Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir | BaseballLibrary.com

What's New?
Current Totals
Free Newsletter

Report An Error
Fixed Bugs

Browser Button
Jump from anywhere!
Link Your Site

Get Published!
Reader Submissions

Team Pages
All Teams
Greatest Teams

The Ballplayers
Historical Matchups
Negro Leaguers
Hall of Famers
MVPs

Bookshelf
New Excerpts
Photo Collections

The Chronology
Flashbacks
Baseball Eras
Today in BB History
Anyday in BB History
Rules: 1845-1899
Rules: 1900-present

FAQ
Authors

BaseballLibrary.com
Copyright Š 2002
by The Idea Logical
Company, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Submissions

Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir
Sports Book Review

by Harvey Frommer

A member of the Society for American Baseball Research
more info

Along with millions of others, I have always been impressed with Paul O'Neill as a player and as a person. The image of his intense time in a Yankee uniform, driven, dedicated, competent - is drawn large. I also had the good fortune to have Paul write the intro to my book "A "Yankee Century." There, his traits of competence, dependability and also modesty were in evidence.

So I came to "Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir" by Paul O'Neill with Burton Rocks (Hyperion, $25.95, 244 pages) with high hopes. I have not been disappointed.

This is a book for Father's Day giving, for sports fans, for Yankee fans. This is a book to own. "Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir" describes the relationship of father Chick and son Paul: the WW II paratrooper and minor league pitcher, the son who idolized him.

"Watching Dad in his professional capacity," Paul O'Neill writes, "gave me more insights into his work ethic, how it was important to him to make sure everything was perfect."

Everything is almost perfect in this moving book that traces O'Neill's career from the minors, to the Cincinnati Reds, to the New York Yankees, to the death of his dad on a day in 1999, a day that Paul O'Neill played in the fourth game of the World Series. Moving and memorable, the book like Paul O'Neill is a winner.

"Classic Baseball: the Photographs of Walter Iooss, Jr. (Abrams, $35.00, 210 pages) combines the splendid photographs (91 black and white, 70 color) with the perceptions of Pulitzer Prize winning writer Dave Anderson. This is the complete package. The book is divided into "Faces," "Ballparks," Pitchers," "Hitters," "Baserunners," "Managers" and "Celebrations." Each section competes for attention, but all are worth studying. looss has been behind a camera since his days as a teen ager. One of his very early assignments from "Sports Illustrated" was to chronicle the quest of Roger Maris to break Babe Ruth's single season home run record in 1961. My favorite shot in the book is the centerfold image of St Louis Cardinal great Bob Gibson literally falling off the mound after delivering one his high hard ones.

"Classic Baseball" is like a high, hard one -- a time machine through decades of baseball history with two very competent guides -- Iooss and Anderson.

"The Dodgers Encyclopedia" by William F. McNeil (Sports Publishing, $39.95, 472 pages) is now in its second edition and updated through the 2002 season. If you bleed Dodger Blue this is the book for you. Replete with stats, profiles, trivia and 400 black and white photographs - this book is a fitting tribute to one of baseball's greatest franchises.

ť More submissions