Another post-World Series book I picked up to wind down the baseball talk for the season as the off season begins. Here is my review of a book on World Series upsets, “Shocktober”.
Title/Author:
“Shocktober: The Biggest Upsets in World Series History” by Jonathan Weeks
Rating:
3 of 5 stars (good)
Review:
While the winner of the World Series will be considered to be the “world champions” of baseball, that does not always mean that team is necessarily the best one. Sometimes a team who performed just well enough to get to the postseason will pull off a surprise and defeat favored teams to win the World Series. This book by Jonathan Weeks tells the story of some of these upsets.
Each chapter follows a format in which Weeks will begin by a short description of each team’s road to the World Series. This includes a short description of their season and, after 1969, the teams’ playoff victories. There are brief notes and stats on each team’s key players. Then Weeks will explain why one team was heavily favored and follows that up with summaries of each game in that World Series. Some of these summaries, including the finale of each one, will be longer than some others.
One can question whether these are the “biggest” upsets, as any book that lists the “best”, “greatest”, or “biggest” will be subjective and readers may disagree with the author’s list. These particular selections are quite accurate and while short, the explanations on why these were considered upsets are good.
Notice the use of words like “short” and “brief” in this review. That was one takeaway from this book as for each World Series, it felt that while the explanation on being an upset made sense, it just felt like more could have been discussed about each team and season. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable and very quick read that baseball fans should enjoy.
I wish to thank Lyons Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The views expressed are strictly my own.
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