Baseball Books

Book was nicely put together and contains some great pictures as well as reproductions of his first contract, a letter from Richard Nixon, a love letter to his wife, etc. I'm sure there are better books out there in terms of the amount of information about Mantle. Buy the book only if you want to own reproductions of Mantle memorabilia but skip it otherwise.

The book was given to my husband as a gift and he enjoyed it so much that we bought one for a friend. Our friend was equally impressed with the book from the different memorabilia to the overall presentation. It's a book you want to look over again and again.

This book contains many seldom to never seen photographs from the Mantle family archives that make the book priceless. The inserted reproductions of Mantle memorabilia are a perfect supplement that give the reader an insight to Mickey that you can't get anywhere else. Top that off with great stories from Mickey Herskowitz, David Mantle and Danny Mantle and you have a real winner.

Mantle was a one-of-a-kind ballplayer that the sport has not seen since his retirement. Almost 40 years later, Mickey still holds many baseball records including the fastest time from home plate to first base (3.1 seconds), the longest measured home run (565' even though he hit a few in excess of 600' that could not be measured) and most World Series home runs (18).

The legend of #7 will live forever.

My favorite player (my nickname is 'Mickey'). Well done different presentation. I really enjoyed

I got this wonderful book for my father for Christmas and he loves it! It's his favorite book on Mickey Mantle. As a Yankee fan myself I also love the book-it's very touching how Danny and David Mantle talk about their Father.The photos are beautiful and all the little extras are really neat to look at. I recommend this book to Mantle and Yankee fans everywhere.

This book was received in a very timely fashion,much faster than I expected.For a used book,it was in excellent condition.I also enjoyed this book very much.It was a heart warming story of a wonderful and some what eccentric family.

What a wonderful book of the American Family. Written from the perspective of the oldest sibling, who is also the only girl, it is just plain fun. Growing up without a lot of money doesn't mean life has to be boring or painful. Parents don't have to be perfect and neither do the kids.

For anyone who grew up around Columbus, OH in the 60s and 70s, this is a must. But, incredibly, O'Neill makes the book fascinating as well for her look at NY and its restaurant scene in the 80s and 90s. And the glue to the whole narrative is her and her family,including her famous little brother, Paul. Well done Molly.

Molly O'Neill has a very engaging writing style that pulls you into her world. It's a world peopled with the wildly obsessed, but go along as the ride is enjoyable. Molly O'Neill writes about a life that straddled midwest big city longings with utopian politics and food plays a big role at all stops. My only quibble is that the book has less to do about being Paul O'Neill's sister than the book jacket may lead you to believe.

After reading this book I ordered several copies as gifts. That probably says it all, but I can't just leave it there. Molly O'Neill and her family grew up in the neighborhood where I live and I was taken by her memories of family life where she was the only girl with five male siblings and a father whose main focus was baseball. The exploits of the boys had me laughing out loud while also being thankful I didn't live next door to them.
I enjoyed reading how Molly's cooking expertise evolved and even included her brothers in this endeavor. Her writing, as always, was a delight.

Rec'd book on time; cheaper than area bookstores. This is not the first time I purchased items from Amazon and I plan to continue. Great job! Thanks!

This is a book that you'll love. There's a lot of things to learn in it and some terms you probably can't listen anymore. A perfect book for a really baseball fan !

This is a book that you'll love. There's a lot of things to learn in it and some terms you probably can't listen anymore. A perfect book for a really baseball fan !

This baseball dictionary is clear, concise and helpful, particularly for people like me. I love baseball, but when I was growing up, girls weren't raised on sports, so I became a fan with sketchy knowledge of the rules and nuances of the game. Since I bought this book, I've learned a lot about pitching maneuvers, stats, history of the sport, slang terms and dozens of other things that make baseball more and more interesting to watch. I'm very glad I own it.

In baseball, what is a crackerjack? A cradle? A drawing Card? Feel the apple means what? What happens when you go to the pump? Who made up Murderers' Row? Open the New Dickson Baseball Dictionary and you'll find out.

This A to Z complete listing of baseball term is about the best book on the subject there is. Paul Dickson has put together over 570 pages of facts, terms, definitions and trivia that are sure to please every baseball fan.

