Review: "Temporary Insanity: The Uncensored Adventures of Baseball's Craziest Player"

There is a chance that Jay Johnstone (November 20, 1945 to September 26, 2020) had to be insane, a loon, a quack, a nut case... but one thing one could say about him for sure the man was a good baseball player that clearly left his mark with the many teams he played for during a 20 year career that saw him suit up for the California Angels, Oakland A's, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Los Angels Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres. While he wasn't a star player, Johnstone was the definition of a role player, becoming known for being one of the best pinch-hitters of the 70s and early 80s, as well a two-time World Champion with the Yankees and Dodgers. But it his off the field-antics that probably make him one of the most fascinating players of all time.

In 1985, Johnstone (with sports writer Rick Talley) wrote the first of three books detailing many of the pranks, ribs, and shenanigans he got up to,  Now the only one I have in my collection, is Temporary Insanity: The Uncensored Adventures of Baseball's Craziest Player which was published in 1985, and it isn't a straight auto-biography at all. In fact, the tone of the book is set right away with the first forward written by Tommy Lasorda "I can't think of a ball player I'd rather have a in a club house than Jay Johnston, But he wrote a book? What with, a fire extinguisher? Shaving Cream?"

So before we get to the first of Johnstone's anecdotes, we have one of the great managers of all time, telling the reader that Johnstone is a bit unique. In the 12 chapters that follow, Johnstone talks about everything from how Ron Cey was a perfect target for ribbing in the clubhouse while going into great detail about a prank he pulled on him during spring training in 1980, to later talking about how Babe Ruth came back as Fernando Valenzuela, and using the behavior and antics of other players as a way of saying he's not as crazy as he seems. 

"Temporary Insanity" is a real delightful read, because of the amount of detail that Johnstone gives into each story told. Does the book jump around a bit, yes it does, but every chapter is focused on related stories and tales, that in a more traditional autobiography would be spread out and probably wouldn't come across as memory. Case in point, there is an entire chapter dedicated to Johnstone's thoughts on the Managers he played off, it's all grouped together. Yes there are stories about some of them elsewhere in the book, but in that one chapter, Johnstone goes into detail about their personalities and quirks, including a theory how the firing of Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in 1983 may have probably been what lead to the Cubs losing to the Padres in the National League Championship series in 1984.

Now, would I recommend this book, yes I would, however there is a bit of a problem, as it's a very hard book to find. I'm lucky I found the copy I had in a collection of books my father was going to toss out back in the late 90s, and like many items in my office, it's something I kept around. So if you're going to track it down, your best bet is to go on eBay. If you can find a copy, you will enjoy it, particularly if you're a baseball fan.