Ralph Kiner (1922–2014)

Baseball has been a sport watched for many years. Through out the years there were many great players. On of those great players was Ralph Kiner.
In the book Baseball forever Kiner talks about the ups and downs of his career. He talks abou player in his time and players that were yet to come, And not only as you Know them for he knew many of these people first hand. He also talks about how the war affected things in his time. His whole story leading to his spot in the hall of fame. How hard it was to make good money, at first ball players were only paid minimum wage. Read Baseball forever and follow Ralph Kiner on his journey from a minor league to the hall of fame.
The book Baseball forever is for people who know what most of the baseball slang is, unlike me I barely understood this book because i had no idea what it was talking about. Also if you don't know a lot of players you won't know a lot of the references he makes. So if you don't know a lot about baseball this is not the book for you. But if you love baseball this is a great book for you.… (mais)

A fun compendium of memories, stories and opinions from Ralph Kiner's 60 years in baseball as a player, celebrity, and broadcaster. I was struck by Kiner's honesty regarding issues such as his not thinking black players would do well in MLB at the time of integration, admitting that he and his teammates used amphetamines, and playfully laughing off his on-air malapropisms as a Mets' broadcaster. There seem to be contradictions as he wavers between awe in what ballplayers are doing today and somewhat cranky "back in my day" comparisons. I never knew of Kiner's union and celebrity connections and found them pretty interesting to read about. All in all it was interesting to read a baseball greats opinions on how the game should be played even when I didn't always agree with his conclusions. The most interesting idea he proposed was performance-based contracts for ballplayers as a way of keeping spending under control - not that the players would ever go for it.… (mais)