Author John Nogowski has a unique way of remembering some of the biggest names of all time in baseball, with his updated edition of The Last Time Out: Big-League Farewells of Baseball’s Greatest.
Just when you may think that you know everything about a sport, someone offers up a new nugget or two of history that is excitingly addictive. Nogowski is my new research hero. So, I received a copy of his updated edition of The Last Time Out. My first flip through all 296 pages blew me away.
The book has 45 chapters, each about seven pages long, covering many Hall of Famers, All-Stars, and World Series champions. Chapter 45, "At Last, in The Show," is a very special bonus. I’ll leave it at that. The kicker of the book is how these memorable giant names of baseball fared when stepping up to home plate or taking to the pitching mound for the last time in their careers.
George Brett, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, Ted Williams, Bob Gibson, and the list thankfully goes on. Regardless of your baseball history knowledge, you are guaranteed to learn so much about so many in The Last Time Out.
For instance, Nogowski starts off with Babe Ruth’s final at-bat on May 30, 1935, with the Boston Braves. Yes, the Babe, after 21 years split between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, played his last season with the dreadful Braves.
It was during the first game of a Memorial Day doubleheader at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park with the Athletics that Ruth swung his bat for the last time. A’s pitcher Jim Bivin got the Sultan of Swat to ground out to first baseman Dolph Camilli. Hitting .183, with just six home runs in the lowly Braves’ first 27 games, the Babe would leave the team and the game for good.
The particulars about why Ruth ultimately took a hike from the A’s is telling. This is why the first eight pages will hook you on the following pages. Nogowski dishes a plethora of details, here and in all chapters that will have you say - “I did not know that” with a new found pride in baseball history.
Next up, Ty Cobb, arguably the game’s greatest hitter, had a memorable farewell to the batter’s box in Yankee Stadium. With just a couple of weeks left in the 1928 season, Cobb, who was playing in his second season with owner/manager Connie Mack’s Athletics, stood in the box against Yankees’ starter Henry Johnson. Mack called upon Cobb, in his 24th season, who finished his career with a .366 batting average and 4,189 hits, to pinch-hit in the game’s ninth inning. He fouled out to shortstop Mark Koenig in his final at-bat.
With two weeks left in the season, and Philadelphia out of the hunt to appear in the World Series, Cobb exited the game for good. When his teammates left New York, Cobb cleaned out his locker and, after 3,000-plus games, never played in a game again.
Just as with Ruth’s hasty departure from Boston and Cobb’s exiting the Athletics, the lead-up to their calling it a career is what keeps your attention in The Last Time Out.
One more example of the greats bidding adieu to baseball involves Hank Aaron.
October 3, 1976. The hometown Milwaukee Brewers are opposing the Detroit Tigers at County Stadium. Both teams are going nowhere. The Brewers finished the season 32 games behind the American League East champion New York Yankees. The Detroit Tigers, 24 games behind New York in the standings, would finish in fifth place in the East.
With only 6,858 fans in attendance at County Stadium, the then MLB Home Run King (755 homers) faced Tigers’ lefty, Dave Roberts. Aaron hit a ground ball between third base and shortstop. Detroit’s shortstop Jerry Manuel was unable to glove the ball. Aaron was safe at first, and he drove in a run. Hank was taken out of the game for pinch runner Jim Gantner.
23 seasons in the major leagues would be all for Aaron. He would complete his Hall of Fame career with a .305 batting average. The Brewers lost to the Tigers 5-2 in the season’s finale. How Aaron felt after the game, and his attitude towards the sport he helped popularize, is captured with great detail by Nogowski.
So many mind-blowing statistics among the best pitchers and hitters in MLB history will not want you to put down The Time Out. I’m speaking from experience.
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