Opening Day
“Eig recounts the flash points that have grown into myths and largely reduces them from grand opera to folk song, a story of endurance and forbearance rather than sturm und drang. Dixie Walker, a popular Alabamian who supposedly led an internal team revolt, is portrayed as mostly concerned about how playing with Robinson might affect his hardware business back home. A famous gesture of support from Pee Wee Reese, the Kentucky-born shortstop who reputedly threw his arm around Robinson on the field to quiet a hostile crowd, is presented as largely apocryphal, and an alleged strike by the Cardinals as very likely a media exaggeration. Eig’s deflation of the extremes of both opposition and support seems more complexly true and does justice to the man rather than the legend.”
–The New York Times Book Review
“Eig’s superb book…characterizes the obstacles confronting Robinson as more daunting and oppressive than anyone outside of Robinson and his family had realized… Eig is two-for-two.”
–Chicago Tribune
“Jonathan Eig’s mind-opening book…is an account of a 28-year-old man ‘filled with fear and fury,’ and terribly alone. It includes unfamiliar details about familiar episodes…. Eig is especially informative about the dynamics among the Dodgers, who, like many teams, had a Southern tinge.”
–George Will, The Washington Post
“Opening Day manages the neat trick of being a beautifully written period piece while also bringing modern-day reporting to the mix…. Not just a great book, it’s an important book.
–The Boston Herald
Luckiest Man
“Rarely do biographies capture the pure essence of an individual without burdening the reader with useless trivia and fact. Eig, a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, manages to avoid these pitfalls by churning out a critically-applauded biography of baseball phenom and “momma’s boy” Lou Gehrig. Eig does his homework, presenting the story of a slugger who, in the 1920s and 1930s, broke baseball records and, upon his death, America’s heart. Using archival newspaper clippings, interviews, baseball footage, and Mayo Clinic correspondence, among other sources, Eig brings to life the story of an American hero known as much for his unbelievable athleticism as for his unexpected illness.”
–Bookmarks Magazine
“As my consecutive games streak grew, my curiosity about Lou Gehrig also grew and I wanted to learn more about him and what kind of person he was. Jonathan Eig’s book, Luckiest Man, really helped me put all of the pieces together and gain a solid understanding of Lou, both on and off the field. I thought it was a wonderful book that provided insights about Lou, his amazing life and outstanding career.”
–Cal Ripken, Jr.
“Luckiest Man is a first-class biography, thoroughly researched and nimbly written….If Gehrig’s ‘luckiest man’ speech offered fans a glimpse into his character, Eig’s Luckiest Man pushes the door wide open.”
–Bill Syken, Sports Illustrated
“With splendid results, Jonathan Eig separates fact from fantasy in his stirring portrait of an athlete dying young. The Lou Gehrig he presents is more subtle, nuanced, and indeed more neurotic than the stiff, cardboard figure we previously knew. All of which makes Gehrig’s tragic final struggle more moving and profound. A wonderful book.”
–Roger Kahn, author of The Boys of Summer
Get Capone
“I thought I knew the Capone story, but Eig’s riveting telling of this iconic American story is both fresh and utterly dazzling. An extraordinarily rich panorama of America in the 1920s, Get Capone brings our most notorious anti-hero vividly to life, masterfully interweaving the epic tale of his rise and fall with the equally fascinating stories of the politicians, lawmen, gangsters, and reporters, who inhabited his world.”
–Ken Burns
“An historically gilded account which freshly recreates the gritty Chicago streets and raucous twenties that spawned Capone. By the time you are finished reading this book, you will feel intimately familiar — not only with Chicago’s ultimate gangster — but the city, people and circumstances that gave rise to his infamy.”
–Chicago Alderman Ed Burke
“With his latest effort, “Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster,” Eig has done it again. The book is a fascinating, fast-paced hybrid: a biography and an intensely reported look at the cat-and-mouse chase between Capone and the federal investigators trying to bust him.”
–Noah Isackson
Chicago Tribune