"He don't wanna pitch to you"
582140
I'm a huge Tiger fan and was so excited about this book I bought 4 copies to give as Christmas presents before I even read the book myself. After I began reading it I apologized to my friends a gave a copy to. It's about Mario the broadcaster with a splash of Tiger history that most fans already knew. No secrets here. It's poorly written and redundant. Worst of all they even mess up on of the coolest quotes in Tiger history on page 146. 1984 World Series game 5. Goose on the mound Gibby coming up. They quote Sparky as saying "he don't wanna pitch to you" when we all know Sparky told Gibby while holding up 4 fingers "he don't wanna WALK you" I was trying to finish this terrible book but had to stop after that. Ps I got my friends replacement gifts.
1605344
I ordered and received this glove and it didn't seem exactly right. It didn't have too much padding but my 14 year boy was anxious to play with it immediately. After one or two baseball games, he complained about his hand hurting alot. I looked closer at the glove and I saw imprinted the words "Fast Pitch".  Are yo kidding me? We were sent a Fast Pitch SOFTBALL glove not a BASEBALL glove.  Amazon did approve my return but be careful that you get the exact glove you ordered. Thanks.
4485025
Our kiddo loves this book, not solving the issue but he's is learning. I knew this wasn't going to be the deal breaker but it's helping out with the no hitting rule!!!
1027995
My cat is really not interested. We have to play with it for him to come to and then he bats at it a couple of times then walks away.
2325474
He shifts the blame everywhere but where it belongs -- PETE ROSE.  This is a lame attempt to attempt to clear the air so he can make it in to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but believe me, he will NEVER make it there!  He is a LIAR!!!  The book contains several glaring errors and typos and you think the editor would have told him to cut back a little on the usage of "feller" and "sumbitch."
3129737
(...) seems like sega just need some help from people like sony, or the makers of xbox. I mean can they ever make a baseball game to everybody's likings?? I mean it was bad enough that in wsb2k1 they forced their customers to play with automatic fielding. But in this one 2k2 they force the customers to learn how to play defense for the first time without it. Don't get me wrong. Playing without it is o.k. But that should be more for people that already has been playing the game for a while. And they're allready use to it. I mean it took me a while to get use and learn how to play wsb2k1. What now it's going to take me another while to figure out wsb2k2? (...) I guess the people of sega never heard of the saying "GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT" My honest opinion on this is that they should always make baseball games with the option whether or not people want to use automatic fielding or not. It's the customers business on how they want to play the game. Not up to the makers to force people how to play the game. I see why now that some retailers want to eliminate sega products from their sales. "GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT"...........
1522139
Let me start off by saying that I am a true blue Los Angeles Dodgers fan. The St. Louis Cardinals have been a thorn in the Dodgers side for years. Both organizations are successful and respected. In my life time the Dodgers have faced the Cardinals in the postseason five times, the Dodgers have lost four of the five match ups. Therefore, I know the risk I was running being a Dodger fan, reading a book by the current Cardinal manager, Mike Matheny.

All joking aside, I have a lot of respect for the Cardinals. I have a lot of respect for Tony LaRussa and I have read two books about his baseball managing career. Matheny had some big shoes to fill in 2012, when LaRussa led the Cardinals back from their final strike (twice) to win the World Series, but he has succeeded taking the Cardinals to the playoffs each season as manager.

When Matheny was chosen as manager of the reigning World Series team, many were puzzled. Matheny had no managerial experience. He was only six years removed from his playing career, which was shut down abruptly by health issues relating to recurring concussion symptoms.

But Matheny is strong leader with strong values. Ultimately, The Matheny Manifesto is an account of Mathenys values that he integrates into his life. The manifesto originated when he was asked to manage youth baseball. Not wanting to be like every other little league coach, Matheny wrote out demands for himself, his staff, his players, and most importantly, the parents. He wanted to create a team of character. He wanted to create a team known for integrity and hard work. He did not care about winning. Winning happens when you do everything right.

This is a great book. It should be required reading for anyone thinking about coach youth sports.
4660284
Meet Darcy. She is a senior and a star softball player. Her dream has always been to play baseball. That dream is about to come true, but there is a catch.

Darcy's life is far from easy. Her high school principal is currently dating and yuck! sleeping with her mother. Attempts by her mother to convince Principal Basset that her daughter should be part of the boys' baseball team have fallen short. That is, until someone tells the principal that Darcy is gay.

