Where Nobody Knows Your Name

April 7, 2014
Seasoned sportswriter Feinstein has embedded himself with an NFL team (Next Man Up), gone behind the scenes at college basketball's Final Four (Last Dance) and traveled on professional golf's PGA Tour (A Good Walk Spoiled). Now, he turns his attention to Triple-A baseballâwhich either serves as the final step up to a Major League team or the first one down to what could be an arduous and frustrating journey into retirement. Feinstein chronicles the 2012 season through the lives of five players, two managers, and one umpire. Nate McLouth was an All-Star with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2008 before his batting average plummeted and he was sent to the minors, Ron Johnson was demoted from first-base coach for the Boston Red Sox in 2011 after a colossal collapse and was managing the Norfolk Tides and Mark Lollo, in his 11th season of umpiring, had only worked six Major League games. Ultimately, Feinstein swings and misses this time around, with scattershot storytelling across 37 chapters of disjointed and melodramatic magazine-style vignettes. This exercise in repetition focuses on the anxieties of moving up and down baseball's ladder, the perils of tight travel schedules, the heartbreak of recurring injuries and the inevitable role aging plays in a young man's game.

February 1, 2014
One of the doyens of the sportswriting world takes on the national pastime with a frenetic road trip to minor league clubhouses and fields where true baseball is played. Longtime sports journalist (Washington Post, Golf Digest, etc.) Feinstein (Foul Trouble, 2013, etc.) chronicles his tours of the farm clubs for a season to uncover real life in the old ballgame. It's where erstwhile pitchers get injured too much and agile outfielders can't bat much better than .200. All the participants--players, coaches, managers, broadcasters, umpires and groundskeepers--want to get sent up from the minors to the major league. Some may have been there before; all dream of being called up once or once more. There, the pay is much better--the lowest paycheck is about five times the highest in the minors--and life is good, as well, with decent hotel stays, better clubhouses and travel by charter planes instead of lengthy bus rides. That's nice, though clearly, the attraction is simply proof of superior ability to play the game. "The most poignant stories in sports are never about the multimillionaires who make their games look easy," writes the author, "but about the guys who love their games, even though they often fail while playing them." For most journeyman athletes, far more likely than making the jump to the big leagues is being sent down or released (baseball for "fired"). Feinstein focuses on the careers of two managers, two outfielders, two pitchers, a designated hitter and an umpire through the 2012 season in the International League, but his roster is crowded with many others who wear many different uniforms during the summer. Ultimately, the narrative loses some focus as the wandering athletes, in loving servitude to the game, come and go and come again in these pages. A kaleidoscopic insiders' story of baseball as played by the Durham Bulls, Buffalo Bisons, Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Norfolk Tides and others like them.

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February 1, 2014
The prolific and best-selling Feinstein here spends a year (the 2012 season) with the players and managers (and others) of the Triple A International League, the apex of minor-league baseball. But, as Feinstein makes clear both explicitly and with the telling detail and quote, it is a wholly different culture and a long way from the majors, which remains the dream of all participantsnewcomers, those who have made it there previously (in a few cases as stars), and those who, in the course of a season, make the trip up and back, sometimes with astounding frequency. It is a frustrating experience, far from luxurious, and there is a sameness and a sadness to the individual lives. They are rivals rather than pals, all looking to go up, and the primary function of the teams is player development more than winning. As Feinstein's focus is on a cross section of the league, including the Durham Bulls and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, rather than on a particular team, the book lacks the drama of, say, a pennant race. Like the players, Feinstein's account has its ups and downs, but it is sure to interest true fans of the game. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Feinstein gets a level of marketing support and media attention unknown to most authors of sports books; his latest will be no exception.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

April 15, 2014
With firsthand interviews and an omniscient presence, Feinstein ("Washington Post" columnist; "Season on the Brink") chronicles a diverse range of personalities experiencing the grind of a minor league season and sharing an ambition to reach the majors. The author believes poignant sporting narratives are not made by recounting the lives of immortal players or legendary events, but rather by portraying "the guys who love their games, even though they often fail while playing them." And it is these unheralded individuals Feinstein depicts. For highly touted prospects, the minors are a temporary initiation to the rigors of professional baseball before reaching the majors. Yet, for most, these leagues are an inescapable reality of brief call-ups and a constant revolving door between organizations. VERDICT Feinstein accomplishes more than revealing an aspect of baseball that many fans overlook or relegate to a subsidiary of the major leagues. He presents relatable characters whose dedication and sacrifice create empathy. While primarily recommended to baseball fans for its survey of a misunderstood aspect of the sport, all readers may gain inspiration from the perseverance of underdogs pursuing a lifelong passion.--Stephen Arougheti, Arizona State Univ., Phoenix

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013

Minor league baseball: it's played in small towns nationwide, so it would seem to be the heart and soul of American baseball. But everyone in the game is on the way up, on the way down, or just fighting to be noticed, and top-drawer sportswriter Feinstein aims to capture its particular pathos.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.