Title/Author:
“Great
Stuff: Baseball’s Most Amazing Pitching Feats” by Rich Wescott
Tags:
Baseball, Pitching,
History
Published:
May 6,
2014
Length:
336 pages
Rating:
2 1/2 of 5
stars (okay)
Review:
The
premise of this book grabbed my attention - while a fan may know about baseball’s
greatest pitching feats like consecutive no-hitters by Johnny VanderMeer or the
perfect game thrown by Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, this book promised
to deliver stories behind those accomplishments. On that promise, this book by Rich Wescott
delivers as there are some interesting stories on great pitching feats and
accomplishment that span the entire history of Major League baseball. Everything from Cy Young’s 511 wins to Mark
Buehrle retiring 45 consecutive batters in a three game stretch (more on him in
a minute) was covered.
The
stories will introduce the reader to the particular pitcher being discussed,
details about the pitching feat that made him worthy of being included in this
collection and then more details about his career before and after the
accomplishment. This pattern made for easier reading of each story. Because
there wasn’t too much detail in these stories – the reader would get stats and
highlights but not much else – it made for an easy read. Some readers may want more detail-oriented
stories but for the theme of the book, the format was just right.
There were
some inaccuracies in the book that I noted in a few of the stories on pitchers
from 1970 and later. I will illustrate two
of them here, plus two errors that appeared to be missed by the editors that a
reader may quickly identify.
The first
inaccurate fact that caught my attention was on the chapter about Jim
Palmer. In that one, it is stated that “…Palmer
beat the Kansas City Royals in Baltimore’s pennant clinching game.” This was about the 1966 season when the
Orioles won the World Series. However,
that game was against the Kansas City Athletics, as the Kansas City Royals were
not a major league franchise until 1969. The second inaccurate fact was about Orel Hershiser’s win in the 1988
World Series. It is stated in the book that “In Game One, Hershiser pitched one
of his best games of the season, a three hit-5-0 victory over the Oakland
Athletics.” Hershiser’s one win in that
World Series was in fact Game Two, and it was a three-hit, 6-0 victory. Game One of that World Series was won by the
Dodgers on Kirk Gibson’s famous pinch-hit walk-off homer off Dennis Eckersley
(who was the subject of another chapter in the book.) These are just errors that caught my
attention immediately before researching into them. They did raise a red flag
for me as to what other errors may be found if the reader digs further,
especially the statistics and details of the early history of the game.
One of the
editing errors was one that caught my attention because it would make a great
feat even more astounding. In the
chapter on Dwight Gooden’s amazing sophomore season, it is stated that he had a
“23-game scoreless streak” broken. From
the context, it was easy to see the author meant “23-inning scoreless streak,”
so I believed that was an editing issue.
There was also a glaring editing error when the first page of the
chapter on Mark Buehrle’s streak of retiring 45 consecutive batter was titled “Mike
Buehrle.” This was also in the table of
contents and the first two times Buehrle’s full name was written. It was corrected later in the chapter, but it
was certainly a distraction to see the incorrect name. Again, I believed it was an editing
error. I will also note that the copy of
this book that I read was an e-book that was borrowed from a public library so
I do not know if an unedited version ended up in the library’s collection. However, these were enough of a distraction
for me to make me wonder about the validity of all the statistical information.
Nonetheless, I will give this book a passing grade because the stories were entertaining and it did contain information on old-time pitchers that is not easily found from other sources. I am giving it 3 stars on the assumption that these errors and any others were found and a correct copy is available for purchase.
Did I skim?
No.
Pace of the book:
It was a
fairly quick read – took me a little more than two hours. None of the stories were extremely long and
they moved along quickly enough that it is a decent read.
Do I recommend?
Baseball
fans will enjoy this book as long as they read it for the stories and admire
the many outstanding pitching feats that have been accomplished over the course
of the game’s history. If the reader is
looking for all facts, figures and statistics, he or she should look
elsewhere.
Book Format Read:
e-book
(Kindle, borrowed from public library)
Buying Links:
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