If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know I have an aversion to hyperbole. Words like “greatest” or “best” or “ever” or “forever” have always raised a red flag for me because the majority of the time, they’re not.
It may be unfair because I haven’t read this one save for a sample of Amazon. But that was enough to know Innings Through Time isn’t for me.
The 2007 novel by Chris Valenti was released by Tate Publishing & Enterprises, which is categorized as a Christian vanity press.
Why am I being so harsh on a book I haven’t read? Maybe the back cover text has something to do with it.
I think any reader of baseball literature would agree that most of the comparisons are very bold, if they are indeed meant seriously. Like I said, not having read it, this could be a parody, but I doubt it. Who is making these claims? Independent reviewers? The author? Tate’s publicity department? (They say they are “proud to present” the book. Is that how they decide on their publishing agenda? Whether a project makes them proud?) But for me the kicker is “Ten Times More Mystical than ‘Field of Dreams‘? How can you possibly quantify that? Then there’s “Until now…no one has ever written the definitive baseball story.” What does “definitive” mean?
If anyone out there has read Innings Through Time and wishes to tell me I’m full of it, please do.
is available on Amazon.com,
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