Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne: "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt"

Dave Sims is the television voice of the Seattle Mariners. He has been so for a dozen years.

Our friendship goes back to our days in New York when he was doing an NBC nightly sports talk show and I was doing the Mets and New Jersey Devils. I am very happy it is a friendship that has endured.

When in Baltimore recently, he graciously offered us comments on his favorite book, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris. Sims is a long time consistent reader, particularly history. We spent more time on the field during batting practice talking Civil War history than batting averages.

"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" was published in 1979 and has never been out of print.

On its author:

"Edmund Morris is an American writer and biographer famous for his award-winning biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Morris was born in Kenya to South African parents, and dreamt of becoming a concert pianist. He abandoned the dream when he moved to England in 1964, and later to America with his wife, also a writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for Biography and the National Book Award for the first part of his trilogy about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. Shortly afterward he was commissioned to be the official biographer of Ronald Reagan, and this occupied him to the point that the second two parts to his Roosevelt biography had to wait 14 years to be written, though to great acclaim." - History Book Reviews.

The Roosevelt book won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The Modern Library lists it in the top 100 best nonfiction books ever.

Most reviews of this book highlight how Morris caught the spirt and soul of Roosevelt, and there was a lot to catch.

Here is Dave and our visit on this classic.

"Books are the ammunition of life." ― Theodore Roosevelt

"Ridicule is one of the favorite weapons of wickedness, and it is sometimes incomprehensible how good and brave boys will be influenced for evil by the jeers of associates who have no one quality that calls for respect, but who affect to laugh at the very traits which ought to be peculiarly the cause for pride." ― Theodore Roosevelt

Gary Thorne is the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN, and the 2018 season is his 12th with the club and 33nd covering Major League Baseball. His blog will appear regularly throughout the season. The Orioles and Sarasota County, for the 7th consecutive year, have partnered on the Big League Reader Program, which rewarded kids who read three books in February with tickets to a Grapefruit League game at Ed Smith Stadium in March. 180 children participated last year.

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