If anyone who even casually follows the game of baseball was asked to name the most controversial manager of the past decade, there is little doubt that the first name out of their mouth would be current Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen.

In his new book, Ozzie’s School of Management: Lessons from the Dugout, the Clubhouse, and the Doghouse, author Rick Morrissey provides a unique look into a character who seems to always be in the spotlight.  To many, Guillen may seem to be just a crazy man out to get some attention, and perhaps steal it from his team, but Morrissey finds out there is a method to most of the manager’s madness.

The author had an up close view of Guillen during his years with the White Sox as Morrissey was covering the team for the Chicago Sun Times. This gives him unique perspective on Guillen’s career from the time he was hired in 2003 through the team’s World Series win in 2005 and to his departure from Chicago after the 2011 season.

Guillen is a great example of someone whose unique and strange style is envied and considered to be the reason his team is winning when they are doing well and also the reason they are losing when they aren’t doing well.

Morrissey tells the story of a man who put players in a game on a gut feeling that it would make a difference where sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Guillen is clearly not the typical manager as can be evidenced by the fact that he once took a pitcher out of a game simply because he told one of his sons that he would be able to see him on TV that day, and he knew a trip to the mound would secure that promise.

The author outlines the Ten Commandments of Ozzie as:

1. All Men are Created Equal, In Theory
2. Protect Your Employees from the Barbarians
3. Promote Serenity in the Workplace
4. Get Rid of the Clutter in Their Heads
5. Be Nurturing, No Matter How Much it Hurts
6. Find a Mentor
7. Don’t Confuse Team and Family
8. Play the Odds
9. Manage Up
10. It’s Better to Be the Matador Than the Bull (Usually)

Morrissey points a picture of a man who probably had the most trouble adhering to commandment number seven. Guillen is presented as an extremely loyal man whose loyalties often both help and hurt him. This is evidenced in a number of cases in the book, usually winding up to help the team in the long run, when the manager had stuck with a player out of loyalty for what they had done for him in the past.  This also helped him with his relationships with players as well, and will have something to show for it for some time to come. Guillen is clearly painted throughout the book as someone who outsiders either love or hate, but most on the inside who have dealt with him professionally love him.  If there is a player or coach who has worked with Guillen who has ended up not liking him, it is probably because that person did something Guillen completely did not respect.

A few of the topics covered in the book include:

• The true story behind Guillen’s feud with White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams.
• The close relationshio he has with his three sons, and the controversial tweets from his son Oney.
• His not so found views of sabermetrics, meetings and any type of scouting report.
• The idea that Guillen’s outspokenness hurts the chances of others who come from a Latino background in their hopes of landing a Big League managerial job.

The book came out nationwide on May 22 in hardcover. Although the book clearly does not cover much of the manager’s time with the Marlins, it does give the reader a good understanding of where that team may be headed.

Overall rating: 2.75/5

Related articles

• Ozzie Guillen, “The Franchise” (baseballreflections.com)

Not many players in the history of baseball had as unpredictable a career as John Smoltz. Usually a
starting pitcher stays such throughout his career, or if a player becomes a dominant closer one year, it is
impossible to change them from that role. Smoltz would be the ultimate exception to this rule. In short,
Smoltz was a pitcher, not to be defined by silly words like starter, reliever or closer. He pitched where
the team dictated they needed him most, and that is what makes his story special.

In his new book, written with Don Yaeger, Starting and Closing: Perseverance, Faith, and One More Year,
Smoltz tells the story of how he became the person that pitched so well for so many years. Very early on
in the book, Smoltz establishes a few facts. One of these facts is that he always believed that he could
win at whatever he did. The second fact is that he didn’t really care how he became the best
or how he won; just that it happened. Essentially, he didn’t care what records he held, or how the game
ended up on his side, as long as when it was over, he was victorious.

One of the main points of Smoltz’s book is to explain why he decided to come back for one final season
after having to miss an entire season due to undergoing Tommy John surgery. He points out that to this day,
the question he is asked most by people, whether it be in the line at a movie theater or on the set of
a television baseball show, is why after he had already had a career so many people would be pleased
with, he put himself through an extremely difficult rehabilitation program to come back for one more
season.

