Review of "Six Decades of Baseball"

To celebrate another year of life as a sports fan, we recently took a trip to Cooperstown, New York and the Baseball Hall of Fame.  During some of the downtime, I was able to finish this book that was sent to me by the author who is a fellow baseball fan, and it is written from the fan's point of view - which makes the book one that is very enjoyable to read.  Here is my review of "Six Decades of Baseball."

Title/Author:

“Six Decades of Baseball: A Personal Narrative” By Bill Lewers

Tags:

Baseball, memoir, Red Sox, Orioles, fans

Publish date:

November 6, 2009

Length:

396 pages

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

The best way to start this review is to describe what this book is not.  It is not a professionally researched book on baseball history. It is not a meticulously written account of a particular baseball player, team, personality or season. Instead, it is a collection of stories written from the viewpoint of a longtime fan.  Therefore, this book from Bill Lewers is not the typical baseball book. 

Instead, it is a good read that a baseball fan that has seen many games and has many memories can identify with. Lewers writes about his life as a baseball fan, with several tales about his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. He does also write about his visits to Fenway Park with reverence, even though he didn’t live in Boston. There are also plenty of anecdotes about the Baltimore Orioles and Camden Yards since that is the major league team closest to his residence in Virginia. Therefore, if the reader is looking for a fan’s point of view talking about many teams, it won’t be found in this book.

That doesn’t take away the sheer fun I had reading this because it was a conversation, although of course one way, between two fans. Because Lewers is a fan instead of a professional sportswriter or baseball researcher, the stories are those from the fan’s point of view and that is refreshing.  Book like this are not plentiful and to have found one that tells stories about baseball much like ones that I would tell was very entertaining for me.  I highly recommend this book to fellow baseball fans who want to read about stories that a fellow fan experiences.

I wish to thank Mr. Lewers for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Pace of the book:

While long, the pace of the book is good. The conversational style makes it easy to take breaks in reading the book and when the reader picks it back up, nothing is lost to the reader.

Do I recommend? 

Baseball fans who just want to read something from another fan from the fan’s point of view will love this book.  It is Red Sox and Orioles-centric, with a good amount of Yankee talk as well, but that is mainly because those are the teams he followed.

Book Format Read:

Paperback

Buying links:

http://www.amazon.com/Six-Decades-Baseball-Personal-Narrative/dp/1441563431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443389130&sr=8-1&keywords=six+decades+of+baseball

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/six-decades-of-baseball-bill-lewers/1103349469?ean=9781441563439