Upon hearing this shocking news, Darcy's first reaction is to hastily explain the truth and even admit her crush on his son, Brandon. But after the initial shock of the announcement, Darcy realizes that her dream could come true if she is willing to participate in a small game of sexual deception. What's wrong with pretending to be gay? Who could it hurt?

Phil Bildner uses terrific humor and a fair amount of baseball action to create a fast-paced tale of Darcy's life spinning out of control. Readers will be entertained by Darcy's love life, an improving season for the baseball team, and some crazy meetings of the school's GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) organization. PLAYING THE FIELD has a little something for everyone.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
4705520
I bought my jersey during the 2005 World Series games in which the White Sox won. A.J. was the catcher and also my favorite player. Every team the Sox played hated AJ, but he didn't care. He seemed to enjoy the jeering. The toughest player was Paul Konerko. One time a pitcher threw a ball that hit Paul squarely in the eye. Everyone expected him to leave the game because well, who wouldnt. The fans became quiet thinking how this World Series game was going to be a Sox loss. At the next pitching line up, Paul was standing there as though nothing had happened. As an unofficial MVP the Sox fans were thrilled and surprised to see Pauly back in the game. Of course, a valuable player on the opposing team was nailed with a fastball during their pitching lineup as is customary in baseball. The White Sox won that game.
1110877
I bought a base line pitching machine! I used a jugs pitching machine first time Friday night it shoots no better than my base line pitching machine I would buy a base line for about half the price! You our only paying for the name!
4871313
This is not a very good book. While Rosengren does an adequate job in discussing the eventual reconciliation of Marichal and Roseboro, the rest of the book is an absurd contortion in which the author goes to ridiculous lengths to normalize clubbing a man in the head with a bat in the context of a baseball fight. No, John, the fact that there was a civil war in the Dominican Republic or a riot in Watts that summer does not begin to justify attacking a man with a baseball bat. Neither does the history of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, or even Roseboro's alleged "buzzing" Marichal's ear on his return throw to Koufax. Baseball has some fundamental rules that have never and will never change: one does NOT, under any circumstances, club another man over he head with a bat. It's not complicated.
2353947
Please don't buy this game. While it does offer a fun interface for pitching and interesting mechanics for batting, any player will become extraordinarily frustrated with the baserunning AI. I'm not talking about your opponent. I'm speaking of trying to control your own team. Picture yourself in desperate need of one run. You've managed to place a runner on second base. For some unknown reason he's going to come home on any grounder hit by an infielder. He'll be thrown out at the plate most likely. You're going to try and take control of him and make him retreat to third, but you'll probably be unsuccessful. So while you may feel proud of yourself for figuring out you have to pull back on the right analog stick and not release until the ball passes in front of your batter in order to produce hits, you might find yourself a little upset about the wasted time you invested in playing this game as inning after inning ends in baserunning errors by your team of choice. There is no downloadable patch coming. Just don't buy this game. The game produces gray hairs on young men and women. Avoid it like the plague.
3374078
The best advice I can give you for reading "What Baseball Means to Me: A Celebration of Our National Pastime" from cover to cover is based on the same principle by which you should never leave a baseball game earlier.  You might see something worth remembering.  This is certainly the case with this book, which is edited by Curt Smith because the idea that this is a collection of "essays" is a definite misnomer.  What happened was that 150 people, from former and current baseball plays like Phil Rizutto and Pedro Martinez, along with writers, politicians, presidents, and other types of celebrities were asked to provide responses to the statement "what baseball means to me."  In the case of coach Mike Ditka and writer Elmore Leonard that means a slight paragraph, while David E. Birney and Dan LeBatard provide poems, and Doris Kearns Goodwin compares and contrasts her early love affair with the Brooklyn Dodgers and her current affection for the Boston Red Sox for several pages.  These responses are accompanied by more than 200 photographs from the National Baseball Hall of Fame (whose seal of approval appears on the cover).
Ultimately it is supposed to be the stories told about the love of baseball that matters and not the identity of the person writing the response, but the book works against that goal.  I get the sense that "What Baseball Means to Me" was compiled rather than edited.  The responses are arranged alphabetically rather than thematically, so George Bush is followed by George W. Bush.  This is not a coffee table book that you sit down and read cover to cover; a series of symbolic rain delays are probably helpful in getting through all the responses.  I would have liked the book a lot more if there had been a more logical pattern of organization beyond the alphabet.  Instead of being engrossed in this volume I was constantly distracted by entries that were not worthy of inclusion.  When I got to Bob Costas and found a brief series of sentences separated by ellipses, I knew this book was in trouble.  However, at the end of the alphabetical rainbow are Bob Uecker and Ted Williams, so hang in there.
Still, everybody who loves the game should find a couple of choice gems within these pages if they take the time to mine them out from the rest.  My choice memory from the past was called forth by a photograph of Mel Stottlemyre sliding home to complete an insider-the-park grand slam home run at Yankee Stadium on July 21, 1965.  That was the year I started watching baseball and had decided I was a Yankee fan (I liked New York as a state and the Yankees in the Civil War), and I remember watching that game on television and them showing the play over and over because the announcers could not get over the fact that this had just been done by a pitcher (Mel hit that big gap in deep left center, way beyond the monuments).  So there are things here to touch upon your love of the game, but we still cannot help but feel disappointed that this book is not as great as it should have been.
21620
I enjoyed Dierker's book.  I met him at a book signing, and his jovial nature was enough for me to shell out the money.
I liked it.  It was as if he was sitting in the broadcast booth telling stories during a rain delay.  But like an actual broadcast, he was careful not to start any fires.  Sure he ripped Chris Holt, and a couple of others, but he left me wanting.  If you are writing a tell all, then tell all.  Later I read that he optioned his journal during the first season, but pulled it back because it was too inflamatory.  I would pay a bill to read that.
Early in the book, when he tells Hunsicker that Biggio and Bagwell won't be a problem and then alludes that they were in the end, I expected some follow up to that.  I didn't recieve it.  This was one of the most blatant gaffes in the book and I am severely disappointed.
But the book did give an insider perspective that is lacking in most, and it was cool to hear the broadcast or managerial accounts of games I attended.  If you are a Astros fan like me, it's worth your time.  If not, then approach hesitantly.
1346596
Lie about his c.d.  He wrote no scratches ,  when it had scratches. Plays a little bit until u play part of the game
2467161
Jose Canseco-Baseball's Two-Dollar Whore

