Back to baseball here, I found the audio version of this gem and decided to play it during some dead times during the workday. Here is my review of “A Damn Near Perfect Game.”
Title/Author: “A Damn Near Perfect Game: Reclaiming America’s Pastime” by Joe Kelly, narrated by L. J. Ganser
Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review: Sometimes the best view of a topic, be it sports, occupations or anything else, comes from someone who has actually experienced it and has done so in many different ways and levels. This short book by Joe Kelly, a relief pitcher who has been with 4 teams, most recently the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024, tells readers and listeners why baseball is such a great game and also the ways it can fix itself.
This isn’t a complete criticism of those today who feel the game is boring , too slow for today’s younger generations or similar well-worn reasons published on why baseball is not as popular as other sports. Instead, Kelly approaches this two sided. Yes, he does give suggestions on how the game can improve its appeal to younger people. The best part of this approach (and of the entire book for me) was his very productive interview with current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. That was very enlightening and not at all what I expected.
The other way that Kelly approaches the task is what one would expect from the title. He extols all the aspects of the game that he believes makes it so good. There are far too many individual points made about this to list them all, but we’ll just say that any reason that fans have said why they like the game is covered in some way in the book. This can come from Kelly or from one of the many famous and not-so-famous people who share their stories on the game.
Speaking of stories, Kelly shares many of his own. There is a little bit of autobiographical material when he tells his rise to the major leagues. But the best is early in the book when he made his famous “pouty face” At Carlos Correa in a 2020 game between the Dodgers and the Houston Astros. Strange as it may seem, he uses this story to tell of his love for the game and why it is so good.
Listening to the audio version of this book, I not only enjoyed L.J. Ganser’s narration, but I felt I was able to connect with the stories told. While I am not one this book seemed to be trying to reach, it is one that any level of baseball fan should enjoy and who knows, it just might convince some that baseball truly is a damn near perfect game.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Damn-Near-Perfect-Game-Reclaiming/dp/1635768896/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0