Baseball's Best Ever

“Big-league baseball is subtle; cloaked in summer languor, moving with the slow, supple grace of a ballerina practicing backstage, yet taut and technical in its skills. To view a baseball game and appreciate it takes concentration.”   So begins Baseball’s Best Ever. Encompassing a selection of some one hundred columns and featured stories written over 50-plus years, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist share stories on some of the greatest baseball players to ever grace the diamond. But rather than snippets and information known to anyone following the game, Berkow, shares insights on these men: men dealing with tragedy, struggle, highs and lows—showing that while they we at the top of the game, at the end of the day they are mere mortals. With stories from Satchel Paige throwing his “bow tie pitch” close to a batter’s brow, the humorous side of Phil Rizzuto and Casey Stengel, a rookie Carl Yastrzemski battling through a slump, and Ted Williams talking about is favorite subject—no, not hitting: fishing. Arranged by decade, Berkow shares his interactions with those at the top of their game. We all know their stats and accolades, but not many fans truly know the person under the uniform. Offering an inside view as to who these men truly are, readers will be able to better understand their favorite ballplayers. While they have accomplished things we only do in our dreams, you will see that these men, under the surface, are no different than any of us. Though we may never hit like Joe DiMaggio or Babe Ruth, play the outfield like Willie Mays, or run the bases like Jackie Robinson, Berkow offers us a view of these stars that only an acclaimed journalist can. And with a half century of reporting under his belt, Baseball’s Best Ever will let readers onto the field, in the dugout and locker room, and at home with their family and friends.    

Ira Berkow is both a Pulitzer-prize winner for national reporting and a Pulitzer-prize finalist for distinguished commentary, and the author of twenty-six books, including the bestsellers Red: A Biography of Red Smith, Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar, and Rockin’ Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool (with Walt Frazier), as well as nine anthologies of his journalism. A sports reporter and columnist for the New York Times for over two decades, his work has regularly been reprinted in literary anthologies, college rhetoric textbooks, in the prestigious annual anthology Best American Sports Writing, as well as The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. He resides in New York City.