"Oh, Baby, I Love It"

If you have attended meetings of the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter, you may be aware that it has become kind of a standing joke that a book that ALWAYS seems to be on the book exchange table is "Oh, Baby, I Love It" by that renowned lightning rod for criticism, Tim McCarver. Greg Crouse of the Cleveland Chapter and I have exchanged this book at least three different times over the years.

Well, after picking this book up, again, at the Cleveland meeting last month, I decided that I would actually read the thing. The book was written in 1987 while McCarver was a broadcaster with the Mets (and the Mets were coming off a World Series win), so it is now, 25 years later, an historical period piece, but it isn't all that bad. If nothing else, you can read great stories about Bob Gibson, one of my own all-time favorites, and Steve Carlton. He also raves about Dwight Gooden, at that point a three year major leaguer, and mentions how it appeared that Doc was headed towards being one of the all-time greats. Tim obviously had no crystal ball regarding the road that Gooden was destined to head down.

The last 55 pages of the book are devoted to the Mets championship season of 1986, and I admit that I pretty much skimmed over that section, but I found it interesting that he devoted slightly less than one full page to the well remembered Game Six, and the famous Mookie Wilson to Bill Buckner ground ball gets two sentences. Now, of course, the legions of McCarver Haters out there will no doubt rake him over the coals for not giving this play pages and pages of flowery George Will-type prose, but keep in mind that this was written in the months just after that game was played. I find it interesting how the prism of history may have elevated the memory of this game to a level that a contemporary account did not foresee.

I also found it interesting, as I always do in such books, when McCarver talks about how a player reacts and feels when his career is over. Tim had prepared himself for a post-playing career, but so many players do not. Kind of sad, really.

As baseball books go, this one will never make you forget "Eight Men Out", "The Glory of Their Times", or "Ball Four", but you could do worse in the baseball literary field. "Oh, Baby, I Love It" will be on the Book Exchange Table at our SABR meeting on April 28. Drop by and it's yours for the taking!