The short answer that Smoltz provides to this question is simple. He tells them, “Why not?” An answer
that is in some ways both easy and hard to argue with. On one hand, one could argue that Smoltz had
enough money in the bank to last him for a life time and had already had a lengthy and successful
career, so there was no reason for him to push himself to get back out there. On the other hand,
someone could look at this and wonder why anyone would want to stop doing what they love to do
when they still have something left in the tank.

Smoltz explains the different layers that made his decision to come back for that last season easy. He
blatantly states that there was no thought in his end that if he played another year and had another
significant boost to his numbers that he could perhaps bolster his argument to get into the Hall of Fame.

Many times, hearing that the love of the game is the reason for playing is hard to take from players who
are making millions of dollars to play catch on a diamond. While this isn’t to say that the feeling would
not apply at all to Smoltz, he certainly attempts to make a compelling case for his love of the game being
the main driver for him to continue on.

The book is a rather quick read and the story of Smoltz’s career unfolds itself in a very informal
memoir type of a fashion. This would be an interesting read for anyone who followed Smoltz through
his career or has a significant interest specifically in the mindset of pitchers. Smoltz is the only player in
modern history who was dominant both as a starter and as a closer, and this uniqueness is illustrated
throughout the book. Not only do readers learn the story about him on the mound, but they learn
about the passions he has off of it as well such as golf and faith.

The 304 page book retails for $26 and will be out in hardcover this month. The book is published by
William Morrow, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

Overall Rating: 2.75/5

Is there anything more American than a game of catch between a father and his son? For many, the answer to this question would probably be that the only way to make that vision more American is to have an apple pie sitting in the window of the house next to the yard where the game of catch is taking place. It is because of this, that there is a certain nostalgia attached to the relationship of fathers and their sons and how the relationship grows through the game of baseball.

In a new book by Kevin Neary and Leigh A. Tobin called Major League Dads: Baseball’s Best Players Reflect on the Fathers who Inspired Them to Love the Game, fans who saw their relationship with their father grow through America’s pastime have a chance to experience the affect it had on those players who made it to the game’s highest level.

In the introduction, former Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona sets the tone for what is to come in the pages that follow as he tells the story of the relationship he had with his father and how that has not only affected how he sees the game of baseball, but also how he tries to raise his own son. His story is unique because while many dads try to teach their son the game of baseball from what they see when they watch their local teams and from what they remember from when they played little league, Francona’s dad was actually a Major Leaguer.

The stories in this book all involve how a player’s dad grew closer to them through the game of baseball, but it is amazing to which how many different levels of baseball expertise these players’ fathers had to bestow upon them. In addition to Francona, the book has dozens of stories from current and former players that tell the tales of how influential their fathers were with their involvement in the game.

Each story is about two to three pages in length and most tend to focus on how their father got the player started in baseball and what their relationship with their father is like in relation to the sport at this point. There are similar comments made by various players to the idea that there may be thousands of people in the stands when they play, but the only one they ever hear is their dad, which speaks volumes about the influence a father can have.

Many well-known players have their stories featured in this book, including the likes of all three Molina brothers, New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay, Atlanta Brave Chipper Jones and future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Madux.

While the majority of the stories are only about how life grew around baseball, there are many players whose tales touch on other aspects of life where they grew closer to their fathers and then relate that back to how it helped them succeed on the field.

The stories they tell about the relationship with their father are not unlike those that many of us have witnessed either with ourselves, or those around us throughout the years.  Just as those of us who are now working in some other field besides being paid to play baseball cherished those moments with our dads, the phenoms did as well.

The book is a quick and easy read due to the fact that a new section starts every third page. Also, because there is continually a different voice for the reader at almost every page turn, it keeps the reader engaged, but also makes it easy to read to a stopping point as there are many throughout the book.

