The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand: The Game as Umpires See It

by Lee Gutkind and Professor Lee Gutkind

Book Overview

To provide this unique--if controversial--look at major league baseball as umpires see it, Lee Gutkind spent the 1974 season traveling with the umpiring crew of Doug Harvey (crew chief), Nick Colosi, Harry Wendelstedt, and Art Williams, the first black umpire in the National League. The result is an honest, realistic, insightful study of the private and professional world of major league umpires: their prejudices and petty biases, their unbending...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809321955
• ISBN13: 9780809321957
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A brutally honest, yet very engrossing read.

Very few people know what the rigours and stresses of a pro sport official are as well as the personal setbacks and of course the professional flaws. This book has all of the above, excellently written and clearly shows what being a major sports league's messenger (since umpires just enforce the rules) is really like. Just as now, the dealings with overpaid, spoiled players, coaches and managers are well described. One of the best books I've ever read.