my mindset, my work ethic, and my focus. If I do all of that and I go out and fail  - for a game, for a series or even for a career - at least I would know that I've done everything that I could, and [I] don't have regrets. ...I'm always going to keep pushing and looking for ways to get better, and we'll see where it takes us."

Gene Clines said that when he played in the 1970s, we'd come to the park early and spend three to four hours, relaxing and playing cards. The clubhouse is your home away from home. You spend more time there than in your apartment. It's your private domain.

"Winning teams come in early. When you're winning, you can't wait to get to the clubhouse. It gives you a burst of energy. It's just like a hitter when he's hitting - he never gets tired. It's always the guys who aren't hitting who get tired."

"Ninety percent of the game is mental," Jay Buhner, an All-Star with the Seattle Mariners, agreed. "Only 10 percent is physical, so preparation is very important."

That becomes more crucial as the season wears on, especially for games down the stretch run, played under the scorching August and September sun. "You have to step it up a bit - maybe for a salary drive and for your own personal pride [especially if your team is out of contention]. Some days when I'm not feeling as well as other days, it takes a little more time stretching and running to prepare."

Buhner also said that his prep work includes "remembering what the starting pitcher threw me the last time I faced him. I watch videos after taking BP [batting practice] - they really help. I can see the release point and the location on pitches. You can pick up tendencies."

He considers his fielding, too. "I go over defenses, how to play the hitters. Maybe have a meeting with the outfield coach. Maybe Randy Johnson's pitching for us today. We play a different way then."

Meanwhile, when Silver Slugger winner Adam LaRoche was with the Atlanta Braves, he said, "My pregame thing is usually by myself - taking a couple of swings off the tee either before BP or right after BP. I take a regular batting practice, but nothing extraordinary."

He, of course, did his mental homework, too: "about thirty minutes of video on that night's pitcher before the game, which is nice - you get to see what you're up against. And I usually talk with Chip [Chipper Jones] about the starting pitcher if he's faced him before, just to get a feel on how they pitch him from the left side."

Switch-hitters have to prepare to hit both ways. Omar Vizquel worked on hitting both ways daily. "You do have to keep both sides refreshed because when you switch from one hand to another, the swing is not the same, so it's hard to keep them both together. You always take extra cuts early before batting practice." He had to do that because once BP starts, all regulars get the same number of cuts - no extra swings are allowed, just because a man is a switch-hitter.

All-star switch-hitter Carlos Baerga pointed out that "it takes a lot of work to be a switch-hitter. You're going to face more eighties than lefties, so you have to work really hard to maintain both sides."

Outfielder Scott Pose liked pregame peace and quiet at times. "I think even if it's just twenty minutes just to get away from everything, just so you don't even have to think about baseball; you can just read the paper. And that in itself is way of getting mentally ready. I think it's tailor-made for every individual player.

"Myself, I just try to get by myself, think about what's going on during the game - who I'm going to face and how they might work me. It's as simple as that."

So where does a player go to find a private spot in a clubhouse often full of media, attendants, and a herd of fellow players? Pose said some players hide out in the trainer's room or other such areas that are off-limits to the media. In his case, he said modestly, "Nobody's really clamoring for me, so it's pretty easy for me to get away."