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Doug Harvey Autobiography. They Called Me God: The Greatest Umpire That Ever Lived.

Majordave

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Majordave

Majordave

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Teaser.  I am reading this book in short bursts via Kindle Reader App for MacBook and iPhone.  

 

I just read a section where Harvey is talking about the 1962 (The year I was born by the way) St. Louis Cardinals and what SOB's they were, especially Bob Gibson.  He is discussing how Gibson even treated his own teammates poorly, especially his catcher, Our favorite announcer-Tim He-who-shall-not-be-named.  Then he comments about He-who-shall-not-be-named's catching abilities, or lack thereof, when it came to catching Gibson.  

 

 

"We called He-who-shall-not-be-named “Ironhands,†because when Gibson was pitching, he didn’t catch a lot of the balls, and the umpire behind him would get beat to SH*#. Gibson was tough to catch. He’d throw his fastball, and just as it reached the plate it would start to slow down, and then it would jump three inches— monstrous movement. I don’t know how he did it. He held the ball by the stitching and threw it hard. The ball would start to slow down and then it would explode, moving one way or the other. And He-who-shall-not-be-named had a tough time catching him."
 
Copied from:  Harvey, Doug; Golenbock, Peter (2014-03-25). They Called Me God: The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived (Kindle Locations 1396-1400). Gallery Books. Kindle Edition. 
 
 
Note:  Some software mod that Warren has on here changes the announcer/former catcher's real name to "He-who-shall-not-be-named".  Pretty cool feature.  AND, it changes the dirty word to a SGT Snorkel style curse like in the comics.  Love this website.
 
Man I love reading about old time baseball.
 
More from time to time as I find interesting information to share.
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Majordave
Majordave

I feel ya LRZ. My first uniform was flannel and baggy. I always wore my stirrup socks showing and sanitary hose under them from age 13 on. We left gloves at foul line in outfield when I first start

JHSump
JHSump

I just finished the book also.   I agree that he was arrogant at times.  But he was also humble at other times.  It was clear he had high integrity, and much love for baseball.     Somehow, I thou

LRZ

LRZ

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"Man I love reading about old time baseball."

 

Man, I feel like I'm a hundred years old. That's my youth you're talking about, Majordave. "Old time baseball" is when players left their gloves in the field when they came in to bat, when they didn't wear numbers on the back of their uniforms, when umpires wore beanies (wait, they did when I first started ump'ing--forget this one)....

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Majordave

Majordave

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I feel ya LRZ.

My first uniform was flannel and baggy. I always wore my stirrup socks showing and sanitary hose under them from age 13 on. We left gloves at foul line in outfield when I first started playing. Our batting helmets were some kind of weird plastic-like wing with a strap that covered our ears only. I never swung aluminum. Dad bought me two Louisville Sluggers a season. Any others were on my or I had to borrow. We did not wear cleats initially just tennis shoes.

The last HBO "When It Was A Game 3" was about the sixties and early 70s before Curt Flood case and Free Agency. Ends with the game became a business. Which is so true.

I miss the old days of baseball. Harvey's book took me back to those days.

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Pete Peterson Sr

Pete Peterson Sr

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Teaser.  I am reading this book in short bursts via Kindle Reader App for MacBook and iPhone.  

 

I just read a section where Harvey is talking about the 1962 (The year I was born by the way) St. Louis Cardinals and what SOB's they were, especially Bob Gibson.  He is discussing how Gibson even treated his own teammates poorly, especially his catcher, Our favorite announcer-Tim He-who-shall-not-be-named.  Then he comments about He-who-shall-not-be-named's catching abilities, or lack thereof, when it came to catching Gibson.  

 

 

"We called He-who-shall-not-be-named “Ironhands,†because when Gibson was pitching, he didn’t catch a lot of the balls, and the umpire behind him would get beat to SH*#. Gibson was tough to catch. He’d throw his fastball, and just as it reached the plate it would start to slow down, and then it would jump three inches— monstrous movement. I don’t know how he did it. He held the ball by the stitching and threw it hard. The ball would start to slow down and then it would explode, moving one way or the other. And He-who-shall-not-be-named had a tough time catching him."
 
Copied from:  Harvey, Doug; Golenbock, Peter (2014-03-25). They Called Me God: The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived (Kindle Locations 1396-1400). Gallery Books. Kindle Edition. 
 
 
Note:  Some software mod that Warren has on here changes the announcer/former catcher's real name to "He-who-shall-not-be-named".  Pretty cool feature.  AND, it changes the dirty word to a SGT Snorkel style curse like in the comics.  Love this website.
 
Man I love reading about old time baseball.
 
More from time to time as I find interesting information to share.

 

 

 Great story about He-who-shall-not-be-named. On ESPN Sports Century (Bob Gibson episode), Gibson's brother related the story of H-W-S-N-B-N going to the mound to see Gibson. He said "Here's how we need to pitch this guy". Gibson replied: "The only thing you know about pitching is that it is hard to hit. Now get your ass behind the plate where you belong". I have laughed at that ever since...

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LRZ

LRZ

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So far so good.  Four chapters in. He is/was a confident son of a gun.

Considering the subtitle, I'm not sure "confident" is quite the word I'd use. Bill Klem, for one, might disagree with Harvey.