Filled with over 100 photos and illustrations you are sure to find just about every baseball word you can think of. Also included are a thesaurus, a section of abbreviations and a fully annotated bibliography.

The baseball purest is sure to love this book as a gift, and it is priced to meet most budgets. Overall this book is great reading and makes the perfect handy reference book!

Terry Pluto has written an excellent book and as an Indians fan for 70 years I can easily relate to his personal story and to the history given of the Cleveland Indians. It is an excellent history for the most part, written as only a sports writer can, though he contradicts a couple other writers a few times. I espeically like the emphasis on the heroes of my childhood, Lou Boudreau, Bob Feller, Larry Doby and others on the famous 1948 team. I disagree with his contention that the l948 championship team was not one of the greatest championship teams ever and this is disproved in the detailed book An Epic Season by David Kaiser. Also for a really complete history of the Indians before and leading to 1948, Franklin Lewis wrote a book titled Clevland Indians published in 1949. Sadly, I don't know if that one can still be found or not, even through Amazon. It is more a history. Nonetheless, Our Tribe: A Baseball Memoir is a very good read and brings back the agony of the countless opportunities that former owners of the Indians let get by them. And the new owners may be doing that again today. :( As a personal story it is superb.

Absolutely wonderful weaving of an at times diffcult father-son relationship (congrats for telling it like it was!) and the history of the Cleveland Indians. Never gets bogged down in year-to-year stats and his way of comparing Shoeless Joe and Manny Ramirez's careers was brilliant. The stories about Manny are priceless.

Like all his other sports books, Terry Pluto is easily the best sportswriter on the planet.

This is a superb book because it goes beyond being a great sports book. Terry Pluto's weaving of his relationship with his father into his lifetime love of the Cleveland Indians makes it a book that readers will think about long after they've finished reading it. It's not necessary to be a Tribe fan to enjoy this book. I'd even go as far to say that a reader need not be a baseball fan to feel empathy and self-reflection on his or her parent-child relationship, regardless of whether the person is the parent or the child. I've also read the author's "Loose Balls", a wonderful look back at the American Basketball Association, and recommend that to those who remember the ABA (go Oakland Oaks!) and to those who weren't around to enjoy those years.

This is a fantastic book for any Indians fan who grew up watching games at the old Stadium. It's for all of us who grew up rooting for a sad team who had never won anything before and was never likely to do so in the future. It helps us to remember those days when the important thing wasn't how good the team was or if they had a chance at the Series, but rather spending time with our fathers watching the game. Maybe, just maybe, this book will help us to remember what is really important once again.

This book is as much a story about a son and his relationship with his father as it is about baseball, and tells each of those stories wonderfully. For basball fans it is an entertaining history of the Cleveland Indians and is full of colorful players, managers, and even owners. From the perspective of this one baseball team, the reader has a ring side seat on how much our country, society, and professional sports have changed and grown over the last 75 plus years. Just from the standpoint of the baseball Terry Puto is as good as Ken Burns or George Will.

But the story within the story is really about the author and his father. That relationship is one that is full of joy and sadness, wonderful memories and yet regrets. The author comes to better understand and appreciate his father after a stroke makes it impossible to talk to his father. In a cruel irony, when the time came that the author was ready and wanted to share stories and talk to his father, he was not able to.
All fathers and sons should read this book.

A final comment on Terry Pluto's writing style. I have read three of Mr Pluto's books and appreciate the way he writes in a clean, no non-sense style and yet fills his books with so much detail and color.

EXCELLENT book. A Coach or parent must read . Easy to understand with a vast amount of effective baseball knowledge with great illustrations . I especially like section that covers understanding kids emotions and psychological effects of ups and downs on players . Most parents and coaches do not realize how they can have a long term negative effect on a player. This book brings a whole new light on to the subject.

Very well written, very informative down to earth explanations and philosophy.

Gives insight that can be used for any age player. Breaks down to a fundamental level. Recommend for any youth coach.

This book isn't bad. I have not finished reading it, but it does give quite a bit of useful information. However, Cal seems to repeat himself several times in the book. There are many books out there that offer adequate, if not better, knowledge of how to play the game. Louisville Slugger's book is good as well as Coaching Pitchers. I would suggest only buying this book if you are a die hard baseball fan and plan on collecting many books. One good thing about the book is that Cal does give that sense of how to be a good teammate and maybe even a great family member.

