Change Up by Larry Burke and Peter Thomas Fornatale, (Rodale, 2008), 290 pages.
From the moment Change Up was published, it had a lot to live up to. The Glory of Their Times, Lawrence S. Ritter’s seminal oral history of pre-1945 baseball, was immediately installed as the benchmark against which it would be measured. Writing a book that could live alongside such an illustrious predecessor would be considered by many an unenviable task.
In approaching this challenge, Burke and Fornatale, with the assistance of Jim Baker, have focused on eight key events that they believe have shaped modern baseball. Each event is looked at in detail, ably supported by a host of relevant witnesses providing their own unique insights into the issue at hand. As such, each chapter not only looks at a specific case study, but also uses it as a springboard to delve into the broad theme. You are provided with both a close-up view and the wider perspective.
The eight key events are all good choices, ranging from the impact of Jim Bouton’s book Ball Four, to the growing influx of Asian players. The chapter on Frank Robinson is particularly welcome, allowing the authors (and their interviewees) to broach the substantial issue of racial integration without going down the admittedly very important, but well-trodden path of Jackie Robinson crossing the colour barrier in 1947.
Of course, not every baseball fan would agree that these eight events are the most important. The one major theme that is conspicuous by its absence is the dreaded shadow of performance-enhancing drugs. More accurately, the key event missing here is Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s “Run for ’61†from the 1998 season.
The grey areas that currently surround the story make it difficult to pin anyone down on the subject at this moment in time. While this is probably a fair comment, part of me feels a sense of relief to read a new baseball book that doesn’t beat you over the head with tales of moral outrage and grandstanding that the topic of PEDs inspires.
When using The Glory of Their Times as a reference point,you have to accept that, while it is an oral history, Change Up takes a significantly different format. What makes Glory … so captivating is that it is a series of monologues with different players, each taking you on their own individual journey. While Change Up provides the reader with some of that colour via a series of interlocking quotes, it cannot be expected to reveal the characters of the interviewees in quite such a vivid way as Ritter was able to capture.
It also has to be said that some of the participants to Change Up don’t add a great deal to the narrative. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were naturally chosen to comment on the impact Cal Ripken Jnr had on the game, having followed in his footsteps as ‘oversized’ shortstops; however their contributions are fairly bland and a cynically-minded reader might consider that they are there merely to add some ‘star name’ power (a view reinforced by their prominent billing in the blurb on the inside sleeve).
Where it does compare favourably is in the way it brings out different points of view. One of my favourite features of The Glory of Their Times is the way some events are talked about in opposing terms by different people and this is a real strength of Change Up. The chapter on the introduction of the Designated Hitter in particular brings out the strong views held on both sides of the argument, from people such as the broadcaster Bob Costas, who has long opposed the rule, to players like Edgar Martinez who have benefited tremendously from it.
Elsewhere, the chapter on The Birth of the Players’ Union is as good an introduction as you will find about this complex and controversial issue. The contributions from key figures Marvin Miller (executive director of the Players Association from 1966 to 1982) and Richard Moss (Chief counsel to the players’ union up to 1977) take you into the heart of the dispute and make you appreciate even more this current period of relative stability between the players and the owners. Similarly, the chapter on the arrival of Asian players in MLB is a good overview of the subject with some enlightening commentary, most notably from Don Nomura: the agent who brought Hideo Nomo to the States in 1995.
For all the qualities of these two sections, they don’t quite match the inspiring chapter on The Latino Wave, which is the highlight of the book. This section focuses on the Latino players who entered MLB in the 1950s and the impact they have on the game today. Many Latino players faced similar racist prejudice to that endured by afro Americans during the same period. Roberto Clemente, for example, was unable to attend a celebration honouring Pittsburgh’s 1960 World Series victory because black people were not allowed in the hotel where it was staged.
Yet Latinos faced many other difficulties as well, not least the language barrier and the mixture of excitement and trepidation that they felt upon leaving their families and friends in the pursuit of competing in the Big Leagues. Hearing about the struggles they faced through the passionate voices of Luis Tiant and Tony Oliva among many others makes you want to find out more about this part of baseball history that is perhaps less well-known than it should be.
Change Up won’t be referred to in forty years’ time as one of the great baseball books, in the way that The Glory of Their Times is today. That’s about as far as the ‘criticism’ can go though. This book provides unique insights into eight major topics that every baseball fan should know about. It can be recommended as an interesting book in its own right and as a launching pad to further reading on each of the subjects covered.
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