Book Review: The Only Game in Town by Fay Vincent

"The Only Game in Town: Baseball Stars Of The 1930's And 1940's Talk About The Game They Loved" is a compilation of accounts from ten former major league ballplayers complied from in-person interviews, conducted and interviewed by former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. Inspired by Lawrence Ritter's classic "The Glory of Their Times", which recorded first-person accounts of major league baseball at the turn of the 20th century, "The Only Game in Town" is the first in what is expected to be a series of books highlighting players from the 1930's and 1940's. The book was written in cooperation with the Baseball Oral History Project and the Baseball Hall of Fame, and all proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Hall of Fame.

The book, while a bit of a mixed bag, quality wise, is certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the time period , an era where ballplayers went off to war, Jackie Robinson and then others broke the color line in baseball, and the game's popularity soared.

The strong point of this book is the player selection. The ten players highlighted provide great coverage of the two decades of the 1930's and 1940's, and include some of the biggest stars and most interesting personalities from the era, as well as some players with unique insights into the integration of the game.

Sidearmer Elden Auker talks about overcoming injury to develop his unique pitching motion, and retiring early to work in engineering as the world sank into war. Bob Feller, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, talks about being a major leaguer at age 17 and of serving his country during the war.

Buck O'Neil, the great Negro League player and manager, and major league coach and scout who recently passed, talks of his life in baseball, and the great players from the Negro Leagues. O'Neil was one of the great ambassadors of the game, and any interview with him is not to be missed. Dom DiMaggio, who in addition to being brother to his famous brother and teammate of Ted Williams was also one of the first major league ballplayers to wear glasses, offers many unique insights. Life-long Red Sox Johnny Pesky, who can still be seen in uniform at Fenway Park, played with Ted Williams and chums around with David Ortiz, which provides him with interesting perspective.

Warren Spahn and Ralph Kiner were both two of the greatest at what they did of that or any era, and regale us with their rise to the majors, baseball during the war, and many other interesting stories. Larry Doby, the second man after Jackie Robinson to break baseball's color barrier, and Monte Ivan, who made his debut two years later at the age of 31, were Negro League stars who were among the first wave to get the chance to make the move to the major leagues, and I believe their stories and perspectives are particularly important to record for posterity.

The book, while a worthwhile read, is not without its flaws. The editing, to put it kindly, is not quite up to snuff. I understand the editors were trying to capture a "conversational" feel to the book, but their failure to edit out poor grammar, sentence structure, and repetitiveness make the book a bit harder to read, in my opinion. If future editions are compiled, I hope the editors will improve them in this area.

While not quite up the high standard set for this type of work set by it's inspiration "The Glory of Their Times", this book remains a worthwhile read for baseball fans of all ages with an interest in history of the game in the 1930's and 1940's. I do hope more books are released in the series, as the first hand memories of players of that era are so important to record before they're gone and it's too late. Hopefully, audio and/or recordings from the interviews will also be released to the public or displayed at the Hall of Fame.