Cy Young: A Baseball Life

Cy Young, baseball's greatest pitcher, owns one record that will never be broken: 511 career victories. Unfortunately, Young didn't also possess the larger-than-life personality of a Babe Ruth or a Ty Cobb (whose signature records have both been surpassed). Consequently, his life has largely been forgotten. History professor Browning hopes to revive Young with this chronicle of a career that straddled the centuries and saw the birth of the modern game. The problem is that his subject won't cooperate. What few pieces of correspondence the semiliterate pitcher left behind ""are almost silent about his thoughts."" In addition, ""Young was a quiet man"" with an ""aversion to interviews"" and a reluctance to talk about himself. That's why, from a baseball writer's point of view, ""[he] was not good copy""; from a reader's point of view, the same holds true. Young's private life must remain undecipherable--the simple life of a humble man. As for his career, Browning tries his spirited best to bring countless games to life, but with little incisive commentary from Young himself, Browning's efforts are frustrated, and the book eventually grows wearisome. Nonetheless, the author has also packed in many colorful anecdotes: for example, on the evolution of the pitcher's mound, the origins of the American League (especially the Red Sox), the history of baseball in Cleveland and the first World Series. Ultimately, even if the book doesn't post a W, it isn't a bad game to watch. 24 illustrations. (June)