Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

The Worst Game in Baseball History

by Tony Medley

I just saw the worst game in baseball history, Tampa Bay v. Cleveland. It is emblematic of how the game has deteriorated. It went fifteen innings, 1-0, and won on a solo home run in the bottom of the 15^th. But what was really awful is that there were thirty-nine strikeouts in the game. That’s out of eighty-seven total outs. So almost half (44.8%) of the outs were strikeouts. And that’s not because it was a pitching duel between Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan. No, the teams used fourteen pitchers! Most of them journeymen, if that. The problem is the batters. They just don’t know how to hit today. All they think about is their idiotic uppercut swings, which is why they can’t hit the ball. Occasionally they connect, mostly as a result of the law of averages.

So, the poor people who paid to get into this game mostly saw batters swinging and missing and managers changing pitchers. Fourteen pitchers for eighty-seven outs. That’s about six outs/pitcher. Do people really want to pay to watch spectacles like that? For four hours and 13 minutes?

In the Cardinals-Phillies game, the Cards best hitter, Paul Goldschmidt, was up in a key situation in the 8^th inning. Down by two runs but with two runners on base, the pitcher failed to throw him a strike, but Goldschmidt struck out swinging, taking cuts at pitches that would have been balls; they weren’t even close, the last strike on a 3-2 count on a fastball that was down around his ankles. Had the pitch been a curve, a sinker, or a slider, one might understand how he could swing at what turned out to be a ball, but a fastball? Almost in the dirt? And he swung at it? OK, he choked, and choked badly in a clutch situation. But this guy was one of the leading hitters in the league; at .317 he was the third top hitter in the league. That tells you a lot about the quality of baseball that’s being sold today to people who don’t really know quality baseball because they weren’t alive in the ‘50s, when it was ignominious to strike out.

Speaking of batting averages, only three players hit over .300 in the National League in 2022. I haven’t researched it but that has to be a record of futility. Goldschmidt struck out 141 times! That’s one strikeout every four at bats, 25%. Babe Ruth led the American League in strikeouts five times but in his career, he only struck out 15% of the time. Stan Musial struck out less than 7% of the time. Joe DiMaggio struck out only 5.4% of his at bats. Batters today wouldn’t make it past Class B in the 1950s. The game has deteriorated so much that it is very hard to watch. But .220-batting shortstops get paid $10 million/year.

Take the Dodgers, please. They are ballyhooed as the best team in baseball because they won 111 games. But two of their starters are the two worst hitting starting players in baseball, Cody Bellinger at .210 (following years of .165 and .239), with 150 strikeouts, just under 30% of his at bats, and Max Muncy at .196 with 141 strikeouts, over 30% of his at bats. And he is often the Dodgers’ cleanup batter! This is baseball in the 21^st Century. Bellinger is paid $17 million/year. Next year Muncy will be paid $13.5 million.

Also, in the Dodgers’ starting lineup is Chris Taylor, .221 with 160 strikeouts, almost 40% of his at bats. This is the best team in baseball? None of these guys playing the way they do could make the Ponca City roster in 1955.

But the Dodgers have another player on their active roster that make these guys look like pikers in terms of inability to hit the ball. That would be Joey Gallo. Gallo strikes out just a little under half the time he comes to bat, 48.7% to be exact. That earns him a spot on the Dodgers’ playoff roster.

I hope the Dodgers win the World Series, but Dodger fans should be aware of the last pennant-winning team with 111 victories, the 1954 Cleveland Indians. They broke the record of games won in a 154-game schedule (today it’s 162) of 110 set by the greatest team of all time, the ’27 Yankees of Ruth and Gehrig. The Indians were overwhelming favorites to sweep the WS against the New York Giants. The WS was a sweep, all right. The Giants won four games in a row: Giants 4, Indians 0.