Books for/about - baseball

Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Authors: Seth Mnookin

ISBN: 0743286812
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Summary: Excellent Work
After reading all of the hype about this book, I was prepared to be disappointed. Between all the reviews and articles, I thought I had read all of the revelations. I was totally wrong and I've never had a perspective like this one. I've read many, many books about the sport and have never read anything that combined management and ownership and players and the on-field aspect like this one. I think it's probably something I'll go back and read repeatedly as time goes on, like "9 Innings" and "Moneyball" and "Ball Four" combined into one.

Because people are so passionate about the Red Sox and about baseball I suspect there will be lots of different reactions to the book. Already it seems to have angered those who think they're the only "true" fans. Take the review in the Globe, where the writer (a host of a sports show) said he would prefer to remain ignorant (his words, not mine) about what actually happens in the game, or one of the reviews here written by Bill Nowlin, who has written many, many books of his own about the Red Sox (eight since 2004 alone). He makes fun of the title but doesn't say he's good friends with Rob Neyer and took part in research for Neyer's book. He also says this book made a mistake by saying Kevin Youkilis was on the World Series roster, but Youkilis was indeed on the roster, replacing Ramiro Mendoza, who'd proven himself utterly worthless in the ALCS.

I think that's to be expected when writing about baseball and the Red Sox. People feel very strongly about both, regardless of what else is going on in the world. I wasted many hours of my life reading all of the books that came out after the 2004 World Series, and this is one that finally looks at the whole history of the last six years while giving you the behind-the-scenes access and the beauty of the game. If you want to know anything about either baseball or the Red Sox this may be the best book produced in the past ten years, and may be one of the best baseball books ever.

Summary: A Chronology of the Red Sox
It was October 6, 2000, and for the first time in a generation the Red Sox were up for sale. Bought by Tom Yawkey in 1933, ownership had passed to his wife's trust in '94 after her death. Some wondered why it was now for sale - the team had just won a legislative battle for funding the construction of a new ballpark, and its value was at an all-time high. Fourteen months later it sold - to Boston outsiders, and the rumors of a "fix" (courtesy of Commissioner Bud Selig) were rampant.

The new owners proved themselves willing to work with the Boston fans, players, and writers, and at first it looked like smooth sailing. However, it seems like there were never-ending feuds - between owners, players and coach, etc. The "good news" is that things coalesced, new stars (David Ortiz and Curt Schilling) were acquired, and the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 (and are leading their division again in 2006).

Professional baseball in Boston goes back to 1871. The Boston team won 8 pennants over the next 25 years, including three straight. Another high point was acquiring Babe Ruth (age 19) from Baltimore in 1914, and his evolution into an outfielder as part of filling out the roster during WWI. The "bad news," was his being traded to the Yankees in 1919 for $100,00 - largely as a result of his becoming a difficult personality (wanted his salary doubled to $20,000), though unfounded rumors swirled about that the real reason was that the Sox' owner needed the money to finance his Broadway show "No, No, Nanette.

Then, after winning more World Series in its first two decades than any other team, the Red Sox went on to suffer a drought for the next 80+ years - despite Ted Williams (joined in 1939, and hit a home run his last at bat), though probably at least partly because the owners passed on Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, partly when combined with lots of poor managing.

Summary: a very disappointing book
I still give it four stars, because I enjoy reading good books about the Red Sox. This is definitely better than average, hence it gets more than three stars, but it's very disappointing.

The disappointment starts with the title, not exactly original - in fact, it's practically the same title as Rob Neyer's truly enjoyable 2001 book, FEEDING THE GREEN MONSTER. Neyer attended every single Red Sox home game during the 2000 season and writes about his experiences.

Much was expected from Mnookin, given that he had unprecedented access (including his own desk at Fenway), but in the end he really offers very little in the way of either information or insights that would not be familiar to those who have followed the Red Sox the last few years.

There are also some odd errors, from saying that Kevin Youkilis was on the 2004 World Series roster (page 404), to saying that Trot Nixon was signed through 2007 (page 257), and from writing that the Red Sox were known as the Pilgrims in 1903 (page 23.) None of those things are true.

There were also a few spelling errors indicating insufficient proofreading (I was amused at the notion on page 159 that baseball "consists of a discreet series of interactions between two individual combatants.")

