* RK Review: Dingers!

November 22, 2008

A Short History of the Long by, by Peter Keating (ESPN, 2006)

Dingers is to literature what ESPN is to journalism. You can’t count on it to be serious, but it sure is fun.

Keating’s work has appeared in a well-rounded series of publication. That is, he’s not just a sports guy, so he’s not shackled by the label of sportswriter. His presentation falls into the general category of trivia: everything you wanted to know about the home run but didn’t feel like looking up.

There are bombers by decade, record-setters, fun facts, cute illustrations and charts, and a few profiles of famous hit men, but with no rhyme of reason behind their selection. Barry Bonds, no argument. Alex Rodriguez? Why not. But Jimmy Wynn and Rocky Colavito? (There are also pieces on Hank Greenberg and Jim Rice, who I wonder what the requirements for inclusion were.)

The problems with books like this is that they’re almost always out of date within a year. Some slugger will come along, add a few homers, set a new record, and poof, there you go.

Dingers strikes me as a nice gift book: a stocking stuffer or birthday present with no “heavy lifting” required.

Rating: ◊◊◊ (out of five diamonds)

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Tagged as: home runs

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