Clearing the Bases: Juiced Players, Monster Salaries, Sham Records, and a Hall of Famer's Search for the Soul of Baseball - Softcover

Schmidt, Mike; Waggoner, Glen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060855002 ISBN 13: 9780060855000

Publisher: It Books, 2007

Synopsis

Clearing the Bases is a much-needed call to arms by one of baseball's most respected players. Drawing on his experiences as a third baseman, a manager, and, most recently, a fan, Mike Schmidt takes on everything from skyrocketing payrolls, callous owners, and unapproachable players to inflated statistics, and, of course, ersatz home run kings.

But Schmidt's book goes beyond the Balco investigation and never-ending free-agent bonanzas that dominate the back pages. It also examines all that's right with our national pastime, including interleague play, expansion, and, most surprisingly, better all-around hitters. Riveting, wise, and illuminating, Clearing the Bases is a hall of famer's look at how Major League Baseball has lost its way and how it can head back home.

About this title

About the Author:

Mike Schmidt is the greatest-hitting third baseman in the history of baseball. Named Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Sporting News, he was selected to the MLB All-Century Team in 1999. He lives in Florida with his family.

Glen Waggoner, a founding editor of ESPN The Magazine, is the coauthor of Bobby Murcer’s New York Times bestselling autobiography A Yankee for Life, as well as the bestsellers My Life In & Out of the Rough with John Daly and Clearing the Bases with Mike Schmidt. Waggoner was one of the founding fathers of Rotisserie League Baseball, which sparked the fantasy sports movement in America.

From Booklist:

What would otherwise be a light narrative on life as a major leaguer--with opinions thrown in on various baseball issues of the day--is suddenly serious reading when the author is Mike Schmidt, a Hall-of-Fame third-baseman and one of the best to play the game. Although Schmidt backs off the statement he made on HBO last summer about steroid use--he would have used them, he said then, if they had been available when he played--readers of this volume will appreciate how Schmidt's drive to succeed might have led him to performance-enhancing drugs. Schmidt offers thoughtful opinions on home-run records broken in the steroid era (no asterisks, but view them with clarity), on Pete Rose (ban from managing, but admit into the Hall of Fame), on selecting players for the Hall (use a panel of Hall members for their seasoned input), and on the finer points of playing and managing the game. There are some good anecdotes on teammates, too. Recommended for its ongoing discussion of baseball's concerns and because it's Mike Schmidt doing the talking. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: It Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060855002
• ISBN 13: 9780060855000
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224