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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN num: 9780803259461
ISBN number: 0803259468
Label: Bison Books
Manufacturer: Bison Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 285
Printing Date: March 01, 2003
Publishing house: Bison Books
Sale Popularity Level: 1153988
Studio: Bison Books
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“I have done a report of some kind on the Fred Merkle story, whether in print, on radio, or on TV, on or about its anniversary, September 23, virtually every year since I was in college. The saga has always seemed to me to be a microcosm not just of baseball, nor of celebrity, but of life. The rules sometimes change while you’re playing the game. Those you trust to tell you the changes often don’t bother to. That for which history still mocks you, would have gone unnoticed if you had done it a year or a month or a day before. That’s who Fred Merkle is. I have often proposed September 23 as a national day of amnesty, in Fred Merkle's memory.”—Keith Olbermann, from his foreword.
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Rated by buyers 
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Despite the extraordinary excitement of dual pennant races and enough controversy to last decades, the pivotal baseball season of 1908 emerges as a washed down, mundane experience in David Anderson's uninspiring "More than Merkle." Overwhelmed with esoterica and dragged down by prosaic writing, this history will appeal to lovers of trivia, but cannot stand the test of appealing to a larger audience.
Anderson commits the cardinal error of minimizing narriatve flow; instead, he trudges us through a month-by-month description (which borders on pitch-by-pitch, of every team) of the pennant chase. Lost are the tension and violence of the era; the reader never is invited to understand the physical toll "dead ball" exacted from its participants.
What the reader receives is little more and little better than a Sporting News summary. Facts abound and statistics flow, yet "More than Merkle" is stragely wooden, stilted. Even the title character, Fred Merkle, whose baserunning blunder stands as one of the true milestones of the emerging national pasttime, hardly receives sufficient biographical treatment. Reverence for numbers cannot substitute for making players come alive.
Dry, badly in need of editing and affectless, "More than Merkle" does contribute to our understanding of the role umpires played in pivotal contests, but does little else. The proclaimed "most exciting season in human history" will have fans leaving in the middle of the seventh inning.
Rated by buyers 
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The authors have brought to life the excitement of this great season, when three teams went to the wire in both leagues. There are fine synopses of all 16 teams in the league, backgrounds on play at the time, and bios of the umpires, whom the authors contend had much to do with league outcomes- and not just in the Merkle game. A marvelous reliving of this great summer, told with accuracy.
The only thing missing from the book is the mention of the strange situation on the last day of the American League race. Cleveland was eliminated from contention, despite its 90-64 record, by teams with fewer wins. Detroit (89-63) was about to play Chicago (88-63), and whoever would win would have a better percentage than unlucky Cleveland. But the excitement definitely comes through. What a year!
If you love this book, Scott Longert's "Addie Joss" covers the Cleveland angle, Charles Alexander and Ty Cobb himself cover Detroit's, Christy Mathewson's book, as well as bios of John McGraw, take the Giant's view of the NL race, and the De Valeria's "Honus Wagner" covers Pittsburgh's side. Why oh why, in a city of journalists, has no one written anything from the White Sox or Cubs view?
Rated by buyers -
Another book written on a particular year. As the title suggests, there was more to the 1908 baseball season than the Merkle incident. The book reviews each major league team, the umpires, managers, and what fans were like during this Dead Ball era year. The author makes the case for the custom of not touching 2nd base on a game winning hit due to getting off the field as soon as possible before being mobbed by the fans on the field. Also, he questions why Manager McGraw of the Giants didn't warn his players about the necessity of touching 2nd base on a game winning hit since a similar incident happened prior to the Merkle game between the Cubs and Pirates. The introduction begins with a quote from Cubs' shortstop Joe Tinker who the author identifies as "second base, Chicago Cubs." Also, on the last page of the book the author spells the name of Tigers' pitcher Denny McLain as Denny "McClain." Errors such as this bother me and make me question other details I may not be aware of.
Rated by buyers 
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This incredible season is relived with amazing detail and insight that makes the modern fan wonder. Just imagine what media hype would follow if these events occured today! If you really follow the game, the history of the game, and the pure love of the game --- this is for you.
Rated by buyers 
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Interested in the men who played the national game in 1908, I eagerly plunged into "More Than Merkle." What I found was a book filled with syntax errors, either of the author's creation or of the publisher, the University of Nebraska Press. While most of these errors were minor, many served as great distractions from the reading of the text. The biographies of the men involved in baseball at the turn of the century really turned into nothing more than a verbal recapitulation of the statistics found in the "Baseball Encyclopedia" or "Total Baseball." Finally, the author seemed intent in finding a new villain or a new victim, or maybe even a new mystery to the ending of the 1908 National League season. Much of his argument proves to be superficial, often trivial, and sometimes just plain nonsense. On the positive side, the book does also examine the American League race of 1908, something that is often lost in the wake of the Merkle incident.
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