Review of "Baseball’s Greatest Insults: A Humorous Collection of the Game’s Most Outrageous, Abusive and Irreverent Remarks," collected by Kevin Nelson

Review of

Baseball’s Greatest Insults: A Humorous Collection of the Game’s Most Outrageous, Abusive and Irreverent Remarks, collected by Kevin Nelson ISBN 067147975X

Five out of five stars

 Former major leaguer and announcer Joe Garagiola wrote a bestselling book called “Baseball is a Funny Game” and it is humorous. However, it simply cannot compare to the level of humor in this book. While the foul language has been filtered out, the insults are still very good, and the coverage is ubiquitous. From the utility players to some of the greatest stars and even the media personalities that cover baseball are the targets of the comments.

 Only a few were from Don Rickles, the master of the insult, but most of them follow his style, biting and generally containing a bit of truth. Even some of the legends such as Willie Mays and Yogi Berra are targets of barbs, attempts to chip away at their positions as legends. One in particular is by tell-all author Jim Bouton:

“Yogi Berra is a completely manufactured product. He is a case study of this country’s unlimited ability to gull itself and be gulled.”

 The authors of the barbs come from all areas of major league baseball, from the scrubs to the stars, managers, coaches, owners and sportswriters. Like all collections, there are some that are incredibly witty while others are just good. Yet all are worth reading, giving the reader a bit of insight into how all the people involved in professional baseball see and evaluate each other.