Then there was the idea that one of Tom Yawkey's "main business interests" was running a house of prostitution in South Carolina. For a man running businesses doing tens of millions of dollars annually, that must have been one active house!

Seriously, though, the book presents a good updating of recent Red Sox history during the Henry/Werner/Lucchino period, up into the early days of the 2006 campaign. Maybe it is the mark of how thoroughly the Boston media masticates all things Red Sox, but there is very little of anything at all new here. To repeat myself, little new in the way of facts and nothing really surprising or insightful in the way of analysis.

I suspect that some of those working in the ranks of the Red Sox would find other things that really disturbed them, but I am in no position to comment.

There is room on my shelves for straightforward Red Sox books and this one (despite the title that's so similar to Rob Neyer's) is welcome there. I just wish I could give it a more enthusiastic review.

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Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Authors: David Maraniss

ISBN: 0743217810
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Summary: Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero
This book is wonderful. It has both a lot of baseball history(for the hard core fans) and human interest (for those not into "the game"). I particularly like how the author managed to convey and focus on the cultural idiosyncracies of Clemente's Puerto Rican background. I was a young girl growing in Puerto Rico when Clemente died, and the day is etched in my memory like most Americans remember Kennedy's assassination. This book was true to the history, faithful to the sentiments of those who lived it, and a well crafted portrait of someone who was truly baseball's last hero.

Summary: Roberto Clemente, the best Latin outfield ever born!
For all those who had the enviable opportunity to watch him in the right field, know how great it' s early departure meant for the sports world

He was the passionate showman baseball player, in the sense he could produce from a single hit to a superb home run according the team's special necessity. He had that genius touch about all what he made in the playground. Who can that fatidic day in which he would give his famous 3000 hit in the glorious World Series of 1972 ?

I can remember with photographic precision how he made so easy the most difficult plays. Caracas, March 1971: in an exhibition game between Pirates and Twins. So imagine these emblematic figures in plain action: Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew but his special charisma and his assertive attitude in the ground became of him the most acclaimed player that evening. His tragic and absurd death, when he just decided to offer his personal support, in service of the survivors of that devastating earthquake in Managua, December 1972, became of him an instantaneous legend.

Memorable and well documented information with mesmerizing graphical support.

Summary: Pittsburghs best player
Found out more about Roberto Clemente. His Life before joining the Pittsburgh Pirates and when he was a Pirate. I was him growing up playing ball in Pittsburgh from when I was 10 years old untill I went in the Army. He was the best Pirate that I have seen even today. I was sad to see him go so soon the players of today could take lessons form Roberto Clemente.