I picked up this book at the local sporting goods store while I was buying gloves, bats, socks, pants, and etc. for my two sons who were starting little league baseball.

Just a few weeks earlier, I had declined a spot as an assistant coach due to not being "athletic", and I saw Ripken's book as an opportunity to learn some of the things that other dads had learned as kids.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have not read it cover-to-cover, but have browsed and spot-read it throughout the season.

As a result, I now understand more of the things other dads are yelling out. For example, for those in the field, "keep your eye on the ball" means watch the ball from the beginning of the pitch, all the way to the bat, as it connects with and leaves the bat, then all the way to the glove.

Chapters are given for each of the aspects of the game, pitching, fielding, hitting, catching, running, and so forth. Text narratives are easily understood, avoiding or explaining the sports "jargon" that confuses many beginning players (e.g. "choke up on the bat", "take two"). Pictures explicitly illustrate concepts such as batting and fielding stances.

Ripken's narrative also provides fun training excercises used by coaches (both major and little leagues) to develop baseball skills.

I have kept this book within an arm's reach in my office all summer long. Ripken's baseball insights have enabled me to help my sons develop their own throwing and batting skills.

Maybe next year, I might take that assistant coach position!

This easy- to- read- page- turner provides new insight into a truly great man. I had admired him for years, but with reservations, due mostly to rumors. After reading this one-on-one report by a man who experienced the good and the bad of Ted Williams, I came away with tremendous insight into a sensitive, caring, loving, beautiful human being. Who knew?? I'm grateful for Richard Ben Cramer's memories of his thought provoking time with Ted Williams, so the rest of us can realize that there was SO much more behind this man than his remarkable life in baseball. I have purchased this book for many of my friends, due to its' uniqueness, and they have all loved it as much as myself. This little book can be read in an evening, but packs a powerful punch!

In a paper-thin volume, Richard Ben Cramer manages to capture the many contradictions of the greatest hitter who ever lived and the last man to bat over .400, Theodore Samuel (Ted) Williams. His book is must reading for any Red Sox fan, and for that matter anyone who wonders why baseball heroes like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose, Joe DiMaggio, and Williams lead such dysfunctional lives, often estranged from their own families.

Contradiction: Williams respected authority (never argued with umpires and liked the military life), but he refused to conform to societal customs, e.g. wearing a necktie.

Contradiction: He was an obsessive perfectionist, but often half-hearted on defense or while running the bases.

Contradiction: He was a self-centered loner, but unfailingly generous toward charities.

Contradiction: He resented the Boston sports press, but wanted no publicity for his unselfish work for the Jimmy Fund.

Contradiction: He came from poverty, was poorly educated, yet became a dyed-in-the-wool Republican and establishmentarian.

One thing Ted never lost was his potty-mouth, which he used to rail against the "knights of the keyboard," Boston's habitually self-righteous sports reporters who attacked him not only for his lackadaisical defensive habits but even for his failure to call his mother on holidays (she was a Salvation Army worker who wasn't home, anyway) or stay home for his daughter's birth (she was born two months prematurely, but he was supposed to have known it would happen). The more Ted cursed at his enemies in the press, the more they'd dig up irrelevant dirt to throw at him. Things never improved. He also refused to tip his cap for the fans after a home run, resentful of earlier booing.

So why did Ted Williams enjoy such a renaissance in public aspect, especially in Boston? It wasn't because he changed as a person. On the contrary, as Cramer makes clear, his later life (with his life partner, Louise, whom he settled down with after three unsuccessful marriages), was filled with the same profanity, the same volatile temper, the same need to be right all the time that the younger Ted Williams exhibited.

What happened, apparently, was that the public was no longer exposed to the constant friction between Ted and the press, and so remembered only the good stuff: his .406 batting average in 1941, his home run that decided the All-Star game that year, and the home run in his last at bat in 1960, all of which were replayed via TV highlights regularly. John Updike's dissertation on the 1960 home run helped, too.