  As a former athlete, I was interested in this very serious issue of steroid use. After watching the senate hearings with several Major League Baseball players, I decided to investigate the information for myself.  So I purchased Jose Canseco's book, "Juiced: Rampant `Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big." I was astonished that any athlete would write such a book. I have never been more angry and appalled at the behavior of an athlete than that of Jose Canseco in this book.

  I didn't know Canseco when he played baseball. But my God! The Jose Canseco in this book is pompous, arrogant, and self-centered. His huge ego is plastered on almost every page. He not only exposes steroid use in Major League Baseball, Jose Canseco gives names and implicates trainers, owners, and many of baseball's superstars-like Mark Aguire. There is even a mention of George W. Bush's involvement as one of the owners of the Texas Rangers. What is most upsetting is that Canseco admits that he has used steroids for over twenty years. However, Canseco is not confessing and asking his fans for forgiveness. Instead, he identifies himself as the "godfather of steroid use in baseball" and is endorsing the use of steroids.

  The book is a how-to-manual for the "proper use" of anabolic steroids and growth hormones. He maintains that, "Steroids, used correctly, will not only make you stronger and sexier, they will also make you healthier." For Canseco, steroid use is not cheating, it is just an athlete looking for ways "to gain advantage" and "just being clever." He claims that he knows more than the doctors and scientists. He dismisses the deaths of steroid users like Lyle Alzado, who died of a brain tumor as insufficient proof. He brags that by introducing steroids to Major League Baseball he "single-handedly changed the game of baseball."

 The book is irresponsible and Jose Canseco is negligent. I think that every parent and coach of a high school baseball player should hire a high-profile television lawyer and file a class action suit against Canseco and everyone that is profiting from this book. Canseco is a disgrace to athletes everywhere. It is one thing to share your own secrets, but sharing the secrets and private lives of your teammates betrays the family-like bond that exists between athletes that spend months and sometimes years on the same team.

  Canseco is more disgraceful than the groupies that wait at each ballpark and hotel.  He is worse than Pete Rose and gambling. The only metaphor that adequately describes Jose Canseco and the writing of this book is "a two-dollar whore." Jose Canseco is baseball's two-dollar whore-a person that will do anything for money and an additional fifteen minutes of fame. Canseco is profiting from this book with no respect for his teammates, future athletes, and all that baseball and sports are supposed to represent.
889039
Why would you not want the wisdom of one of the greatest batters of all time in your head?  I'm going to have my baseball playing sons read this book too.