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RichMSN

RichMSN

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I read it in a day. Not my favorite book written by a former umpire, to be honest.Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Feel comfortable telling us why you did not like it?

 

 

I just think he remembers himself as being better than he actually was.  When he writes about how he was so much better than other umpires because he called "17 inches of the plate and nothing more" in the book and then there's YouTube proof that he's remembering things differently than actually happened, well...

 

(Watch this:  

-- also, this is the game where they ended up with the not-possible compromise double play where Harvey ended up having a long conversation with the commissioner or league president in the stands.)

 

That and there are blatant historical errors in the book.  Without even researching, here's two:

 

(1) He claimed Jocko Conlan was behind the plate for Larsen's perfect game.  It was Babe Pinelli.

 

(2) He claimed that he worked a game with Pete Rose playing for the Phillies and Dwight Gooden pitching for the Mets.  Rose's last game with the Phillies was in 1983 and Gooden's ML debut was in 1984.

 

I'm amazed that Golenbock didn't fact check any of this -- what's his role otherwise?

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BT_Blue

BT_Blue

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I'll have to compare this book to "The Best Seat In The House, But You Have To Stand". I really liked that one as it followed a crew around for the whole season (I want to 77 or 78... I cant remember).

However, Harvey was definitely larger than life as an umpire. And his legend is something that constantly seems to grow in umpire circles.

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cuban

cuban

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Teaser.  I am reading this book in short bursts via Kindle Reader App for MacBook and iPhone.  

 

I just read a section where Harvey is talking about the 1962 (The year I was born by the way) St. Louis Cardinals and what SOB's they were, especially Bob Gibson.  He is discussing how Gibson even treated his own teammates poorly, especially his catcher, Our favorite announcer-Tim He-who-shall-not-be-named.  Then he comments about He-who-shall-not-be-named's catching abilities, or lack thereof, when it came to catching Gibson.  

 

 

"We called He-who-shall-not-be-named “Ironhands,†because when Gibson was pitching, he didn’t catch a lot of the balls, and the umpire behind him would get beat to SH*#. Gibson was tough to catch. He’d throw his fastball, and just as it reached the plate it would start to slow down, and then it would jump three inches— monstrous movement. I don’t know how he did it. He held the ball by the stitching and threw it hard. The ball would start to slow down and then it would explode, moving one way or the other. And He-who-shall-not-be-named had a tough time catching him."

 

Copied from:  Harvey, Doug; Golenbock, Peter (2014-03-25). They Called Me God: The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived (Kindle Locations 1396-1400). Gallery Books. Kindle Edition. 

 

 

Note:  Some software mod that Warren has on here changes the announcer/former catcher's real name to "He-who-shall-not-be-named".  Pretty cool feature.  AND, it changes the dirty word to a SGT Snorkel style curse like in the comics.  Love this website.

 

Man I love reading about old time baseball.

 

More from time to time as I find interesting information to share.

I miss you. I'm sorry I let you down. I miss you!

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Majordave

Majordave

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Frank,

 

That sounds so gay.  Sorry, it just does.  The rest of this may sound just as gay.  (for those of you who don't know- Frank "the Cuban" and I had a serious umpire "bromance" for several years.  My ex-esposa (a female) expressed concern because we, Frank and I, spoke on the phone so often.  I'm not sure about how Frank's significant other (also female) felt about our bromance.  He never said.   Anyway, he let me down on a place to crash last summer for a night and I left him a seriously demented voice mail about how he let me down, why he pissed me off for not calling me back and cost me $100 or so for a last minute hotel room.   I am over it.  We have not spoken for almost a year.  This is our first contact since last June.  Hope you guys are enjoying the drama.)

 

Frank I hope your new marriage is going well.  Kid on way yet?  You are fine.  I expressed my thoughts, spent the $100 bucks I didn't want to spend, made it up the next day working 5 or 6 games with Harvey then moved on.  All is well.  Working my butt off here in KS, MO, IA and NE.  Did some GLVC conference work lately involving our favorite team, Tracy and his Wonderboys from SIU out here in KC beating up on the locals.  Lots of NAIA and JUCO ball with some HS in two states mixed in.  Men's league and summer wood bat college leagues coming up.

 

Hope you are finally getting games at the level and respect you deserve.

 

Dave

(I am a Drama Free Zone!)

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JHSump

JHSump

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I just finished the book also.

 

I agree that he was arrogant at times.  But he was also humble at other times.  It was clear he had high integrity, and much love for baseball.  

 

Somehow, I thought the book did not have enough about umpiring, odd as that might sound.  He had some tips, but they were nothing all that special.  You come across these tips in just a few hours on UE.

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JHSump

JHSump

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I bought the kindle version, $11.04 (and no delivery charge, of course).  Was certainly worth that price.  By the way, there is a free kindle app for windows machines (possible other machines), so you don't need a kindle to read the kindle version.

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cyclonehokiece

cyclonehokiece

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Definitely a good, quick read. Some good stories, egotistical at times (but so are most books in this genre) but worth it. Like I said earlier, get it from a local library, nice read but not one you will need to read more than once.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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fallschum04

fallschum04

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I got it from my local library and expected to take the maximum three weeks to read it. I finished it in 3 hours. It's very interesting even though some of the writing seems to sound like he was writing down verbatim whatever he could remember. But all in all, a very good book. Some of the stories in it are pretty funny.

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