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	The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth Publisher: Doubleday Authors: Leigh Montville
ISBN: 0385514379 List Price: $26.95 Amazon Price: $16.98 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: The Big Bam bashes the big one! It's hard to begin to praise Leigh Montville's biography of baseball's greatest slugger ever. There's a prelude written in a 'foggy,' uncertain-of-detail prose style which deals with the young George Herman Ruth's being committed to a 'boy's school,'and then drops into a dead-accurate lowdown which Montville researched diligently, right down to the brothers and young 'Nigger Lips's' discovery of the game and his rapid mastery. Montville tells true stories about The Babe's slugging, eating, drinking and sexual prowess in sometimes drop-deadpan humour, and he's a hell of a sportswriter as well. Three cheers for Montville and the Babe!!! (But hey,who hit a lifetime .371?) Summary: The Life of a Mythic Icon For the many among us who have no specific knowledge about Ruth except what we've read in the papers, this biography presents shocking and amazing details that reflect his colossal life and the frenetic times in which he lived. Emerging from a loveless early childhood that was managed by St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore, Ruth pounces on the game of baseball and grooves it into a drama-filled national pastime where the nation and world sit up and notice. He then proceeds to gobble up life and partake of every deadly sin, as he is nothing more than a deprived starving young man on the make. The author, Leigh Montville, won't give us what we long for most, which are details of how and why this dramatic figure was what he was. Instead Montville uses the word "fog" over and over again to describe what we just don't know about the man, about his mother and father, about his first marriage, and about what he was up to those many many nights when he went off to find hedonistic pleasures across the land. This leaves the reader to speculate like mad: Was Ruth sexually abused as a child, which led to his compulsive womanizing? Was his father involved in a bizarre love triangle, which led to his death? Was his mother plumb loco? All these questions and many more are left alone. In the meantime, the outsized details of Ruth's amazing life are more than enough to offset the fog. There can be no doubt in anybody's mind that Ruth made the game of baseball what it is today, and that he was the greatest player who ever lived. He easily could have hit well over 800 home runs if he played 162 games, as is played today, if he stayed healthy (the 1925 season was a disaster), and if the fences back then were as close as they are today. For Ruth to hit a ball 425 to 450 feet was routine. He was utterly dramatic, amazing, and worthy of his mythic status in the American mind. No one can take his place, no one has, and no one will. Summary: The greatest American athlete of all time Babe Ruth is arguably the single greatest American athlete of all time. Perhaps I should say the most important American athlete of all time, because they're not the same thing. But Ruth combined awesome ability and celebrity splash that the nation had never seen before - and hasn't really seen since. Sports are now a big business. Ruth was the one who made it so. Ruth's baseball greatness is such a given that a lot of people today may not know just how great he was - beyond the 60 home run season and 714 career marks. They may not realize how unbelievable Ruth's slugging was at the time, compared with the standards of the game. These were not the equivalent of Lindbergh flying the Atlantic by himself; the better comparison would be if Lindbergh had, in 1927, gone to the moon by himself. Ruth's ascendance and the change of baseball from the strategy-and-singles-hitting dead-ball era to that of the slugger and the crowd-pleasing long ball is usually tied to baseball adopting a livelier ball around 1921. But Ruth began slugging, and with awesome results, back in the Dead Ball Era - when driving the ball for distance was both difficult and rare. (Montville notes that Ruth modelled both his swing and his run on those of his reform school mentor, Brother Matthias, who used a big swing to hit colossal fungoes during batting practice.) And Ruth began slugging while one of the best pitchers in baseball, despite pitchers usually being rotten hitters. In one season he was, in five starts, 5-0 against the legendary Walter Johnson, and his record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the World Series stood for decades. Meanwhile, he was driving the baseball ungodly distances in countless locales - major league and spring training fields as well as the other cities where exhibitions or barnstorming tours would be played. Ruth would clear fences no one had cleared, hit buildings no one had ever hit, dunk the ball in lakes no one had ever reached. Baseball has no parallels. His achievements on the field seem greater when considered in light of how much he abused himself off the field. Ruth - stuck in a perpetual adolescence after growing up deprived in a reform school - constantly ate, drank and whored to excess. But it rarely affected his game; there were numerous examples of his staying out all night carousing, showing up at the ballpark without having gone to bed and then having a stellar game. Perhaps America adored him, in part, because of his wild living. (Drinking one's way through Prohibition didn't exactly qualify one for social ostracism.) Society admires celebrities who transgress the boundaries; they do what we can't, establishing their uniqueness and also helping mark the boundaries for mere mortals. Even his fornicating, his appetites and performance, seemed legendary. Those close to him forgave him his excesses because of his little-boy capacity for complete and total contrition, combined with the little-boy expectation that all would then be subsequently forgotten. I was intrigued by the racial angle. The dark-complectioned Ruth from childhood was nicknamed "Nigger Lips", a taunt constantly hurled at him on the field throughout his career. Montville notes that Ruth heard the N word far more than Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds ever did. That Ruth had any black ancestry seems unlikely, although his famly background was a bit unclear and he had little contact with family after being committed to reform school at the age of 8. It does show how pervasive the racism of those days was. In some ways, however, his career foreshadowed those of black athletes who turned baseball, football and basketball upside down in later years. Flamboyant like Muhammad Ali, dissolute like any number of NBA stars, changing baseball the way Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar changed basketball, Ruth broke out of a troubled childhood and complete poverty through his athletic skill, and ran his life in a way that, say, your average Rotarian never would. In some ways, you could say (with apologies to Jack Johnson) that he was the nation's first major black athlete. Montville's book is a great revisiting of the Ruth story, where truth continually seems to outdo legend. Summary:

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Sports Illustrated for Kids (12-month subscription)

Publisher: The Time Inc. Magazine Company
Authors:

ISBN:
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 5
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Summary: SI Kids
We are very happy with how quickly our fiest issue arrived. We ordered on 1-25-06 and our first issue arrived 2-24-06 (almost a month earlier than anticipated!)

