"Living on the Black"

When I wrote that the next book I would be writing about would be one of Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels, I should have realized that I would finish John Feinstein's latest book, "Living on the Black" first. I wanted to read this because of the New York flavor of the book plus I had recommended it to a friend for a graduation gift. Paul read it over Memorial Day weekend and kindly lent it to me. The book gives an inside look at major league pitching through the story of the 2007 seasons of Tom Glavine of the Mets and Mike Musina of the Yankees.

Feinstein is a good writer who has incredible access which makes any of his books an interesting read. I did learn about pitching from the book and enjoyed the inside look at such a recent season including the Mets devastating collapse at the end of the season. I also wonder sometimes, if Feinstein is such a popular writer that his publishers subject his books to minimal editorial review. I probably wouldn't think about this if I wasn't an author (possibly some jealousy here), but first of all there is the length of the book - over 500 pages. I can't help feeling that almost anyone else would have been asked to tighten the book considerably.

The other editorial issue is that one can count on finding errors in Feinstein's book sometimes egregious errors. At the end of the book, he writes that the Mets and the Washington Nationals are tied for the division lead - he meant the Phillies. It is not such a terrible mistake, but I wonder how editors and proofreaders can miss something like that. Much more serious in my opinion is when Feinstein writes that Joe Torre remembered the time in the 1957 World Series when Birdie Tebbets pitched two games on two days rest. Three problems with this statement - Tebbets was a catcher not a pitcher, he had retired by 1957 and was not even with the Braves as he was manager of the Reds in 1957. My guess is that Torre probably told the story, got the name wrong (could he have meant Lew Burdette?), but neither Feinstein or anyone else bothered to check.

Some of this may seem like quibbling, but I am bothered by serious errors of fact in any book - including my own. I do recommend "Living on the Black" for any serious baseball fan especially anyone who wants to learn about pitching. I would also say that in my opinion, Feinstein's two best books are "A Year on the Brink," his first book about Bobby Knight, and "A Civil War." The latter book is about one year of the Army-Navy football rivalry and I highly recommend it. Now back to Henry Clay (almost 200 pages into a 700 page plus book) and "The Duke's Children" which I again predict will be the next book I write about.