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Clearing the Bases: A Veteran Sportswriter on the National Pastime
Collecton of essays on baseball.
212 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 9, 2017
I apologize for the lateness of my review. When I finished reading this book my laptop's keyboard had decided to have a nervous breakdown so I was reduced to using the on-screen keyboard, which is a pain in whatever piece of anatomy you choose.
For me this was a really enjoyable book. Basically a collection of essays this book takes us over a wide range of baseball related topics. We have writings on baseball's links to American culture, a team made up of collegiate players and an overview of the 1983 season, among other essays.
Two notable pieces are on Paul Molitor and Tim McCarver. The Molitor piece is written in an interesting style, as Mr. Kaplan is seemingly having a discussion with someone who doesn't know that much about Molitor. It is an intriguing technique, but one not often used. In this instance it works very well. The essay on Tim McCarver is not about his career as a baseball player but as a baseball announcer. For some people this may be the role they are more familiar with. For me it is always interesting to see what announcers do to prepare for a game and then how they conduct themselves during it. A good announce game can usually make even a bad game interesting. Both of these pieces were interesting
However the most interesting item, and the one that induced me to rate this book five stars instead of my usual four, was one of Ron Taylor, former major league pitcher. The portion of the article about Mr. Taylor's baseball career wast intriguing. Of course the fact he pitched for the New York Mets, my favourite NL team, may have an influence here. Another factor that makes this item interesting for me is that Taylor is a Canadian so of course there is some national pride here as well.
Still the real reason to read this piece is to discover Mr. Taylor's non-baseball career. This is a man who earned both an engineering degree and a medical degree. He also earned them at the University of Toronto, and that is no easy feat to accomplish. An interesting player and a nice essay on him.
All and all this was a really good book. I would like to thank Mr. Kaplan for the copies he provided to the members of the baseball group on Goodreads I am a part of. His prose is easy to read and you never seem bogged down. This is a book I think can find its place on any baseball fan's bookshelf
For me this was a really enjoyable book. Basically a collection of essays this book takes us over a wide range of baseball related topics. We have writings on baseball's links to American culture, a team made up of collegiate players and an overview of the 1983 season, among other essays.
Two notable pieces are on Paul Molitor and Tim McCarver. The Molitor piece is written in an interesting style, as Mr. Kaplan is seemingly having a discussion with someone who doesn't know that much about Molitor. It is an intriguing technique, but one not often used. In this instance it works very well. The essay on Tim McCarver is not about his career as a baseball player but as a baseball announcer. For some people this may be the role they are more familiar with. For me it is always interesting to see what announcers do to prepare for a game and then how they conduct themselves during it. A good announce game can usually make even a bad game interesting. Both of these pieces were interesting
However the most interesting item, and the one that induced me to rate this book five stars instead of my usual four, was one of Ron Taylor, former major league pitcher. The portion of the article about Mr. Taylor's baseball career wast intriguing. Of course the fact he pitched for the New York Mets, my favourite NL team, may have an influence here. Another factor that makes this item interesting for me is that Taylor is a Canadian so of course there is some national pride here as well.
Still the real reason to read this piece is to discover Mr. Taylor's non-baseball career. This is a man who earned both an engineering degree and a medical degree. He also earned them at the University of Toronto, and that is no easy feat to accomplish. An interesting player and a nice essay on him.
All and all this was a really good book. I would like to thank Mr. Kaplan for the copies he provided to the members of the baseball group on Goodreads I am a part of. His prose is easy to read and you never seem bogged down. This is a book I think can find its place on any baseball fan's bookshelf
April 2, 2017
In the introduction to this collection of essays on baseball, author Jim Kaplan states even though his own baseball career was less than successful – he writes that “In the 10th grade, I was a substitute for the ninth-grade team. Not only that, I was so slow that my teammates called me Snowshoes.” – he states that he still loves the game in part because of its “unpredictability.”
