A different side of baseball
928847
This was a new type of book for me, but being that I am a baseball grandma, I thought I would give it a try!  And I enjoyed it!  This book features 52 MLB stars as they share their thoughts on their faith in God, and feelings as to how this helps them both in their personal lives and also in their baseball careers.  Each of the athletes has their own page with photos, and their personal testimony, if you will, on what they believe and the help they received from God.

They each have a scripture that is a reminder to them of God's love and care.  Also included are their stats and information about their baseball "history".

I enjoyed reading their thoughts and was happy to see that the stars that my 3 baseball playing grandsons emulate are good examples to them.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for my honest review.  All thoughts are my own.
4242014
I don't even like baseball but this book was very good anyway.  It wasn't about baseball per se.  I had of course heard about this scandal but did not know any details.  I can't give anything away in case you don't know them either but this was a very enjoyable and interesting read.
1796805
There truly is something for every type of baseball fan in this book.  The hardcore fans and statisticians will enjoy the in-depth analysis of the Indians' pitching staff, while casual fans like me will get caught up in the personal story of a bullpen catcher fighting to make the big leagues.  Perhaps my favorite part is touring the many fields of the major league through the eyes of the bullpen.  Even though you know the eventual outcome for the author, you can't help but root for him along the way.  In the end, though, I suspect the world is much better off with Dr. Tomsick ending up a physician rather than than a big league player.  Just a great story and a great book.
246612
An honest and thoroughly engaging memoir of life in minor league baseball in the mid 1960's from an well respected Anthropologist and College Professor. The reader is taken on the journey of life in the minor league baseball with a dugout view of the game both on and off the field: Its players, managers front office staff, grandstand groupies and indifferent bystanders all come into focus from a ballplayer's perspective.  One sees the baseball personalities and challenges that face all minor leaguers quest to make it in the show. The book highlights the great pull of the game and just how thin and yet great the line is between mere mortals and Ballplayers is. The memoir offers a great contrast of the world of minor league baseball that demands confident patience, practiced repetition, and excellent leadership against the backdrop of the dynamic changing 1960's of uncertain changes, new challenges, and questionable leadership.  Like much in baseball lore were mighty Casey strikes out so does the author not make it to majors, there is a sense of sadness in the story. Yet this poignant memoir brings into focus the need to play well with others, treat others with integrity, and know how you treat others sets the ground rules on how others treat you. This is another great read on why Baseball is truly the World's Favorite Pastime.
3614474
Something different from Grisham. If you enjoy baseball (or even if you don't) this is an easy, sentimental story easily told. Don't be daunted by chapter one. Worth the read.
3352769
I'll start this review by saying I'm a huge Sox fan, it just happens though that my Sox are White and not Red.  I am a huge baseball fan and I think that most people realize that the Red Sox Nation expands well outside the city limits of Boston.  I remember watching the amazing 2004 Red Sox comeback over the Yankees and thinking "damn, if the White Sox can't kick the World Series curse at least these guys are doing it."  Little did I know that the following year would bring a World Series Champion to the south side of Chicago.

I really enjoyed this book, but that's not to say it is not without faults.  Each year of Francona's run in Boston is chronicled in one large chapter and at times it seemed like the key points were just being put down for the historical record of it.  If you are looking for a lot of "behind the scenes" insight on what players were doing in the clubhouse or off the field you will not find that here.  Of course anyone that knows Francona or his respect of the game will know that he is not a guy that is going to spill stories on anyone.

I always liked Francona, I always thought he was a good manager and this book did not change either of those impressions.  I came away a bigger fan of Francona the person after reading this book.  I knew that he had some health problems, but had no idea the amount or the intensity of the problems that he did have.  If it wasn't for Oakland Athletics manager Ken Macca convincing Francona to come be a coach in Oakland, Francona might have never become the manager of one of the best teams in Boston history.  The story of Francona's rehab and comeback, as well as the constant struggles he still deals with due to his bad knees, were inspiring.

The Red Sox owners and management might not like everything that is in the book, but I haven't heard anyone really refute the story that Francona tells of the downfall of the 2011 Red Sox.  As a casual fan, it does seem to me that Francona has a point when he talks about the Red Sox brass being more interested in dollar signs than what was truly good for the team.  Some people have said that including this kind of "negativity" is akin to sour grapes for Francona, but I don't know how anyone would write a book about 8 years with any organization and believe there was not anything negative going around, especially with the 2011 Red Sox blowing a lead of pretty mammoth proportions.

Overall, I'd say if you're a Red Sox fan this is a must read.  It's not a perfect read from cover to cover but there are more than enough morsels here that you just won't want to miss.  For non-Red Sox fans, I don't know if I'd say his is a must read but I think you'll also find it to be an interesting book.
2417868
First off let me say, I am a baseball fan, not hardcore but more than a casual observer.  I am also not a fan of the Cardinals but I am a fan of Albert Pujols.  I have been aware of his Christian faith and his moral character for sometime now and I must say it nice to see true role models in professional sports these days.

Albert Pujols is one of the best baseball players of all time and this book tells of his rise to the level of the all-time greats in the game.  While it is quite heavy with statistics, it balances that with the story of how he stormed up the minor leagues and landed in the majors in a very short period.  His relationship with his wife and his faith in Jesus Christ is the focus of several chapters and serves as a bridge between his private and professional lives. It was also nice to see the explanation of Albert's perceived surliness with the media and the reason behind it.  I think he has been unfairly judged and somewhat ostracized for his unwillingness to be open with reporters.

I would recommend this book for true baseball fans, I do not think a casual fan would get near as much enjoyment from reading Pujols.

[Please note, while it did not affect my review of this book, I received this book for review purposes at no charge from BookSneeze.com.]
1265575
No one who has followed the Boston Red Sox in recent years seems to be without an opinion about the teams unprecedented collapse at the end of the 2011 season and the subsequent disaster of all of 2012. Sox fans who belong to the my franchise, right or wrong school may have a problem with this clear eyed look at the implosion of an organization that was in the not too recent past was the toast of New England, but this is a book that deserves a wide readership. Those among you who feel the teams parting of the ways with its most successful field manager in a century reflects badly on the organization, those among you who love to watch Major League Baseball but cant shake the persistent notion that most of the business models are flawed, and most importantly those among you who are searching for an entertaining look at what it was like to occupy one of the sports hottest seats should brew up a pot of your favorite coffee,  find a comfortable chair and make sure your TV recorder has been set because you are not going to want to limit your reading to just a chapter.

In the overall scheme of Baseball books, this may not be quite in the same league as Wait Till Next Year or The Boys of Summer, but like the sports announcers are fond of saying, it deserves to be part of the conversation
3152175
This book is a 360 degree overview of life in the minor leagues as exemplified by four teams in Kentucky, not merely the players or the games, but the wives, families, stadiums, managers, coaches, owner shenanigans to raise money, travel and housing horrors, you name it. If you ever wanted to start in baseball from the bottom up, especially if you were from some Caribbean baseball culture, or if you just wanted to know how it would feel to be there or part of it, this is your book.

It pulls no punches, it can be a hard life, and few make it to the majors. The feel one gets from the book, though, at least for the spectators, is that it can be way more fun than the major leagues.

As a recent letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer put it:"We had the greatest enjoyment while attending the Lake Erie Captains game this past Sunday. They know how to treat the customer. So many neat things were done for the fans and children: The kids running the bases after the game. Singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in Yiddish (it was Jewish Heritage Day), and their nicest act was letting all of the physically challenged children play ball with the Captains players on the field. You had to be there."

This book is the next best thing to being there and behind the scenes, too.
2030086
As the only Giants my age on my block in the Bronx (all my friends were Yankee fans) I ate a lot of humble pie for most of the summer of 1951.  Then two days before my 9th birthday Bobby Thomson gave me the best birthday present I had ever received, his "Shot Heard 'Round the World".  Of course they had the last laugh after game six of the world series.

I think even as a Dodger fan, Josh Prager put everything into perspective insofar as there is much more to baseball than the game itself.  The Echoing Green tells us about the everyday lives of the ballplayers of the early 1950's as well as auxilliary personnel.

I must say that when I first heard about the Giants stealing signs from center field a number of years ago I was disappointed although what I will call the normal stealing of signs was done all the time.  However, I believe something must be pointed out and that is Branca said it was a good pitch (high and inside), Thomson said it was difficult to hit so my point is in many cases even if a hitter knows a fastball is coming he still has to hit it pretty much on the sweet spot to hit it out of the park.

Reading a book where one knows the outcome may be difficult to some although we do read books such as biographies.  This book, however, was an easy read that I had difficulty putting down and I think you as a baseball fan will thoroughly enjoy it as much as I did.
4737504
Though the topic of Moneyball centers around Baseball its scope has a much broader reach.  In the same manner that Lewis's Next examines how the Internet has toppled several societal barriers, Moneyball takes a look at how statistics and information question our understanding of value.  In a nutshell it all boils down to this; don't be fooled by what you see.  Over time its the small and undetected things which can make a big difference.
Baseball serves as a perfect proving ground for this expanded perspective.  A baseball season is 162 games long.  Over that period the difference between a .275 hitter and a .310 is just one hit a week.  As a fan you could watch a whole season and, unless you followed a team's statistics, you would find it hard to discern who was the better hitter.
But we already have mechanisms for tracking batting average along a whole host of other hitting statistics.  With free agency the best hitters are rewarded accordingly.  The question for Baseball becomes - how accurate is our current system of valuation?  How much more valuable is a slugger like Sammy Sosa than good on base man like Jason Kendall?
Moneyball tracks the path of the Oakland A's and their maverick GM Billy Beane.  Beane and his crew employ all of the latest statistical analysis for evaluating players, much to the chagrin of the old time scouts who know a ball player when they see one.  Through their studies, Beane and his staff recognize that on base percentage is highly undervalued in the current market.  This flies in the face of conventional wisdom but the results bare them out.  Over the 2000-2003 seasons the Oakland A's with a payroll roughly a third the size of the New York Yankees won more games than the Yankees during that period.
While this book is a must read for all baseball fans it also carries with it a much broader value.  We make millions of assumptions everyday based on appearances.  But it's not always the brightest or the most articulate who gets the job done.  Sometimes its the little guy, slugging away, who has a much larger impact.  The challenge is to be able look beyond what the eye can see and focus on the bottom line.  If you can, then you're playing Moneyball.
4149465
A good read, definitely for the Yankee's fan or the Joltin' Joe fan....not much baseball but it does slip thru on occasion on purpose. Any true Yankee's fan like me will enjoy it just cuz...I will say it does have a different perspective, a different view of the Yankee's legendary captain...
4694177
The combination of Joe Torre and Tom Verducci definitely brings out both the historical and pure baseball perspective during Joe's era with the New York Yankees. The book just doesn't cover the good times and the highlights either - it goes different stages of baseball and introduces early era of Money ball and how different clubs successfully used it and Yankees tried to change the culture around it. There are sections on the heart-wrenching losses, the games booted, player and manager errors, and just plain getting beat by a better team. Definitely a recommended read - not only for an Yankee fan but also for a baseball fan.
3768799
For a diehard baseball fan, this is a very interesting topic.  The author talked to hundreds of baseball insiders for perspectives and stories.  Overall, it's a good read and covers the topic well.  There are a handful of very intriguing stories and a few that make you laugh out loud.  The book suffers in a couple of ways.  First, the author doesn't do a good job of telling the reader about the relevant written rules of baseball (as opposed to his topic of the unwritten rules).  There were several instances where a short description of what the rulebook says would have been helpful.  Second, the book drags as times as the author seems compelled to recount 5 examples of a particular aspect of the game when two or three would do.

