Mr. Book just finished Willie’s Time: Baseball’s Golden Age, by Charles Einstein.

This book was published in 1979, with a 2004 introduction to a reprinting.

A unique feature of this book is the chapters. The book is divided into five chapters, each one covering the portion of Mays’s career by president. The chapter names are Harry, Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon. But, then it seems as if the author makes the mistake of thinking that a presidency starts at the beginning of the year in which they are eventually elected. There are also occasional inconsistencies as to what went into what chapter.

This book tries to blend a Mays biography with what else was happening in the nation. But, the book was far better when it just stuck to baseball. The other historical material, as well as the author’s rants about society, just didn’t work well and fit into this book. And, there was no reason for the author to devote an entire paragraph to see how many Polish jokes he could fit into the book.

I give this book a C.

Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a C equates to 2 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.

Mr. Book finished reading this on December 15, 2024.