Review of "Baseball Rookies Who Made Good," by M. G. Bonner

 Review of

Baseball Rookies Who Made Good, by M. G. Bonner

Four out of five stars

Even the stars were once rookies

 In many ways, this book is a statement of the obvious, even the greatest of the baseball stars were once rookies. This book is a collection of brief bios of some of the greatest stars of all time as well as some of the players that had recently reached the majors.

 The major stars are: Bob Feller, Honus Wagner, Phil Rizzuto, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, Lou Gehrig, Warren Spahn, Dizzy Dean, Jackie Robinson and Mickey Mantle. Lesser players featured are: Bobby Brown, George Kell, Del Ennis, Don Newcombe, Walt Dropo and Joe Black. The bios of the major stars are longer, while most of the rest are only a few paragraphs in length.

 The stories are written at the level of the young adult and are entertaining. They describe the difficulties that the players had when their major league careers were just getting started. After all, even Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays struggled at first. Mantle was even demoted to the minor leagues for a short time.

 While not a revelatory exposition in the manner of the modern sports book, this is a simple, enjoyable, yet dated reading about the great game of baseball.