Zack Wheat: the Life of the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer: Review

Zack Wheat: the Life of the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer by Joe Niese is my first read of a book by a fellow SABR-member. And all I can say is it is well written an researched. Sure, that can be expected from SABR-members, but still…

I've mentioned it before in my blogs, for years the Brooklyn years of the Dodgers were one black and white blurr filled with players I only knew by name. Then I started reading about the boys of summer and they all came alive.

Then the daffiness boys got their turn and the Bridegrooms, but the 1910’s were still a big black hole for me. Sure, I’ve heard of the likes of Wheat and Grimes and Dahlen, but I never got to reading about them. Turns out…not many is written about those guys. So I kinda stumbled on the Niese book.

Niese manages to bring Wheat to life. With statistics but also with personal details. It takes the reader to the first two Dodgers World Series appearances and mentions plenty of teammates and even gives you a better picture of Wilbert Robinson (I really have to read more about this guy!).

In short, Joe Niese knows how to paint a picture, he got me more enthusiastic about the Dodgers era when they were called the Superbas and Robins.