Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks
by Zack Hample
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Book Summary Information
Author: Zack HampleEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-27
ISBN: 0307280322
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks
Book Review: Does not succeed on any level
Summary: 2 Stars
This book really offers nothing to any sort of fan. I don't care whether you calculate players' WARP for fun or are still wondering who that guy standing between second and third is, this book won't help you.
It really comes down to a pedagogical failing of the author. He just doesn't seem to have a concept of how to explain things. He writes in a way that will only make the answer clear if you already know the answer: half-answers and tertiary information, leaving out the primary answer. For example, take his explanation of the curveball. He tells you how it's held (though his explanation of that is pretty piss-poor, making the included diagram its saving grace,) the spin on the ball, and about ten different synonyms for it. What's missing? An explanation of what a curveball is or how to identify it when watching a game.
The entire book is like this. It includes tons of trivia and tertiary information that might be interesting if it capped off a detailed explanation of the topic at hand, but because it just stands by itself it really doesn't offer much to anybody. It feels like each sections should be three times as long just to fill in all the missing details.
If you already know baseball bat-to-glove, this book will offer nothing but half-hearted, confusing explanations for things you already know. If you don't know anything about baseball this book will offer nothing but half-hearted, confusing explanations for things you don't know about (and will continue to not know about even after reading the book.)
For me personally, I came into the book hoping to fill in some basic gaps in my knowledge. A few years ago I got serious about baseball and jumped right into the deep-end of serious baseball blogs. Because of this I have a fair amount of knowledge of the advanced concepts of baseball, like sabermetrics and current trade rumors, but am missing some basic knowledge that was never taught to me, like the different types of pitches or exactly when a force out is in play vs. when a runner must be tagged. But due to the absolutely terrible writing in this book I ended up simply skipping over the 2/3rds of the book I already knew and not getting anything out of the remaining third I didn't.
In short, skip this book, and anything else Zack Hample may write in the future. It's honestly not worth wasting a tree over.
More Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks reviews:
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Summary of Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks
Whether you're a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, Watching Baseball Smarter leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny fan's guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national pastime.What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?
At which stadium did "The Wave" first make an appearance?
How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?
Which positions are never played by lefties?
Why do some players urinate on their hands?
Combining the narrative voice and attitude of Michael Lewis with the compulsive brilliance of Schott's Miscellany, Watching Baseball Smarter will increase your understanding and enjoyment of the sport-no matter what your level of expertise.
Zack Hample is an obsessed fan and a regular writer for minorleaguebaseball.com. He's collected nearly 3,000 baseballs from major league games and has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows. His first book, How to Snag Major League Baseballs, was published in 1999.
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