The Southpaw (Second Edition)

Also, if you know little about baseball, the book will be hard to follow when it describes game action.


Highly enjoyable and humorous   April 25, 2001
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I truly enjoyed this book the more and more I read it. I am a baseball fan so I definitely got caught up in the pennant race, but what captured my imagination was the essence of the story. The story features characters and events and descriptions that just feel so real and they are in the eyes of Henry Wiggen. It's strange that Henry gives us all this information and details of his early baseball career, but yet he needs to figure out what is really important in his life. I commend Harris for fabricating a story that felt genuine and did not cheat the main character by straying off the plot which is to be about Henry Wiggen. I also appreciate the breaking down of the baseball mystique of its players - reading about Sad Sam Yale and Dutch made me realize even more how far baseball players really are separate from heroes.


wonderful   January 21, 2000
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

if you care anything at all about baseball, you must read this book. the pennant race is captivating. the dialogue is so refreshing. the time so simple, that it is really a breath of fresh air in a time of $17 million dollar a year salaries.


My Favorite Book( when I was a teen)   December 5, 1999
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I read this book at least once a year when I was growing up in the early 60's. The first few times were for the baseball, but that became less & less important. I insisted my fiance read it before we were married so she could understand "where I was coming from". I'm here(at Amazon.com) now to buy copies for some friends of mine. I wish it was still available in hardcover! I couldn't recommend it more highly.


Simply the greatest novel of baseball fiction ever written   July 10, 1999
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The story of Henry Wiggen and the New York Mammoths is one of the most enjoyable novels I have ever read. You will not want this story to end as Henry finds his way from small town to big city and to the big leagues. This simply and beautifully written novel is filled with timeless truths about life and baseball. I cannot recommend it highly enough.