In this month’s installment of the Burning River Book Club, we will get back to the present date after focusing on the distant past for the past few months. For April, I will be reviewing Indians beat writer, Zack Meisel’s 100 Things Indians Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
which was first published just a few months ago in 2015.
This book brought out a few different feelings in me as I read it, starting with confusion based on the title and leading to disappointment from preconceived notions. To begin, the title is an odd one. Are there actually 200 things listed in the book with 100 things that should be done and 100 things that should be known or are there just 100 combined, split equally between the two. The answer is neither. The unofficial breakdown is 90 things to know and 10 things to do with one of the latter things being picking your favorite condiment in the hot dog race. Personally, I’ve already done all but two of the ten things with the hot dog race choosing being one of the two (the other is attending both sides of the Indians/Reds interleague series, something well deserving of being in the top ten things to do).
The “Before They Die” part of the title seems to be a simple, morbid reminder that all life is not eternal as it never really comes up in the book (except in the parts about Ray Chapman, Steve Olin and Addie Joss and none of them ever got to meet Slider). Not included in the 10 things to do were things I would like to do such as see the Indians win a World Series, see a perfect game (or even no hitter) and sit in the dug out suite, but since these are unlikely things for the everyman to be able to do, it is probably best they weren’t included.
My final complaint about the book (I do have nice things to say, just wait), is that the focus is almost entirely on the present. I understand that Meisel is only 26 years old, so he wrote about the things he has seen, but every one else over the age of 20 has also seen those things. To really cover the 90 Things Indians Fans Should Know, there should be a somewhat equal distribution between all the years in Indians history. While almost every single play-off win or loss is covered, there is essentially no mention of some of the greatest Indians teams and players of all time including the entire decade of the 1930’s with Earl Averill and Hal Trosky. Being one of those born prior to the 1995 season, I watched all the play-off games that are covered from the 1990’s and 2000’s and would rather learn more about the periods that are rarely covered from 1901-1917, 1921-1946 and 1959-1985.
On the positive side, every single thing I noted wrong with the book is something I brought into it myself. Meisel does a great job recording the exploits of the mid 90’s Tribe and the less successful endeavors of the Eric Wedge through Terry Francona editions. One part of interest is that he obviously did interviews with many around the Indians over the past year including Jason Giambi, Nick Swisher, Mark Shapiro, Chris Antonetti and Tom Hamilton, providing different a prospective on different events. This is most interesting when he gets Swisher’s take on the Indians beating the Yankees and Giambi’s on the Tribe facing Oakland. Many of the comments from Shapiro and Antonetti are also about their time before their present position as they are given a chance to comment on their predecessors.
Hamilton also provides a unique prospective. He provided the opening to the book, a story about how lucky he is to have the job he does and is mentioned multiple times throughout the book as an eye witness to two and a half decades of Indians baseball and sometimes as a participant. His and Bob Dibiasio’s behind the scenes tales are among the things that very few Indians fans will have already known prior to reading.
With all that has been said, it may seem like a negative review for the book, but that is not the case. This book is a must read for those under 25 who are just starting to feel the pain of being an Indians fan and is a great pick up for fans of nostalgia or those with poor short term memory. Just don’t go into it trying to make it something it isn’t and you will thoroughly enjoy Zack Meisel’s first full length publication.
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