Cramer makes us understand Ted Williams. Like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose and Joe DiMaggio, he was no scholar. Also like them, he was able to cultivate a specific skill set on the baseball diamond. He became (arguably) the greatest hitter who ever lived. Still, his lack of education and lonely childhood left vacuums in his life...he compensated for the first by having to be right all the time, and for the second by finally admitting to Cramer, "I was a terrible husband and father."

In the interest of full disclosure, the present writer met Ted Williams at two Red Sox fantasy camps.

Richard Ben Cramer wrote a somewhat controversial but well-researched biography of Joe DiMaggio. The major difference between this excellent portrait, and the latter project, was that we see and hear the protagonist in his own words. At times, it is a loud, booming voice full of life, stories, regrets, and accomplishments of one of our sporting legends.

Mr. Cramer does a masterful job weaving this interesting portrayal. This book is rather brief compared to the DiMaggio biography; however, it has more "life." The bulk of this work concentrates upon an interview that took place in 1986. It is written in such a way that the author fades into the background. In a strange sense, the reader feels present. As if we are sitting with Mr. Williams in his living room, and spellbound to imagine what will come next. The sheer force of his personality makes this a very entertaining and informative read.

Compared to the modern day ballplayer, Mr. Williams was indeed a rare bird. He had interesting and intriguing opinions about hitting, fishing, flying jet planes, marriage, lemonade, fickle fans, and the traffic patterns of the Florida Keys. ;-) He is both arrogant and enchanting, if one can imagine such a thing. Mr. Cramer draws out Williams in a way that writers of his own era failed to do. He showed him respect and deference, but like so many of the fish that Williams loved to catch, didn't allow him off the hook on tough subjects. In a way, this interview perhaps was a cathartic exercise for Mr. Williams.

The unfortunate circumstances that surrounded his death made this book quite pertinent. What do we think of him now? The best hitter to ever live, a true American patriot, a lover of the great outdoors, and a man who defined life in his own strike zone.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this excellent work by Mr. Cramer.

This book is deceptively short, yet like Ted Williams swinging at a baseball in his prime --- it packs one hell of wallop! Amazingly, the reader gets a very well-rounded picture of Williams the man, Williams the out-sized legend, Williams the S.O.B. and of course in his most famous guise as baseball's "greatest hitter who ever lived." The last man ever to hit .400 for a season with 521 career home runs to his credit (including one on his last ever time at bat), he was also the only man ever elected to both the baseball and fly-fishing halls of fame. His life was extremely rich and full and reads like it was five lifetimes rolled into one. A fighter pilot during WWII, many argue he may have even forfeited some of his best years in baseball to serve his country.... Considering his well-established contributions to the science of hitting, that's a scary thought! Anyway, if you're looking for a short and breezy read on one of baseball's all-time-greats look no further than this book by Richard Ben Cramer.

Ted Williams lived the kind of irrepressible life that Hollywood tried to invent for its toughest actors; old-skool masculinity personified, he was the finest baseball player of a generation (if not all time), a fisherman worthy of Hemingway's prose, and a lifelong Marine who served his country in not one but TWO deadly wars, the second of which nearly cost him his own life.

He was the eternal paradox, the New England sports hero with the "When Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns" bumper sticker on his pick-up truck, the all-time All-Star outfielder who practiced his swing while playing defense, the surly bane to those in the sports press charged with selling his image to the Boston public, and the eternal cynic who could never fully give himself to the public's adoration because he would always hear the 2 or 3 boos among the thousands of cheers his very presence on the field generated.

This book does a fine job of encapsulating the highlights of Williams' career, covered sparingly among a (then) current interview of the man as living legend approaching his 70's. But the real joy and success of the book is the author's capturing the essence of the magnitude of Williams to the point that you can't possibly help but feel that you are listening to the man thunder away in your own living room, rather than from a far-off house in the Florida Keys (or from the more appropriate peak of Mount Olympus). Most enjoyable to me is the author's penchant FOR PRINTING WILLIAMS' QUOTES IN ALL CAPS (wherein I can't help but read them aloud -and at suitable volume- to my fiancee', much to her dismay).

