The Voices of Baseball

July 13, 2015
McKnight, a sportswriter and blogger, nicely captures baseball’s best moments, players, and places through the eyes of the folks whose job it is to paint pictures with their words—baseball announcers. Each chapter focuses on one team, its ballpark, and its announcer, so it is sometimes hard to figure which of these is the key element of the story, but McKnight’s choice to present each story in a announcer’s unique voice makes them lively and charming, and each chapter comes together in its own special way. Of course, some memorable moments are more dramatic (like Joe Castiglione reminiscing about the Red Sox breaking the curse of the Bambino) than others (the Angels’ announcer bragging about nicknaming David Eckstein “the X Factor”). Most of the announcers McKnight interviews focus on more recent history and new ballparks, but he is smart enough to include to chapters on past ballparks, dear departed announcers, and living legend voices to convey the profession’s rich lineage and create a work that is a testament not only to the baseball’s TV generation, but also to its golden age.

August 1, 2015
Baseball broadcasters usually have longer careers than those of the players whose games they call. It's that unique perspective that gives their recollections a compelling context. This volume combines the memories of 33 broadcasters with capsule histories of the various ballparks that have housed Major League teams through the years. Thus, the announcers reflect not only on what happened on the field but also on the nature of the field itself. For example, current Cubs TV broadcaster Len Kasper offers insight into the one-of-a-kind ground rules related to Wrigley Field's ivy-covered walls and the anomalies created by Chicago's ever-changing weather conditions. Like many of the other interviewees, Kasper includes anecdotes about his predecessors behind the mike, which extends the reach of the book to such announcing icons as Harry Caray and Red Barber. Although the emphasis on stadium histories seems somewhat of an unwieldy organizational strategy, there is plenty of rich baseball lore here, and it comes straight from the mouths of those who have been there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)