The Last Nine Innings

by Charles C. Euchner

"The Last Nine Innings is the last word on the inside of baseball. It's full of wonderful revelations and perceptions that help us understand the game in ways that we might never have imagined. Charlie Euchner has done a marvelous job in getting players to talk, simply, about how they play, and we're the wiser for it."
-Frank Deford

"Charlie takes an unorthodox approach to an emotional week and succeeds at finding the heart of both the tension of the World Series and the technical foundations of the baseball profession. This is a different book, in a very good way."
-Howard Bryant, the Washington Post, and author of Juicing the Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball

"The lengthy description of game 7 makes for dramatic reading, and the interviews with key players from that game add a human dimension."
-Booklist

"I enjoyed Charles's book. It's an interesting read, rich in thought-provoking detail and context, in the manner of Malcolm Gladwell. He deftly pulls off a difficult double educating the serious fan while entertaining the casual one."
-Tom Verducci, Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated

"The Last Nine Innings is entertaining, engaging and enlightening. You'll never watch a baseball game the same way."
-Andrew Zimbalist, author of Baseball and A Probing Look Inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime and Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College

"Memo to ESPN analysts, FOX color announcers and daily baseball stop telling us about who had a haircut, who didn't have a haircut and who collects stamps. Rip out the red thread on the baseball, peel back the cowhide and talk about all the stuff that's wound up inside the game. That's what Charles Euchner does in The Last Nine Innings and it's fascinating."
-Leigh Montville, author of Ted Williams, Biography of an American Hero and Why Not Us?: The 86-Year Journey of the Boston Red Sox Fans from Unparalleled Suffering to the Promised Land of the 2004 World Series


The Great American Pastime has changed. For the first time in the history of the game, the three major forces that drive the evolution of modern pro baseball-The Triple Revolution-is

The Triple
(1) Globalization of Recruiting and Business
(2) Scientific Analysis & Reduction of Physical Baseball Movements
(3) Evolution Effect of Modernized Stat-Crunching

Charles Euchner uses a dramatic moment-by-moment narrative of the seventh game of the 2001 World Series between the Yankees and the Diamondbacks to display the Triple Revolution; and to reveal the hidden dimensions of the "game within the game": From pitching motions to batting styles, from fielding and base-running, to training and strategy.

Euchner uses extensive interviews with all the players from this modern classic to produce a comprehensive view of the game that will fascinate casual fans, and stimulate baseball experts. The insider narrative includes Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Luis Gonzalez and Curt Schilling, along with the game's coaches, managers, support staff, even medical researchers and top game stats experts.

Among the questions What is the ideal pitching motion? How can we judge defensive performance? What makes managers succeed and fail? What changes the odds over the course of the game? And much more. Whether a recreational fans, or serious student of the game, The Last Nine Innings enlightens; as baseball author Andrew Zimbalist writes, "You'll never watch a baseball game the same way."

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[David Dull · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyable for any Yankee hater

[Zach Koenig · Rating 3 out of 5]

For nine taut innings in early November of 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees did battle in Game Seven of the World Series. In this book, author David Euchner dissects not only that classic matchup, but also all the "little things" about baseball that often don't meet the eye of the casual fan.

The strength of this book is author Euchner's attention to detail. Nearly every aspect of the game is touched on in some way, from batting to pitching to managing, to the mechanics of throwing a baseball, swinging a bat, and running the bases. All of this information is also nicely tied into the 2001 World Series and the players who made it a classic.

Oddly enough, though, this detailed tome also bogs down the book at many occasions. Often, Euchner tries to take on everything at once, and as such the volume of information can be a bit overwhelming. This is especially true regarding the technical portions of the book, where you are almost reading a biology or physics textbook. It isn't that bad, but gets tedious at times.

Overall, then, "The Last Nine Innings" is an interesting baseball read. At times the overload of information is a bit taxing, but at least the information itself is interesting enough, and in a well-imagined format, to make you keep flipping through.

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay in that it brought me back to the last game of the 2001 World Series. The last game was a complete pitching duel between Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens. Just in case you've been in a cave the last 10 years I won't give the ending away, but this book also has good parts on Mariano Rivera, Luis Gonzalez, Mark Grace, Derek Jeter, Matt Williams, Randy Johnson, Paul O' Neill, Jorge Posada and Bob Brenly just to name a few.

Although some of the stats brought up were interesting, I thought this book was WAAAY too much overkill on stats and techniques on how to play the game correctly. I just wanted more insight on this series. The book describes it on the outside, or in other reviews that is has a backdrop and talks a lot about 9/11 and the circumstances with the two teams and what they meant to the country during that time. I disagree. Not much talked about that at all. In fact, it seems sometimes the author forgets about the actual game he is writing about, and strays away for too long from it talking about stats or techniques of the game. This book, however, was very well researched, so I give Euchner a lot of credit for that. It just needed a little bit of filter and editing. This book was 291 pages, would have been great if it was around 250. Too much filler.

I recommend this book to Arizona fans and true die hard fans of the game.

[Phil Grone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Euchner's work on the 2001 World Series, one of the classic series in postwar history, set against the backdrop of the emotion and national mourning of September 11th is a delightful and compelling read.

For the casual fan, the book reawakens the tension of each game. For the true seamhead, the analyses of defensive positioning, managerial styles, the effect on the game of sabermetrics, and other "inside baseball" elements contain wonderful insights - and none detract from the larger charm of the tale. It also surprised me that I could glean baseball insight that would be useful in teaching the game to Little League players. Not something normally associated with books in this style.

Close to a classic in its own right.

[Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Library Journal blurb on the cover of the book says something like: "This book has something for everyone, from the casual fan to the stat geeks." I would not go so far as to count myself as a "stat geek" or Sabermetrician; however, I am a highly informed fan who reads a lot about baseball. Truthfully, I found very little in the book that I didn't already know. It's a book that purports to show us the hidden secrets of "inside baseball," but I found much of it to be common knowledge at this point. Perhaps it would serve as a nice introduction for a young person or beginning student of the game, but even a reasonably seasoned fan will find this book to be a big yawn and shrug.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing was bit underwhelming, but the fascinating facts of the game were wonderful, as was the idea of using this one game to explore the rich game of baseball, and what separates elite athletes from second stringers.

[Eduardo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not make any claims to understanding everything that happens during an MLB game. After reading this book, I can now say that I understand a little more but not much.

It is still a fun and fast read.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any book that makes mention of Craig Counsell gets three stars automatically.

[Mr. Mustela frenata · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.56