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Another book of baseball stories, if not intentionally so.
Book #21: Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders
Author: Rob Neyer
Provenance: Bought used off of Amazon.ca
The first of the two books of baseball stories by Neyer, this one focuses on the mistakes and miscues made, not by the players themselves, but by managers and the front office that left the players in those positions. Neyer's stance is that anyone can make a mistake that proves costly on the field, but a true blunder is one where there was a decision made that went wrong where the decision-maker (I can't say "decider" anymore without laughing) should have known better.
Most of the stories are interesting, and a few were obscure, although I knew more of these stories than the ones in his later book on baseball legends. The blunders are really just the flip side of the legends; both of them together constitute the fabric that really makes the sport so rich. He treats them similarly to the previous book, too: he examines the blunders to see just how bad they were. In some cases, they were as bad as they looked, and in others, they turned out not to be all that detrimental. The analytic approach to the stories works well, particularly since you get the story first to enjoy, and then learn about the impact.
All in all, I enjoyed the Baseball Legends collection more, but this one is also quite good. I'd start with the other one, though.
Next up: Still 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱. I got slowed down by the migraines, but I'm back on it now.
Book #21: Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders
Author: Rob Neyer
Provenance: Bought used off of Amazon.ca
The first of the two books of baseball stories by Neyer, this one focuses on the mistakes and miscues made, not by the players themselves, but by managers and the front office that left the players in those positions. Neyer's stance is that anyone can make a mistake that proves costly on the field, but a true blunder is one where there was a decision made that went wrong where the decision-maker (I can't say "decider" anymore without laughing) should have known better.
Most of the stories are interesting, and a few were obscure, although I knew more of these stories than the ones in his later book on baseball legends. The blunders are really just the flip side of the legends; both of them together constitute the fabric that really makes the sport so rich. He treats them similarly to the previous book, too: he examines the blunders to see just how bad they were. In some cases, they were as bad as they looked, and in others, they turned out not to be all that detrimental. The analytic approach to the stories works well, particularly since you get the story first to enjoy, and then learn about the impact.
All in all, I enjoyed the Baseball Legends collection more, but this one is also quite good. I'd start with the other one, though.
Next up: Still 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱. I got slowed down by the migraines, but I'm back on it now.
