Review of
All Stars of the Outfield,
by Milton J. Shapiro ISBN 0671322664
Four out of five stars
Room for disagreement, but not much
Any selection
of the greatest baseball players at each position is always subject to dispute.
Nevertheless, the selections here cannot be argued with in general, only their
relative positioning. The players are put into four categories: the big three,
the second team, odd man out and yesterday’s trio. Every single player can
arguably be declared a member of the best three-man outfield of all time.
The book was
published in 1970, so there is reason to justify the inclusion of more modern
platers. The members of the big three are Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Stan
Musial. Members of the second team are Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Ted
Williams. Note that Aaron and Mays were still active at the time of publication.
The odd man out is Mel Ott and the players in yesterday’s trio are Ty Cobb,
Babe Ruth and Tris Speaker.
Rather than
engage in a debate regarding inclusion and ranking, the best thing to do is to
simply read and enjoy the short biographies of the players. While it is now a
bit dated, it is still fun to read about the exploits of some of the best
players to ever cover the outfield grass.
No comments:
Post a Comment