Summary: SI KIDS IS FANTASTIC
My son is a sports junkie at 7 years old. He gets really excited everytime the issue shows up in the mail. It is an easy read for him and he loves the posters and pictures included in each issue. If you have a budding sports enthusist I would definetly recommend this magazine. Besides the more reading your child does, the better it is for them, no matter the reading medium.

Summary: Did not arrive after ordered as a gift
Unfortunately, there seemed to be no recourse after I ordered this for 2 newphews as a Christmas gift, and it did not arrive. I tried to send an email to amazon.com but got bumped to someone else (distributor?) who never responded. So disappointing since it was a gift for someone else. Happened not once, but twice.

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Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Authors: Michael Lewis

ISBN: 0393324818
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Summary: great gift for baseball fans
I bought this book for my 84 year-old baseball fan mom for mother's day. She loved it. Said it was the best book she'd ever read.

Summary: Great Inside Account of Contemporary Baseball
Moneyball is a fine book, a must-read for any serious baseball fan. What I found most interesting was the organizational conflict between Beane's "Laptoppers" and the computer-phobic scouts, who rely on instinct and experienced judgment to spot talent. It seemed to me that in some ways Beane used his young brainiac computer jockeys to subvert power from the old guard scouts, the traditional power base of a baseball franchise. However, I think the author tends to exaggerate the prowess of Beane's computer-based approach. My sense is that Beane's had his share of missed opportunities, and has similarly erred by picking future duds who looked great on a spreadsheet. Beane's tactic of using smart people with new sophisticated tools to gain and hold power in an organization is not new, but superbly documented in this absorbing and well-written book.

Contrary to what Moneyball impies, drafting future baseball players is like buying IPO stocks--it looks easy in hindsight, but in reality, scouting is like baseball itself--failure is far more common than success.

Summary: great book, fast read
This book is a wonderful ode to objectivity. Specifically, objectivity in baseball. Whatever profession you're in, you'll read this book and start to think about what you're currently overvaluing and undervaluing. Plus, its a quck read. two plane trips for me. I highly recommend it.