The 256 page book came out at the beginning of May in hardcover and retails for $20. It is being published by Running Press.

Overall Rating: 2.75/5

Newest Indian DH/OF Johnny Damon

You wouldn’t know it by watching SportsCenter, but the Indians have managed to put together a decent stretch of baseball and they find themselves at the top of the Central Division in mid-May.  Albeit not with the most outstanding record in the world (as of this writing, the Tribe was just 3 games above .500), but one can’t complain about being in first place even if we are just one month into the season.

The Indians did make some nationwide baseball news last month when they signed veteran outfielder Johnny Damon to a one year contract. In an attempt to add some pop to the corner outfield position, the Tribe signed Damon, a player seemingly no one wanted prior to the start of the season, to a deal worth about $2 million with incentives.

Damon has not played in the field very much over the past two seasons, but the Indians hope to make him basically their everyday left fielder. While ideally, Damon may have preferred to go to a team where he could have been primarily a designated hitter, that is not an option in Cleveland because the team is paying Travis Hafner $13 million this year just to hit.

Asdrúbal Cabrera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Tribe is desperate for some offensive power from one of the corner outfield positions. The team is currently being led on the offensive end by second baseman Jason Kipnis, who leads the team with four homeruns. Kipnis was expected to hit for average, but wasn’t exactly supposed to be the one who shouldered the burden of driving in the bulk of the runs. The reliance on Kipnis as an offensive weapon comes just one season after shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera was clearly the team’s best hitter for both power and average.

Teams who need to rely heavily on their middle infielders for their offensive production, don’t tend to be the ones raising the World Series trophy at season’s end. This is not to say that this makes winning impossible, but it certainly doesn’t set the traditional odds in favor of the Wahoos.

While their hitting has been somewhat middle of the road, the team’s pitching has been strong all season. Perhaps the biggest surprise from a starting pitcher has been the performance of Derek Lowe. Lowe was acquired in an off season trade with the Atlanta Braves and wasn’t really thought of to be much more than a decent starter who could eat a lot of innings. Lowe has done much more than pitch a lot of innings. In fact, at this point, he could be poised to accept a spot on the American League All Star team. With a 4-1 record in six starts and a 2.39 ERA, Lowe is currently among the league leaders in various starting pitcher categories.

After being roughed up in his first appearance of the season, closer Chris Perez has also been a bright spot for the Tribe thus far. While other closers around the league have struggle mightily at the start of the season, CP, as he is called by his teammates, has settled down and has now converted 11 of his first 12 save opportunities.

Even with the team’s success, they still rank last in the Majors in attendance. This despite not only playing competitive baseball every night, but also having amazing weather in Northeast Ohio and having strong opponents coming to Progressive Field early in the season. It is apparently going to take a significant amount of time before fans start to believe it is worth their money to travel down to the ballpark to watch a game in person.

Perhaps part of the reason fans are staying away has to do with the fact that the Indians started off fast last year and then completely fell off at the end of the season. If the team stays consistent, fans will start to show up, once they know that the success is here to stay.

Those who are not aware of the history and importance of Bill Veeck, and his influence over baseball, cannot truly call themselves historians of the game. Not knowing the story of Veeck from his owner’s chair could be on parallel with not knowing Babe Ruth from his batter’s box. While some may be familiar with a few of the higher profile acts during Veeck’s career, most would still be amazed by some of the information contained in Paul Dickson’s new work Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick.

While most are content to own one baseball team during their life, Veeck made himself standout, if not for the simple fact that he owned three different teams during the duration of his career (and one team twice). Teams of today have Veeck to thank for coming up with themed nights at the ballpark to give people another reason to get to the yard besides the game. You know that bobblehead collection you treasure in your man cave? Well, it may not exist if it were not for Veeck’s imaginative ideas.

Veeck organized some of the most and least successful promotional nights in baseball history. One that went well was when he recognized all ladies on Mother’s Day by giving them a fresh new pair of stockings. Perhaps the least successful promotion Veeck ever put together was Demolition Night. This was a night when fans were told to bring old records that they were no longer listening to in order to pile them up and see them demolished. While fans loved the idea, they also became so unruly that they created a riot like atmosphere that forced Veeck’s team to forfeit the game.

Not only was Veeck a pioneer in terms of promotions, but Dickson describes how he was a pioneer of breaking down racial barriers as well. Veeck was the first owner of an American League team to sign an African American player when the team inked Negro League standout Larry Doby in the 1940s. His willingness to sign Doby and be one of the first teams to entertain the idea of signing black players made his Indians a powerhouse during the late 1940s and early 1950s due to their competitive edge.

Veeck was a man of passion, which he showed off the field as well by fighting in World War II, during which he lost one of his legs. This experience may have sent some in a downward spiral, but as Dickson details, it seemed to invigorate Veeck even more and make him push to be even more successful once his war effort ended.

There have been owners who have certainly had bigger names that Bill Veeck or who have received more headlines over time, but finding someone who had such a wide reaching effect on so many parts of the game as Veeck did would be virtually impossible. There are very few people, owners or not, who have revolutionized a part of the game on the field and off of it.

While Veeck was a hands on owner in some aspects, he was also one that players enjoyed playing for. He created an atmosphere for the fans and even his own employees that was supposed to create success while at the same time making sure everyone was having some fun.

The book is lengthy, but due to the interesting nature of Veeck’s story and the descriptive style the author uses throughout the work the read goes much faster than expected. Anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of baseball history should pick this work up. Whether you were familiar with Veeck or not before reading the book, you stand to learn a lot about this interesting character.

In case you don’t have your fill of Bill Veeck when you finish Dickson’s work, you can always plunge into one of his three memoirs, which the author quotes and paraphrases throughout the work. This is highly recommended to anyone who is even remotely interested in historical perspectives of the game of baseball.

Overall Grade: 3.75/5

R.A. Dickey is not a name that shoots to the front of most baseball fans minds when they think of players whose story they may want to hear. While he may not be the most well-known of players, Dickey, a starting pitcher for the New York Mets, has put together a very interesting story of his life in a new book written with Wayne Coffey titled Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.

Just simply by reading the title of the book, fans can see that he isn’t your normal starting pitcher. Anyone knows that there has to be something different in the mind of a pitcher to get them to even try throwing a knuckleball. Perhaps that’s what makes Dickey special. Throughout the book, one of the main themes is that he always does what he thinks is right, regardless of what others may say about him.

Dickey is far from someone who could be considered a dumb jock. In fact, he may just be the most cultured Major Leaguer. From trips to Mount Kilimanjaro in the off season to raise awareness about human trafficking in Mumbai, to the fact that he names his bats after literary characters, Dickey certainly does it his way.

Life wasn’t always easy for this hurler, although a bird’s eye view of his early life might suggest otherwise. When Dickey was in high school, he was immediately seen as someone who was going to be great and make it to the Big Leagues one day. Scouts watched him very closely during high school and he had offers from many colleges and the possibility existed of going pro right out of high school. Dickey decided to take a full scholarship from the University of Tennessee, where he excelled on the field. He also was a starting pitcher for team USA during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

He won various awards during college and was drafted in the first round by the Texas Rangers. Everything was going smoothly and according to plan, until Dickey’s mind took over and started making decisions that may not have been the best for his career. Dickey goes into depth on the decisions that he made during his early career in professional baseball that almost led to not only the end of his playing days, but the end of his life all together.

Just one unusual incident that Dickey chronicles is his attempt to swim across the Missouri River wearing flip-flops. Without giving too much away, let’s just say this isn’t the best decision Dickey or anyone else could ever make.

Dickey also shares his incredibly honest thoughts on a number of things including performance enhancing drugs, and their effect on the game. While Dickey’s story is certainly his own, in many ways his thoughts and feelings are probably not much different than many other players, the difference is that he is willing to share them.

