Joe Cronin : a life in baseball /

This is a well-written biography of a significant figure in Boston baseball history. A Hall of Fame shortstop and the youngest player-manager in professional baseball, Cronin took over the Red Sox in 1935, when they were still recovering from the departure of Babe Ruth 15 years earlier. By the end of WW II, the Red Sox, under Cronin's leadership, were poised to begin a dynasty with Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky: they had won the American League pennant in 1946 and seemed set to dominate for a decade. This never happened. Armour provides a thorough account of all of this, discussing how the Red Sox organization, under manager Cronin and owner Tom Yawkey, watched from the sidelines while African American baseball players revolutionized the game. The Red Sox were the last Major League team to field a black ballplayer--in 1959, after Cronin had moved on to become president of the American League. This readable, well-documented biography of Cronin, who became an elder statesman of the national pastime, is candid, honest, and reverential. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. S. Gittleman Tufts University

This is a rich account of one of the 20th century's great player-managers, his rise from modest beginnings all the way to Cooperstown, and presidency of the American League. Armour (coauthor, Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way) deserves the greatest praise in light of not only Cronin's importance but also of the critical elements that form the book's second half: the role of race in sport and America, the rise of unionism, and the class interests of those claiming to have the welfare of fans in mind as they decided upon franchise location, playoff timing, etc. Though Armour is fair in his criticisms of Cronin, he also rightly points out the great contributions of a man whose love for the game brought him to the attention of popes and presidents. Recommended. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.