Baseball Heaven

Reviews / Votes

Prolific baseball writer Golenbock's success in sports writing has largely been attributed to his talent for conducting interviews, especially his ability to ask the right questions and develop trust with his subjects. In this behind-the-scenes look at baseball history, he quotes heavily, including raw details, from the manuscripts of his interviews with a number of lesser-known characters who have firsthand knowledge of famous baseball events and players. Golenbock's interviewees include the Brooklyn Dodgers owner who signed Jackie Robinson, the first Black major-league baseball player, to his team; the pitcher responsible for Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run that became the "shot heard 'round the world"; a player from the notoriously bad early New York Mets team, who began playing in 1962; and the late baseball player Gary Carter, who elucidates the inner workings of the wildly successful 1986 season in which the Mets won their second World Series. A wonderfully distinctive and intriguing baseball history with something of a New York bent. With its personal feel and near-mystical quality, this highly recommended work will mesmerize baseball lovers and casual fans. * Library Journal, Starred Review * In Baseball Heaven, Peter Golenbock gives us a wonderful book of interviews with ballplayers that transports us back to another era. Nobody does it better than he does. -- Ron Rapoport, author of Let's Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, the Life of Ernie Banks This is the greatest baseball book I think I have ever read. What makes it great is the style, the interviews, and I must admit, I am a little jealous because I have known some outstanding interviewers but Peter Golenbock has managed to show the interview as an art form. This is a book that, yes, is like heaven, because of all the golden nuggets about baseball, but Peter has also given us an insight into his genius as an interviewer. Magnifique! -- Tony Castro, author of Mantle: The Best That Ever Was Here is Dock Ellis, famous for pitching a no-hitter while floating on LSD, years later terrified as a Senior League starter that his skills would desert him now that he was sober. Here are tales of Leo Durocher, all-star criminal who stole money and a watch from roommate Babe Ruth, and of Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, who was actually a hero, run out of baseball as payback for his courage standing up to the owners' vote to keep Jackie Robinson out of the major leagues. All of this and way more lies ahead in this wonderful mosaic of the game. (From the foreword) -- Robert Lipsyte, award-winning sportswriter for the New York Times, author, and former Ombudsman for ESPN Baseball's continued mythical appeal is only made possible by the many characters who have become central to the sport's history. Golenbock has talked to more of these characters than almost anybody else. And by sharing some of their best stories in this book, he has provided us baseball fans a great gift. These stories provide fascinating color to the game's key eras and moments: Ted Williams' ascension to greatness, the launching of the second Yankee dynasty, the Shot Heard Round the World, and the 1969 Miracle Mets to name a few. But perhaps even more interestingly, these stories reveal what could have been. Commissioner Richard Nixon, anybody? Readers will learn something new on every page as they're taken on a ride through baseball history that will leave them swearing they're in Baseball Heaven. -- Jacob Kornhauser, author of The Cup of Coffee Club: 11 Players and Their Brush with Baseball History