cover image Baseball Fathers, Baseball Sons

Baseball Fathers, Baseball Sons

Dick Wimmer, Richard Wimmer. William Morrow & Company, $15.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-07634-4

This insubstantial volume is based on a series of interviews with baseball players, most of them past or present stars, about their relationships with their fathers and/or their sons vis a vis sports. Television writer Wimmer (The Million Dollar Infield) is the father of two teenage sons who play baseball, a situation that prompted the gimmick for this book. The author talks with Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Boudreau and George Kell among the oldtimers and Wade Boggs, Mike Schmidt and Gary Carter among contemporaries and learns what might be expected: some of their fathers were indifferent to their sons' playing; others were excessively demanding; still others were supportive but never coercive. Most of the players interviewed say they will not pressure their own sons to star on the diamond. Photos not seen by PW. (June)