William M. Anderson (2) (1938–)

When Red Rolfe managed the Tigers in the early fifties, it seems that he kept a detailed journal of game notes after each game which are here excerpted. The publisher and blurbers are correct in that this represents a rare opportunity to study how a manager thinks, however this was not always a fascinating read. I enjoyed it to a point, but I'm an avid student of baseball history; I fear that the blurbs are being extremely fanciful in their assertion that general readers would enjoy the book. I found this to be rather arid and quite repetitive pretty shortly; after you've read "pitch Berra low" seven or eight times, do you really need to read it again? Few of the players names come alive now except for we dwindling few who were alive then, and whilst one does get to know the Tigers reasonably well, many of the notes are about other teams and their players do not. The editor's summaries of the games are certainly necessary to understand Rolfe's comments, but they're often longer than Rolfe's notes themselves. One gets the impression from the front and end matter that Rolfe was aloof and a hard man to like. and indeed, he seems to know or care little about the man management which seems to be a top concern of the manager of today. Together with Rolfe's interminable ruminations on strategies such as the hit-and-run which are pretty much extinct this century in baseball at the major league level, this is more a book for baseball historians than the fan of today.… (altro)