If you like baseball a lot, the book will be enjoyable, but not one of the best ever.
1194949
An interesting book that describes one small action and the ripple effects that moment has on the lives of many.  It would be a good to have some knowledge of baseball, but it is not necessary to be fully versed in the subject. A sad story related to human foibles.
2110830
Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere captures the everyday grind of a minor league ballplayers life. The Clinton Lumberkings play in the full-season Class A Midwest League, and author Lucas Mann documents the 2010 season he spent with the Iowa team. The book is listed as a memoir, and though there is a lot of baseball between the covers, at times Mann makes the book more about himself than the Lumberkings and its factory town.
This was a well-written book, but from a subjective point of view, I would have preferred more description of the action on the field and what the players do to improve their overall skills. Also, more baseball details could have been presented. For example, Mann tells us the manager of the Lumberjacks, John Tamargo, has a championship ring, but he does not tell us where Tamargo earned the ring. Tamargos lone championship was with the Binghamton Mets, in 1994, when his team won the Eastern League AA crown. Mann spends a lot of time profiling Nick Franklin, who was Seattles top prospect at the time and who wound up setting a team home run record in 2010. He focuses on Franklins personality, missing the opportunity to share with his readers how a top prospect develops his talent to get to the big leagues.
In retrospect, I would have preferred less information on the action outside the lines, and more action between the lines. As Mann documents the season, he gives the impression that he finds the game boring, so he fills his pages with descriptions of listening to the radio on long drives to see the Lumberjacks play, going out to bars, and dressing up as the mascot, etc. At one point he even considers cutting his stay short. In effect, Mann conveys the long grind of the minor league season, but he does it from HIS perspective, not that of the players.  Simply stated, he gets bored with his assignment.
For those interested in reading about minor league baseball where the focus is on action between the lines, Id recommend Six More Wins: A Team, A Town, A Rebound, and a Championship. This book documents the Binghamton Mets, the 2014 Eastern League Champions, and uses the team as metaphor for the fortunes of its city and the New York Mets baseball team. It focuses on the performance of the players on the field while also profiling the city and its fans.
Though Mann does not hit a home run here, he does hit a triple over the center fielders head. He may have been bored doing his research, but his writing is crisp and honestno hyperbole or romanticism about the game here. In reality, only diehard fans would never get bored during the course of a minor league season.
2532680
New York baseball, and baseball in general, was at it's peak in the 1950'a and 1960's. I am not, really, a Yankee fan but, this book caught the magnatism and excitement of the sport. I, ashamedly, never had the opportunity to see Mantle play, even though he came to Cincinnati during the 1961 Series. More, the pity.

Mantle could do it all. Unfortunately, as with several athletes of note, some of his abilites were cut short through injuries and, shall we say, the sauce. Willie, Mickey and the Duke have been imortalized in song. And for good reason. How I would have like to have grown up in New York and had three teams for which to root. My first year following the game was during Mickey's Triple Crown season of 1956.

I really enjoyed the chapters in the book that were centered around the specific dates, especially the Chuck Stobbs gopher ball and the hunt for the owner. While vacationing in Sarasota a few years back, I read an article/interview with the immortal Stobbs, his residence being Sarasota. It was quite interesting.

The delving into Mantle's family life was all to sad and revealing. I am glad that Ms. Levey wanted/needed to write about it. It portrays the entire scope of the man.

I had, also, read the biography that Levey had written on Sandy Koufax. Obviously, since I, thoroughly enjoyed that book, I was intrigued by the Mantle book. The mere fact that Doris Kearns Goodwin recommended the Mantle book was icing on the cake, since Kearns-Goodwin is the most knowlegeable individual on the Brooklyn Dodgers and Abe Lincoln. At least she was able to grow up with, possibly the three teams.

I am overjoyed to rate "The Last Boy" a FIVE STAR book. And I look forward to more of Ms. Levey's writings.

Thanks for the ride.