Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? - by Jimmy Breslin & Bill Veeck (Paperback)

About the Book

A vivid history of the Mets, preserving for all time a wonderful look at New York's other team, is written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Book Synopsis

Here, back in print, is Jimmy Breslin's marvelous account of the improbable saga of the New York Mets' first year, as Bill Veeck notes in his Introduction, "preserving for all time a remarkable tale of ineptitude, mediocrity, and abject failure." Indeed the 1962 Mets were the worst major league baseball team ever to take the field. (The title of the book is a quote from Casey Stengel, their manager at the time.) Breslin casts the Mets, who lost 120 games out of a possible 162 that year, as a lovable bunch of losers. And, he argues, they were good for baseball, coming as a welcome antidote to "the era of the businessman in sports...as dry and agonizing a time as you would want to see." Although they were written forty years ago, many of Breslin's comments will strike a chord with today's sports fan, fed up with the growing commercialism of the games. Against this trend Breslin sets the exploits of "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry, Stengel, and the rest of the hapless Mets.
"Wonderful."-Charles Salzberg, New York Times.
"A touching, enjoyable, and interesting addition to anybody's sports reading list."-Patrick Conway

Review Quotes

"Part sports, part politics, all New York, it tells the story of the American metropolis changing with the help of the likes of Marvelous Marv Throneberry and Choo Choo Coleman." --Dermot McEvoy, Publishers Weekly

"Breslin's well-written book remains a hilarious read." --Jeff Diamant, Newark Star Ledger

"A magnificent account of the 1962 New York Mets; their first season in existence." --New York Sun

"Mets fans will enjoy this book, as will general history buffs." --MLB.com

A magnificent account of the 1962 New York Mets; their first season in existence.

Breslin's well-written book remains a hilarious read.

Part sports, part politics, all New York, it tells the story of the American metropolis changing with the help of the likes of Marvelous Marv Throneberry and Choo Choo Coleman.

About the Author

Jimmy Breslin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of Newsday, has also written The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight and The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez, among other books. He lives in New York City.