• About Me
  • My Personal Testimony
  • RIP Roger Ebert
  • Movies
  • Contact Me
Recent Posts
  • 2020 Deaths Playlist December 31, 2020
  • Human Feel November 26, 2020
  • My Story of 3D Realms / Apogee November 2, 2020
  • George Takei September 24, 2020
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock August 29, 2020
Skip to content
A Cup of JoeA Cup of Joe

Observations, rants, and musings by Joe Siegler.

  • About Me
  • My Personal Testimony
  • RIP Roger Ebert
  • Movies
  • Contact Me
    • Book Review

You’re Out – And You’re Ugly, Too!

  • byJoe Siegler
  • Posted on June 30, 2003
  • 2 minute read
0
0
0

You’re Out and You’re Ugly, Too! : Confessions Of An Umpire With Attitude
by Ken Griffey, Durwood Merrill, Jim Dent

Click here to buy this book
Synopsis: After decades of abuse and spittle, Major League umpire Durwood Merrill strikes back with some pretty incisive, funny, and no-holds-barred anecdotes. When his book stays in the game, it’s a real hoot, light and folksy; how can you not laugh with a guy who can admit that “Folks around the American League say I’ve sent a few pitchers to the Hall of Fame before their time because my strike zone tends to swell like George Steinbrenner’s ego”? It’s his own ego, though, that has him swinging for the seats and coming up short; he’s not much of a memoirist. Thankfully, like a good umpire, he keeps his personal interference to a minimum and mostly sticks to business, offering some tough prescriptions for what ails the game, and some solid dissection of the intricacies of his craft. His thoughts on Pete Rose might lead you to believe that Charlie Hustle is the book’s title character.
Joe’s Remarks: When I first bought this book, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. I had heard a few negative things about it, and kind of had a prejudice against it. Boy, was that wrong! I found this to be a very funny, lighthearted read (for the most part). There’s some really wonderful insights into what it takes to become a big league umpire – never quite realized all they went through in “Umpire boot camp” (my term). It’s not all fun and games, there’s a few stories about how an umpire friend of his was attacked and crippled on the streets of Dallas, and the latter part talks a lot about his charity works.
A great book – funny, light, and to be honest, something that surprised me in a very good way. What was personally annoying was that after I read this (during the last month of the 99 season), I wanted to watch Durwood, and then he up and retires during the playoffs. Damn. Really wanted to see him after reading his book. Oh well. Check it out, a good light read.

Join the Conversation
  1. Joe Siegler says:
    December 30, 2004 at 8:11 pm

    Testing of comment on old entry.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Donate

Why is this here?

Me


Follow @JoeSiegler
Category Archives
Featured Posts
  • My Story of 3D Realms / Apogee
    • November 2, 2020
  • Duke Nukem Forever Interview
    • February 11, 2011
  • Wolfenstein 3D Turns 25!
    • May 5, 2017
Me


Follow @JoeSiegler
Donate
Why am I asking? I don't have any advertisements on this site anymore. I used to, but removed them. You can read why here. Please consider donating.

Twitter Feed
avatar
jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ
@JoeSiegler
179 Following
2K Followers
My 1977 & 2020 model Atari controllers. I got the #AtariVCS recently, and I rather like the feel of the classic co… https://t.co/f0EqcYUQHN
3 hours ago
  • Reply
  • 1 Retweet
  • Favorite
Follow On Twitter
Archives
Created with Wordpress. Using ShadeGarden Theme by Dany Duchaine.
Swim, Swim, Hungry!