[.ca] Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck (ISBN 0226852180)

Wife picked up this book:
I just finished reading this wonderful autobiography a few days ago. Since I do most of my reading in bed next to my wife she heard me laughing quite a lot late at night last week. She just picked up the book to read this evening, and I heard her laughing a lot tonight.

They do not make sports bios Like THIS anymore.....:
The two things you need to know before you buy "Veeck -- As In Wreck" -- and you will buy this book, you must, if you've ever bought any professional sports bio before -- are the names Veeck and Linn. Bill Veeck you know from reputation -- the wacky promoter who invented everything from Ladies' Day to Disco Demolition Night. The man owned several baseball franchises (including the Chicago White Sox twice, for some reason), and was known as a both a promotional genius and a shrewd financier. As for Ed Linn... well, Linn was also the ghostwriter for another fantastic, edgy, opinionated baseball book, Leo Durocher's "Nice Guys Finish Last". Not surprisingly, "Veeck" reads a lot like the Durocher tome (and it came first, too!). On every page here you'll find a funny anecdote, a scary bit of prescience, and a unique look at an otherwise-beloved icon. With Veeck's memory and Linn's acid pen, this book is quite hard to put down. Or to pick up, for that matter. Sports bios tend to hold back these days, let's face it. They're not as long and not as insightful as the Linn books. And the gift of time has helped ripen these pages. When Veeck talks about baseball's financial need to institute interleague play -- writing from 1961 -- you know this man saw around a few decades' worth of corners. When he takes the Yankees to task for failing to capitalize on Roger Maris's pursuit of the Babe Ruth home run record, and notes that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, he's right -- so baseball got it right in '98, when McGwire came to town, and when the record fell yet again in '01, hardly anyone noticed. In the meantime you'll laugh at the sad fates of Bobo Holloman and Frank Saucier, the latter being the only ballplayer ever to be removed from a game for a midget. You'll be intrigued by Veeck's take on Larry Doby, and by his bitter retorts at Del Webb, then-owner of the hated behemoth Yankees. And you'll marvel at just how little has really changed in baseball since Veeck was retired. Owners plotting franchise shifts in shady back-room deals (Montreal, Florida. Florida, Boston). Owners doing everything to baseball except what really benefits the sport (It's a tie in Milwaukee!). Veeck lamenting not the high price of talent but rather the high price of mediocrity (how much is Colorado paying for Denny Neagle and Mike Hampton?)... Just about the only highlight not covered is the sight of White Sox outfielder Chet Lemon wearing shorts. One of the few Bill Veeck innovations that did not catch on, and aren't we all better off...

He was a fun guy!:
I read this book when I was thirteen, and read it again twenty years later. I enjoyed it both times. Spend a few hours with a man who loved baseball and is honest about being a little less than honest.

Excellent storyteller:
I literally could not put this book down from start to finish. Whether you like baseball, dislike the Yankees, or just enjoy rooting for the one guy who could have saved baseball from the financial and legal disasters of the past 50 years, this book will be one of the best you have ever read.

A Baseball Classic:
This book is considered a classic because of the great inside information and the "smack 'em in the face" comments from Bill Veeck, the one-time owner of the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns and the two-time owner of the Chicago White Sox. Veeck pulles no punches in discussing his views on the powers in baseball, including his favorite punching bag, the New York Yankees. Veeck is also very entertaining in describing his relationships with some great characters of the game. I really enjoyed this book.