Synopses & Reviews
Bill Veeck was an inspired team builder, a consummate showman, and one of the greatest baseball men ever involved in the game. His autobiography, written with the talented sportswriter Ed Linn, is an uproarious book packed with baseball history and some of the most entertaining stories in all of sports literature.
Review
"Following this story as it unfolds, anecdote after anecdote, is much like sitting with Veeck or some other talented raconteur through a few long nights in a saloon. The stories, especially the ones about such eccentric and fascinating old-timers as Satchel Paige and Casey Stengel, are filled with the pungent flavor of good old American folklore." Alfred Wright, New York Times Book Review
Review
"A brash, blunt autobiography that is certain-like everything else he has done-to delight his fans and raise his fellow-owners' hackles." Time
Review
"Pure Veeck, which means that his story is told with humor, whimsey, brightness, a sharp eye for the incongruous, and a total lack of inhibition." New York Times
Review
"Veeck's flamboyant promotional stunts, his unrestricted sense of humor, his outspoken loves and hates, and his memories of the unique escapades of some of baseball's great men make a book of unusual entertainment." Booklist
Review
"[T]he most innovative owner in baseball history and, by a wide margin, the funniest....[A] baseball classic.... Here are all of Veeck's wonderful stories: his battles against the game's Neanderthal owners, his shoestring operations with the various teams he owned, his running war with Commissioner Ford Frick-and, of course, the day he sent a midget up to bat. His story is packed with life and laughter from first page to last." Washington Post Book World
Review
"There couldn't be a better moment for the reissue of Bill Veeck's Veeck: As in Wreck. Originally published in 1962, this greatest of all baseball memoirs returns at a time when player salaries have reached new heights of absurdity and the sport seems headed for yet another labor shutdown making Veeck's book appear less a throwback than a prophetic screed." David Uhlin, Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Online review here)
About the Author
Bill Veeck (William Louis Veeck, Jr.) (1914-1986) learned the baseball business from the ground up at Wrigley Field when his father was at first general manager and then president of the Chicago Cubs. Bill went on to become the owner of the Cleveland Indians, the St. Louis Browns, and the Chicago White Sox-twice. In 1991, Veeck was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.Ed Linn (1922-2000), a well respected sports-writer, was the author of 17 books, including Hitter: The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams, Nice Guys Finish Last, and Where the Money Is.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Bob Verdi
1. A Can of Beer, a Slice of Cake—and Thou, Eddie Gaedel
2. A Man of Dignity
3. The Battle of Wrigley Field
4. The First Fine Careless Rapture of Milwaukee
5. A Universal-International Production
6. Dinner with Boudreau
7. Every Day Was Mardi Gras...
8. ...and Every Fan Was King
9. One $200,000 Dog for Two $100,000 Cats
10. The Name of the Game is Gamesmanship
11. It Only Takes One Leg to Walk Away
12. Leroy Had Been There Before
13. An Epitaph for Harry Grabiner
14. The Jolly Set
15. I'm from Missouri—Momentarily
16. The Greatest Right-handed Hitter of All Time
17. The Asterisk King
18. A Warm Spiritual Message from the Del E. Webb Corp.
19. Right Between the Shoulder Blades
20. A Night at Toots Shor's
21. Dynasties Are for the Dinosaurs
22. Chuck Comiskey and the National Debt
23. The South Side Shall Rise Again
24. How We Bought the Minor Leagues Back to Los Angeles
25. I'm Not Handicapped; I'm Crippled
Afterword by Ed Linn