We have a suitable account of Williams' life after his time as an active player and manager, but before his health began to rapidly deteriorate. It is a full portrait, balancing the more infamous qualities of the man with those that Williams fiercely guarded during his lifetime; that he was, beneath the callous exterior, as warm and giving a soul that baseball would be far more fortunate than it deserves to have as an ambassador today.
It's a joy to read, seemingly almost an afterthought in its brevity, but when considered that it was only ever supposed to be an article for Esquire magazine, it surely ranks among the finest sports writing of all time.

The revolution in baseball analysis in the 1980s, led by the works of Bill James and Pete Palmer, spawned a boom in baseball writing. Unfortunately, most analytical baseball books begin and end with the measuring of player value, which is great for fantasy baseball players or who-should-be-in-the-Hall-of-Fame discussions, but ultimately leaves me feeling hungry.

The folks at Baseball Prospectus put the focus on the "team", stressing that focus even within the player comments. Arguing about whether someone is the sixth best second baseman in the National League, or merely the eighth best, is refreshingly missing here. Instead, the discussion rests on whether the player is advancing the cause of contending for a championship, what he has to do to contribute more, how likely he is to improve, how long he is likely going to continue contributing, what the team needs to do to be prepared for his decline, etc. The team comments focus on where the team is in the development cycle, what it has to do to advance to the next stage, and whether the people in charge are likely to do it. The essays in the back of the book challenge us to understand how this game works.

This annual has made me a better fan and has made my own conversations around the hot stove much more interesting. As a baseball researcher, what I wouldn't give for a complete set of BPs, beginning about 1871.

I stumbled upon the Baseball Prospectus website about a year and a half ago and after reading the articles they frequently publish there, my view of baseball has totally changed. Basically, the BP team laughs in the face of traditional yet very lacking statistics such as batting average, RBIs, saves, wins and losses. They include several mathematicians who have created very comprehensive systems to evaluate batters (equivalent average), starters (Support-Neutral Wins Above Average), and relievers (Adjusted Runs Prevented). While they value the sabermetric approach to baseball, they also provide commentaries on less quantifyable aspects of the game.

While BP is occasionally prone to making sweeping exaggerations regarding a subject, they provide generally objective analysis of baseball in a very entertaining manner. BP 2002 is well-written and contains paragraphs on about 50 players per organization, organization reviews and assorted other articles along with each players translated (meaning adjusted for AAA, AA, etc or parks) statistics. I highly recommend it.

If you are a trained statistician, you will probably love this book. For each major leaguer, it takes his actual numbers and washes out park effects. Then it compares the value (in runs) of the player's production to the league average. There are fielding and pitching "stuff" statistics invented by Baseball Prospectus that attempt to account for all the variables that contribute to performance. For minor leaguers, it calculated "major league equivalencies"--i.e., what numbers the player would have put up if he had played in the majors.

The problem is that the bewildering array of new terms and statistical explanations will mean little to the casual fan. Even an experienced roto player who has a healthy respect for such methods, such as myself, will have an extremely difficult time putting it all together.

Fortunately, the player write-ups are as compelling a reason to buy the book as the statistical analysis. They are hilarious--inventive, creative, and full of oddball references. Baseball Prospectus can be a little too opinionated at times, and a little subjective for a group of people that professes to believe only in the data, but that's part of what makes them so funny. It's unbelievable how many different ways Joe Sheehan & Co. can find to say that a player is worthless.

I forgot to mention in my lengthy review below that one of the best properties of Baseball Prospectus 2002 is the humor ... it adds to the readability a lot knowing that some funny and off-the-wall statements crop up in the player comments. I inadvertantly found myself up way past my bedtime recently reading about minor-leagues for the Tigers when I hit this note on Brandon Inge: he "does less damage at the plate than Lara Flynn Boyle". Good stuff. Keep it up, boys.

I hope you have alot of time on your hands because you will not be able to put this great book down.

Provides totally honest and intelligent team reviews, explaining why transactions were made and what were the good/bad ramifications.

Excellent and witty player insight, brutally honest at points.

Found myself laughing out load many times.

You won't believe what you've been missing.