While there are certainly some off of the field topics discussed in the book, there are many on field experiences that Dickey lets the reader in on as well. A few of the highlights related to baseball that Dickey touches on are how he overcame one of the worst performances of any starting pitcher in the last 100 years when he gave up six home runs to the Detroit Tigers in just 3 1/3 innings, and his description of a meeting with Orel Hershiser and Buck Showalter that changed his life forever.

Dickey’s work is not unlike memoirs that other players have published in the past to illustrate their life story. However, it is clearly unique to his own life and journey and, while his story of becoming an athlete isn’t a rare one on bookshelves these days, the specifics of his journey and the story of how he became the player he is today certainly is.

The 328 page work was published on March 29, 2012 in hardback from Blue Rider Press and retails for $26.95.

Overall Rating: 3.25/5

The ending of Spring Training is supposed to be a time when all teams are still optimistic about their opportunities in the upcoming season. Despite promises in the media by players and coaches alike, many Indians fans are more than leery about the beginning of the season.

The Indians finished Spring Training with the worst record in the Majors. The Tribe had a streak of double digit losses which is virtually unheard of during Spring Training competition. The Indians opened the season with the Toronto Blue Jays, who sported the best record in the Majors during Spring Training and are the sexy pick by many to win a Wild Card spot in the American League.

Opening weekend will also bring a homecoming of sorts for a Tribe favorite. At the ripe old age of 45, shortstop Omar Vizquel has made the Blue Jays Major League roster. His return to Cleveland will no doubt fill himself and fans with memories of better days when the Tribe was rolling in the American League Central Division.

Hopefully the team doesn’t get too nostalgic over Vizquel’s appearance because it certainly seems that they have a lot to do to get back to the form they were playing at during last season.

Things looked like they were on the right path for the Indians during the first game of the season as starter Justin Masterson handed the game to the bullpen with a 4-1 lead. However, the self-proclaimed “Bullpen Mafia” couldn’t shut the door on the Jays. All Star closer Chris Perez gave up three runs in the ninth inning as the Jays forced extra frames, seven of them to be exact. The game ended in the 16th inning after the Indians were unable to score in extra innings despite having the bases loaded with one out.

The Indians blew the lead in the second game of the season as well and were forced to play multiple extra frames during which they were on the losing end again. A season ago, the Tribe started the season with two losses and then won eight straight. The team would no doubt love for history to repeat itself, but the losses sustained last year were nowhere near as heart wrenching of those during the 2012 campaign. The pressure and expectations both weren’t nearly as high.

All things considered, the starting pitching for the Tribe has been impressively strong and consistent during the first series of the season. After those two losses, the Indians were able to get a win over the Blue Jays, hopefully setting themselves up to finish off the first home stand of the season on a strong note.

One of the main worries for the Tribe is whether they are going to be able to count on a prize possession that they received from a transaction near last year’s trade deadline. When the team dealt their top two promising pitching prospects for Colorado Rockies’ hurler Ubaldo Jimenez, they thought they were getting someone who would be the ace of their staff. At this point, it seems what the team has received in Jimenez is someone who can make headlines for almost everything else besides how he performs on the mound.

During one of the last games of Spring Training, Jimenez purposefully threw at former teammate Troy Tulowitzki presumably due to some comments Tulowitzki said about him in a Denver paper. While Jimenez did choose a game that didn’t count as the forum to take out his anger on his former mate, he has now ended up hurting the team in games that will count because of his actions. While Jimenez was appealing the suspension he was handed down from the league of five games, or one start, the likelihood that he won’t have to miss his turn in the rotation soon is very slim.

Prior to Jimenez’s first start of the season on Saturday, he announced that after the game, he was going to drop the appeal of his suspension.

For baseball, the 1960s were an extremely memorable decade. Every fall it seemed that there were heated series between historic teams who had a deep love for the game and a desire to call themselves the best. This decade also featured many polarizing and other not so popular, yet still interesting players. Author Tim Wendel depicts two of these teams and some of these players in his new book Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball–and America–Forever.

