Frank DeFord - The Old Ball Game (Book Review)

I do not follow major league baseball much anymore, but I do like reading baseball books about the old days.  Back when the game was fun, the players weren't all multi-millionaires, and the game meant something.

Frank DeFord is one of the leading sportswriter of our time.  He is known primarily for writing in Sports Illustrated.

This book is about the days of John J. McGraw and Christy Matthewson.  McGraw was the manager of the New York Giants in the early years of the century.  His Giants dominated baseball until Babe Ruth joined the Yankees, the ball was juiced, small ball went by the wayside as power hitting took over.  Christy Matthewson was a hall-of-fame pitcher for McGraw's Giants and the first great baseball hero in this country.  He was college-educated and the All-American hero in the early years of the 20th century.

McGraw had the hardscrabble upbringing of a boy who left home at 16 and never looked back. Baseball was his passion, and a great passion it was.  He was the ultimate competitor.  He grew up in Baltimore but ended up in New York.  He was the great practitioner of small ball: speed, stealing bases, one base at a time baseball.

Matthewson was larger than life to the public but outside of baseball was a pretty regular guy.

McGraw said Honus Wagner was the greatest baseball he every way. It was common at that time to call German-Immigrants "Dutch."   It must have galled him how Babe Ruth came to New York and stole the public's affection for his Giants.

Every man wore a hat in those days.  I remember this when Cobb was being filmed at Rickwood in 1994.

Matthewson was good and well-know for playing checkers.  Funny to imagine him making a big deal out of such a boring game.

Of all the old New York stadiums the Polo Grounds haunts me the most, more than the original Yankee Stadium or Ebbetts Field.  The horizontal shape and deep, deep centerfield and short fields down the lines are so intriguing.  This is where Willie Mays made his famous catch against Vic Wertz in the '54 Series.  So said it's gone forever.