Customer Reviews:
 This is genuine "inside baseball" November 6, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found this book enthralling and (if the word hasn't been too overused to have lost all meaning) unique. Every baseball fan has heard and read countless postgame comments by managers and is all too aware that, for obvious reasons, such remarks are far from candid. Now managers are even interviewed during the game on many telecasts, but candor is still a rare commodity. What purports to be inside information consists far too often of timeworn truisms and meaningless cliches. By contrast, Red Rolfe's diaries, which were written contemporaneously and never intended for publication, give the reader unparallelled access to what really goes on inside a manager's head. Rolfe never pulls any punches in breaking down the factors that led to a specific victory or defeat. This book is a gem and William Anderson's skilled editing enhances its appeal.
 The View from the Dugout July 9, 2006
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Most of the work is a review of the Tigers's games from 1949 thru 1952 summarizing the turning points in each contest with very little insight into the managerial strategy of Rolfe. At the end of each recap there are comments by Rolfe concerning the mundane perfomances of his players and why the game was won or lost. There should have been more emphasis on how Rolfe actually prepared for each game and the strategies that he planned employ against each opponent instead of the brief summaries that covered each game. A View from the Dugout was more like a review from the press box.
This Book Fills A Void in Tiger Baseball History April 17, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Author William Anderson edited this book on the journals of former Tigers' manager Red Rolfe for the same reason I read the book. He was 12 years old when his father took him and his brother to his first game in 1950 to see the Tigers, and he became hooked on Hoot Evers. As an 8 year old I was just becoming a Tiger fan in 1952 listening to the games on the radio with my grandfather when I became hooked on Johnny Groth. Unfortunately, this time period has been pretty much ignored in covering the team's history. The Bengals finished a respectable 4th in 1949 with Rolfe the Red at the helm, and made a run at the American League pennant in 1950 before finishing three games behind the New York Yankees. Unfortunately, with the exception of George Kell, the big bats of Wertz, Groth, and Evers were silenced in 1951 compared to the previous year. The pitching suffered as well with the loss of Art Houtteman to the army. Determined to add power to the lineup in 1952 Charley Gehringer, who had replaced Billy Evans as general manager, swung a big trade sending Kell, Evers, Johnny Lipon, and Paul "Dizzy" Trout to Boston in exchange for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Johnny Pesky, Don Lenhardt, and Bill Wight. Fred Hutchinson replaced Rolfe as manager, and the team actually played slightly worse under Hutch than it did for Rolfe as the team finished in last place for the first time in its history. This book was of special interest to me because it brought to life Red Rolfe's comments for the games he managed in Detroit at the time period I became interested in following them. Rolfe's wife faithfully kept score of the games to make it easier for him to have the time to write a journal. An important piece of Detroit Tigers' baseball history has been preserved for us thanks to Red Rolfe, his wife, and editor William Anderson. My only regret is that I wish my boyhood hero, Johnny Groth, had agreed to be interviewed by William Anderson.
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