Review of "America's Game in the Wild Card Era"

While all sports have undergone major changes in the last 25 years, none have had quite the overhaul in so many area like baseball has.  This book covers all of them and has good information on all the teams in that era as well.  Here is my review of "America's Game in the Wild Card Era"

Title/Author:

“America's Game in the Wild Card Era: From Strike to Pandemic" by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte

Tags:

Baseball, professional, history

Publish date:

April 21, 2021

Length:

224 pages

Rating:

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

In the last 25 years, Major League Baseball has undergone many changes, both on the field and in the front office.  This book by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte is a good summary of many of the changes and how they affected the game and all 30 franchises.

The book will not have memorable storylines, does not follow a true chronological order of the state of the game, nor will it offer a lot of insight into why some of the changes took place.  What it does do is offer a look at the major issues and events in baseball during that time frame in a thorough manner.  It also does something that many other baseball books about a specific year or timeframe don't do – this book has good information on all 30 teams in the game, not just the best ones. 

So yes, the reader who wants to read about of three major championship droughts that ended in this era (Red Sox in 2004, White Sox in 2005, Cubs in 2016) will be able to do so, but that reader will also read about the Colorado Rockies rise to the postseason in only their third year, the Florida Marlins winning the World Series in their fifth year and the Arizona Diamonbacks doing the same in their fourth season of existence. The New York Mets get plenty of text for their collapses in 2007 and 2008 plus their pennant in 2015, but so do the Minnesota Twins for their run of division titles in the 2000's and their resurrection in 2019 when they set the major league record for home runs in a season.  This balance of coverage for all teams was the most refreshing aspect of this book. 

As mentioned earlier, no one topic is covered in great detail – readers who want to get a lot of information on major events like the 1994-95 strike, the use of performance enhancing drugs or the cheating scandal by the Houston Astros will get some information on them but will have to go elsewhere for a deep dive.  However, the book accomplishes its goal to provide the reader information on every team and every important topic in the game since that strike, including information on how the players and owners eventually came together to be able to play a 60-game schedule in 2020 through a pandemic.  It's a good quick read for a baseball fan to gain a little bit of additional insight into the recent history of the game.

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

Book Format Read:

E-book (PDF)

Buying Links:

America's Game in the Wild-Card Era: From Strike to Pandemic: Soderholm-Difatte, Bryan: 9781538145937: Amazon.com: Books