Book Review

I just finished the above book.

It is a decent baseball book, but not spell binding.

 I am not a Cubs or Phillies fan, so that detracts a bit.  But I was a still coherent fan at the time of the game referenced on the cover, and the book refreshed and enlightened quite a bit.

It was a bit " jumpy," from subject to subject.  All baseball anecdotes are interesting and several were new.  But they often just seemed pieced together, as if I were turning the pages of the NY Post.

The details of Donny Brown were unsettling, but the reality was too.

I loved the story about the ballplayer who fell into the Niagra river and disappeared ( don't think I am supposed to love a tale of a drunken tragedy, though ).

I think that was in the book.

It just happened in reality also, although the guy lived.  Something to shoot for?

I liked that Dave Kingman could not stand reporters, because they knew little and always asked the same, dumb questions.  Just like today.  And Bill Buckner comes across as a gritty, fine ballplayer who got unlucky in one game.

Another enjoyable element is the story of the Boone family, including pictures of Aaron at 6 with all the ballplayers.

The descriptions of the 23-22 game were sometimes original and gripping, and other times purely reportage.

I never really cared what was going to happen.  But that didn't matter much.  The point was to provide anecdotes about the participants, which had not previously been aired.

And it did so.