108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game

 

108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game – by Ron Darling

I don’t read many “ex jock” books. There are quite a few that have been written.  I was drawn to this one because a) I was a big fan of the New York Mets in the 1980s – and – b) Ron Darling has an Ivy League education, so his writing is better than most. Try reading a book by jocks such as Len Dykstra or David Wells and you’ll understand. This book essentially is simply random recollections of various people that Darling played and/or worked with over his baseball career (he’s now a successful sportscaster, so he hasn’t “left” the game). So there’s no deep central theme or anything. At times you get the feeling that you’re simply hanging out at a hotel bar with Darling, and he’s simply telling you some great baseball tales of his past while enjoying a few drinks.

At times, Darling does tend to get a tad too cerebral. Maybe he’s trying to show off his intellect a bit?  I read once that, as a player, he actually kept philosophy books in his clubhouse locker. But never mind. That really doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of reading this book. In fact, one might just learn a few new words to add to their personal dictionary. So, yes, it is very well written.

For me, it’s always rewarding to read about the behind-the-scenes stuff when it comes to professional athletes. Most of the time (not all the time) what the fan sees on the tv screen and in the newspaper is highly censored, so it’s fun to read about how athletes that we remember really were as opposed to how they appeared on television commercials and post-game interviews.

There really isn’t any continuity here. Darling tries a “loose” way of connecting the stories by telling stories about baseball personalities from the letter “A” (Don Aase) to the letter “Z” (Don Zimmer), but he even strays from that formula somewhat. His observations are all over the place. He writes about acquaintances in college, the minor leagues, his time as a Met and Athletic, and his latter broadcast days. All of the stories here are well told, and most of Darling’s recollections are about positive people.  There are a few jerks that pop up within the pages.  Most notably is the above-mentioned Len Dykstra. Let’s just say the story that Ron Darling tells is highly accusatory and Dykstra barked his innocence rather belligerently when this book was first released.   Even if you don’t know the personalities, Darling has a fresh way of telling his stories, and if you enjoy the game, you’ll enjoy the book.

One of the minor criticisms I have of this book, is that some of the stories are too short.  108 stories over about 250 pages means Darling can’t go too deep in the weeds all the time, and one wishes for more. Example: He tells one anecdote of his new team member David Cone in 1987. History would tell us that as great a pitcher as Cone was, he had a few tendencies and habits that were quite NC-17 rated.  Yet the story Darling tells is very brief and somewhat silly and inconsequential. I remember thinking: ‘That’s it’?

Another area that I was less fond of was Darling’s chapter about life in Manhattan.  With Darling’s GQ looks and high profile, he’s the perfect creature for such a geography, but his observations about the town and the night life seemed a bit out of place in a book that’s supposed to be about baseball personalities. Maybe he ran out of ideas? (He’s written two other books, and maybe he found himself a bit low on content.)

Still, this was an enjoyable, quick read and one wishes that more retrospectives of this caliber could be penned by athletes for the fan who enjoys to read in addition to watching sports.