The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told

Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond

De: Jeff Silverman

Narrado por: Mike Chamberlain, Hillary Huber

At a 1931 barnstorming exhibition game in Tennessee, a 17-year-old pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back. Her name was Jackie Mitchell - "organized baseball's first girl pitcher." On September 9, 1965, Sandy Koufax made baseball history by pitching his fourth perfect game. In July 1970, a stripper rushed onto the field at Riverfront Stadium to kiss Johnny Bench, temporarily disrupting a game attended by President Nixon and his family. These are just some of the great, quirky, and comic moments in the annals of baseball recorded in The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told. Here also are profiles of such legendary figures as Joe DiMaggio, Pete Rose, and Yogi Berra, essays that explore the complexities and pleasures of the game, even an excerpt from the movie Bull Durham. This is the perfect book for anyone who has ever played so much as a game of catch.

©2001 Jeff Silverman (P)2016 Tantor

The reader

Nothing really for me in this book it was so good to listen to it

3 strikes, you're out!

The narration of this book is the very worst. I have close to 400 audio books, and the first story is the narration of the classic, "Whose on First?". A terrible idea, since this is an audio book...wouldn't it be better to play a tape rendition of this famous skit. I order this book for a friend who loves sports. I was embarrassed when I started to listen for myself. Only a true fan could enjoy this version of this book.

Amazing History

I struggled with three beginning but hated for it to end. I love these stories!

A marvelous collection of stories and essays.

A true dose of Americana full of literary excellence, history and just pure unabashed joy.

Bad narration

These stories would have been great if they had been easy to follow. The chspters were barely distinguishable from one another, and the narrator showed none of the personality these stories clearly had

Not Quite What I Expected

I bought this expecting stories about big leaguers and things that I hadn’t heard before. It certainly has it’s share of these, however it has several stories that are about people I’d never heard of or had nothing to do with the majors. A few of those stories are decent, but most are boring and made you wish you would have not wasted time listening to them. However, the stories that were about the majors or MLB players were interesting and kept me from giving this book 1 star. If you have credits and go in knowing that you can skip several chapters, the I’d give it a listen. But if you are looking for a book solely about MLB or stars, you will be disappointed.

I love baseball

it's okay, but not what I expected. As far as baseball is concerned for me.

Baseball been berry berry good to me

"Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical."
- Yogi Berra

Some excellent baseball stories. Some less than excellent ones. Probably all are worth listening to, even if I didn't.

Who's on First - funny Abbott & Costello routine. But...goes on too long (B)
Wait Till Next Year - Doris Kearns Goodwin. Boring vignette about her learning to keep score. It doesn't help she is unlikable in real life. (D)
The Web of the Game - Roger Angel - terrific retelling of when Ron Darling (Yale) pitched against Frank Viola (St. John's) in college. (A)

Some other highlights:

Al Stump on Ty Cobb
John Updike on Ted Williams' last game
Ring Lardner's "Alibi Ike", a funny tale about a ball player who just can't stop making excuses

A chapter on Yogi Berra and his Yogi-isms
A great chapter on Joe DiMaggio

If you like baseball, even a little, and enjoy hearing great stories about it, give this a listen. You won't regret it.

Title a Bit Misleading

Maybe it's my fault but I expected actual baseball stories, not a focus on some people with some odd narration (looking at you Alibi Ike). There were some really great baseball stories in the book but not all of them fall under this category. While I love "Who's on First?", I would never consider putting it in a book with this title. It was good for what it was, for the most part, but there were stories I found myself wanting to skip. Baseball nuts would probably enjoy but I'm relatively ambivalent about it.

great stories!

when I saw this title I figured I might know many or even all the stories, but I was wrong. you can avoid the first chapter as it's a hard to follow rendition of Abbott and Costello's who's on first. but the second chapter gets it kicked off with a beautiful story bye young lady who grew up in Brooklyn in the 50s and is now an accomplished writer, and it ends with the story by kinsella, who wrote Field of dreams. and then a Bartlett giamattis beautiful article about the pasttime. I was particularly enthralled by the story about Smokey Joe wood tending a pitching duel between Ron Darling of Yale University and Frank Viola of St John's university. Frank Viola is now the pitching coach of the high point rockers, my hometown team, and I got his autograph last year!