Merrill, Durwood

• You're Out, and You're Ugly, Too!

  • I was hoping here for some good baseball/umpire stories along the lines of the books of Ron Luciano, but I have to say that although Merrill comes across as a very likeable personality, I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as the work of Luciano. Merrill spends far too much time talking about his personal life, and far too little telling baseball stories. Often times, the baseball stories are thrown in as an aside while he's talking about his personal life rather than the other way around. Two other problems are also notable. First, there are several instances in which stories (or parts of stories) are repeated almost word for word. That felt like padding or bad editing. Also, near the beginning of the book, Merrill states that a lot of his stories are embellished! Although I'm willing to believe that this is true of just about any baseball story, I don't want to be told this up front!

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