I liked this book, but I was a bit disappointed with what I believed the title promised, and what was actually in it. I thought it would be a lot more insight from the author and his time with the players profiled. Instead, I found this to be 9 mini biographies of players he had admired. The bat boy days piece didn't really impact me. But, I did like the 9 mini biographies, so it wasn't a waste of time, especially considering what a quick read it is! ( )

“my bat boy days: what I learned from the boys of summer” is the full title of the book written by Steve Garvey. A bit of a long title for a thin book (148 pages) with a large font.
Garvey describes what he’s learned in the six years (1956-1961) he was a bat boy for The Dodgers during spring training or exhibition games. After a short intro about how he became a bat boy, Garvey describes the players all in their own chapter: Reese, who I learned is part Dutch, Hodges, Robinson, Erskine, Snider, Campenella, Koufax and non-Dodgers Mantle and Kaline. Most of those players have an (auto)biography, but here you get a mini biography of each of them.
It’s an easy book, Garvey put in loads of quotes from biographies. One of the up sides, if you don’t know whose (auto)biography you want to read, is that you can read this book and pick the Dodger you want. A bit like CliffsNotes.
I felt the need to know more about The Duke so I’ll read ’The Duke of Flatbush’ first. Once again: an easy book, but it’s nice to see one of the Dodgers best players of the 70’s and 80’s paying tribute to those who wore Dodger Blue before him. ( )

What a fun little book!

What we've got here is a short tale from Steve Garvey about how he worked as a bat boy for a few major league teams while he and his parents lived in Florida. His father drove a bus and was hired to drive around some big leaguers during spring training. The first team he ran into was the Brooklyn Dodgers from the Boys of Summer era of the team.

After this short tale of being asked to be the bat boy for a day, how much it meant to him as a boy, and how it has stuck with him ever since, Garvey speaks about a few individuals from the Boys of Summer teams as well as Mickey Mantle and Al Kaline. They are his heroes, pure and simple, and the story is presented in a pure in simple fashion.

Garvey chooses a certain superlative to describe each of the players he idolizes and talks about his experience with them that illustrate the descriptive word he's chosen. Also contained within the passages are biographical stats of the players which illustrate their statistical dominance as well as the more personal qualities that made them heroes to the Garv.

The prose is easy to read and relate to. For anyone that doesn't know the story of Roy Campanella or why Koufax had to retire at 31, these are also presented as part of the illustration of the virtues Garvey holds in such high esteem. It's a very short read but very much worth the time to take a peek into the idols of a man who was an idol for many youngsters once upon a time. ( )