The Last Real Season by Mike Shropshire is a hilarious look back at the 1975 MLB season. Shropshire, a former Texas Rangers beat writer, loads this book full of outrageous stories of afro donning, leisure suit wearing ball players as well as some laugh out loud personal adventures while covering the Rangers. This book is a tale of baseball before the free agency boom when the average player's salary was a measly $27,600, mere pocket change for today's players. In that sense, Shropshire claims the players of the '70s were more like your neighbor than a superstar and had more fun than today's millionaires.

Shropshire's dry, sarcastic wit is classic and he fills the book with humorous analogies along the way. Much of the book deals with Shropshire's pleasant conversations with then Rangers' manager, the free drinking and free swinging, unmistakable Billy Martin. Shropshire's buzzed analysis of the woeful '75 Rangers' season is nothing short of hysterical. The book also contains Shropshire's awkward encounters with the likes of Ben Hogan, Mickey Mantle, and yes, Chuck Norris.

The players drank after wins and after a losses, on the plane and before the game. Shropshire was right beside them carrying on as they did and tell us all about it. This isn't some Sunday School reading material. Shropshire doesn't pull any punches and tells it like it was. Girls, booze, pills, weed, and baseball...what a hell of a combination. Believe me, it makes for some entertaining stuff.
 

I would recommend this book for baseball fans of all ages...if you're over 18 of course. For the fans who remember those days it's like a stroll down memory lane and for those too young to remember it's a jolting reality check and a baseball history lesson. This is a book you're going to be telling your friends about. I can't count how many times my girlfriend asked me, "What the hell are you laughing at?" I would point to the book, she would roll her eyes, and I would keep on grinning.

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Tags: Texas Rangers  Mike Shropshire  Billy Martin  Ben Hogan  Mickey Mantle  Chuck Norris