Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"―The 1973–1975 Texas Rangers - Softcover

Shropshire, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803292775 ISBN 13: 9780803292772

Publisher: Bison Books, 2005

Synopsis

“Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, ‘If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we’re in deep trouble.’ When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, ‘Whitey, obviously, has seen me play.’” In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, not realizing that the Rangers were arguably the worst team in baseball history. Seasons in Hell is a riotous, candid, irreverent behind-the-scenes account in the tradition of The Bronx Zoo and Ball Four, following the Texas Rangers from Whitey Herzog’s reign in 1973 through Billy Martin’s tumultuous tenure. Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-seventies

About this title

About the Author:

Mike Shropshire is a longtime journalist who has written for numerous newspapers and magazines such as Sports Illustrated and is the author of several books, including When the Tuna Went down to Texas: How Bill Parcells Led the Cowboys Back to the Promised Land. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A tiresome ``gonzo'' journalism account of mid-1970s life on the road with a big league ballclub. As a 30-ish beat writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Shropshire drew the unenviable task of covering the Texas Rangers, a sad-sack team recently relocated from Washington, D.C. (where they were a 1961 expansion descendant of the original Senators team that became the Minnesota Twins--a fact misstated by the author). In a bit of characteristic overstatement, Shropshire comments that the ``Texas Rangers were not really a franchise but rather like a Kurt Vonnegut novel.'' And during his stint with the club, the author witnessed (admittedly through a haze of booze and prescription painkillers) some of the game's most absurd goings-on, some of which actually occurred on the field. While the Rangers were not a quality attraction, Shropshire probably should have spent more time reporting on the team's play (which, at least during 1974, wasn't all that bad--they did challenge the powerful Oakland A's for the American League West title) rather than take his regular discursive excursions into the seamy north Texas baseball demimonde of whores, booze, and fistfights--or, even worse, describe his frequent hangovers (``My head was like a gelatinous, blimp-sized container of nerve endings''). Still, for all this noodling, Shropshire does manage some dead-on character sketches, notably of 18-year-old phenom David Clyde, a number-one draft pick who, as a result of being prodded into service too soon in his career in order to fill seats at the Rangers' cavernous and cadaverous ballpark, turned out to be one of the game's biggest busts; Billy Martin, the mercurial, self-destructive manager of the '74 and '75 clubs; ``Strange Ranger'' Willie Davis; and other players, coaches, fans, and sportswriters. This book is unfortunately hamstrung by its author's tortured delivery. It's the literary equivalent of a knuckleball; good on occasions but difficult to handle. (photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0803292775
• ISBN 13: 9780803292772
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 245