Should be required reading for baseball fans

books:


	• Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck Bill Veeck, Ed Linn University Of Chicago Press, 2001 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The hundredth read's as good as the first

I'm biased, since Veeck -- As In Wreck was a childhood favorite, but I still say it's the best book ever written on professional baseball. It's a great take on the sport -- baseball's supposed to be FUN for the fans, and this book is a great primer on how to make it so.

A great gift

I gave this book to my brother who is a baseball nut and he loved it. He couldn't wait to get off work so he could sit in the subway and read it all the way home.

He is a historian and found it accurate and a page turner.

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Divine Diamond Madness

This is one of the single funniest books that I have ever read. Moreover, it is a book that you can reread again and again and still find amusing years after your initial reading. It is that good.

Bill Veeck was the son of a sportswriter (William Veeck, Sr.) who later became a top executive with the Chicago Cubs and helped rebuild the organization. As a young man, Veeck, himself, worked for the Cubs and played an important role in remodeling the bleachers and adding many of the signature features to Wrigley Field. Later, he owned and operated a successful minor league team (the Milwaukee Brewers), a World Series Championship team (the Cleveland Indians), and he presided over the demise of the poorest team in baseball (the St. Louis Browns) before putting in two stints as the head owner of the Chicago White Sox (including the 1959 pennant winning club).

From this unique perspective, Veeck takes the reader on a wild booze fueled ride that explores the joys, the sorrows and hypocrisies of professional baseball. During the Fifties, Veeck was essentially blackballed by his fellow American League owners and compelled to sell his stock in the struggling St. Louis club. As soon as Veeck was out of the picture, the new owner was permitted to move the team to a greener ballfield in Baltimore. The other owners resented Veeck's flair for showmanship. Today, virtually all baseball clubs imitate the promotions that Veeck pioneered.

Someday, I can only hope that Bill Murray succeeds in his ambition to adapt this marvelously humorous book into a motion picture.

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A Baseball Storyteller

My thanks goes out to Bill Veeck for being one of the men that saved baseball on the South Side of Chicago. Even though it is not all included in his autobiography, he worked to keep the White Sox in Chicago multiple times. This is one of the reasons many people closely associate Veeck with the White Sox.

On page 352, Veeck writes, "To the White Sox rooter, there is nothing casual about baseball. Wake him up in the middle of the night, ask him who he is and he will say, 'I am a carpenter and a White Sox fan.' He may or may not have inherited his trade from his father, but chances are that he inherited his rooting interest in the Sox. This kind of family solidarity can only come out of adversity and trial by fire." This is the blue collar attitude he brought to baseball ownership. He was also an entertainer and promoter the likes of which baseball will never see again.

"Veeck as in Wreck" is a wildly entertaining ride. While Veeck occasionally gets bogged down in mathematics and finances, his baseball stories compensate. The midget that Veeck sent to bat in St. Louis is discussed. The wild promotions that attracted record crowds are included, though he could not possibly include them all. The book only omits his second tenure in Chicago which included the dubious Disco Demolition Night. Veeck started in the early 1900's when his father owned the Cubs. While his heart may have been with the Cubs, his best work came with the White Sox.

Including his riffs with the owners who included current commissioner Bud Selig, Veeck was a fan's owner. Although long, this is a great read for baseball fans. White Sox fans should find it extra sweet.

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Should be required reading for baseball fans

I must preface this by saying that I read this book after it was reccomended to me by the sports editor of a local paper.

This book, and Veeck's life, are nothing short of amazing. In these times of high ticket prices and salaries, it is fasciniating to read about how Veeck bought and sold major league franchises, sometimes with little to no capital or cash to start with.

Veeck is also the pioneer of the idea of going to a baseball game and being entertained. He came up with some of the wackiest and funniest promotions and ideas ever and they are all contained in this book. On top of that, he was a genuinely funny guy, which also comes across throughout the course of the book.

Every baseball fan should read this book to realize exactly how much Veeck shaped the experience of going to a baseball game like we know it today.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Bill Veeck was an inspired team builder, a consummate showman, and one of the greatest baseball men ever involved in the game. His classic autobiography, written with the talented sportswriter Ed Linn, is an uproarious book packed with information about the history of baseball and tales of players and owners, including some of the most entertaining stories in all of sports literature.

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