This Ain't Brain Surgery
Reviewed by William Boyle, SUNY-New Paltz
APRIL 28, 2005 archive
Well, the Yankees are in the basement and I’m overwhelmed by schoolwork – Needless to say, it’s been a tough April. That’s why I’m so thankful I chanced into reviewing Larry Dierker’s superb This Ain’t Brain Surgery: How to Win the Pennant Without Losing Your Mind. To tell you the truth, it’s a book I probably never would have picked up otherwise. And it’s a book that – in these last couple of months – has reenforced everything I love and have always loved about baseball. Above all else, baseball is a game that inspires wonder and Dierker – former player, broadcaster, and manager for the Houston Astros – illuminates that nicely.
First, my credentials: Well, I have next to none. I was a killer short-stop in little league, and I pitched until my second year of high school, when I threw my arm out and just wasn’t good enough anymore. I watch every ballgame I can. I’m an avid fan, but I haven’t so much as swung a bat in ten years. That said, it’s my feeling that This Ain’t Brain Surgery is, among other things, an expert technical manual by a man who has played ball and played well, coached and coached well, and even announced well. Baseball has been his whole life, and, when those with such deep experience talk, we should listen. Not only pitchers (Dierker himself was a pitcher and has good advice for pitchers) and ballplayers should listen, but anyone who loves baseball should turn an ear to Dierker. His appreciation for the game is contagious; in fact, this book should be required reading for any serious baseball fan. Late in the book, Dierker quotes former manager Mayo Smith: “Open up a ballplayer’s head and you know what you’d find? A lot of little broads and a jazz band.” It’s my guess that if you opened up Dierker’s head, you’d find a heck of a lot more. Not only is his knowledge of baseball encyclopedic and his advice sound but he is a fine writer. In fact, Dierker’s book is not only the best book on baseball I’ve read in the past year, it’s the best memoir period. As a point of contrast, I offer another memoir I’ve read recently – Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One. Seemingly, the books have nothing in common. Aside from the fact that I’m a big Bob Dylan fan and a big baseball fan, I’d be hard-pressed to make any connection stick. What I can comment on is the quality of the writing. Dylan is most certainly a brilliant songwriter but his prose lacks cohesiveness. He allows himself to wander, shifting tenses almost at will, and making a fascinating mess of his story. Dierker, on the other hand, is consistent and economical. He has plenty of experience, having written a column for the Houston Chronicle for some time, but his writing is far above that of the average sportswriter. Judging from allusions in the text, he’s an avid reader and I’d bet green money that he knows his Hemingway. In a time when most sports bios are ghost written or told to a hack writer, it’s refreshing to see Dierker lay it out in his own words. What’s most refreshing is that he’s a capable, efficient, and startlingly good writer.
Recently, I read an interview with Tom Waits, where Waits used the term “deficit of wonder” to define the problem that plagues society today. In an age where people are concerned chiefly with getting things done faster, an age where wonder has generally fallen by the wayside, baseball has endured and has continued to provoke the best kind of wonder. In these past few months, though, with the steroid controversy in the headlines, things have been called into question. Anyone in doubt should read Dierker’s book. In the end, he teaches us how to love well America’s greatest game and, when you love something well and truly, you must stick with it.
Larry Dierker. This Ain’t Brain Surgery: How to Win the Pennant Without
Losing Your Mind. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. $16.95
(paper), ISBN 0-8032-6651-0.
Copyright © 2005 by William Boyle