St. Louis Cardinals (Baseball)

Rating:
Summary: An introductory history of the pre-McGwire Cardinals
Review: At the end of "The History of the Cardinals" author Michael E. Goodman talks about how the team's fans are excited by the arrival of Mark McGwire in St. Louis. The book ends at the start of the 1998 season when McGwire joined Willie Mays at the only other NL player to homer in the first four games of the season. Now, of course, Big Mac has retired from baseball, but what he did in the interim certainly added another great chapter to the history of the Cardinals.

This book is clearly intended for young fans, who will be disappointed to realize there is not a single photograph of a player still with the team. Amazing how much the Cardinals's roster has changed in just a few short years. However, the strength of Goodman's book is that it gives those young fans an introductory history of their favorite franchise from Rogers Hornsby to the Gas House gang of Dizzy Dean and Frank Frisch, to the legendary Stan Musial, to the powerhouse teams of Bob Gibson and Lou Brock in the 1960s and the speed merchants of Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee in the 1980s.

The book is illustrated with color photographs of some players of recent vintage, although a two-page spread of Delino De Sheilds at bat is a rather odd choice. However, there are also photographs of Ozzie Smith doing his patented flip and a nice shot of Stan the Man. The narrative history features one-inch square photographs of key players from Miller Huggins to Ray Lankford. This is not a great history of the St. Louis Cardinals, but it is a fine introduction for young fans who will certainly finds lots of other books from which to learn more about the Redbirds of the past.

Rating:
Summary: An introductory history of the pre-McGwire Cardinals
Review: At the end of "The History of the Cardinals" author Michael E. Goodman talks about how the team's fans are excited by the arrival of Mark McGwire in St. Louis. The book ends at the start of the 1998 season when McGwire joined Willie Mays at the only other NL player to homer in the first four games of the season. Now, of course, Big Mac has retired from baseball, but what he did in the interim certainly added another great chapter to the history of the Cardinals.

This book is clearly intended for young fans, who will be disappointed to realize there is not a single photograph of a player still with the team. Amazing how much the Cardinals's roster has changed in just a few short years. However, the strength of Goodman's book is that it gives those young fans an introductory history of their favorite franchise from Rogers Hornsby to the Gas House gang of Dizzy Dean and Frank Frisch, to the legendary Stan Musial, to the powerhouse teams of Bob Gibson and Lou Brock in the 1960s and the speed merchants of Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee in the 1980s.

The book is illustrated with color photographs of some players of recent vintage, although a two-page spread of Delino De Sheilds at bat is a rather odd choice. However, there are also photographs of Ozzie Smith doing his patented flip and a nice shot of Stan the Man. The narrative history features one-inch square photographs of key players from Miller Huggins to Ray Lankford. This is not a great history of the St. Louis Cardinals, but it is a fine introduction for young fans who will certainly finds lots of other books from which to learn more about the Redbirds of the past.