Living on the Black

If you're a baseball fan--a true fan of the game--then you've wondered: What does a pitching coach say on the mound? What exactly do bullpen catchers do? What do pitchers do in the off-season? What do umpires say? John Feinstein winds up, checks his facts, and gives us his best stuff, getting two of the game's best pitchers, Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina, to open up as they go through the 2007 season. As narrator, Mel Foster does a functional job, reading with consistent, clear diction but little flair. He doesn't get in the way of the biographical, technical, and anecdotal accounts--all of which are fascinating to any fan who cares about baseball and those who play it. M.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

April 28, 2008
Though the season-long profile-in which a sportswriter follows a player, team or coach through a single season-grows increasingly familiar, this entry from Feinstein, one of the genre's pioneers (Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL; The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever), delivers rare insight into the minds of two of baseball's most cerebral (and successful) pitchers. Veteran sportswriter Feinstein follows the Yankees' Mike Mussina and the Mets' Tom Glavine during the 2007 season, as they pursue personal milestones and try to pitch their teams back into the postseason. Although they each reach some of their goals (Mussina to 250 wins, Glavine 300), neither team reaches its ultimate goal. The main narrative, of personal and team struggle, is compelling, but the true enjoyment of books like these are in the details, and Feinstein does not disappoint. Not only does he exhaustively chronicle the season on-field, he reveals tidbits of inside ball that even hardcore fans will find enlightening: Who knew that Mussina's best friend on the Yankees is the bullpen catcher, Mike Borzello, or that Glavine helped avert a likely player strike after the 2003 season? This smart season tour makes a treat for both casual and die-had fans.