The Gashouse Gang

I have a passion for baseball that stretches all the way back to 1986, when I turned 2 years old and wanted to go to a baseball game for my birthday. I learned how to read when I was 4 because my father was sick of reading the baseball scores to me. By the time I was 6, I could tell you most of the big players on all of the sports teams. By the age of 10, I had begun to memorize yearly stats of certain players. To this day, baseball remains one of my favorite passions. For some reason, though, I don't read a lot of baseball books.

My grandmother purchased me the book The Gashouse Gang, by John Heidenry because she knows I like baseball and reading. I wasn't so sure that I would enjoy it. It chronicles the story of the "Gashouse Gang," the nickname for the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals team that would go on to win the World Series. The Cardinals are a division rival of the Houston Astros, my co-favorite team (along with the Philadelphia Phillies), so I naturally don't have the best feelings towards them.

Heindenry spins a marvelous tale throughout these pages. He weaves biographical information, wacky tales, and historical details about the 1934 season into a seamless narrative. The story revolves around the amusing Dizzy Dean, the ace of the Cardinals' pitching staff. He is a character of Tall Tale status, an American legend from the early days of live-ball era baseball. His wild personality rivals that of modern head cases like Nyjer Morgan and Manny Ramirez. The reader also gets a taste of the other members of this motley crew, like strong-headed Joe Medwick, player-manager extraordinaire Frankie Frisch, eccentric Pepper Martin, future HOF coach Leo Durocher, and the frugal-to-a-fault yet saintly genius general manager Branch Rickey.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which is as much a passionate anthem to the glory days of old-time baseball as it is to this particular Cardinals team. Baseball then was a different sport - a bit rougher, more down-to-earth, and full of characters. Back then, baseball was truly America's national pastime.

Heindenry is at his best in the book when he weaves together stories of the players and the St. Louis team with the day-to-day baseball stuff. Towards the end he focuses on the historical run of the Cardinals at the end of the season and then the playoff run. He eschews most of the stories and sticks to a play-by-play analysis of the games. Things get a bit slow then, especially since I bought into this book more as a tale of old-time baseball than as a tale of this particular team's season.

If you enjoy baseball, then this is a worthwhile read. If you don't enjoy baseball...well, it's still a good book, but the last third of the book may lose you.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

66/100 books...about 2/3 of the way!