The Called Shot

Wolf's chronicle of the 1932 baseball season is ambitious in scope, covering much more than the events on the field, including the Great Depression and the rise of President Roosevelt. At almost 11 hours, it needs a narrator with a brisk and confident pace, and Barry Abrams carries this off whether he's relating anecdotes about baseball, politics, or social history. He strikes the right balance between breezy and authoritative except when he makes the poor choice to read direct quotes with imitative voices. Fortunately, these are rare. Wolf can't be definitive about whether Babe Ruth really pointed to the center field bleachers before hitting a mammoth home run in Game 3 of the World Series, but he provides all the context listeners need to make their own calls. D.B. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine