Anybody here read this? It's billed as a conversation between Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. Might be some interesting stories.
http://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Feet-Six...5368312&sr=1-1
A gametime decision
Anybody here read this? It's billed as a conversation between Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. Might be some interesting stories.
http://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Feet-Six...5368312&sr=1-1
"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen my friend, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood". - Walter Johnson, 1912 interview
Ever Hopeful BoSox Mod
I just heard a very interesting and entertaining interview with Jackson and Gibson on the NPR show Fresh Air:Originally Posted by ol' aches and pains
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundown...n.php?prgId=13
I want to read that book!
--Annie
Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)
Remember Yellowdog
ABNY
A gametime decision
Thanks for the link, Sox Fan. I read the transcript of the interview, as our computer is in the bedroom, and my wife's asleep. Very interesting stuff, I'll have to get the book.
"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen my friend, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood". - Walter Johnson, 1912 interview
Registered User
May have to give that one a look myself. Pretty cool to see two baseball's best combine and write a book about the game.
My collection of autographs: TTM Autos
A gametime decision
Finally read this, here is my customer review posted at Amazon:
This book may be a little too technical for the casual baseball fan, but if you know and love the game, and want to learn a little more about the nuts and bolts of pitching and hitting, this is a great read. It's not great baseball literature like Roger Angell, or the best of Roger Kahn, more of an informal conversation between two hall-of-famers and World Series greats. It's a wealth of information about how the game is played, and more importantly, how it should be played.
What makes it great is that there are a lot of fascinating anecdotes from both Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson interspersed with the technical stuff. Both men talk at some length about their early years in the game, and what they had to go through coming up as young black players in the 50's (Gibson) and 60's (Jackson). I already had great respect for Gibson, but have even more after reading this book. I wasn't as enamored of Reggie Jackson, but after reading Sixty Feet, Six Inches, I have new respect for him as well. Any serious student of baseball and baseball history would thoroughly enjoy this book.
Last edited by ol' aches and pains; 11-05-2009 at 06:48 PM.
"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen my friend, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood". - Walter Johnson, 1912 interview
Registered User
Gibson and Jackson also appeared with Scott Simon on NPR last weekend. I haven't read it but hope to. I do worry about Jackson's ego coming through a bit too much, but these were guys who respected the game and know a lot about what's wrong with it now.
A gametime decision
In the book, Jackson addresses his ego issues with humor and a pretty good sense of self-awareness. At one point he talks about a trip he made on behalf of a company he worked with in Arizona to a Hopi Indian reservation. He spoke to the kids there about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and the importance of staying clean. At the end of his talk, he asked for questions, and one of the parents raised his hand and said "some of the kids here would like to know who you are". Jackson said in the book that was a lesson in humility.
He also quoted Catfish Hunter's famous quip about the "Reggie" candy bar: "When you unwrap it, it tells you how good it is". Jackson admits it's a great line. I like Reggie Jackson a lot more than I did before reading this book.
"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen my friend, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood". - Walter Johnson, 1912 interview
Registered User
Thanks for that information. I feel better about getting that book now!
Registered User
I'll bet this book is chock full of tracers - not that there's anything wrong with that.
A gametime decision
Tracers?
"Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen my friend, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood". - Walter Johnson, 1912 interview
Registered User
I haven't read the book, but I skimmed through it. The format may be better seen as a dvd. Maybe I'm just being too picky.
My collection of autographs: TTM Autos
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