Seasons in Hell

With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"-The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers

By: Mike Shropshire

Narrated by: Peter Powlus

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

You think your team is bad? In this landmark work on one of the most tortured franchises in baseball, one reporter discovers that nine innings can feel like an eternity. In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, not realizing that the Rangers were arguably the worst team in baseball history. Seasons in Hell is a riotous, candid, irreverent behind-the-scenes account in the tradition of The Bronx Zoo and Ball Four, following the Texas Rangers from Whitey Herzog's reign in 1973 through Billy Martin's tumultuous tenure. Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-'70s.

©1996 Mike Shrophire (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Very entertaining but narrator fail

As a fan who endured the seasons and the franchise in question, I enjoyed Shropshire’s memoir and imagine that the bulk of it, other than verbatim conversations, is pretty accurate. The flaw in the audiobook is the narrator’s failure to even try to get the pronunciation of the names of people and places right. Is there another intelligent person in America who cannot pronounce “Spokane”? An hour or two with a Texas-based baseball fan could have kept this guy from mangling dozens of people and place names. And “hotel” with the accent on the “ho” is fine for Hee Haw but not for an audiobook.

A slice of history

Trying to educate myself on Rangers history. The book was entertaining. After you tubing the writer, he s good ol boy with an oppinion. I am curious about the accuracy of the time and style of this era, in reguard to player behavior. How sexualized everything was, as well as drug use ect. Not sure if I would recommend the book or not.

fun read

especially for baseball fans of a certain age. some weird mispronunciations but good fun

Must Read for 1970’s Rangers fans

Oh how the times have changed. If you like funny and baseball history, this book has a lot of fascinating characters and stories.

If you followed MLB in the 70's or 80's !!!!

What made the experience of listening to Seasons in Hell the most enjoyable?

Hilarious story and attention keeping delivery. If you followed baseball in the 70's or 80's you will be familiar with the characters. Things used to be simpler and unchecked and the way these guys lived and carried on is very entertaining.

A must for baseball fans

I'm full of Rangers lore so I love this book. A must for baseball fans!

Powlus ruins a great story

What would have made Seasons in Hell better?

Having a narrator who at least has minimal knowledge of the game of baseball would have prevented the numerous cringe-inducing mispronunciations.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Whitey Herzog. He managed to maintain his sanity while dealing with this cast of misfits and eventually became one of the game's greatest managers.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Peter Powlus?

Anyone

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Seasons in Hell?

Most of Shropshire's references to his drinking exploits seemed a bit unnecessary.

Any additional comments?

The mispronunciations from Powlus made this a painful listen.

This book is a mess

Written in an inappropriate flowery prose style, the writer fills the entire book with so many homophobic statements of his own, and of the players he's writing about, that I lost count. Despite the very dated writing style and many offensive attempts at homophobic humor, I finished the book. It potentially deserves a re-write to remove the author's own homophobia and place that of others in the context of the times. In any event, it's nothing more than a mildly interesting time capsule with an overly extravagant writing style. The pervasive homophobia clinched the 1-star rating.

Not much baseball here

Way too much juvenile discussion about the author's drinking habits. Unfunny, uninteresting. I gave up on ig around Chapter 7.

No Ball Four

Where have you gone Jim Bouton? First problem was that the team wasn't bad for 2/3 of the time line. The narrator was grating, way over-the-top sarcastic, and mispronunciations of familiar names were the final nail in the coffin. I think a different narrator could have made this at least bearable if only for the nostalgia. There was nothing here to endear the reader to the subject as in Ball Four, just felt dirty and depressed listening to it.