|
he uses in the later "Baseball Legends.") So it's more like "Rob Neyer's Big Book of Famous Alleged Baseball Blunders and His Analysis of Whether They Were Blunders or Not."Fair enough, this could also be a good book if the opinions were interesting or eye-opening. But Neyer is capable of much better -- I preferred "Baseball Dynasties" and "Baseball Lineups," and his mid-'90s columns on ESPN.com completely changed the way I look at baseball.Fine for the fanatic or Neyer completist, but not an essential book. (I'd give it 3.5 stars if possible).First of all, it's called "Big Book of Baseball Blunders," which would naturally lead you to believe that it will be a ranking (or chronological list) of the biggest "mistakes" in baseball history. It's not as bad as the typical edition of "Baseball Prospectus," but there are a lot of little typos and a few actual mistakes that should have been caught. I'm a huge Rob Neyer fan.
And if you've already read his earlier "Big Book of Baseball Lineups" (a superior product IMHO), there's quite a bit of thematic repetition.On the positive side, Neyer's prose is always readable, he's a good storyteller, and there's some valuable baseball history in here. OK, so far, so good: Rob Neyer makes fun of stupid front offices with the benefit of hindsight AND a logical mind. I definitely learned some stuff from this book, and it wasn't a chore to get through. I'd recommend "Lineups" or "Dynasties" before this one. but they're really not. A little controversy isn't bad.
I've read almost every (free) column he's published on the Internet since 1997, and I've read most of his books (and plan to buy and read ALL of them, past and future). That should be fun, right.But once the book starts, you realize that this is NOT Rob's personal ranking of the biggest blunders in baseball history. I'm able to come up with NO OPINION without reading a book, thank you very much.This book is also a victim of some careless copyediting. So it's with a little regret that I give this one a mediocre review. A disappointing proportion of them end up with Rob meekly concluding: "We can't really tell one way or the other." This diplomatic response may make Rob seems like a "nice guy" (so many stats-oriented baseball writers come off as smug and arrogant, and I think he was specifically trying to avoid that) but it makes for a disappointingly flat baseball book. (This is the same M.O.
We get a clarification very early on that it's not about on-field mistakes or "boners," but rather premeditated errors, usually made by management. Rather, it's a list of moves that were considered blunders by historical consensus, and then Rob does some research and evaluates whether they were truly blunders.
Gave to a baseball lover as part of a birthday present and he loved it as he glanced through the pages - he was really anxiouss to read it.
I would recommend it just for the baseball stories and lore. Some really good baseball stuff in this book. Some of the blunders are questionable and I think he wanted to write about them and made it fit into the book.
Neyer astutely analyzes these events, challenging long held opinions and impressions by looking at the facts. His sidebars in the margins of chapters are irresistible. Rob Neyer's book of baseball blunders is sure to please any baseball fan with a sense of history. Neyer is a keen observer of baseball history and his analyses are interesting and sound. Baseball fans can open this book to any chapter and start reading. Neyer analyzes 50 trades and decisions from 1917 through 2003. They range from well-known events such as Grady Little's decision to lift Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning of the 2003 American League Championship series and the trade of Roger Maris from the Kansas City Athletics to the New York Yankees in 1959 to lesser-known events such as the sale of Pee Wee Reese from the Boston Red Sox to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939 and the Kansas City Royals' signing of pitchers Mark and Storm Davis in 1989.
It is an interesting read that truly highlights the "hindsight is 20/20" cliche. It isn't his job to build the social climate of the time, clubhouse pressures, etc. I'd love to read the next version of this book 50 or 60 years from now so that I can read "Blunder: Pittsburgh Pirates trade Oliver Perez and Roberto Hernandez to Mets for Xavier Nady." While I did enjoy this book, I have to admit that many of the events are too far in the past for me to truly appreciate them. I can't knock Neyer for not going into elaborate detail, because that's not really what this book is about.
|