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	Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports Publisher: Gotham Authors: Mark Fainaru-Wada Lance Williams
ISBN: 1592401996 List Price: $26.00 Amazon Price: $16.38 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: A cheater exposed If you are still blindly defending Barry Bonds at this point, you really should have your head examined, or at least your G.E.D. rescinded. "Barry Bonds never failed a drug test" might be the most idiotic phrase uttered since "walk-off home run" (or maybe "Free O.J."). It's time to pull your heads out of you-know-where, people. The guy put on 30 pounds of muscle during one off-season. You don't do this with a Soloflex and flaxseed oil. Think these "trainers" don't know their way around a urine test? Pull the other one. When news of the imminent publication of this book was revealed, Bonds and his lawyers didn't waste any time trying to suppress its' release. Hey Barry, if you're clean, then what's the problem? If this book is fabrication, then stick it out. Eventually, the truth will be revealed. And therein lies the problem for Mr. Bonds. Because it already has. If you still have any doubts about this book, let me dispel them. Read it. It's thoroughly researched, well written, and most of all, IMPORTANT. It had to be written, because this situation had to be exposed. I must say that I was stunned, but very pleased, that there were actually two men in San Francisco with the guts to investigate Bonds, let alone put their findings in print. This took great courage, because I wouldn't be surprised if these guys received death threats from knuckle-dragging fans. I wish I could shake their hands and thank them personally for their efforts. To put it bluntly, Barry Bonds is a cheater, a disgrace to the legacy of the great men who have played Major League Baseball, and a miserable human being for good measure. He should receive nothing less than a lifetime ban from baseball, and all of his post-1999 numbers should be expunged from the books or, at the very least, printed in a bright red with this disclaimer--"These statistics were achieved during what is known as the `steroid era' in MLB, and are not legitimate. Mr. Bonds has received a lifetime suspension." The same treatment should be extended to McGwire, Sosa, Giambi, Palmiero, etc. (If you want to throw the likes of Gaylord Perry and Mike Scott in there, be my guest, although to me, Vaseline and sharpened belt-buckles don't rise to the level of potent chemical enhancements). Anyone who reads this book with even the most elemental reading comprehension will come to the same conclusion. Or perhaps Bonds's "shrinking" numbers this year will be enough to convince you. Summary:* just some things to keep in mind 1/Bonds is surrounded by a bunch of cowards who will say and do anything to get themselves out of this mess a much. Some do best by defending Barry ,some by attacking him; it's a wash, their testimony means nothing. 2/Barry denies knowingly taking the steroids, and no concrete evidence has disproved this claim. 3/When natural athletes who haven't yet done serious weight training,(as many older baseball players are), finally -do- train, their predominance of fast-twitch muscle produces amazing mass gains in a very short time. 4/Skills are actually -hindered- by sudden increases in raw strength, until the athlete, through months of practice, has recalibrated his skills with the new muscle. Even then the new strength has surprisingly little to do with complex skills such as home run hitting.5/Under the incredible scrutiny that he is now, Bonds has maintained his size. Summary: Bonds' epitaph I love Victor Conte. You know, the way you love the bad guy in a great movie? You don't actually love him, but you love the character, the kind of "best actor nominee" thing. Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters lay out their case against Conte and his Giant client, Barry Bonds, as Bonds passes Babe Ruth and eyes Hank Aaron for the all-time home run record (Josh Gibson and Sadaharu Oh?). Conte himself is alleged to be the source for much of the material. The investigations continue: in spring 2006, Bonds' ex-girlfriend, Kim Bell, was allegedly asked by the FBI not to cooperate with the investigation Major League Baseball is doing; Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer, was jailed in July 2006 for refusing to testify to the grand jury. The authors present extensive evidence about the use of steroids in track and field, provided to Olympic athletes by Conte under the cover of his nutritional supplements company, and the increasingly sophisticated efforts to mask such use. But it is the Barry Bonds allegations (along with the accompanying details on other Major Leaguers, and efforts to explain Mark McGwire's glory as Bonds' motivation) that sell the book. This book makes Bonds look much worse than I thought it would, and I was no fan already. The reader learns, for example, about his being a "control freak" with his teammates, women, staff and "friends." My own judgment is that the authors easily surpass "preponderance of the evidence" and probably "beyond a reasonable doubt", even if they don't have video of Bonds with a syringe labeled "The Clear." On the other hand, there is no video, and no (public) record of Bonds ever failing a steroids test. The authors try to explain why. In appendices, the authors detail the Bonds' remarkable statistical achievements from age 35 to 39, alongside those of other greats who by that age are in decline. They got Al Capone on tax fraud, Alger Hiss on perjury, Martha Stewart on obstruction of justice and O.J. in civil court. They may never get Bonds on steroids, but whether or not he breaks Aaron's record, these authors have written Bonds' epitaph. Summary:

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Baseball Between the Numbers

Publisher: Basic Books
Authors: Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts Jonah Keri James Click

ISBN: 0465005969
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Summary: The Numbers of the Game
Probably more than any other sport, baseball makes use of statistics. We see this with every baseball game on TV: not just the basic stats like batting average and home runs, but more detailed information like how well a particular batter does against a particular pitcher. The statistics on TV or in the newspaper, however, only scratch the surface. Baseball Between the Numbers provides a much more in depth look at the numbers behind the game and how to analyze them.

This process involves two parts. First, there is a look at the popular statistics to see how well they really track a player performance and contribution to the team. Batting average, for example, is not a really good indicator of performance; slugging percentage and on-base percentage provide a better reading. There is also a look at certain beliefs in baseball - such as the existence of clutch hitters - and whether they are based in reality or more of a myth.

The second part of this statistical analysis is coming up with new stats to provide more information. There are a lot of these, but the one that seems emphasized the most is VORP, Value over Replacement Player. In simple terms, VORP gives the value of a player compared to a replacement player of minimal major league skills (like a 0.200 batting average). If a player gets 200 hits in a year, he does not really contribute 200 hits to his team; instead, he contributes only the difference between his hit total and that of the replacement player; if this value is 110, then the player contributes 90 hits.

The purpose of all this analysis is two-fold. For one thing, it helps evaluate the potentials of players, so it is useful from a scouting perspective. It is also good for comparing players who played in different time periods. The introduction of the book gives a good example as it tries to show who the better player is, Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds. Superficially, some stats favor Ruth (such as batting average) while others favor Bonds (such as steals). But for any comparison to be legitimate, many other things need to be taken into account, particularly with the environment that the two played in; for example, Ruth played in a "whites-only" era that excluded many great players of other races. The more elaborate statistics take these differences into account; this particular analysis favors Ruth slightly, primarily because of his contributions as a pitcher.

