Cobb Would Have Caught ItWayne State University Press
1991
338 pp
Subtitled "The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit," Cobb Would Have Caught It is a superb history of a ball team, its players and the city that loved it before, during and after the Great Depression. Cobb is really two books - a narrative history of the Tigers and the City of Detroit from the late 20s through the early 50s and a collection of player remineces from interviews Bak conducted with many of the players from that era. Combined into a single volume, the book is a fascinating and comprehensive account of the Tigers in that period.
Bak is a wonderful writer - clear and succinct, he keeps the reader's interest throughout the narrative chapters. The interviews are edited into some of the best oral histories I've read from players' of that period. They are full of descriptions of what life was like for players, their attitudes toward their teammates and opponents, etc. Bak has edited them so that they read well and are easy to follow.
There is little need to need to go on. If you have any interest in Tigers' history, it's a must read. Even if you just have an interest in this period of baseball, and presumably you do if you read this blog, it's one of the best books I've read that communicate a vivid picture of what life was like for ball players during this period. It's only limitation is that it only directly covers the Tigers. However, many of the players interviewed moved around (some only played a couple seasons in Detroit), so many of the stories cover other teams as well.
In short, every team and every period of baseball deserves a book like Bak's on the 1930s-1940s Detroit Tigers. I learned about the book from reading Bill James' Historical Abstract, which quotes from Bak's interviews in many of the player profiles from that period.
Rating: For Tigers' fans: **** (buy new); for all others: *** (worth purchasing used)
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