Ron Blomberg

I don't believe I can write an unbiased review of Ron Blomberg's wonderful book, because it is set in the most cherished time of my life--the 1970s; It revolves around my favorite past-time--baseball; and it is about my all-time favorite player--Thurman Munson, whose untimely death in 1979 hurt me in so many ways.
The story is basically about the friendship, on and off the field, between Munson and Blomberg. The writing is better than most books of its genre. The majority of the narrative consists of Blomberg telling the story as if he's sitting in your living room, talking just to you. I could almost hear his Southern accent as I read. His co-author, Dan Epstein, adds short, historical perspectives throughout, which is a nice touch.
I learned quite a bit about Munson and Blomberg, and was pleased with what I learned. There are also tidbits about other players from the 70s, which I found surprising and intriguing.
This is probably not a book that will appeal to a non-baseball fan, especially if you are too young to remember 1970s baseball. But, if you were a fan in that era, and particularly a Yankee fan, it is a must read.
One of the main reasons Blomberg wrote this book, (according to recent interviews with the author)
is to try to persuade baseball writers to put Munson in the baseball Hall of Fame. The new formulation and use of Modern Day Advanced Metrics proves that Munson was the best over-all catcher of the 1970s. Yes, better than Bench and Fisk, both of whom are in the HOF. Blomberg asserts that Munson has beeen snubbed by the writers because he snubbed a lot of them during his playing days. Now, with a new crop of writers doing the voting, it is the hope of Blomberg and the rest of us Munson fans, that they will look at Thurman's numbers seriously, and elect him to Cooperstown where he belongs.
I wish Blomberg and Epstein would have provided readers a breakdown of Munson's numbers compared to other HOF catchers. This would have been a nice addition as an appendix perhaps, in stating their case for the HOF. This information can be found at munsonhof.com, if you're interested. If the numbers surprised me, a life-long Munson fan, they will really open the eyes of the skeptics.… (mais)

An interesting enough account of Ron Blomberg's career. Blomberg was the first Jewish Yankee (other then Jimmy Reese, who played for the Yanks for two seasons in the late 20s) and by a quirk of luck became the first player to come to bat as a DH when the rule was instituted in 1973. In the telling of his tale, Blomberg sticks to himself only, offering very little other than fully rehashed stories about the clubhouses and dugouts in which he spent his years as a Yankee. And even in telling his own tale, Blomberg offers precious little in interesting anecdote form. I was happy to read this, in that it filled in some blanks in my teenage memories of Blomberg and those Yankee teams of the early 70s, but other than that I didn't learn a whole lot here. One interesting tidbit, though. I was sure I had read on various occassions that Thurman Munson had more than a trace of anti-Semintism about him. But Blomberg portrays Munson as one of the four or five Yankees who consistently supported him when others expressed belief that Blomberg was malingering through his many injuries. That was nice to read.… (mais)