Weekend reading

One of the “problems” working on my book is that I haven’t had as much time to read other books. Several authors have been kind enough to send me their work and I apologize for be so slow to get to them and hope to remedy that in the near future.

At the moment, I’m juggling several titles (figuratively speaking, of course), including

The Might Have Been: A Novel, by Joe Schuster. First impression: Judging by the title and the first chapter, this is gonna be a sad one, full of, well, what might have been. I wish it had a different title, because at this point I can’t imagine it not going on and on in that vein of regret about missed opportunities, both in sports and life. It’s been getting a lot of buzz as the not baseball fiction title of the year that’s not named Calico Joe. Bonus points for beginning the story in Monteral, my hoem away from home.
Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss, by Marty Appel. Can’t think of anyone more qualified to write the “definitive” history of the team. Appel also has a light touch, so the book doesn’t come across as a series of oft-repeated stories and statistics. First impression: I’m just about done with the Team’s first decade and can’t understand how so many people in the game stuck up for Hal Chase, one of the national pastime’s most notorious miscreants.
Extra Innings: He was the greatest hitter of all time. Cryonics brought him back to life in 2092. Would he use this second chance to win his first World Series or to become a better man?, by Bruce Spitzer. First of all, someone should have checked the title over at Amazon. It’s way too long for a novel, even as a subtitle. Second, this is not to be confused with Baseball Prospectus’ new book (see next entry). First impression: While the sci-fi premise of re-animating Williams after 100 years is interesting and the attention to historical detail fairly impressive, Spitzer takes too long to get down to the meat of the matter. I’ve picked this one up several times, but can’t seem to finish. It’s a bit preachy (global warming has taken a toll, steroids are almost considered requirements, Williams reflects old-fashioned virtues), and I sometimes wonder with books like this: for whom is the author writing? The baseball fan or the person who knows little about the game? There’s a great deal of exposition that the former might find simplistic, but would the latter — who might have little knowledge about Ted Williams — the player and the poor fellow who was so rudely treated in death — be pulled in by curiosity?
Extra Innings: More Baseball Between the Numbers from the Team at Baseball Prospectus is something of a follow-up of BP’s 2006 release, Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong. First impressions: Statistics have become not only more sophisticated in the interim, but more accepted by the media, and , by extension, the general fandom. Haven’t gotten into it too far because I need to give it full attention, being numerically challenged as I am, but the introduction — about the need to change baseball cards from traditional stats to the modern metrics — is fascinating.