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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 10 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 A great read Apr 09, 2005
By T. Cain
While "Cool of the Evening" effectively tracks the 1965 Minnesota Twins' roster and their run to the American League pennant, it's much more than a game-by-game retelling of the team's story.
Jim Thielman has provided a history of a game and society in change, from Latin American players like 1965 MVP Zoilo Versalles and ought-to-be Hall-of-Famer Tony Oliva learning to live in America to African-American players battling prejudice just months after national civil rights legislation was signed.
Sometimes a compelling story can be told even when you know the ending. Such is the case here.
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Cool of the Evening A Hot Sell For Baseball Fans Sep 29, 2005
By KldHrt
"KldHrt"
You don't have to be a Twins fan to fully appreciate 'Cool of the Evening', but it helps. Jim Thielman covered the Twins as a freelancer and staff reporter through a couple decades.
The book is meant to take fans back to 1965, the very first pennant winning season of the Minnesota club. The World Series, the first ever to be played in Minnesota, is almost an afterthought, but it's been so well documented elsewhere, Thielman prudently allows space to go behind the scenes, through spring training and the entire season.
Thielman goes in depth on player backgrounds, the trades and twists of fate that brought them all together, and where they ended up after '65.
Even though the team came out on the losing end to the Dodgers, '65 has always been special for Twins fans. The record of 102-60 is still the best ever for the franchise, in terms of wins. (The 1933 Senators who later became the Twins had a better win-loss percentage.)
But beyond the statistics, Thielman brilliantly captures the drama of a pennant winning season by an underdog with a losing record the year before, a team that would dethrone the Yankees, winners of the past five pennants. He recounts the struggle of the league MVP and makes his case why Zoilo Versailles was absolutely more crucial to the pennant winning cause than any other team member, including Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and batting champ Tony Oliva. He details the conflict between pitching coach Johnny Sain and players coach and future manager Billy Martin, all the while leaving the reader sympathetic to each.
He delves into the histories of the early Twins' stars, Oliva, Killebrew, Bob Allison, Camilo Pascual, and owner Calvin Griffith.
Most of these players and coaches stayed connected throughout the years, such as Martin as manager of the Yankees in the '70s and Mele as coach with the Red Sox.
He demonstrates how connected everyone in baseball seems to be, the degrees of seperation that seem minimal to the point of being nearly incestuous.
He shows the development of several aspects of the game which are now common, such as the use of multiple relievers in a game, something the Twins did throughout the '65 season, but not so common in that era, or the platooning of players to challenge left or right-handed pitching.
While the casual baseball fan may not care so much about these things, it's intriguing insight for the die-hard fan, offering information not available in a baseball encyclopedia.
'Cool' is a rather quick read, but definitely one to be savored, and one that will help fans remember a season it seems the rest of the baseball world has largely forgotten.
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Entertaining and Well-Written Feb 05, 2006
By RL8791
I appreciated that Thielman didn't put the players on pedestals but wrote about them in a way that made me see a real person in each uniform. Thielman gave equal time to a number of the lesser known players so that by book's end, you felt you knew third-string catcher John Sevcik almost as well as league MVP Zoilo Versalles.
I think there is a tendency for fans to believe that championship seasons are "magical." One thing you will take away from Thielman's book is that a championship season is really about hard work and being able to overcome adversity. The 1965 Minnesota Twins lost Camilo Pascaul and Harmon Killebrew - their best pitcher and most feared hitter - for significant portions of the season, but managed to still keep winning thanks to players like Jim Perry and Don Mincher filling in for them and not missing a beat.
Another thing I liked about Cool of the Evening was the depth in which Thielman dealt with manager Sam Mele and coaches Johnny Sain and Billy Martin. These three men were as vital to the team's success as Mudcat or Versalles or Oliva and just as interesting to read about.
Cool of the Evening was an entertaining and well-written book that I would recommend not only to Twins fans, but to any baseball fan. I compare it favorably to The Last Good Season which I read last year and also enjoyed.
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 If you like the Twins of the 60's, you'll love this book Sep 29, 2005
By R. Lehrer
This book makes great reading for a Twins fan like me who is starved for more information on the 1965 Twins. The book shares stories about some of the great Twin players of the 1960's that I've read nowhere else. The only reason that I rated it 3 stars rather than 5 is not because of the material in the book. It's because of what wasn't in the book. There should have been a lot more photos. Instead, there were small "soft focus" snapshots at the beginning of each chapter. The text is well written, but more large, clear photos of the players particularly off the field would have made the book come alive even more.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Great story about an interesting team Jan 09, 2007
By Frank M. Carter
"Frank"
I just finished reading this and really enjoyed it. It provided great insight to the background and chemistry of the 1965 Twins team. I was about 8 years old then and I remember rooting for them to beat the Dodgers and collected many of their baseball cards.
This book fills in all of the gaps in my memory and gives a nice summary of the team and how they fit into the world of baseball and the world as a whole. I hadn't realized there was such a strong Cuban connection on this team put together on the heels of Castro's takeover. Also interesting to learn about how the owners of those days (The Griffiths) often struggled financially to make ends meet. If you are a fan of 1960's baseball, you'll enjoy this book.
See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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