The Zen of Zim Baseball, Beanballs and Bosses

by Zimmer, Don; Madden, Bill; Piniella, Lou

• ISBN13: 9780312334307
• ISBN10: 0312334303
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-01
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

Summary

Don Zimmer is baseball. His first book, Zim-A Baseball Life , was a New York Times bestseller and one of the best baseball memoirs ever published. Now, in The Zen of Zim , one of baseball's most beloved figures offers readers an insightful look into the baseball of yesterday and today. Baseball fans will love hearing Zim's positions on such things as pitching inside, managing, bosses, and more. With more than fifty-six years in baseball, Don Zimmer had seen it all, or so he thought before he ran into George Steinbrenner. Here Zimmer provides a revealing account of his eight years as Joe Torre's right-hand man-and the jealousy, vindictiveness, and pettiness that ultimately destroyed a twenty-five-year friendship with Steinbrenner. Zim will also discuss the circumstances that led to his charging onto the field at Fenway Park and throwing a haymaker at Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez. He'll share with readers what it was like to work for other baseball owners; shed new light on general managers like Branch Rickey and Dan Duquette; and critique the managing styles of some of the most famous and notorious skippers of the twentieth century, from Casey Stengel and Earl Weaver to Gene Mauch and Billy Martin. In a chapter called "What Have They Done to My Game?," Zim will offer a crash course in baseball anthropology, describing how the game and its players have changed over the past fifty years and showing how big money and free agency have destroyed clubhouse camaraderie and turned a team sport into a transient game. In contrast, he celebrates his close-knit teammates on the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers team and the lifelong friendships that were made. Zim has seen it all, and here readers learn even more of his life and dreams and of baseball through a half century of experience. It is a story jam-packed with laughs and anecdotes, with excitement and comedy. And it is superbly told.

Author Biography

Don Zimmer's baseball career has spanned fifty-six years and seven decades. Zimmer went from top prospect to near tragedy after a beaning in the minor leagues, but he fought back to put together a prolific baseball career. He is the author of Zim-A Baseball Life, and he lives in Treasure Island, Florida.

Bill Madden is an award-winning columnist with the New York Daily News who has covered baseball for thirty-five years and has been a national baseball columnist since 1988. He is the author of Pride of October and coauthor of Damned Yankees and, with Don Zimmer, Zim-A Baseball Life. He has known Zimmer for more than twenty years.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Foreword by Lou Piniella	xi
Prologue: Yankee Stadium, October 26, 2003, 12:07 P.M.	1	(212)
1 Just Treat Me Like a Human Being	9	(24)
2 Beanballs and Haymakers	33	(20)
3 The Business of Baseball: Brains and Bosses	53	(18)
4 Pal Joe	71	(18)
5 What Have They Done to My Game?	89	(24)
6 Brooklyn, 1955	113	(20)
7 Just Keep It Close, Fellas, and I'll Think of Something	133	(24)
8 They Played the Game (The Way It Should Be Played)	157	(34)
9 Soot: A Baseball Wife	191	(22)
10 What's a .235 Hitter Like Me Doing on the Letterman Show?	213	(20)
Afterword: "We've Got a Nice Little Team Here, Donny!"	233