Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Baseball Crazy Nancy E. Mercado

Baseball Crazy edited by Nancy E. Mercado- This is a collection of 10 short stories by Jerry Spinelli, Ron Koertge, John H. Ritter, Frank Portman, David Rice, Sue Corbett, Maria Testa, Paul Acampora, Joseph Bruchac, Charles R. Smith Jr. Before each story are the authors stats including BBI -(Books Batted In) My favorite BBI stat was Joseph Bruchac 120 books published(But lots of them were short ones. Mere bunts if you will)
I really enjoyed every story. They were all complete short stories, with no unexplained jumps . Ten different author and ten different styles but they all worked. The little time I had with each character I was able to fully lose myself in their stories. Some of the main characters were players others spectators but each author takes the reader closer to baseball. Girls are not forgotten, they are there playing as well as the boys. In Tomboy Forgiveness by David Rice its the mom who is playing. In Great Moments in Baseball by Paul Acampora the mom screams and yells in the stands like a professional.
Three stories I want to point out
1) Mark Pang and the Impossible Square by Frank Portman. The author turns a 3 second play into a well crafted and great 16 page short story.
2)Smile Like Jeter by Maria Testa. The author tells her story using poems. The main character is a catcher and plays violin with his dad. Poetry, baseball and music, what more do you need?
3) Baseball Crazy by John H Ritter, the main character recalls his baseball crazy friend from little league. The baseball stories are slightly unbelievable but aren't all good baseball stories.
Baseball Crazy was originally released in 2008, it is now available in paperback.
Baseball fans will enjoy this collection of stories. Ages 9up
The season is almost upon us, and I've been craving baseball books, so in the next few weeks you'll be seeing more baseball reviews. And if anyone knows how I can get an arc The Brooklyn Nine by Alan M. Gratz I would really appreciate if you'd you'd let me know. Normally I wouldn't ask but I have baseball reading fever.

4 comments:

Lenore Appelhans said...

Not sure I've ever read a baseball book. I have been to a few pro games including Tom Browning's Perfect game against the Dodgers...

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Doret said...

I've never seen a perfect game or a no hitter for that matter.

Alan Gratz said...

An advance reader copy of The Brooklyn Nine? But wherever could you get one of those?

Oh, from me, of course!

Send me your snail mail address and I'll send one along. :-)

bigcheese AT alangratz.com