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Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head---My 25 Years in Baseball Review

There's no doubt baseball's popularity has diminished in recent years. The pace of the game is too slow, some argue; or there's just not enough run production to suit the fancy of others. Still others decry the sullen nature of the game's best players - high paid prima donnas who seem more concerned with their next endorsement deal than trying to win a game. Football seems to be our National Pastime now; the demographics support that notion. The Super Bowl hoopla is outrageous, making the World Series seem like a beer league game by comparison.

That may be true; however, as the author of this marvelous book, Tim Kurkjian contends, there's really no business like show business; and in this case, the show is big league baseball, in all its historic glory. Kurkjian's engaging prose takes us through his twenty-five year career of covering the game as a sportswriter and analyst. He looks like the nerdy neighbor who doesn't possess much hand-eye coordination, but he does possess a storytelling skill that is thoroughly entertaining and informative. I couldn't put it down.

For a true fan of the game, this is about as good as it gets. His anecdotes are a steady stream of fascinating insight about the game that requires so much skill and so much courage. Who wants to dig in against a Randy Johnson, with the very real prospect of a 99 mile per hour fastball bouncing off your skull? Or who wants to stand just ninety feet away from home plate, patrolling third base when the likes of Albert Pujols is taking his whacks?

Luckily, there are real big leaguers who can handle that stuff, and the fans are fortunate to watch their exploits, year in and year out. We're also fortunate Tim Kurkjian has a passion for the game and a wonderful knack for storytelling. It's a home run; for sure.

Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head---My 25 Years in Baseball Overview

ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian has spent more than twenty-five years covering almost three thousand major league baseball games and interviewing about that many players, coaches, managers, and executives.

In Is This a Great Game, or What?, Kurkjian combines his years of experience, uncanny knowledge, and deep love of the game, to create a book filled with some of the most fascinating insight into Major League Baseball this side of Jim Bouton’s bestseller, Ball Four. Whether he’s explaining what goes through a ballplayer’s mind when he faces a fastball in the chapter “My Face Was Crushed by a Bowling Ball Going 90 MPH,” detailing bizarre rituals and superstitions performed by baseball’s greatest players, or taking us into the locker room to see what transpires in the clubhouse of a major league team, Kurkjian’s tales are at times hilarious, other times horrifying, yet always entertaining.
Kurkjian has spoken to some of the greatest ballplayers ever over the years, and they have revealed details about themselves and the game they love with a candor that readers won’t find anywhere else. Filled with anecdotes and fascinating insights, this is an essential book for baseball fans or anyone curious about America’s pastime.

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Customer Reviews

Great Baseball Book! - Patrick J. McAdam -
There were so many parts of this book that I found insightful, interesting, and fun. It was one of those books that you're happy while reading and sad to see end. I've watched Tim over the year's on Baseball Tonight and the morning radio show and alsways found him interesting. I never realized how much of a baseball junkie he was though. For other baseball fanatics like me, I highly recommend this book!

Good stories written sloppily - Andrew Heiz -
Baseball is a great game with a history to match. Some of the stories are legend and some only known to true fans. What Kurkjian does well is tell the stories. What is done poorly is the editing. I found myself re-reading passages that made no sense. For example in the chapter about Baseball Tonight there is a description about a heated argument about knockdown pitches. "Brian Kenny told Dibble, 'Now make sure you say on TV what you said today in the meeting.' 'Don't worry' Dibble said. 'I will.' 'No, you won't,' Kenny said." (pg. 205). What is it? Say it or don't. This is typical of a fair amount of the book. Including the editing problems there are many factual errors. For instance he writes if Bill Buckner had not made the error and thrown out Mookie Wilson in game six of the 1986 World Series the game would have gone into extra innings (pg. 221 No. 8). The game was already in the 10th inning. Makes me wonder what other errors there are. If Kurkjian had been a baseball player writing his memoirs I'd be more forgiving. However he is a credentialed journalist, his job is to make write accurate , well written accounts of events.
For pure enjoyment of telling baseball stories, where accuracy may not be needed or wanted, you'll enjoy this book. Worth going to the library to check out.

Husband can't put it down! - Josephine Scoville -
My husband is not a reader, and he can't put this book down - he loves it!! If you're a baseball fan, this is a must-buy.

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Monday, August 30, 2010