This Ain't Brain Surgery: How to Win the Pennant Without Losing Your Mind

Chicago Tribune

[Larry Dierker] came to be known as one of the brightest and most engaging minds in baseball . . . and his book shows why. It's an unvarnished insider's view of what goes on within the game at many levels and a refreshingly honest exercise in self-discovery. . . . Dierker's observations remain as fresh and as stimulating as they were when the book was first published in 2001.—Dan McGrath, Chicago Tribune

— Dan McGrath

Booklist

“[Dierker] has a healthy perspective about the game and his role in it, as reflected in the title of this literate, humorous, and entertaining memoir. As he recounts his tenure as manager, he splices in anecdotes from his playing days, effectively contrasting the life of the ballplayer in both eras.”—Booklist

ESPN.com

“There’s a richness to the language in This Ain’t Brain Surgery that isn’t typically found in a book with an ex-player’s (or ex-manager’s) name on the cover.”—Rob Neyer, ESPN.com

— Rob Neyer

Houston Chronicle

“A breezy collection of anecdotes and insights, carefully crafted and presented with a mixture of humor and thoughtfulness.”—Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle

— Richard Justice

Sports Literature Association

"It's a book that . . . has reenforced everything I love and have always loved about baseball. Above all else, baseball is a game that inspires wonder and Dierker—former player, broadcaster, and manager for the Houston Astros—Illuminates that nicely."—William Boyle, Sports Literature Association

— William Boyle

Journal of Sports History

"Needless to say, a book entitled This Ain't Brain Surgery makes no pretence to scholarly profundity, but it is a witty, breezy, intelligent account of baseball as experienced by Larry Dierker."—William M. Simons, Journal of Sports History

— William M. Simons

Chiago Tribune

"[Larry Dierker] came to be known as one of the brightest and most engaging minds in baseball . . . and his book shows why. It's an unvarnished insider's view of what goes on within the game at many levels and a refreshingly honest exercise in self-discovery. . . . Dierker's observations remain as fresh and as stimulating as they were when the book was first published in 2001."—Dan McGrath, Chicago Tribune

— Dan McGrath

Chiago Tribune

ESPN.com

“There’s a richness to the language in This Ain’t Brain Surgery that isn’t typically found in a book with an ex-player’s (or ex-manager’s) name on the cover.”—Rob Neyer, ESPN.com

Houston Chronicle

“A breezy collection of anecdotes and insights, carefully crafted and presented with a mixture of humor and thoughtfulness.”—Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle

Sports Literature Association

Journal of Sports History

Publishers Weekly

Two things set career baseballer Dierker apart: he went from broadcaster to manager with zero managing experience, and he suffered a brain seizure in the Astrodome dugout during a game. The first item gets ample coverage in the book, but surprisingly, the second does not. An accomplished major league pitcher with a no-hitter and a few all-star appearances to his credit, Dierker foreshadows his impending tragedy from the beginning, as he strikes out Willie Mays in his major league debut (also Dierker's 18th birthday), right up until the fateful day in 1999. Yet the actual event warrants barely six pages. A Hawaiian shirt-wearing party guy, Dierker clearly had no interest in writing a mawkish memoir, but the reader will nonetheless hunger for a bit more on how his horrific flirtation with death shaped his life. Dierker's prose is witty and easy-reading it is like hearing stories over a beer from the guy sitting next to you at the ballpark. But the yarns often come up short: old teammates trumpeted as "characters" come across as flat, and the book could use sharper focus: it's alternately a pitching book, a managing book, and a book about old-time baseball, when players drank beer and raised hell. After 37 years in major league baseball, Dierker undoubtedly has stories to tell, such as his teammates' first glimpse at the surreal new Astrodome in 1965. That his book isn't chock-full of them is somewhat disappointing. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Dierker followed a successful pitching career-mostly with Houston and briefly with St. Louis-with a stint of broadcasting and newspaper work. In 1997, he was a surprise pick as manager of the Astros. Though the Astros never made the World Series, Dierker led them to four division titles in his five years as manager. His often rollicking tale tells of using lessons from his playing days to lead the team-player selection, team discipline, umpire relations, and other managing concerns. Ironically, the title comes from real brain surgery he underwent in 1999. This should appeal to most popular sports fans.-Morey Berger, St. Joseph's Hosp. Lib., Tucson, AZ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Dierker, the improbable manager of the Houston Astros from 1997 to 2002, deals some choice observations on the game. "I thought I could bring some fresh air to the situation and help the team become more fun-loving and efficient at the same time." With that thought in mind, Dierker-who'd been an All-Star pitcher for the Astros during the 1970s and '80s and then part of their broadcast team-accepted the offer to manage the club. It wasn't a job he anticipated-pitchers don't become managers, perhaps because of the overwhelming focus they must bring to their position-but he had been with the organization quite some time and knew it inside out. He also liked a challenge and wanted to be part of the solution to the Astros' losing ways-to learn to organize and orchestrate a team and a season, taking his lessons where he found them, from veteran managers up to the bullpen catcher, a bottom-feeder on the food chain of baseball. Even though Dierker played the game a mere 20 to 30 years ago, those were less fancy times, and he felt the Astros needed an infusion of fun that echoed his own playing days, pranks and antiauthoritarianism and all. He does bring fresh air to the team-and a series of winning seasons-but he also learns that nothing is simple, that strategy and instincts clash, intuition isn't everything, and delegating responsibility doesn't always work. He might have wanted to "form a team that had nine captains on the field, all thinking together and playing a smart brand of baseball," but intelligence that focused isn't wed to playing talent. Still, he has great stories of marching through the seasons, of the humor amid the startling realities of dealing with umps, beanball pitchers,steroids, and gambling. Reverent in his irreverent way, Dierker demonstrates how a simple game gets complex as you struggle to make one more run than the other team.