Customer Reviews
Nicely Done
As the author watches a game with his son, some questions come to mind; he provides the reader answers to them in an entertaining way. I especially liked the true-to-life description of why catchers wear cups (chapter 13). It is a good, easy read for fans of all ages. You'll find answers to questions you weren't aware you didn't know the answer to.
An afternoon chat with a good friend
I was expecting an exhaustive encyclopedia of baseball trivia. T his book is not that!
Instead, it's a meandering, enjoyable chat with a knowledgeable friend about baseball on a summer afternoon on the porch. Vince Staten frames his entire book around a big league game he attended with his grown son, but somehow every facet of that experience leads off on a tangent to a fascinating exploration of baseball stadium and game trivia from the ticket buying experience (which leads to essays on ticket printing and turnstiles), to telling his son about the time a shortstop lost a ball because it bounced off a pebble (which leads to an in-depth interview of a groundskeeper), to a certain snugness in the stadium seat (which leads to a well researched essay on studies through the decades of the width of the typical American backside).
These essays have certainly made my baseball game experiences more enjoyable and given me a store of trivia to trot out at parties!
Interesting Answers to Rarely Asked Questions
Vince Staten is a long time fan who has has written a baseball book almost entirely devoid of the common and usual ingredients found in most baseball books, such as statistics or rehashed history. Staten uses a baseball game attended by himself and his son to provide the reader with interesting information and anecdotes about non-playing aspects of the game and the sport. This book is not for fans into sabermetrics or player bios. This book is for fans who want to know more about topics peripheral to the actual game, such as how: stadiums are architected; playing fields are maintained; balls and bats are designed; ballpark food and souvenirs are selected and sold. We never really learn why foul poles and foul lines are fair in baseball, while their equivalents in other sports are not, but the the reader does enjoy learning more about the trivial details and background of baseball's infrastructure and history.
