The Bittersweet Journey: America's Fascination with Baseball

by Richard C. Phalen

A far-reaching oral history of the game of baseball, The Bittersweet Journey will leave readers with a better understanding of baseball and America by explaining what Americans do during the summer and why they do it. Players, sportswriters, and fans explain what the game means to them.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965384616
• ISBN13: 9780965384612
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: McGregor Publishing
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Sweet Review

Phalen's book is a wonderful oral history which includes interviews with some of baseball's most colorful characters. Included are interviews with offbeat characters such as Jimmy Piersall, Jim Bouton and Dock Ellis. The best interviews are the ones with more pathos that show those on the periphery of baseball or baseball success. The author clearly loves baseball and is able to communicate that love in this book. This will be thoroughly enjoyed by any fan of our national pastime.

A Bittersweet Journey

Just when I'm tempted to give up on baseball, along comes "A Bittersweet Journey" to remind me why I can't. Through his contacts and interviews with Hall-of-Famers, not-so-famous players, umpires, sportscasters, writers and observers, Rick Phalen shows why the sport still has an emotional hold on us, both because and despite itself. Some great stories told by the people who lived them, and they do run the full range from bitter to sweet. An enjoyable book to read, it leaves you wanting to go outside and play catch...

That Sensation Called Baseball

A thoughtful and well-conceived book that transcends the several generations of its focus. While the pleasurable nature of this work should be shared by the reader with anyone having even a casual interest in baseball, the book should be kept close at hand for return perusals. "A Bittersweet Journey" is aptly named as it touches a broad range of emotions and memories, with the result being a more acute sense of appreciation on the part of the reader for why a trip to the ballpark, the play by play of a familiar announcer, or a simple game of catch in the backyard are experiences that are fondly recalled but frustratingly difficult to explain to those inexperienced in that sensation called baseball.

Bittersweet Journey: Baseball

This book reflects the "grip" that baseball has onour lives as fans, and those involved in the game. Phalen provides uswith insights well beyond peanuts, popcorn and crackerjacks. A compelling look at the "cold hearted mistress", we call baseball.

A Sweet Read

A wonderful book for anyone interested in pro baseball and its place in the social history of the past 50 years--as told by the people who lived it. Phalen is a well-informed, unobtrusive interviewer. He asks carefully targeted questions then steps aside while Jimmy Piersall, Bobby Thomson, Vin Scully, Jim Bouton, and dozens of others tell their stories. A Bittersweet Journey is not just for Father's Day, or Dad, or this year.