Ender’s Game

by Orson Scott Card

Am I the only person who has never read this book? I had a few people at work chastise me for not having read it, one of them went to his office and brought me a copy. Now I need to find the time to read it. :)

Getting in the Game: Inside Baseball’s Winter Meetings

by Josh Lewin

Josh Lewin is the regular play-by-play broadcaster for the Texas Rangers. This past fall, he put out a book called “Getting in the Game: Inside Baseball’s Winter Meetings”. This is the story of both the outside and inside of some folks trying to break into baseball to follow a dream. It deals with how some kids (and not kids) try to get broadcasting, mascot jobs, or just about anything with a minor league team.
That sound boring? It’s not. The book has a nice sense of humour about it, and there’s some wonderfully funny stories about what goes on at these things (I loved the potato story a lot, as well as numerous others). Josh Lewin has a very entertaining way of broadcasting baseball games, and he seems to have tied up several stories regarding how to break in, how those who hire do the hiring, and the tribulations of some job seekers rushing all over themselves to get low paying or even no paying jobs, just to say they have a job in baseball.
If there’s one criticism of the book, it’s that I found it hard to follow sometimes where things were going. This isn’t a fiction, so things aren’t going to always be neatly in a row – but I got confused sometimes as to who was who in terms of the job seekers. But that’s a minor quibble, it might just be me not paying attention well enough.
A nice bonus to me was some talk with Dave Raymond, the man who originated the Philly Phanatic character. As I’m from Philadelphia, and grew up with the Phanatic, it was nice to hear some stuff from Mr. Raymond. It’s not like he’s the main crux of the book (far from it), but it was nice to see him pop up here.
If you like to follow the inner workings of baseball, you’re sure to love this book. If you’re the kind of casual baseball fan who has trouble watching the game on TV, or when they’re at the park gets more worked up going for beer and hot dogs, this might not be for you, then.

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

by David Kushner

This book tells the story of John Romero & John Carmack of id Software. It talks about the creation of id Software, through Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and later Doom, Quake, and the breakup of the two Johns. I work in this industry, and as such, most of what was said in this book I knew already. There was little I wasn’t aware of, and to me, I’m reading this book going “Yeah – so?” As such, I don’t feel qualified to write a proper book review of this book. I read it solely to see if it was accurate, and from what I can tell, it’s mostly accurate. There’s some errors, and some of that might be due to “point of view”, but I don’t really have much to say about the book. I suppose if I didn’t work in the industry and know the guys already, I might be more into it.

Philadelphia Then and Now : 60 Sites Photographed in the Past and Present

by Kenneth Finkel, Susan Oyama

This book isn’t big (128 pages), and it isn’t that wordy (about 80% of the pages are taken up with pictures). But it is fascinating if you like Philadelphia, and you like history.
This book takes 60 locations and has pictures of them. The first part is an “early” picture anywhere from 1859-1952. Then there’s a picture on the next page which is more modern (1986-1988). There’s also a paragraph or so with each picture describing the area as it was in the old days, and now (the book was published in 1988). If you know the areas well, it’s a wonderful jog down memory lane for one’s own memory.
It’s a very fast read – I got through the entire thing cover to cover in well under an hour. I also wished the pictures (the modern ones anyway, the old time ones can’t be helped) were in color, but other than that, it was rather enjoyable. If you’re a fan of Philadelphia, and history, I recommend it.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

