Title/Author:
“From Amazing Aaron to
Zero Zippers: An Introduction to Baseball History” by Matt Nadel, foreword by Jim
Palmer
Tags:
Baseball, history, professional
Publish date:
September 30, 2014
Length:
112 pages
Rating:
4 1/2 of 5 stars
(excellent)
Review:
Whether it is about the United States, a major war or baseball, many
readers will cringe when they hear that there is a new “history” book published
as it usually means a lot of facts to absorb with usually dry text. That is NOT the case on this introductory
book on baseball history by Matt Nadel, a 16-year-old blogger for MLB.com.
Nadel has acquired much baseball knowledge in his young life and he puts
it on display in this book that is formatted in short chapters. The chapters
run from A to Z, each with an adjective and the subject of the chapter. For example, the title contains the names of
the first and last chapters. Each chapter contains not only facts and
statistics on the subject matter, but also interesting anecdotes.
It doesn’t matter what time frame he writes about, Nadel shows that he
can not only recite baseball knowledge, but share it with a passion. Some of
the stories are very brief, so hard-core baseball fans may realize that there
is some information that is missing about the player or subject. However, it is
clear that this book is intended for newer baseball fans who want to learn more
about the history of the game – just enough to whet his or her appetite to
learn more.
This book is a very good source for many different baseball stories about
many different players and events that spans a time frame of over 150
years. That is an impressive collection
for any writer. That this author was
able to accomplish this at such a young age is a testimony to the quality of
this book.
I wish to thank Mr.
Nadel and Summer Game Books for a review copy of the book in exchange for an
honest review.
Did I skim?
No
Pace of the book:
It was a very quick read as each chapter is compact and gives a good
amount of information in short intervals.
Do I recommend?
This book is targeted to younger readers, approximately age 10 and
up. However, if a reader of any age wants
to learn about various aspects of baseball history in an easy-to-read format
that isn’t too detailed, this is the perfect book for that goal.
Book Format Read:
E-Book (Epub)
Buying links: