Uncle Critic

I like Cal Ripken jr, however I think he’s overrated. He totally revolutionized the position of Short Stop (with the help of Earl Weaver putting him there). That part of the infield will never be the same again because of him. Arguably the best person to ever play short stop, arguably one of the best to play the game.

He’s got the streak record, a nineteen time All-Star selection, World Series champion in 1983, two time Gold Glove Award winner (1991, 1992), eight time silver Slugger Award winner (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994), two time American League MVP (1983, 1991), 1982 American League Rookie of the Year, two time MLB All-Star Game MVP (1991, 2001), 1992 Roberto Clemente Award, 1992 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, 1991 Home Run Derby winner, named a member of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Also A member of the MLB Hall of Fame, and the Baltimore Orioles have retired his number (#8).

I’d say these speak for themselves as being a great baseball player. However as a writer, not so much. This includes with help from Donald T. Phillips. Somehow they managed to fill 272 pages. Not to say this book is all bad, I got it for free, I’d say I’ve got my money’s worth. It has a lot of great baseball stories in it, they’re sprinkled in between the other shit that’s on the pages. If the book was full of just them it would be excellent, unfortunately they make up about a quarter of the book. The rest of this book is basically Cal Ripken Jr saying how great he is and why he’s so great. I think the right person could have written this book and it may have come off as an inspirational book, however Cal just comes off as a  douche bag. He seems arrogant and totally unreal, which is really weird because he doesn’t come off that way at all when talking about baseball. Hell half of the baseball stories are when he was in a slump of one sort or another. Basically what I’m going for is, if you end up with this book, just skip around to the baseball stuff and avoid the rest unless you want Cal to seem like a dickbag. And Cal, write a baseball book, not a ‘how great I am’ book.

Get Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference from Amazon HERE

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