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Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates | 
 enlarge | Author: John Albert
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $2.95
You Save: $20.05 (87%)
New (9) Used (19) Collectible (2) from $2.63
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 116895
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0743246322
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.3570979494
EAN: 9780743246323
ASIN: 0743246322
Publication Date: August 9, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New - may have a small remainder mark on the edge.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Baseball book August 13, 2008
Great book - read this book. Funny stories about junkies and a few bits about playing baseball as well.
 More than just baseball March 24, 2007
I'm a picky reader and I normally don't dish out five stars for delightment. Well, here's my two cents:
I never liked baseball that much. Now a book about baseball would frighten me away. I've never been interested in reading about people involved with drugs, cross-dressers, call-girl romances, alcoholics, and even crazy sexual exploits.
I learned about the book through a friend and thought to myself, "oh what the heck. If I hate it after the first three chapters, I'll sell the book."
I read the first page, then the second and for some reason, I found myself on the fourth chapter. After that, I couldn't put the book down. It has practically everything that I mentioned above (drugs, sex, cross-dressing etc) and with a dollop of baseball. Perhaps the fact that it is a memoir that makes it all the more of a page-turner. I kept thinking to myself, "wow, this is an entirely other world with people trying to survive Hollywood." And throughout the book, I sympathize for all the characters (well, they're real-life people). Also, Mr. Albert gives the truth about "Hollywood's Wasteland": people who dream of making it big but fall short. Baseball becomes their road to recovery.
Because Mr. Albert was able to hold my attention for all those pages, I must give him five stars. (btw, I'm keeping the book!)
Home Run Writing February 14, 2007
I read this book a few weeks ago and have been pondering how to phrase my review ever since. At first, I wanted to say simply that I couldn't put the book down. I read it in a 24-hour period, losing sleep in order to get to the end. How often has that happened in my life? First time was with Witch of Blackbird Pond when I was 10. Then Outsiders at 12. And Exorcist at 14. But as an adult? I think the last time was Ironweed.
The writing is that good. The story that engrossing.
But there's more to it. I've been a baseball fan forever. And one of my most memorable dates was in New York, watching the sun setting over the stadium, wrapped in a boyfriend's arms and sneaking sips of beer from his plastic cup. It was romance in motion, set at the ballgame.
This book is nothing like that.
Flash forward to same boyfriend in L.A. We'd both moved to Los Angeles within months of each other, and were inseparable. Until he took me to a Dodger game and explained that he still wanted to see me, but now that he was trying to be an actor, he wanted to be available to f*ck some starlets, too. Same game. Same man. Different coast. Different setting.
This book is much more like that.
I'm giving it to my friends this year on their birthdays. I'm reading it over again when the images start to fade. And I'm writing gushing fan letters to John Albert to tell him that he pulled me in from start to finish.
Punks Rocks = Bad Jocks May 12, 2006
A good one here. The writing is good, the story is catchy and the characters are OK. It may be the jock in me but i actually wish there was more baseball in the story. But anyone 30+ who lived or still lives in the punk hardcore world should appreciate it.
More than anything else, i got a real sense of Southern California life from this book. It captured the true nature and setting of the place better than anything else i have ever read. God, i hate California, and this shows me why. Cool tidbits on how life as a youth has changed from then to now as well.
Junkies unite! October 25, 2005
Great story about junkies/go-no-wheres uniting to create a sanctuary of sanity through baseball. Great snapshots of meandering lives and decisions gone awry. Some name dropping from the punk/metal/rock scene that could make it worth any Jane's Addiction fan's time worth while. Couldn't stop reading. Ripped right through it.
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