Review of "Make Me Commissioner"

When I saw this book available for review prior to its release in September, I was intrigued.  While I can't say I enjoyed all of Jane Leavy's books I previously read, I knew that she was very knowledgeable about the game, so this had to be good.  It was - glad I picked it up.  Here is my review of "Make Me Commissioner."

Title/Author: “Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It” by Jane Leavy

Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:  “Baseball is too slow.”  “Analytics are ruining the game.”  “Kids don’t want to play the game.”  “Television ratings for baseball are terrible.”  These and other complaints about the current state of Major League Baseball have been spoken, printed, shouted and communicated in nearly every manner for several years now. Jane Leavy, an accomplished baseball writer and fan, decided to use her experience and interview many people to come up with ways to fix the game. She tells readers about this experience and her ideas in this very good book.

Something that makes the book very interesting is that Leavy talks with many people with various viewpoints on many different issues. Leaving out names because 1) there are so many in the book that it would make this review longer than an 18-inning marathon game and 2) it would not be right to put labels on people such as “traditionalist” or “stat geek” so this review will not do so.  It is just worth noting that the conclusions Leavy makes come after weighing all opinions.

Just about every aspect of the current game is covered and either addressed or left alone by Leavy in her final suggestions (which will not be revealed in this review). I thought her best work was on the lack of Black players from the United States as her interviews were very interesting. I will note that there is a triggering sentence in that section that she at least acknowledges that was very unprofessional on a possible solution to this problem.  But the overall topic is covered well.

As is the other example I will note her, her writing on the current state of traveling baseball and how it not only will exclude kids from playing the game but also limits the opportunities for players to advance to either college baseball or possibly being drafted by MLB teams.  I also enjoyed her stories of the Cape Cod league that are interspersed in the book between writing about these issues.  They tie in nicely with the topics being discussed.  One excellent example is near the end when kids can interact with the actual play on the field using some of the advanced analytical statistics.  If that sounds improbable, it did happen and the story is great.

Improbable is the most likely outcome for either Leavy to become the actual commissioner or for many of her ideas to become reality.  But even if they don’t, this book is a very good look at the current state of the game and some possible ways of addressing them without altering the beauty of the game itself.

I wish to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley.  The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link:  Amazon.com: Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It: 9780306834660: Leavy, Jane: Books

Review of "Talking Baseball with Major League Stars"

Fairly short book resulting in a fairly short review - but packed with good information.  It did have a little (very little) "Glory of Their Times" feel, but it was less about the stories of these men and more about the game of baseball itself. 

Title/Author:

“Talking Baseball with Major League Stars” by Wayne Stewart

Rating: 

3 of 5 stars (good)

Review:

If one wants to learn about any aspect of baseball, whether it be pitching, hitting, fielding, strategy, or any other topic related to the game, it only makes sense to talk to those who do it best.  That is the concept behind this book by Wayne Stewart, where a reader will learn about these topics and more from interviews with many Major League baseball players and managers.

Through these numerous interviews, Stewart was able to craft a decent narrative on so many different approaches to the game. This is not only due to the sheer number of people who provided quotes and information, but just because of the many nuances of the game. A great example of this is the section on pitching, which was my favorite chapter of the book. Just about any type of pitch that a reader can think of, whether it is in current use (split-finger fastball, cutter) or one that is not used as often as it used to be (forkball, knuckleball), there will be several people giving their opinions or knowledge about that topic. 

While this makes for very interesting reading and even hardcore fans can learn something new, it can get overwhelming at times to read the book.  Not so much because of the information, but because of the sheer number of players and managers interviewed.  I had a hard time keeping track of which person said which quote when many would talk about the same detail.  It was still good to read, just hard to follow who said what.

I wish to thank Rowman and Littlefield for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link: Talking Baseball with Major League Stars: Stewart, Wayne: 9781538185285: Amazon.com: Books

Review of "Pinnacle on the Mound"

It's only fitting to read and review a baseball book during Super Bowl weekend, correct?  Needing a break from all the Bengals and Rams talk, this book was a very good, quick read on some of baseball's best pitchers from the last 50 years.  Here is my review of "Pinnacle on the Mound."

Title/Author: “Pinnacle on the Mound: Cy Young Winners Talk Baseball” by Doug Wedge

Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: Given each year to the outstanding pitchers in the American and National League, the Cy Young award is the culmination of an outstanding season and the hard work that goes into achieving this honor.  Ten winners of this award, spanning a time frame of 50 years, shared their stories and the keys to their success with author Doug Wedge.

From the two winners in 1967, Jim Lonborg and Mike McCormick to the 2017 American League winner Corey Kluber, each of these men talk about the people who helped and supported them on their way to the award as well as the changes and the particular pitches that each one threw that made them so tough for the hitters.  Each pitcher’s story is interesting in its own way.  This reviewer was especially riveted to the story of R.A. Dickey, the 2012 National League winner and his use of the knuckleball.  Pitchers who use that pitch as the main one in their arsenal are rare and when he won the honor, Dickey dedicated that award to all of the knuckleball pitchers before him, such as Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, Tim Wakefield, and Tom Candiotti.

It should be noted that the pitchers interviewed for the book had various degrees of career success.  While there are some who only had that one season of greatness (Dickey, Randy Jones), most of the pitchers portrayed had consistently good major league careers, with one of them (Dennis Eckersley) becoming a Hall of Fame inductee.  However, there were stages for all of them when they had a defining moment that either made a mediocre career better or a good one even better because of that coach, veteran pitcher or change in their mental games in order to achieve the crowing glory that one can earn for the course of a season. 

While each of these ten men may have earned the Cy Young with different pitches or different mentors, they all have the same characteristic of knowing that they had to do something special or something different in order to become better pitchers and help their teams achieve more success.  This is a book that baseball fans will want to read to gain some nuances into pitching and learning from Cy Young award winners is a good place to do so.

I wish to thank Rowman and Littlefield for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Mound-Young-Winners-Baseball/dp/1538154811/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1644781095&sr=1-1

 

Review of "Great Stuff"

Here's hoping everyone who celebrate's the Fourth of July had a wonderful celebration.  I did by going to a baseball game - what is more American than that?   On the train ride to the park, I read a book on some of the most amazing pitching feats in the history of the game, and here is my review of that book.  

Title/Author:

“Great Stuff: Baseball’s Most Amazing Pitching Feats” by Rich Wescott

Tags:

Baseball, Pitching, History

Published:

May 6, 2014

Length:

336 pages

Rating: 

2 1/2 of 5 stars (okay)

Review:

The premise of this book grabbed my attention - while a fan may know about baseball’s greatest pitching feats like consecutive no-hitters by Johnny VanderMeer or the perfect game thrown by Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, this book promised to deliver stories behind those accomplishments.  On that promise, this book by Rich Wescott delivers as there are some interesting stories on great pitching feats and accomplishment that span the entire history of Major League baseball.  Everything from Cy Young’s 511 wins to Mark Buehrle retiring 45 consecutive batters in a three game stretch (more on him in a minute) was covered.  

The stories will introduce the reader to the particular pitcher being discussed, details about the pitching feat that made him worthy of being included in this collection and then more details about his career before and after the accomplishment. This pattern made for easier reading of each story. Because there wasn’t too much detail in these stories – the reader would get stats and highlights but not much else – it made for an easy read.   Some readers may want more detail-oriented stories but for the theme of the book, the format was just right. 

There were some inaccuracies in the book that I noted in a few of the stories on pitchers from 1970 and later.  I will illustrate two of them here, plus two errors that appeared to be missed by the editors that a reader may quickly identify.      

The first inaccurate fact that caught my attention was on the chapter about Jim Palmer.  In that one, it is stated that “…Palmer beat the Kansas City Royals in Baltimore’s pennant clinching game.”   This was about the 1966 season when the Orioles won the World Series. However, that game was against the Kansas City Athletics, as the Kansas City Royals were not a major league franchise until 1969.  The second inaccurate fact was about Orel Hershiser’s win in the 1988 World Series. It is stated in the book that “In Game One, Hershiser pitched one of his best games of the season, a three hit-5-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics.”   Hershiser’s one win in that World Series was in fact Game Two, and it was a three-hit, 6-0 victory.   Game One of that World Series was won by the Dodgers on Kirk Gibson’s famous pinch-hit walk-off homer off Dennis Eckersley (who was the subject of another chapter in the book.)  These are just errors that caught my attention immediately before researching into them. They did raise a red flag for me as to what other errors may be found if the reader digs further, especially the statistics and details of the early history of the game.  

One of the editing errors was one that caught my attention because it would make a great feat even more astounding.  In the chapter on Dwight Gooden’s amazing sophomore season, it is stated that he had a “23-game scoreless streak” broken.  From the context, it was easy to see the author meant “23-inning scoreless streak,” so I believed that was an editing issue.  There was also a glaring editing error when the first page of the chapter on Mark Buehrle’s streak of retiring 45 consecutive batter was titled “Mike Buehrle.”  This was also in the table of contents and the first two times Buehrle’s full name was written.  It was corrected later in the chapter, but it was certainly a distraction to see the incorrect name. Again, I believed it was an editing error.  I will also note that the copy of this book that I read was an e-book that was borrowed from a public library so I do not know if an unedited version ended up in the library’s collection.  However, these were enough of a distraction for me to make me wonder about the validity of all the statistical information.

Nonetheless, I will give this book a passing grade because the stories were entertaining and it did contain information on old-time pitchers that is not easily found from other sources.  I am giving it 3 stars on the assumption that these errors and any others were found and a correct copy is available for purchase.

Did I skim?

No. 

Pace of the book: 

It was a fairly quick read – took me a little more than two hours.   None of the stories were extremely long and they moved along quickly enough that it is a decent read.

Do I recommend? 

Baseball fans will enjoy this book as long as they read it for the stories and admire the many outstanding pitching feats that have been accomplished over the course of the game’s history.   If the reader is looking for all facts, figures and statistics, he or she should look elsewhere. 

Book Format Read:

e-book (Kindle, borrowed from public library)

Buying Links:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Stuff-Baseballs-Amazing-Pitching-ebook/dp/B00J75IS7G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1404678146&sr=1-1&keywords=Great+Stuff