In short, Wendel’s work tells the story of the 1968 World Series between the Saint Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers. There is much more involved in this book than the story of what happened during the Series, however. Wendel meticulously tells the story of many of the players from both squads giving the reader a comprehensive understanding of how the 1968 Series came to be from many different perspectives.

Wendel also tells the story of the entire 1968 season in terms of both what happened on baseball diamonds across America, but also focuses on events that happened outside of the world of baseball as well to illustrate the climate of the country at the time of this Series.

The author depicts 1968 as the year of the pitcher, pointing to memorable names such as Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Denny McClain and Luis Taint for support of his claim. Various records were set this season for both the success of pitchers and the failure of the hitters.

While conventional wisdom might be that Wendel spends the majority of his time on the well-known stars of these teams such as Gibson, this isn’t necessarily the case.

As evidence that Wendel wanted to illustrate how outside events have an effect to what happens on the diamond, the author notes that this year was one remembered in many history textbooks as a year of many tragedies. America was first rocked by the assassination of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. who had a strong influence on many Major Leaguers at the time.

Students of history may remember another event that took place in closer proximity to King’s assassination as presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was also shot and killed just two weeks after the King incident. It was almost as if violence was the theme of America throughout the summer of 1968, which, considering the main parties involved is somewhat ironic.

All of these events come just one summer after major riots in downtown Detroit caused much of the city to burn. For the Tigers, it became only so appropriate that they would become the team to represent the American League in the World Series under these circumstances. This team, Wendel notes, is just what the downtrodden city needed to get their spirits back up again after disaster struck the year prior.

Image via Wikipedia

To illustrate that much of the book is spent on topics that are related to, but aren’t the World Series, consider that Wendel doesn’t start his story of the actual Series until page 145, more than halfway through the book. By the time the Series does start, the reader feels like he knows the main players from both teams extremely well and may find themselves rooting for both sides at various times throughout the Series based on which players has stories they identified with the most.

The work is not a quick read, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be read. The extensive research that Wendel must have done in order to get the insight and perspective shared in this book is evident on every page. Even people who don’t know much about baseball history may come off as an expert on this season after reading this book.

Wendel’s new work will debut in hardcover in April 2012 for a price of $25. It is 288 pages and includes 16 pages of black and white photographs depicting the main people who contributed to making that summer so memorable.

Overall Rating: 3.75/5

Recent history has not been kind to the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, in Paul Haddad’s new book, High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years 1977-1981, the author gets the reader so immersed in what happened between these years, that it makes the reader remember what a great franchise the Dodgers have been over time.

As the Dodgers work to reclaim their glory, Haddad looks to remind fans about a different time in the city of Los Angeles when dreams were about nothing but a World Series championship on a yearly basis. Haddad depicts the Dodgers teams of these years from the fan’s perspective which one doesn’t have to be a Dodger fan to understand. All teams have had their highs and their lows and something as simple as turning on sports talk radio in any city across the country will remind one of how tied fans can become to the good times.

The book comes out at an appropriate time when the Dodgers are frequently in the news for news stories that are happening off of the field. Haddad does a great job of reminding Dodger fans of the great times that have occurred and what they have ahead of them if they stay around.

The author adds an extremely unique touch to this book that he explains very early on. While many youngsters grow up idolizing players and wanting to grow up to hit the game winning home run, Haddad grew up wanting to call the game winning home run. Throughout the author’s youth, all he ever wanted to do was to become the next Vin Scully. Not that that’s a tall order or anything.

Due to Haddad’s drive to become the next Scully, his youth was filled with times when he would emulate the Hall of Fame broadcaster and actually record himself doing so. Like many fans, Haddad kept the memories from his childhood dreams around and has them quoted multiple times in this book. While some books have quotes from well-known players or managers at the beginning of chapters, Haddad actually quotes himself from times when he was recording his amateur play by play calls.

