The Baseball Fanbook: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Hardball Know-It-All

by Sports Illustrated Kids, Gary Gramling

Everything You Need to Become a Hardball Know-It-All

The next book in the Fanbook series from Sports Illustrated Kids, The Baseball Fanbook has all the nerdy-cool insider knowledge that fans ready for next-level, in-depth stats need to know to impress their friends, family, coaches, and any season ticket holders they may meet. Tailor-made for baseball fanatics ages 8 and up who know the basics of the sport they love, may play it, and are looking to become super fans, this new fanbook is filled with fun trivia, unique lingo, and illustrated behind-the-skills how-to's. Chapters include Team Tidbits (salient baseball facts about every MLB team), Think Like a Manager (essential strategies to understand), He Reminds Me Of (compares current players to legendary greats of America’s favorite pastime), and much more!

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Baseball

192 pages, Hardcover

Published April 3, 2018

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley to read and review.

THE BASEBALL FANBOOK from the Editors of Sports Illustrated is a great starting point for someone new to the game, especially a young person who’s just begun to play the game, although it is of value to any baseball fan as it not only includes an excellent glossary of baseball terminology; it includes historical facts and player comparisons between current and past players with similar attributes.

Baseball trivia enthusiasts will benefit from several little known facts spread throughout the book, and it’s a valuable resource for all fans of the game, even if you only need to learn how to fill out a scorecard!

4 stars.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a children's nonfiction book, this book of baseball numbers is an excellent choice for middle grade baseball fans. I received an advance copy as a download in exchange for an unbiased review, and was happy to find both the content as well as the photos to be engaging and interesting. The formatting is very well done as well. Overall, this book should easily appeal to all young sports fans, including those who may be reluctant readers. I actually looked up this author to find out whether this book is part of a series, and was delighted to find that this appears to be the case. I will definitely purchase this book for my elementary school library, along with Gramling's previously published Football Fanbook.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, produced by Sports Illustrated Kids, is an excellent introduction to all things Major League Baseball (MLB) - There are seven chapters that deal with records, obscure facts, skills to master, i.e. breaking in a glove, scoring a game, getting that coveted autograph, and even the "correct" way to chew sunflower seeds - Who knew? There are also chapters on creating a franchise & running a team, a "He reminds me of ..." chapter, information on all 30 MLB teams, and finally, a chapter on baseball lingo and what these words / phrases mean.

For the information about the teams, one page is dedicated to each team, which showcases the name of the team, a photo of their ball cap, the name of the division they play in, i.e. the Cleveland Indians play in the AL (American League) Central. Information also tells what year the club was "invented," and if they were known by other name(s) and in what years or if the team moved from another city, etc. There is also information on their wins / losses with regards to the World Series, and their Best Season, which often coincides with a Pennant or World Series win. There is a brief annotated list of each teams 4-All-Time Best Players, along with their positions and what they did for the team, and a brief summary about something unique or fabulous about each team, along with a photo. For the Indians, the summary is about John Adams and playing his bass drum at each home game to cheer on the Tribe!

[Whatmykidsandiread Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

@kidlitexchange #partner
If you have a baseball fan at your house or even a kiddo who really enjoys facts and trivia, this book will be a home run. ⚾️
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Sports Illustrated Kids just released “The Baseball Fanbook,” written by Gary Grambling, and it really is a book full of all sorts of the most interesting and fun things to know about baseball, jam-packed with tons and tons of pictures. There’s just tons of info on the game and all of its components, like recognizing pitches, knowing the lingo, how to score a game, and most importantly, how to recreate the hot dogs served at MLB stadiums.🌭

You can even learn some tips on how to be a better player or pretend you’re going to run a team, or see how current players compare with players from the past. And that’s just to start. There’s really so much awesome stuff crammed in this book.

We especially loved all the obscure facts:
⚾️ Did you know teams starting wearing gray on the road so they didn’t have to do laundry?
⚾️ Did you know umpires used to wear top hats and tails?
⚾️ Did you know the fastest game in history was 51 minutes long?
This is definitely a book that kids can read over and over again, always finding something new to look at and learn about. And that’s the sign of a great book. I mean, it really hits it out of the park.👍🏻

Thanks to the #kidlitexchange network for the review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

[Julie Failla Earhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since today is the opening day of the 2018 baseball season for the St. Louis Cardinals, it seemed appropriate that I review this gem of a book. [Unfortunately the Redbirds lost to the New York Mets.]

