Power Ball

August 27, 2018
An afternoon at the ballpark prompts wider analysis in this genial treatise on the recent evolution of baseball. ESPN columnist Neyer (Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Blunders) revisits the Sept. 8, 2017, game between the Oakland A’s and the Houston Astros, which started as a blowout but ended as a nail-biter. Neyer’s sharp play-by-play is a hook for extensive color commentary on changes in the sport, including the increases in home runs and strikeouts; the rise of infield shifts against pull hitters; the proliferation of specialist relief pitchers; uniform and hair-styling fashions; and the tsunami of stats, right down to the velocity and launch angle of every batted ball, that now dictates baseball management. Along the way he profiles the players, recapping their journeys through the minors, trades, injuries, and comebacks. Neyer’s tome is the anti-Moneyball, with a well-informed but skeptical take on sabermetrics and the science of baseball performance: in his telling, well-planned trades and top draft picks fizzle, last season’s bum becomes this season’s star, and statistical certitudes always bow to lady luck. It’s a ramble, but Neyer’s deep knowledge and punchy prose—“The guy on the mound might be throwing aspirin pills, almost too fast to see”—make the book a treat for dedicated fans.

October 15, 2018

The title of this volume is a little misleading, as former ESPN columnist Neyer (Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends) delivers anything but an overly analytical study. What you will find, in the spirit of Arnold Hano's A Day in the Bleachers and Daniel Okrent's Nine Innings, is an organic and highly entertaining color commentary of a single game: the Oakland Athletics vs. the Houston Astros on September 8, 2017. This was a competitive and exemplary game, on the way to an Astros World Series championship. Neyer's recounting offers a play-by-play of each inning, including statistics such as on-base percentage and wins above replacement, arguments for statistical probability and the case to be made for luck, underthinking, overthinking, and everything in between--all in the course of a single game. These anecdotes and musings are a reflection of the dynamic state of modern baseball firing on all cylinders and in prime form. VERDICT Neyer, in a rare feat, captures the humor and humanity in the game, as well as what makes the revelry and rivalry of baseball so special.--Benjamin Malczewski, Toledo Lucas Cty. P.L.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2018
Citing Arnold Hano's A Day in the Bleachers (2004) and Daniel Okrent's Nine Innings (1985) as inspirational precedents, baseball writer Neyer picks the September 8, 2017, game between the Oakland Athletics and the visiting Houston Astros to examine the current state of Major League Baseball. It's a good choice, since the Astros would win the 2017 World Series, and the Athletics, while finishing 26 games out for the season, would show how tightly competitive even last-place teams can be by?spoiler alert?winning that game and sweeping their four-game series. Neyer's batter-by-batter narrative framework is especially functional here since Neyer is almost distractingly digressive, opining on everything from pitcher injuries to pace of play, infield shifts, pitch counts, the vagaries of baseball's amateur draft, catchers' masks, the baseball orb itself (juiced or not?), even player heights and weights. Geek material, sure, but then so's the game itself.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)