Review: Dewey (2024)

By Dwight Evans with Erik Sherman

When it comes to sports autobiographies, the usual rule is that anyone who is in his sport's Hall of Fame probably deserves to write one. It's always good to hear what immortals encountered along the way, especially since their lives usually popped up in famous moments. 

So what do we do about Dwight Evans?

The outfielder played 20 years in the majors, mostly with the Boston Red Sox. What's more, he was very good during much of that time. Was he good enough for induction in Cooperstown? The answer so far has been no. But he's still on the radar of the Veterans Committee to some extent, and there's a chance that he'll be voted in down the road. His stats match up well with players like Luis Gonzalez, Torii Hunter, Chili Davis and Billy Williams - all good, solid players, but Williams is the only one of the bunch in the Hall of Fame. 

Evans isn't taking any chances with the book stuff, though. He's out with his life story, called "Dewey." (Give Erik Sherman the assist with the manuscript.) Right away, there's a story about his name that's a surprise. It seems that Evans never particularly liked the first name of Dwight, since he had no connection to a certain 1950s President of that name. So his friends used Dewey.

Evans mostly reviews his life in baseball in this book, which is to be expected and welcome. He broke in with the Red Sox in the fall of 1972 after a relatively short apprenticeship. Evans arrived shortly before a couple of rookies turned up in Boston by the names of Jim Rice and Fred Lynn. By the mid-1970s, the three of them comprised one of the best outfields in baseball ... if not the best. If Evans didn't hit as well as his teammates, he probably was the best fielder of the bunch. Right field in Fenway Park, a notoriously difficult place to play, was never patrolled better than when Evans was standing in the middle of it.

Still, there was a feeling that he had more to offer offensively. A couple of pitches to the head were part of the problem in the 1970s. But eventually he recovered, and he also changed his batting approach under the coaching of Boston's Walt Hriniak. When the 1980s arrived, Evans was ready. He piled up the numbers during that decade, finishing first in homers in the American League during that decade and playing in some All-Star Games. Some of his value was hidden by the fact that we didn't value on-base percentage and fielding statistics back then. You could argue that he's still underrated because of that. 

Along the way, he certainly teamed up with some great players and was involved in some memorable moments. Evans was right in the middle of the 1975 and 1986 World Series, which both ended in heartbreak for the Red Sox. At least Dwight was a member of the Boston organization in player development in 2004 when they finally ended the Curse. 

Evans always seemed like a friendly enough person from a distance, and there are good words about most of his teammates and rivals here. A very good friend was and is Carl Yastrzemski, a Hall of Famer who did write a couple of autobiographies. One exception that surprised me concerned John McNamara, the Red Sox manager in 1986. Evans says he had a good relationship with McNamara, but did say the skipper had a drinking problem - news to me. Even when Dwight took a misstep in his relationships with co-workers, he managed to apologize and repair the damage.

What you probably don't know about Evans is the full story of his personal life. He had two sons, Timothy and Justin, who were afflicted with Neurofibromatosis, (By the way, they also had a daughter, Kirstin, did not have NF.) The illness caused a variety of health issues throughout their lives, and it was a difficult life at times for Dwight and wife Susan. The ballpark sometimes was a refuge, even though Evans sometimes felt guilty for leaving the burdens of the situation on his wife. Both boys died in their 40s. The parents credit their faith in moving on to the next day, but it's tough to imagine their daily routine ... or lack of it. 

After retirement, Evans has had a variety of positions in baseball. I recall that one time in the 1990s, he turned up in the press box of the Buffalo Bisons when I was there. He came across as smart, knowledgeable, and nice in our brief encounter. (An aside: Evans said that day that if baseball writer Peter Gammons wanted to be a team general manager, he'd be one of the five best such people in baseball in that position. I always remembered that.)  

"Dewey" isn't filled with sensational details, but it seems as if it's an accurate representation of Evans' thoughts on his life. The Red Sox fan in your household will find it to be a quick and pleasant read. 

