Carl Erskine's Tales from the Dodger Dugout - Softcover

Carl Erskine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582613419 ISBN 13: 9781582613413

Publisher: Sports Publishing, 2001

Synopsis

The famed Boys of Summer -- a.k.a. the Brooklyn Dodgers -- were some of baseball's best and funniest players. The group included Hall of Famers Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, and Jackie Robinson, the game's first black player. For the first time, Carl Erskine, another member of that legendary team, relates memories about his Dodger days. The result is a delightfully interesting trip through the world of 1950s baseball. Among Erskine's tales are his dealings with the immortal Branch Rickey, his view from the Dodger bench of Don Larsen's perfect game, and his firsthand experiences when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

About this title

About the Author:

Carl Erskine played twelve seasons with the Dodgers. Following his retirement in 1960, he returned to Anderson College in Indiana to coach baseball for twelve seasons, during which time his teams won four Hoosier College Conference championships and earned an appearance in the NAIA College World Series. He continues to be a community leader, participating in numerous organizations and businesses.

Burton Rocks is the coauthor, with former New York Yankee Paul O'Neill, of the New York Times bestseller Me and My Dad.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Brooklyn's beloved Oisk recalls life in Ebbetts Field and after.Erskine was a pitcher for the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the '40s and '50s, a 12-year major-league veteran who logged 122 victories, including a pair of no-hitters. As one of the famed Boys of Summer, he appeared in six World Series, most of them against the hated rivals from the Bronx, the New York Yankees. Off the field, Erskine is a soft-spoken Hoosier native, an affable, even sweet man, and it is those qualities that shine through this pleasant, if inconsequential book of anecdotes. At the outset of the book, Erskine writes, I can tell these stories because I was there, and he was, indeed, present for many of them, but too many of the items recounted herein are stories that have been told before elsewhere, often by better tale-bearers than the likable banker from Anderson, Indiana. However, there are a few real gems in this volume, ranging from Preacher Roe's decision to retire to a recipe for the buttermilk cake that became a lucky talisman for the '55 world champions from Brooklyn. There are, appropriately, a raft of stories about Branch Rickey, focusing on the Dodger general manager's legendary combination of penny-pinching, piety, and perspicuity. Erskine recounts the tale of Rickey's signing Jackie Robinson to become the first black major leaguer, but this is a story that has been told many, many times before. He also recounts some very funny anecdotes about contract negotiations with the tightfisted Rickey (including one in which he actually managed to get the better of the Dodger g.m., albeit with a little assist from the Commissioner's office). Erskine is a charming reminder of a simpler sports age, seemingly more innocent than today's mega-dollar, television-driven industrial era, but he is also smart enough to recognize and intimate that his own times were not quite as noble as they are painted by nostalgia buffs. Unfortunately, the book suffers from a total and complete lack of organization, with stories presented in no apparent order. Real fans, however, won't mind.A painlessly amusing walk around the old Dodger haunts in a Brooklyn that is no more. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sports Publishing
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1582613419
• ISBN 13: 9781582613413
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200