Here are the chapter headings: Know These Numbers, Obscure Facts (my favorite), Skills to Master, Think Like a Manager, He Reminds Me Of…(my second favorite), Team Tidbits (my third favorite) and Talk the Talk. This book does not have to be read in order.

Although the book is aimed at kids in Grades 3 and up and for ages eight and up, this handy-dandy little book is great reading for all ages. Whether the reader is an avid, knowledge fan or someone just learning the sort, this really is an all-ages book. The Baseball Fanbook: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Hardball Know-It-All (A Sports Illustrated Kids Book) receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

[Caitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

#partner Thank you @kidlitexchange for a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own. I really enjoyed reading this one! There were a lot of interesting statistics and tips for any kind of baseball fans and players. Even though the intended audience is kids, I could see many adult baseball fans enjoying this as well. The authors handled the steroids scandal and injustices of the Negro league well, noting the major league’s flaws as well. The only problem I could see with getting this book for a classroom is that it could become outdated rather quickly.

[Syd Harrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Nonfiction (Concept Book)
Award: None
Audience: 2nd-8th grade
A. The topic of this book is highlighted clearly in the title, that it is a baseball fanbook containing "everything you need to know to become a hardball know-it-all".
B. This book is created to inspire children, especially boys, to love to read. It is child-friendly in its composition, layout, and text and illustrations. The font is large and there are illustrations that accompany terms and definitions.
C. There are many text features in this book including terms, definitions, notes about different facts, photos, and illustrations. It includes lingo that professional baseball players say that is then put in sentences that help children understand what each word means.
D. This book is a part of a fanbook series that covers many sports. I would put these books on my shelf as a teacher as an incentive for boys to finish their schoolwork so that they could read. For a struggling student, I would give him this as inspiration because it can hold attention and presents facts in an easily understandable way.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about baseball. It's a great book for someone who is starting to learn about this sport and at the same time, the facts are up to date. Good balance between the words, and pictures. A good read.

[Shauna Yusko · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2. It says SI Kids, but I'd get this for my middle school no problem. Would even work into high school. A better layout/design/size for older readers than their Then to WOW series (also good!).

[Thomas Gillespie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book but no trivia in it

[Kellee Moye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE BASEBALL! :)

As the 2018 baseball season begins, I knew I had to share this book with you all because I love this resource! I saw the The Football Fanbook, and I was impressed by it, but I LOVE BASEBALL! So I am so happy that there is a baseball version now.

Now, please don’t stop here just because I say I love baseball, so you assume you have to love it also to like this book. One of the things I like about this series is that they are written for all levels of fans. Maybe you don’t get why people like baseball? Check out this book to learn why! Maybe you are a player but really want to learn more specifics about the MLB? Check out this book to find out more! Maybe you are a baseball fanatic that lives and breaths the sport? Check out this book to maybe learn some fun facts you don’t know or as just a fun and entertaining read. It really is written in ways that all types of readers will find something in it.

Although this book is aimed for kids in grade 3 and up, don’t let that make you think it doesn’t include detailed information–it does! Each chapter is focused and full of information and photographs. But at the same time, I will say that it isn’t so overwhelming that younger kids will be turned off either. I’ve used parts of it with Trent this year as the season begins, and as we get ready for him beginning t-ball.

I am also impressed by its text structure. It is set up to be a book that could be read in order or jumped around, which is what I think is the best structure for informational nonfiction books because it makes it so any type of reader can grab it and read it how they’d like. The chapter titles are: 1) Know These Numbers, 2) Obscure Facts, 3) Skills to Master, 4) Run a Team, 5) He Reminds Me Of…, 6) Team Tidbits, & 7) Talk to Talk, and they are pretty self explanatory about their content.

Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=1...

[Cyrus S]

This book is good for kids who a re wanting to learn more about baseball. Most kids want to learn how to throw certain pitches, well in this book it shows you how to throw most of the normal pitches that the pros would throw.