Three stars

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Review: Five Banners (2024)

By John Feinstein

"Five Banners" might not be John Feinstein's best book, but he probably "enjoyed" writing it more than most of his other works. 

Feinstein graduated from Duke in 1977, and began a career in sports journalism that exists to this day. He had a really good seat for the Blue Devils' success over the years, which includes the five championships that Duke had under legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The University is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and the school's publishing arm decided to put out a book on the school's history-making basketball team. If you can't slap yourself on the book over such a terrific run, who can? 

Feinstein was the obvious choice to write it. He first visited the school in February 1973, looking for a landing spot for college. After seeing a basketball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, young John decided that Duke was the place to go for a higher education. Feinstein writes that when he arrived on campus the following fall, the Blue Devils didn't even have a coach. In fact, Duke was in the process of reaching out to Adolph Rupp, the legendary coach at Kentucky who retired in 1972 after turning 70. But in one of those little history-making moments, Rupp's business assistant died and he had to stay on his farm to oversee operations rather than coach basketball in Durham, North Carolina.

From there, Bill Foster took over the Blue Devils and eventually built up the program. The fruits of that labor arrived just after Feinstein graduated as Duke reached the Final Four in the spring of 1978. Foster eventually jumped to the University of South Carolina in a few years, while Krzyzewski was hired as the new coach.

Well, you know how that turned out. The list of Coach K's accomplishments is almost endless; it's filled with regular-season titles in the Atlantic Coast Conference, plenty of ACC playoff championships, several trips to the Final Four (Krzyzewski finished one ahead of John Wooden's old record), and those five championships and the accompanying banners mentioned in the title.

Feinstein has written a lot about Duke basketball over the years, and he more or less empties the notebook from his observations of that era. Some of the stories mentioned here have come up in other books. Happily, the author also took the time to reach out to several of the players and coaches of the Krzyzewski Era. There is some fun information revealed along the way.

And it wouldn't be a Feinstein book without some strong opinions expressed along the way. The NCAA and CBS take the odd shot, as do a few others like Rick Pitino. We wouldn't expect anything less at this point. 

"Five Banners" is a short book, checking in at a little more than 200 pages. It's not as if Duke's long-run of success was under-publicized at the time, so some basketball fans - especially the ones in Chapel Hill - might not want to go back there. But this easy read is certainly a well-done assignment on Feinstein's part, and certainly those in Durham will love revisiting those times. In other words, the book signings ought to be popular.

Four stars

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Review: A League of Our Own (2021)

By Damien Cox and Andrew Podnieks

When you take a trip to Canada to visit a used book sale, you never know what might pop up. However, the odds are pretty good that there will be a selection of hockey publications. 

In this case, I noticed a book called "A League of Our Own," written by a couple of familiar names Not only does it follow an unusual story, but it does it in an unusual way. This, it turns out, is a book with a split personality.

Let's go back to the NHL's 2020-21 season, which to be accurate started in January of 2021. The previous regular season had been cut down by the Covid-190 pandemic, and a "bubble" was set up in the following summer for the playoffs. The league managed to crown a champion, but conditions hadn't improved that much by the fall of 2020. Eventually, the NHL decided to stage a shortened season that would begin in January of 2021 and finish, well, whenever it was finished. A variety of rules were put in place to try to prevent a league-wide outbreak of the virus.

But certain concessions were necessary under the circumstances. Travel across the international border of the United States and Canada was much more difficult than normal, if not impossible. The league opted to set up an all-Canadian division for the first time in history. Teams in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver sure saw a lot of each other during those months. The rest of the league consisted of three divisions filled with American teams. Therefore, no Canada-U.S. matchups were set until the final four teams of the playoffs were set, by which time everyone hoped travel would be a bit easier.

Somehow, it worked - more or less. Some games had to be postponed when too many players on a particular team were put on the Covid-19 list. The schedule was adjusted on the fly constantly, and everyone connected with the teams had to be very careful about accidental "bumps." But we had a season, and a champion was crowned.

We are in good hands here with the authors. Cox is a veteran hockey writers with some good books to his credit, while Podnieks is more of a hockey researcher who clearly knows his history. They split the writing duties here, as Cox wrote about the 2021 season while Podnieks stuck to bigger topics in the hockey history of the seven Canadian cities. I noticed a couple of facts that were wrong along the way that concerned the Buffalo Sabres (a quote from 1970 and goaltending duties in 1977), but they won't concern too many people besides me. 

Cox has the tougher assignment of the two, and it shows. He has to cover seven teams spread out over almost 3,000 miles (Vancouver to Montreal), all during a pandemic. At least the teams played each other a lot in the somewhat abbreviated schedule. Still, it's tough to make those games interesting in hindsight. Podnieks goes back to interesting portions of the seven cities' hockey history, and raises some excellent points about where some particular teams went right and went wrong. 

So ... why isn't this book on Amazon, even the Canadian version? The authors self-published the book, and made an exclusive deal with Indigo (think of a store like Barnes and Noble in Canada, eh?) for distribution. No wonder this is hard to find in America. It's a rather professional job as these things go, even if the sideways photos and their captions are a little jarring. 

"A League of Our Own" is an interesting little souvenir of a particular time and place. Maybe it's not a great fit for American audiences, but those who stumble across it no doubt will learn some things about hockey in Canada along the way. 

Three stars

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Review: Iron Mike (2024)

By Mike Keenan with Scott Morrison

I once had the chance to interview noted hockey coach Mike Keenan in a small group setting. In other words, I was in his office in St. Louis with one other reporter after a morning practice. After about 10 minutes with Mike, I have to say I was impressed. He was obviously a smart person with some interesting points to make about our questions. No wonder he won a lot of games - even if he had a reputation as Hockey's Machiavelli.

Therefore, it was an easy call to acquire a copy of his autobiography, "Iron Mike." What would he have to say about his entire hockey career?

It's fair to say that Keenan puts his various sides of his personality on full display here. He had an almost unmatched passion for winning, and drove all of his players hard toward that goal - too hard, in some cases. Keenan also generated plenty of opinions from all who knew him. It adds up to an unlikely but successful career.

Keenan first received a little notice in our part of the hockey world in 1981. He was an unknown junior coach from Ontario when Scotty Bowman of the Sabres tapped him to become the head coach of the team's minor league affiliate in Rochester.  Keenan won a championship in the American Hockey League with the Americans. From there it was on to the University of Toronto for a year before landing the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Flyers - a team that was supposed to be rebuilding.

Surprise. The Flyers reached the Stanley Cup Finals that first season, losing to the powerful Edmonton Oilers. Suddenly everyone knew that the man could coach. Keenan stayed through 1988, when some internal problems cost him his job. Note: That last part of the sentence will come up again. Keenan landed in Chicago, where he led the Blackhawks to the finals in the spring of 1992.... but was out of work before training camp. 

The Rangers eventually called at that point, and Keenan was behind the bench when New York ended a 54-year drought with a memorable Stanley Cup victory. However, he and Neil Smith never did see eye-to-eye, and Keenan eventually left for a job in St. Louis. From there it was on to Vancouver, Boston, Florida and Calgary in various capacities. There were other problems with people along the way. Keenan now is getting ready to coach the Italian National team in the 2026 Olympics. 

By the way, Keenan has a bit of a surprise for his old friends in the Buffalo-Rochester area. He writes that he was approached by the Sabres to replace John Muckler as the team's general manager in 1997. There aren't any details, but it's interesting to wonder how Keenan might have done in Buffalo. For starters, would he have coached the team? In any event, the Sabres' future would have been much different had Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff not turned up to run the team in 1997.

Keenan spends a little time on some of his coaching techniques here, and they weren't for the faint of heart. Yes, he would exile players to the locker room during practice for a lack of effort, threaten them with trades to other teams, etc. Occasionally a player - or players - would rebel. There were some frequent quarrels with team executives over personnel, as Keenan always pushed to acquire certain types of players that he thought could help him. It could be said that he sounds like football coach Bill Parcells in that sense. Parcells used to complain about personnel moves, and then issued the famous quote, “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”

The acknowledgements are quite revealing when it comes to Keenan's level of commitment. He knows he drove himself and everyone around him too hard during his NHL coaching days, and paid a price for it on and off the ice (a couple of failed marriages are a reflection of that). Keenan once ordered a change of hotels in Washington on short notice because the team had lost in its previous visit there. He asked to fire a national anthem singer because his rendition was too slow. So be sure to read the whole book.  

It's a complicated package to fit into one mind, and it seems as if the book could have been even longer than it is. Still, "Iron Mike" is a chance to listen in on the thoughts of a personality that has been anything but dull over the years. Those who encountered him along the way in one form or enough certainly will be interested in hearing his side of the stories in full.

Four stars

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Review: 1962 (2021)

By David Krell

It doesn't take long for readers of "1962" to realize that David Krell's book goes into unusual territory. 

As in, the first paragraph of the book, in the acknowledgments, on page ix - right after the table of contents.

Krell, who has a book about the Brooklyn Dodgers to his credit, at first wanted to write a book about baseball's two expansion teams in the National League in 1962: the Houston Colt 45s (later the Astros) and the New York Mets. But Krell's writing teacher proposed making the book all about America in 1962, and not just about baseball. I guess the teacher wasn't a big baseball fan. 

Therefore, this book covers a lot of ground. Let's put it this way - you don't read many publications that mention Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, and Roman Mejias, the Colt 45s outfielder, within the same covers. 

Krell picked a reasonably good year to look at baseball in an historical sense. The 1962 expansion followed the 1961 action by the American League of putting teams in Los Angeles and Washington. Baseball was starting to catch up with the idea that the sport needed to land in new cities in order to grow as well as fight off attempts from rival leagues from providing expensive competition. This particular round of expansion put the proposed Continental League out of business. 

Houston and New York were attractive as membership candidates for different reasons. Houston was a growing Sun Belt city, thirsting for big league status. Until 1962, there were no major league teams in the South; St. Louis was the closest thing to it. Houston became the region's team, at least until other franchises ended up in such places as Atlanta and Dallas. New York had lost both of its National League teams after the 1957 season, but was clearly big enough to have another team join the Yankees of the American League. 

Of course, baseball owners being baseball owners at the time, they thought that the new teams would be happy with crumbs in their first few years. As a result, Houston had a bad team for some time, while the Mets were quite terrible until their memorable turnaround in 1969. 

In the meantime, it was almost business as usual at the top of the business. The Yankees returned to the World Series, as they did like clockwork. The Giants edged out the Dodgers (who had just moved into a new stadium) in a playoff to earn the right to compete for a championship, and the final game went down to the final pitch in memorable fashion.

That would seem to be the good start to a baseball book, even if it would need a good summary at what happened from there. But it's merely one of the points covered in a very diverse story. It is roughly done in chronological order, as each month receives a chapter and covers a couple of highlights. 

There was a lot going on in 1962. The obvious start was the American space program, which saw some of the original astronauts head into space. There was the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, which almost led to a nuclear exchange. Three women receive mini-biographies in August. You may have heard of Marilyn Monroe, but the story about a woman who became the host of TV's "Romper Room" - only to lose her job in Arizona because of her request for an abortion - will be unknown to most and quite fascinating in many ways. An African American woman who graduated from the University of Georgia also is quite enlightening. Books, television shows and movies are also covered. (By the way, no other sports besides baseball come up, which overlooks the rise of the National Football League in those years.)

As you may have guessed, there's a problem with all of this. There's no unifying theme. The anecdotes are well researched, and Krell is obviously a smart guy who makes some good points along the way. But what does it all mean? That's tough to say. 

Come to think of it, it's difficult to figure out where to put this book on my bookcase, which is arranged by subject. Baseball? Nonfiction? "1962" will be of interest to those who remember the year. I'm simply not convinced that Krell wouldn't have been better off sticking to his original idea.

Three stars

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