by Michael Lewis

I finished this book in December of 2003. I’ve had it on my pile of books to read since the start of the 2003 season. I take too long to read books – probably because my pile to read is massive! :) Anyway…
This book was billed as some major expose on the inner workings and mind of Billy Beane – General Manager of the Oakland A’s, and how he continues to make things work with no money against teams (mostly the Yankees) with significantly larger budgets. And for the most part, that’s what it did.
Did I enjoy this? Absolutely yes – I totally enjoyed parts of it (the draft day stuff, Beane’s behaviour in the park). But other parts bored me. For some reason we got an entire chapter on how A’s pitcher Chad Bradford grew up as a kid. That’s fine and all, but I don’t see how that was germaine to the book. I also was a bit bored about Beane’s time in the minors and what his life was like as a player. Yeah, I understand it’s background to why he does what he does now, but quite frankly, it bored me.
But once the book got out of that, it was wonderful! Lots of insight into how a major league general manager’s mind works – or at least Beane’s. I agree there’s something to sabremetrics (sp?) and it certainly seems to work for him. What I took away from this is that he seemed a bit naieve to think his way is the only way to do things, though. Running has it’s uses. I get the impression that if he could, Beane would have every run scored on a bases loaded walk. :)
However, that’s a lot of nitpicking on my part – the book is an enjoyable read. Provided you enjoy the “business” of baseball. If you don’t enjoy the biz side of the sport, you probably wouldn’t enjoy this book.

My wife got me this book for my birthday, and it seemed like a book right up my alley. I love baseball, and I love keeping track of players from the past, and where they travel during their careers. This book does a wonderful job of bringing together lists of players for all the current (and some historical) teams. Rob Neyer picks the best players on a team, a “B” team of greatest players, then other categories like “Best Single Season”, “Gold Glove”, “Iron Glove”, “Past their prime”, “Traded Away”, and others. I, of course immediately looked at the two teams I’m most familiar with, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Texas Rangers. I read those, and it was a like “COOL!”; I loved seeing all these player names. I was excited about reading this book, so I started in from the front of the book.
And that’s where the problems started. For awhile, it was cool reading all the lineups and players. But after awhile, the amount of players I’d never heard of really sucked the enjoyment and rush I got when first picking up the book out of me. I had to force myself to finish it, and while I can put the book in the “I enjoyed it” group, it’s not by much. I’m 38 as I write this in October 2003, and a lot of the players are people I’d never heard of, and as the pages wore on, it just became a big mishmash of players that I dint’ care to be reading.
I did enjoy the sections on players who joined the team past their prime (like Pete Rose in Montreal, Richie Ashburn for the NY Mets, things like that). But overall, as one other review I read about this book said, “…my eyes started to gloss over”.
If you’re a stat hound, you’ll probably dig this book. I don’t want to sound like I’m totally dumping on it, it was enjoyable, but wasn’t something I could read quickly, nor something that I can say I’d want to read again, although I will keep it around as a “reference” book of sorts. Kudos to Rob Neyer for the extreme research I’m sure in putting all this together.

The Last Roundup (Star Trek)

by Christie Golden

I was home visiting family recently, and when I left, I borrowed this book from my brother for the flight home. It’s 280 or so pages, and I read the entire thing waiting for my plane in the terminal, and for about the first 45 minutes of the flight. I flew through it pretty good, and I don’t know if that’s because the book is good, or I was bored.
The book was pretty decent – I generally tend to get suckered in by books that proport to tell a story of a single event in an already existing universe that we don’t get to see on screen. In this case, it’s the “final adventure of the original crew”. Which is an odd phrase for the book, because the bulk of the story has Kirk, Chekov, & Scotty in it. The remainder of the original crew is barely there, and only superficially involved with the main plot of the story. We do get Kirk’s two nephews from his rarely mentioned brother. This story takes place right before the events of movie #7, “Star Trek Generations“. There’s a lot of characters in it that play a MAJOR part in the story, but are new characters. This almost reads like a fan story – “Hey, let’s put me in the story at the expense of some other character(s)”. It’s not quite like that, but I’ve read enough of those kinds of stories in the past, that this somewhat feels that way. I suppose it’s just a gripe at seeing McCoy, Uhura, Spock, and Sulu relegated to backgrond status when this was billed as an original crew adventure.
That said, the book was enjoyable, if a bit predictable. Definitely a bunch of “I’m old – I’m useless” stuff from Kirk, which seemed to be a theme of the latter original crew adventures. Still, it was a good read – I can’t say it’s my most recommended book, but I did enjoy it. I also felt that the main villian of the story “gave up” a bit too quickly, and the reason he was coerced into giving up was well.. never explained, so it felt really rushed and cheap to me.
I’m glad I borrowed the book from my brother instead of buying it – you might want to see if your library has a copy of it to borrow it from them. If you’re a Star Trek fan, it’s probably worth a read, but I would have felt ripped off if I actually paid full price for the book.

Perfect I’m Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches, and Baseball

by David Wells, Chris Kreski

Synopsis: Forget the perfect game. Forget the World Series rings. Forget the legendary carousing, the barroom brawling, the heavy-metal head-banging, and the endless supply of uncensored, often havoc-wreaking quotes. Forget the feuds with dumb-assed fans, wrong-headed managers and the entire city of Cleveland. Even if Perfect, I’m Not was to blindly (and insanely) ignore all those amazing aspects of David Wells’ life as a major leaguer, his story would still bounce off these pages as a wildly entertaining and jaw-droppingly honest look at the game of baseball. Nothing less would be possible. Wells simply isn’t wired for spin-doctoring. He has no “delete” button. He pulls no punches.In a sport that’s now largely populated by a bland collection of well-dressed, personality-free, cliché — spouting Stepford jocks, Wells clearly holds the title of “baseball’s most beloved bad-ass”.
From rookie ball amid the beer-soaked, frozen tundra of the Great White North, through Winter Ball amid the easy women and explosive diarrhea of Venezuela, Perfect I’m Not explores Boomer’s long, strange, often insane climb through the minors. And from the Siberia of the Blue Jays’ bullpen, through intensive training with a brilliant little Yoda known as Sparky Anderson, the book also examines how Boomer grew from a mediocre reliever, into a solid, reliable, hugely successful starter. From there, after tortured dealings with Marge Schott in Cincinatti, and Pat Gillick in Baltimore, the book follows Boomer deep inside the New York Yankees’ dugout, right through the teams’ fairy-tale seasons of ’97 and ’98. It stands with David on the mound through his legendary perfect game.
It documents his high-profile love affair with the night-life of New York City, and then explores just how devastating it felt to be unceremoniously dumped for Roger Clemens. Perfect I’m Not also follows Boomer through his chronic back pain of 2001, then surgery, rehab, uncertainty, and one pinstriped Christmas miracle, courtesy of Boss Steinbrenner. And though the 2002 season may have enjoyed a less than perfect climax, it nonetheless rounds out the book with a Yankees reunion that kept Boomer smiling from February, right into October.
Perfect I’m Not gives readers an unprecedented, all-access pass to every major league stadium in the country, providing a first-person perspective of life on the diamond, as well as an uncensored, warts-and-all, insider’s guide to life inside locker-rooms, hotel rooms, planes, dugouts, buses, bedrooms, restaurants, titty-bars, and more. It’s great fun. It’s real. It’s as close as you’re ever gonna get to making the show.
Joe’s Remarks: I never liked David Wells, mostly because I only knew him as a Yankee player. That alone is generally enough to get me not to like someone. :) I wanted to check this out solely because of the “hype” surrounding the book. And after having read the book, I have to wonder if the negative press surrounding the book and some of it’s “expositions” weren’t self inflicted. Read the book. It’s a wonderfully entertaining read. He talks about all the problems he had in his life early on, from his time in the minors, to the boredom in the bullpen (although his story about getting women in the stands to flash them is awesome) to his battles with team management, and lots on the Yankees. I also got a charge out of his comments on former Reds owner Marge Schott, and her dog.
I have to admit that this book goes on my recommend list. It was a funny read, and for a baseball fan like myself, gives me some insight into the mind of a baseball player. I really enjoyed it. The link here is for the hardback edition of the book. There is a paperback version scheduled for release, but it’s not currently slated until Mar 1, 2004. The hardback is available now.
Oh, BTW, if you’re someone who isn’t into the liberal use of foul language, you might want to stay away from the book. It’s not like every third word is f this or f that, but there is definitely more than a smattering of f-bombs and the like in the book.