Sixty Feet, Six Inches

Good writers know when to get out of the way of great subjects. Two of baseball's best--Bob Gibson the pitcher, Reggie Jackson the hitter--break down the game from the mound and batter's box. Narrators Mirron Willis and Dominic Hoffman give clear, distinctive voices to the Hall of Famers. Willis tells Gibson's story in a deep, authoritative tone while Hoffman's rendition of Jackson is slightly higher, almost scratchy. Their conversation is enjoyable, and it's about more than swings and misses--it's about the evolution of baseball and their takes on being black in the era they came up in. The listener also hears pithy anecdotes: Hitting one pitcher's curveball "was like trying to drink coffee with a fork." M.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine