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As former professional athletes move deeper and deeper into senior citizen status, it becomes increasingly interesting, akin to listening to our grandparents discuss what life was like "in the day."
Baseball has always "enjoyed" a reputation that is almost a necessity, given its relatively slow pace. There is plenty of time to think, to talk. Many teams hire former players whose sole purpose seems to be to put current events into juxtaposition with the way things were when they were on the field. Some fans love it, some hate it.
It's the same with books such as THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, a collection of reminiscences of 10 players who played mostly in the years surrounding World War II.
The athletes include Elden Auker, Tommy Henrich, John "Buck" O'Neil, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, Warren Spahn, Larry Doby, Ralph Kiner, Bob Feller and Monte Irvin; Spahn and Doby have since passed away.
Spahn, Doby, Kiner, Feller and Irvin have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the others were among the best players of their generation.
The oral history format is a popular --- and seemingly easy--- format for writers and editors. After all, how much does it take to plop down a tape recorder and have the subject talk about the most important people and episodes in their lives? They have similar stories to tell, mostly about conditions during their careers. Some of their comments are gossipy; others are, quite frankly, less than scintillating.
Arguably the best example of the oral history genre is THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES, a 1966 collection of interviews by the late Lawrence Ritter. Like the characters in the popular HBO series "Deadwood," one is enthralled by the almost poetic way in which these supposedly under-educated dumb jocks expressed themselves. Ritter's players included the relatively obscure (such as Hans Lobert, Rube Bressler and Willie Kamm) as well as the notable (Hall of Famers Rube Marquard, Sam Crawford and Smokey Joe Wood), most of whom played in the first part of the 20th century. Perhaps because they played a generation before Vincent's roster, their tales are more rustic and romantic.
One also wonders how much play a book like this would have received without Vincent's position as former Commissioner of Baseball (1989-1992).
Another thing the participants of THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN share is that they are each the subject of their own books; all but Spahn and Doby produced autobiographies. Such relatively short snippets might suffice for casual fans. Others --- especially devout fans --- might skip Vincent's volume altogether, opting to get more in-depth information straight from the athletes' pens.
The title page declares that this book is the first volume in a series. It will be interesting to see if the author follows the pattern of previously-written-about ballplayers in future editions.
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
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