The book is a quick read mostly because the author does a good job of splitting it up and giving the reader different topics about the Dodgers to focus on throughout each chapter. One of the tidbits that appears quite frequently throughout the book is entitled the “Fernando Watch.” This typically page long excerpt gives a snapshot of phenom Fernando Valenzuela at different parts of the seasons that are the focus of this book. Valenzuela was somewhat of a cultural phenomenon when he grew of age with the Dodgers and helped bring them a World Series championship. While many athletes become polarizing for brief periods of time in this current era of baseball, during the late 1970s it was rare that a player would garner the public attention that Fernandomania did.

This book is unlike any this reviewer has ever read due to the fact that Haddad is not scared of professing his fandom throughout the pages. While many sports writers who have published books no doubt become fans of the teams they cover for years, they attempt to stay objective in their books, which should be expected if they are reporting news. Haddad makes no ifs, ands, or buts about it in this book as his fandom for the Dodgers drips from nearly every word written in this book.

It’s somewhat refreshing to hear an educated diehard fans perspective throughout these pages. Even though it is clear that Haddad is a huge fan of the team, readers should not be turned off with the potential that they might be reading statements in line with those that they hear called into their local sports radio station.

Even if your team is not the Dodgers, this book presents itself as the perfect primer for the upcoming season. All fans will be able to relate to Haddad’s thoughts, actions and words throughout the book and most can probably even imagine themselves doing many of the same things the author does.

Rating: 3.5/5

Fans are no doubt what make the game of baseball so popular, especially at the Major League level. Over time, the players who have noticed this and focused on being a fan favorite have been able to overcome hitting slumps or pitching doldrums in the public eye much easier than those who may not be so kind to the fans.

In the new book Baseball Fantography: A Celebration in Snapshots and Stories from the Fans put together by Andy Strasburg, readers are going to get the game told to them in a very familiar fashion: from the fan’s perspective.

This nearly 200 page book is packed with pictures taken by common, ordinary, everyday fans. While many of the pictures certainly have a hint or professional quality, part of the uniqueness of this book is that there wasn’t an effort made to refocus the pictures that come through as a little blurry or to perhaps change the center of the picture so the angle is more artistically pleasing. This was done because the writer of the book wanted other fans to see these pictures just as the fans who took the pictures have seen them for so many years.

Strasburg, a former executive with the San Diego Padres, took on this project in conjunction with his consulting firm that offers marketing expertise to baseball personalities, teams, leagues, and has many notable clients including the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Well known broadcaster Bob Costas penned the foreword for this book. Although his writings are only present on one page of the work, he does a good job introducing what is to come during in the pages that follow his and prepares the reader to get in the fan’s frame of mind.

While the main focus of the book clearly is photography taken by fans, this is by no means all that it offers. Each chapter offers historical facts and tidbits about the game that may only be known to a fan who is so wrapped up in following one specific player they happen to idolize. This book is full of the perception of fans who are harkening back on their youth to a time that they remember being completely enamored with a particular player for, perhaps, no good reason at all.

These pictures aren’t unlike many that most people may have seen on the desks of their colleagues or in the den at their friend’s house. This collection was started when the author pulled out a dust filled picture of himself with his arm placed over Roger Maris’ shoulder in the outfield of the original Yankee Stadium. When he looked at this picture many years later, he realized that he couldn’t be the only baseball fan out there with photographs from long ago that could have nostalgic purposes not only to the person in the picture, but to others with similar stories as well. Many of the photographs are from Spring Training as that is when many fans have their change to get closer to the players than ever before. It also happens to be the time when the players are loose and the most relaxed about their behavior.

While the reader will certainly hear from the fans who took the pictures, and from Strasberg, who is nothing more than a very serious fan himself, they will also be treated to some words of wisdom from professionals within the game of baseball. Among those who shared their expertise in this book are former St. Louis Cardinal Shortstop Ozzie Smith and Dave Baldwin who not only pitched in the Majors for six seasons, but also holds a PhD in genetics.

This book would be ideal for a coffee table of a baseball fan, as leafing through the pages will lead anyone who has ever experienced any part of the game will have a story to tell. This clearly isn’t serious reading and could be a nice spring change of pace as fans get ready for the upcoming season.

Overall Rating: 3/5