Review of "Pennant Race"

For baseball fans like me, tomorrow will be somber as it was supposed to be opening day for the 2020 season.  But for now, we will have to be satisfied with replays of games and books.  For a good read on baseball in a different era, Jim Brosnan wrote two books about the game in the late 50's and early 60's.  This is the second of those books and it was a fun read.  Here is my review of "Pennant Race"

Title/Author:

“Pennant Race: The Classic Game by Game Account of a Championship Season 1961” by Jim Brosnan

Tags:

Baseball, professional, history, Reds, diary, classic

Publish date:

March 15, 2016 (e-book.  Original Publication Date: 1962)

Length:

272 pages

Rating: to

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Sometimes it's best to read a book that is strictly about baseball and nothing but baseball.  For those times, this classic book by Jim Brosnan is just right.  Brosnan was a relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in 1961 and this is his diary of events through the regular season, one in which the Reds won the National League pennant.  

The book is a good reflection of baseball players and their day-to-day work life during the season, especially for relief pitchers.  At the time, these pitchers were the ones who weren't quite good enough to be in the starting rotation, but nonetheless their clubs and managers wanted to have them ready to pitch. Since these were the days when starters would work as many innings as possible, that left a lot of idle time for the relievers to swap stories and jokes with each other and, depending on the ballpark, fans as well.

These stories are told by Brosnan with very dry humor which will make the reader chuckle frequently throughout the book.  Some of the stories will contain names very familiar to fans of baseball in the 1960's such as Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson. Some of the best lines in the book come when Brosnan shares words about the curmudgeonly manager of the Reds that season, Fred Hutchinson.  Whether it is when Hutchinson is making a pitching change to either bring Brosnan in or taking him out or if it is about one of his clubhouse talks, those pieces were very entertaining.

While Brosnan talks about life as a ballplayer in the bullpen and on the road, it is not full of the controversial or shocking (for the time) aspects that "Ball Four" would contain eight years later.  Instead, this book is more like a diary with stories and accounts of Reds games in a season that became one for the ages as Cincinnati was the surprise winner of the 1961 National League Pennant.  It is a bit of a let down that the World Series was not included in the book, but this is still a very good account of a season and a team that is a reflection of the sport before multi-million dollar contracts and constant media exposure.  It's a good book for a reader who just needs a baseball fix.

                                                                  

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Pennant-Race-Classic-Account-Championship-ebook/dp/B013CCTJUE/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=