To some extent, this book covers some of the same ground as a book I read a couple years back called Curve Ball, but it also offers a lot of new stuff too. The principal flaw with the book seems to be inadequate editing, leading to a lot of redundancies between chapters (which are written by different people); hence, we get the same explanation for what a statistic means over and over again. In addition, considering its importance to the game, pitching is underrepresented in the book; although covered, the primary emphasis is on batting. Other topics covered include fielding, base stealing and managing.

There is a danger with a book like this to get TOO into the statistics of the game and lose appreciation for the game itself. Statistics are great for looking at trends, but in any one given event, you can never be certain what's going to happen. That's why when it's the bottom of the ninth, two out and the tying run's at third, it doesn't really matter what the numbers say, and that's when baseball is at its most exciting. This book will make you look at the numbers of baseball more critically, but it won't diminish the pleasure of watching the game. Despite the flaws, I am giving this book five stars; for a baseball fan, this is a compelling read.

Summary: Boring
A tedious excuse for a book which amounts to little more than a load of mind numbing statistics. I don't even like baseball! Verdict: tame as ditchwater.

Summary: enjoyable for any baseball fan, but annoying at points
The book consists of 29 chapters, in which some decision-making aspect of baseball is scrutinized by the evidence, all the way from whether attempting to steal a base is a good idea or whether that new stadium was a good idea. Be warned: this is a book written by Sabermetricians. If you're a fan of the romance and pageantry of baseball and recoil at the thought of managing with a computer, rather than by instinct, this book will offend you. (Psychology says systematic data is much better than instinct.) However, for the casual fan, this is a way of looking at the game from a new angle. The subtitle really does encapsulate the book. A lot of what you think you know about baseball is wrong, and the data are there to prove it.

The writing is uneven (it's a edited compilation of essays), and at times, the writers are too quick to introduce and explain complicated Sabermetric concepts. Folks unfamiliar with Sabermetrics will be a little befuddled at times, although a good slow read of the book serves as an excellent introduction to the field. In fairness, this is not a boring book either. Concepts are introduced and explained within context, and the numbers never overwhelm.

Hardcore statisticians will probably nitpick some of their methods, (e.g., "significant at the 90% level"... why did they set their alpha level so high?) and another review has pointed out that their work was a little sloppy, but even still most of the points are minor and probably wouldn't affect their overall conclusions. However, hardcore baseball statisticians have a reputation for not letting minor things pass...

Summary:

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Heat

Publisher: Philomel
Authors: Mike Lupica

ISBN: 0399243011
List Price: $16.99
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Summary: fun easy read
For the most part, my 12 year old son and I share the same summer reading list. Ironically, I read Lupica's "Heat" right after I finished SE Hinton's "The Outsiders". While Lupica paralled many of Hinton's storyline (have's vs the have-nots, talented orphan being raised by older, sacrificing sibling being the most obvious), it was none-the-less refreshing and enjoyable through the last page.

If you are a Little Leaguer or parent of one, I highly recommend it.

Summary: SF HEAT
I bought HEAT for my 10 and 14 year old boys and found myself unable to put it down. Mike Lupica understands kids, sports and pure hearts. He has a writes a very readable and enjoyable book. This is billed as a young adult story and it is for them and for all the ages from 8-80! After we all read it, I started buying it for graduation and birthday gifts. I highly reccommend this book as a good summer or anytime read.

Summary: abysmal
In one of the great all-time perversions of celebrity, Mike Lupica, sports columnist turned novelist, has perpetrated an incredible hoax: somehow, on his sheer "charisma," he's built a reputation for having something interesting to say, and, more remarkably, as a writer of some talent and significance. The reality is that Lupica has never had fresh, original takes on anything. His distinction, if he has one, is to be about the dullest, most insipid, prose writer ever to earn a living pumping out copy. The success and glowing reviews of his latest, brutal novel is just another persuasive argument that, sometimes, "image is everything." Lupica, the heterosexual Richard Simmons, does have one indisputable talent: self-promotion. As a writer, he's an unmitigated disaster, and those who argue otherwise are either deluded or simply enjoy reading on a third-grade level.

Summary:

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