I MANAGED GOOD -- BUT, BOY DID THEY PLAY BAD

by Jim & Neil Often -- Eds. Bouton ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1973

The title is a quote attributed to Rocky Bridges, Jim (Ball Four) Bouton's ""all-time-favorite"" manager. Favorite because Rocky, a tobacco-chewing flake, was always good for a laugh -- he once flashed signs from the third-base coaching box standing on his head. But then, unlike the other dugout geniuses recalled in this collection, Bridges never got beyond the San Jose Bees, definitely bush league. There are anecdotal pieces on the old-time greats like John McGraw, the crusty Giant dictator who once freed a player for hitting a home run, and Casey Stengel, the matchless wizard of serendipitous syntax; on such modern durables as Walter Alston of the Dodgers, Leo Durocher late of half the clubs in the National League and now the Astros (?), and Ralph Houk, Bouton's ""best manager I ever played for""; and, for balance, a few portraits of in between guys like the Mets' Yogi Bear and the champion A's Dick Williams. Contributors include Roger Kahn, Bill Veeck, Bob Considine, Gordon Millstein, John Lardner, Ed Fitzgerald (a wonderful profile of Marse Joe McCarthy), and of course Bouton himself who gives us more on the hapless Joe Schultz, the man who made ""Let's go get 'em and then pound some Budweiser"" famous. The bleacher crowd will love it.

Pub Date: June 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Playboy Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION