Review roundup March 6

James Bailey posted this one about Mike Piazza’s Long Shot. Upshot: “I was neutral on him when I began and emerged with a somewhat negative impression. That’s probably not what he was looking for. Your mileage will likely vary depending on how closely you followed his career.”

Bill Jordan over at Baseball Reflections did this one on Closer: Major League Players Reveal the Inside Pitch on Saving the Game, an overview of relief pitchers, Kevin Neary. Upshot: “The book did a good job compiling stories from various different closers over time and putting them in one place. While there were certainly moments of great suspense, there were also many stories that mirrored one another and thus created a slow read at times.”

Also via Baseball Reflections, Peter Schiller’s take on Trading Bases: A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball (Not Necessarily in That Order). Upshot: “Overall the book is very entertaining and is a good read, especially for a serious baseball fan who gets their kicks from topics such as sabermetrics and not just the normal newspaper stories of play by play. I would not suggest taking Peta’s words as the gospel for baseball gambling and start waging the family fortune on ball games, but it does provide a good light into the world of baseball wagering and what topics one may want to look at in order to make a profit if this is their hobby.”

Baseball Past and Present’s Paul Gillespie looks at Robert Fitts’ Seymour Medal-winning Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan: Upshot: “I heartily recommend Robert Fitts’ “Banzai Babe Ruth”. It is a great read for a baseball fan. It is also an unusually well-researched book on the history of the prelude to the U.S. entry into WWII.”

Examiner.com ran this review of Kevin Guilfoile’s A Drive into the Gap. Upshot: “It’s amazing how with so little space, Guilfoile brings real people to life so satisfyingly.”