While baseball is an integral part of the plot of this story, it is more a tale about life and how hard it can be. The Fielder family, the true origin of the title, lives in the small town of Smackover in Arkansas. There are three brothers, whose names from the eldest to youngest are Jugs, Jax and Jude. The story is narrated by Jax and is the story of his life from high school through the years immediately after World War II. Jugs is an incurable practical joker and the catcher for the high school baseball team. Jax is a pitcher and good enough to play briefly in the major leagues. However, when he balks in the winning run and costs the St. Louis Browns the 1941 pennant, he is labeled as a choker.
By that time, Jugs has become a naval aviator, stationed on the aircraft carrier Enterprise. Shortly after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Jax enlists in the hope of also becoming a pilot. He attends flight school and does fairly well, but when Jugs is lost and presumed dead, he loses something. However, he manages to become a member of the crew of a Superfortress bombing the Japanese mainland.
His plane is attacked during a bombing mission and he is inadvertently ejected from the plane. He parachutes to "safety" but is immediately captured and placed in a POW camp. Life there is harsh and he is eventually put in solitary confinement in a piece of pipe. After being freed from that ordeal, he is recognized by a Japanese Admiral as a former baseball player. Jax is then made a gardener at the Admiral's estate and begins to teach the Admiral's son how to pitch. When the war is over and Jax comes back to the states, he tries to resume his baseball career. Many things go wrong and he is falsely accused of treason.
While the circumstances of this story are extreme, many men who patriotically went off to win the Second World War experienced similar circumstances. They came back changed men only to learn that their points of origin had changed even more. Despite their sacrifice and victories in battle, many of them came back to situations where they had to struggle to make a life. While occasionally funny and certainly touching, this is a sad story about a good and decent man who truly deserved better than the hand he was dealt. Although as the title implies, Jax accepts the consequences of the choices he has made.

Norman's first novel shows his deftness with balancing both the humorous and serious sides of life. It is difficult to call this book a comedy, yet equally difficult to call it a drama, a trait that makes this book truly special. My 11th grade students loved it, and so did their teacher, proving it to be an enjoyable read for young and old alike.

I read Fielder's Choice for the first time not long after it was published. Since then, I've reread it a dozen times, I think.

This novel is written in first person, in the voice of Gooseball Fielder, whose promising major league career with the St. Louis Browns stumbles to a halt almost as soon as it gets started. Weeks later, the news of Pearl Harbor fills the US airwaves, and Fielder signs up, finding the anonymity afforded by an army uniform a welcome relief.

Fielder tells his story to a US Army major in early 1946 after having been accused of aiding and abetting the enemy while being held as a prisoner of war in Japan. From these snippets, you might expect a dark novel, even brooding. Fielder's Choice is anything but.

The name of Fielder's hometown in Arkansas--Smackover--is a clue in itself that this is a novel that will make you laugh. Fielder's narrative voice is reminiscent of Henry Wiggen's in Mark Harris's first novel, The Southpaw; it seems obvious to me that Rick Norman is well acquainted with Harris's work. But Fielder is more naïve than Wiggen, less worldly, and the story he relates bears this out.

The humor in Fielder's Choice is nicely balanced by the hardships Fielder endures, both at home and in the prison camp. But the darkness the novel touches on is never overwrought, partly due to Norman's wisdom in using Fielder's own voice to tell the story. Fielder finds redemption long before the ending of the novel, though the Merkle-esque welcome he receives a quarter century after his fall from grace is a welcome touch at the end.

Norman's first novel, Fielder's Choice deserves a place as one of the great works of baseball fiction.

I`ve read a book called Fielders Coice and it is the
best book i`ve read so far.It is an interesting book
to read for the ones you like sports.You will enjoy it about midway through the book where he lost a game and quit to go to the war.

I purchased Fielder's Choice for my son and to reach the minimum dollar amount on my [Amazon.com] order to get free shipping. Just by chance, I picked it up for a quick browse and to my surprise, didn't put the book down until I finished reading it. This is basiclly a story about about a boy coming of age,growing into manhood, told through the background of baseball and war. Fielder's Choice is a warm hearted story full of both laughs and tears. The main character, Gooseball Fielder is the persona of Forrest Gump in baseball flannels discovering that life throws the hardest curves .

Rick Norman is a great story teller. He constructed the book in such a fashion, that after finishing it, I needed to check baseball references to see if the story of Gooseball Fielder was true.

this is an awesome book - would strongly recommend - especially but not necessarily for those with any appreciation of baseball at all - think this should be required reading for all high school students - very important and helpful life lessons - baseball is a great american tradition sure but more importantly the sport produces character - knew little of cal ripkin before reading this book - now i am a BIG fan

This book helped me and it helped me help my eleven-year-old son.