That is an applicable description of this book as it isn’t a predictable collection – the topics of the stories, the timelines and setting and the tone of the stories all vary and cover a lot of ground. He has stories about major league players - Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, All-Star catcher and esteemed broadcaster Tim McCarver and a relief pitcher turned physician Ron Taylor, who pitched for two championship teams, the 1964 Cardinals and 1969 Mets. There are stories about a season (1983), about a league (The Futures Collegiate Baseball League [FCBL] and the team in Martha’s Vineyard) and about the adventures in on position (right field).
The stories vary in mood as well, from upbeat and hopeful to slightly melancholy as the 1983 season chapter seemed to be a call for “the good old days.” It’s interesting to read something like this many years later, when some may consider the year in question “the good old days.” Another line in that chapter cracked me up when Kaplan wrote about Ron Kittle, the slugger who at the time was an all-star for the Chicago White Sox. He wrote at the time that “…Kittle is already a bigger hero than Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, ever was. Banks says so himself.” Ask any Chicago baseball fan now who was the bigger hero and you might get a different answer.
As a fan of a minor-league team in the lower level of the system, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the FCBL as the living and working conditions for these young men are very similar to the players I watch at the local ballpark. Hearing their enthusiasm and youthfulness through Kaplan’s words was very inspiring.
The only knock I have on the book was the very long chapter on Ron Taylor. Not so much because it was much longer than the other chapters, as Taylor did live a somewhat interesting life, but I would have liked to have read more about his time as the team physician for the Toronto Blue Jays. It is rare to find any material on what life is like working in baseball in an occupation other than a player, manager or owner, so I would have been very interesting in any stories he may have been able to share as a team physician.
Unlike most books of this format, there wasn’t a bad story in the entire collection. This book was an entertaining and enjoyable read, one that baseball fans of all ages and interests would enjoy.
I wish to thank Mr. Kaplan for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
That is an applicable description of this book as it isn’t a predictable collection – the topics of the stories, the timelines and setting and the tone of the stories all vary and cover a lot of ground. He has stories about major league players - Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, All-Star catcher and esteemed broadcaster Tim McCarver and a relief pitcher turned physician Ron Taylor, who pitched for two championship teams, the 1964 Cardinals and 1969 Mets. There are stories about a season (1983), about a league (The Futures Collegiate Baseball League [FCBL] and the team in Martha’s Vineyard) and about the adventures in on position (right field).
The stories vary in mood as well, from upbeat and hopeful to slightly melancholy as the 1983 season chapter seemed to be a call for “the good old days.” It’s interesting to read something like this many years later, when some may consider the year in question “the good old days.” Another line in that chapter cracked me up when Kaplan wrote about Ron Kittle, the slugger who at the time was an all-star for the Chicago White Sox. He wrote at the time that “…Kittle is already a bigger hero than Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, ever was. Banks says so himself.” Ask any Chicago baseball fan now who was the bigger hero and you might get a different answer.
As a fan of a minor-league team in the lower level of the system, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the FCBL as the living and working conditions for these young men are very similar to the players I watch at the local ballpark. Hearing their enthusiasm and youthfulness through Kaplan’s words was very inspiring.
The only knock I have on the book was the very long chapter on Ron Taylor. Not so much because it was much longer than the other chapters, as Taylor did live a somewhat interesting life, but I would have liked to have read more about his time as the team physician for the Toronto Blue Jays. It is rare to find any material on what life is like working in baseball in an occupation other than a player, manager or owner, so I would have been very interesting in any stories he may have been able to share as a team physician.
Unlike most books of this format, there wasn’t a bad story in the entire collection. This book was an entertaining and enjoyable read, one that baseball fans of all ages and interests would enjoy.
I wish to thank Mr. Kaplan for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
April 29, 2017
Kaplan does an excellent job describing the core elements of baseball in an unparalleled fashion. His descriptions of McCarver as a broadcaster and youth baseball are examples of the bones of our national pastime that you won't get in most books. Although he sometimes gets too haughty against individuals like Schilling or the inventor of the Kiss Cam, his ideals of the game seem to be pure and relevant in a cloudy time. I highly recommend this for the baseball enthusiast who can't get enough of the game.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews