Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2007-03-27
ISBN-13:9780307280329ISBN:0307280322
Description: Fair. Tight Binding, No Spine Creases, No Writing, Minor Cover and Edge Wear. Ships promptly and with CARE! (*** Liquid spilled on top edge of book) read more
Binding: paperback
Publisher: Vintage, New York
Date Published: 2007
Description: Fine. A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts and Deeply Serious Geeks. Small 8vo, illustrated in black-and-white, 254 pages, printed wrappers. New York: Vintage, 2007. Fine. Signed in full by the author on the title page. read more
"The subtitle of this well crafted work: "A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-Experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks." For the first two categories, right on! Geeks are not going to learn a whole lot that they already do not know. That aside, though, this is a nice work.
Examples of what is in some of the chapters: Chapter 2 focuses on "Pitchers and Catchers." The first part of the chapter describes basic pitches (and how they are thrown)--fastball, curveball, slider, change-up, split-finger fastball, knuckleball, screwball, spitball (naughty, naughty!), eephus, and gyroball (does it even exist?). Each is described, with a bit of humor added here and there.
Chapter 5 explores "Fielding." There are brief descriptions of what each position has to do. As an old second baseman, I enjoyed reading about the basics of the double play and so on.
Chapter 6 examines "Stadiums" (but should this not be "Stadia," to use the proper Latin term?). One of the more enjoyable features is the description of some unique fields. Think Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. But why not talk about the cool stadium in Cleveland?
Chapter 9 takes a peek at "Random Stuff to Know." E.g., Why K for strikeout on scorecards? What about uniform numbers? The seventh inning stretch? And so on.
This book is a lot of fun. Even hard core baseball fans might enjoy it for its style, even though they may not learn a great deal that is new. For beginners and intermediate fans, though, this will be quite a pleasure!"
"very good book teaching some of the most common questions about baseball. Not sure if I would recommend this for a persont that knew nothing of the sport because it did get into some history that might bore a person who had never heard of some of thesep players."
"This book is great for the casual fan, or the not-so-casual fan, or the significant other trying to understand the rabid fan's obsession. I learned some new slang, and some interesting facts that you can be sure I will pull out at parties.
Most amazing to me was the breakdown of fielding- who covers what when- things that I never learned growing up, because I never played baseball and my gym teachers couldn't be bothered to teach me.
The one drawback was some of the definitions were a bit circular. i.e. "a slider combines the movement of a fastball and a curveball. a slurve combines the movement of a slider and a curveball." um...what?
Still, if you like baseball, you should read this. Chances are you'll learn something."
"I read this at the suggestion of a friend. I'm a lifelong baseball fan who works in professional sports. I attend 5-12 games a year, and watch about 3 times that number on television and the internet.
I read this book in a single sitting. It's not terribly long, and, after a while it felt like the author had resorted to filler material. It is an excellent beginner's guide to professional baseball in the United States. I do not believe, however, that it delivers on the promise of being a guide for "Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks." It needed some additional advanced meat on the bones to qualify for that title.
So if you are starting from scratch, this is a great place to start your reading. If you are more advanced, look elsewhere."
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