One of the parents from my son's baseball team actually said to me last night at our end-of-season party that several games ago it was like a completely different boy began showing up to play. He said he could see my son now has baseball in his head. That's about when I started reading parts of this book to my son. I started taking him to the batting cages. We began really working toward his goals on the field and talking about his goals in life.

This book resounds with the values I've always carried in my heart but have not been able to live due to circumstances beyond my control. Reading it allowed me to see these values do actually work somewhere out there in this world and these values are what I want for my child.

Cal Ripken offers many of his life lessons and experiences he has learned through playing the right way his whole career. I highly recommend this book to baseball fans of all ages and backgrounds.

Get in the Game is not only a book about Cal Ripken Jr., his consecutive games streak and his fine career. It's a recap of some simple but overlooked values.

Using his core strength in baseball to describe his thinking, the reader will not only appreciate some particular plays in his career, but also down-to-earth ways of approaching things in life.

This book provides extremely useful guidelines in dealing with situations we all eventually run into in our lives. While alluding to baseball related examples, it does not simply dwell solely on recounting Mr. Ripken's impressive baseball accomplishments or relate amusing/interesting anecdotes. Instead it gives thought-provoking insights into two all too fast-disappearing basic axioms in our country's psyche: "practice makes perfect," and "do unto others." I highly recommend this book for everyone, especially young people still in their formative years. In fact, it presents an excellent opportunity for parents to reconnect with their child(ren) by reading it aloud and together, with discussion centering on each of the eight elements as they are completed.

i agree with all the others who raved about the breadth of the coverage. i also agree that there is a wealth of information not available elsewhere, or at least not readily obtainable. unfortunately trivia is only really fun if the reader has some familiarity with the person whose identity he is trying to discover. a really large portion of the book is devoted to questions about players that even diehard baseball trivia buffs have never heard of. to me this is a fatal flaw, in spite of the many interesting facts that can be gleaned from the questions and hints. i think the book also suffers from the fact that the answer pages are not more easily accessed. if you are dying to know an answer to one of the many interesting questions you might very well get sidetracked before you ever find it. all in all i think the book is a good value, but just think buyers should be aware it is not quite so perfect as some of the other reviewers would have us believe.

This author has gone to a lot of trouble to put together lists of players who hold both important and somewhat trivial records. All are interesting, though, and some of his questions that come with his lists are dynamite. The really amazing thing is how many of them already have to be updated because of what happened in 1999. But you can do that on your own with a bottle of Whiteout. The chapter here on pinch hitting alone is worth getting this book for.

If you have a teenage son, as do I, I don't see how you can go wrong here if he likes baseball. My older son got this book for his birthday and that was the last we saw of him for about a week. He still loves it so much and is so possessive of it that I now have to get another copy to give my younger boy for Christmas. P.S. Their father might just wind up getting one too.

I have to take exception to the last reviewer even though I'm not really a big fan of the 19th century either. This book takes you on a complete journey throughout baseball history unlike most similar type books that would have you believe everything that happened before 1900 doesn't count. Sure it counts, and Nemec's book convinces you--okay, me anyway--that every player and record he cites in it is important from 1871 to the present. I will agree, though, that the answer section leaves something to be desired. My solution was to insert a kind of permanent bookmark so I could turn to it easily. Anyway, I really liked it a lot even if I too didn't exactly bat 1.000 on all the questions.

Here comes the stats lovers dream book. If you are into baseball, really into baseball, by the number you really need this book. Nemec's ability to bring out the true statistical breakdown of the National Pastime was amazing.

Every baseball fan should be asking for and buying this true work of art. The book, in quiz form, does give charts, pictures and short stories on every possible topic from singles hitting to the home run.

The book takes the reader from the early years of the game, right up to the modern day players. You are inundated with numbers, facts and figures that should keep your conversations going for years to come.

I wasn't able to find any category that wasn't covered in this book. The book even covered the not so good players, as well as the Negro leagues. The book is "The Ultimate Test for the Ultimate Fan". A great job and a great book.