Book Review #12: I Was Right On Time

I Was Right On Time (1996)

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a Baseball fanatic. And every year, I always watch Ken Burns' Baseball documentary, usually at the start of Spring Training or at the beginning of the regular Baseball season. That's the case yet again this year. The only thing that's different this time is that instead of watching it once, I decided to watch the entire 9 innings again along with the the sequel The Tenth Inning as well.

The reason why I love this series comes down to not just the sport itself, but the heart and soul of the documentary in the form of Buck O'Neil. This guy was pretty much an unknown to the general public outside of hardcore Baseball fans when the series premiered on PBS. Since then he has become the face of the documentary as well as an ambassador for the sport. He became a celebrity and rightly so. I can never get enough just listening to him talk about his time in the Negro Baseball Leagues. His stories about Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and countless others are simply amazing to hear and relive.

But rather than watching this again for a 3rd straight time, I thought now would be a good time to read his book, in his own words. The results would be I Was Right On Time. If you know Buck, or have watched the documentary Baseball, you will know that he has been telling his baseball stories to anyone that will listen for the past 60 plus years. I've heard all of them and I never get tired of hearing them and I want more.

The book basically picks up where the documentary left off. By this, I mean that when you shoot filmed testimonies, a lot of the stuff is going to end up on the cutting room floor due to editing purposes. This book fills in and rounds out a lot of the stories that are told in the documentary. There's more to the man then what you see, This is a pretty good read and very insightful of how he was brought up and what he had to endure. The best stories of course still center around his relationship with Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, whether your a fan of the sport or not. You will come away enlighten and a better person after you read this one. Pick it up and pass it along to a friend.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1