Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play

Honest, accomplished, and revered on and off the field, White, who played first base for the Giants, Cardinals, and Phillies, tells the story of his rise in baseball—how he weathered the racist catcalls from the stands and inferior accommodations, considering it all a necessary evil at minor league ballparks in his preparation for the big leagues during the Jim Crow era. Old pros Monte Irvin and Willie Mays, who wrote the appreciative foreword, shepherded him through the rough times, along with the "tough love" shown by New York Giants manager Leo Durocher transforming White into an All-Star first baseman. Upon concluding his stellar career on first base with the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies in 1969, he joined the colorful Phil Rizzuto in the broadcast booth to call New York Yankees games. His on-target comments about baseball's front office are grounded in the petty skirmishes and grand accomplishments of his five-year stint as president of the National League from 1989 to 1994. Sometimes brutally frank, White dishes the dirt on almost all of the leading baseball and broadcasting names in a truly controversial baseball memoir that will not be easily forgotten. (Apr.)