The Bookshelf Review: Just Like Me

Just Like Me: When the Pros Played on the Sandlot, by Kelly G. Park (Sunbury Press, 2020)

Guilty pleasure time: One of the things I’ve been doing during my convalescence is binging some shows I had previously overlooked. One such program is Young Sheldon, since I was a big fan of The Big Bang Theory. One story-line I found particularly interesting was that Sheldon’s twin sister, Missy, wanted to play baseball, which means she had to deal with the “anti-feminist” sentiments of Texan males.

Which leads me to the topic of this review. Undoubtedly Missy will have memories, both fond and upsetting, about her days on the sandlot. That’s what  Kelly Park covers with his new book, Just Like Me.

There have been oral histories before, but I’m thinking this is the first one devoted solely to the topic of amateur baseball.But this one has a new slant in that it seeks ballplayers across the spectrum. There are major leaguers spanning the generations such as Boog Powell, Phil Roof, Jim Kaat, Lou Pinella, Haqk Taylor, Jim Hickman, Lou Whitaker, Whitey Herzog, Steve Blass, Fergie Jenkins, Doug Flynn, Willie Blair, and Willie Horton. (Charlie Lloyd, who played in the Yankees organization but never made it to the bigs shares his thoughts, too.)

There are also representatives from the Negro Leagues (Bill Greason, Jim Zapp) and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (Lois Youngen, Katie Horstman) that makes Just Like Me stand out from the crowd.

It might be hard to conceive that just about everyone who’s ever played the game on a professional level had to get their start as a little child. Sure, there are outliers who didn’t take it up until high school or even college, but those are a minority. (Maybe there’s a book in them.)

Many of the stories, especially from the ones who made it to The Show, are similar. It’s the others that set them apart, hearing how the AAGPBL alumni developed their interest in a sport that wasn’t “meant” for them.

A minor drawback is that there seems to be very little editing of the interviewees. In a sense, that’s good and honest, but many of these people could have used a gentle hand in making their nostalgia a bit more readable.