The Zen of Zim

From Publishers Weekly
Teaming up again with Madden, Zimmer (Zim: A Life in Baseball), formerly of the Yankees, now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, recalls more than half a century of glories and challenges and gives his spin on the changes in baseball—good and bad—observed over a lifetime in the game. Ironically, one of his biggest complaints is batters displaying their indignation over close pitches. Zimmer condones the inside pitch as a strategic necessity, which might seem inconsistent for someone who almost died on two occasions from being hit in the head, or "beaned." In an unusual move for a sports memoir, he devotes a chapter to his wife, Soot, and turns the narrative over to her to speak about the difficulties and rewards of being an athlete's spouse. One of his charms is the ability to poke fun at himself. "What's a .235 hitter like me doing on the Letterman show," he asks, amazed and amused by the attention he has received over the years. Zimmer is refreshingly honest, whether expressing his gratitude for the friendships cultivated in and out of sports or criticizing players and bosses. Given the dirt as he could dish, he is restrained and considerate, which makes for a nicely balanced memoir. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Zimmer, a veteran of more than 50 years in baseball, is old school. His mentality rushed to the fore in last year's playoff series between the Yanks, for whom Zimmer served as bench coach, and the Red Sox. Trying to protect his players from what he felt was head-hunting by Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, Zim decided to go mano a mano with a man 40 years his junior. For his trouble, Zim got a seat on the turf and a very embarrassing, endlessly looped SportsCenter highlight. But Zimmer has overcome much greater obstacles in his career. His skill as a player was marginal, but he lasted a dozen years on smarts and versatility. Here, as he did in the best-selling Zim (2001), he regales readers with highlights from 50 years of anecdotal wisdom. Fans will be most interested in his account of the dissolution of his heretofore-good relationship with the Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. On balance, a fine baseball book meant to entertain and celebrate that rarest of lives in which an individual finds himself "livin' the dream." Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Don Zimmer is baseball. His first book, Zim-A Baseball Life, was a New York Times bestseller and one of the best baseball memoirs ever published. Now, in The Zen of Zim, one of baseball's most beloved figures offers readers an insightful look into the baseball of yesterday and today. Baseball fans will love hearing Zim's positions on such things as pitching inside, managing, bosses, and more.

With more than fifty-six years in baseball, Don Zimmer had seen it all, or so he thought before he ran into George Steinbrenner. Here Zimmer provides a revealing account of his eight years as Joe Torre's right-hand man-and the jealousy, vindictiveness, and pettiness that ultimately destroyed a twenty-five-year friendship with Steinbrenner.

Zim will also discuss the circumstances that led to his charging onto the field at Fenway Park and throwing a haymaker at Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez. He'll share with readers what it was like to work for other baseball owners; shed new light on general managers like Branch Rickey and Dan Duquette; and critique the managing styles of some of the most famous and notorious skippers of the twentieth century, from Casey Stengel and Earl Weaver to Gene Mauch and Billy Martin.

In a chapter called "What Have They Done to My Game?," Zim will offer a crash course in baseball anthropology, describing how the game and its players have changed over the past fifty years and showing how big money and free agency have destroyed clubhouse camaraderie and turned a team sport into a transient game. In contrast, he celebrates his close-knit teammates on the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers team and the lifelong friendships that were made.

Zim has seen it all, and here readers learn even more of his life and dreams and of baseball through a half century of experience. It is a story jam-packed with laughs and anecdotes, with excitement and comedy. And it is superbly told.



About the Author
Don Zimmer's baseball career has spanned fifty-six years and seven decades. Zimmer went from top prospect to near tragedy after a beaning in the minor leagues, but he fought back to put together a prolific baseball career. He is the author of Zim-A Baseball Life, and he lives in Treasure Island, Florida.

Bill Madden is an award-winning columnist with the New York Daily News who has covered baseball for thirty-five years and has been a national baseball columnist since 1988. He is the author of Pride of October and coauthor of Damned Yankees and, with Don Zimmer, Zim-A Baseball Life. He has known Zimmer for more than twenty years.



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In his second book, Zimmer (Zim: A Baseball Life) offers further affectionate reminiscences of his 55-year career in baseball, ranging from his performance as one of the lesser Boys of Summer in Brooklyn during the 1950s to his role as bench coach for Joe Torre's New York Yankees. With some help from coauthor Madden (award-winng columnist for the New York Daily News and author of Pride of October), Zimmer refers fondly to a series of general managers who backed him during his managerial stints in San Diego, Texas, Boston, and Chicago, but he also cuttingly recounts the purported pettiness and cold-bloodedness of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. On a more positive note, Zimmer presents the case for the entrance of Jim Rice, Ryne Sandberg, and Andre Dawson into the baseball Hall of Fame. He also lauds the play of all-time performers like Stan Musial and Willie Mays while calling Barry Bonds "a giant (literally) playing among boys" who "has done more to drive managers crazy." But for Zimmer himself, Steinbrenner appears to serve that function, which led to in the coach's voluntary departure from the Yankees after the 2003 World Series. For general libraries.-R.C. Cottrell, California State Univ., Chico Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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