The 1998 baseball season was, indeed, a memorable one, and Tim McCarver does a good job of reviewing it. The McGuire/Sosa home run battle made it especially so, and their respect for each other and the game added to it. Tim gives his opinions and analysis of events of the season which add to the book's interest. Brief chapters are devoted to such players as Dan Quisenberry and Eric Davis. The Yankees show what it takes to make a winning team by their ability to win in whatever way the other team makes available to them. The book was easy to read and I found it interesting, but I certainly wouldn't call it a classic by any means.

How would you feel if you had just become the Yankees manager, when the man who had hired you was George Steinbrenner, a man notorious for "putting the revolving door on managers?" He is famous for hiring and firing managers. That is what happened to Joe Torre in 1996, yet he is considered one of the best managers in baseball. Tim McCarver uncovers why Joe Torre is still the Yankees manager and much more in his great non-fiction book, The perfect season. McCarver's book recognizes some of the great achievements in 1998 that were not given attention because of the home run chase and David Wells' perfect game. In the book, McCarver gets quite up close and personal when he talks about some of baseball's past heros, being a former ballplayer himself. At the end of the book, McCarver analyzes the playoffs and the key plays and mistakes in them. His book uncovers how great the 1998 baseball season really was.

How would you feel if you had just become the Yankees' manager, when the man who hired you was George Steinbrenner, a man notorious for "putting the revolving door on managers?" He is famous for hiring and firing managers. That is what happened to Joe Torre in 1996, yet he is considered one of the best managers in baseball. Tim McCarver uncovers why Joe Torre is still the Yankees manager and much more in his great non-fiction book, The perfect season. McCarver's book recognizes some of the great achievements in 1998 that were not given attention, because of the home run chase and David Wells' perfect game. In the book, McCarver gets quite up close and personal when he talks about some of baseball's past heros, being a former ballplayer himself. At the end of the book, McCarver analyzes the playoffs and the key plays and mistakes in them. His book uncovers how great the 1998 baseball season really was.

Anyone wanting to wax nostalgic about baseball's past, particularly the 1940's, 50's and 60's, should pick up Peary's book. Anyone looking for a compendium of baseball's cult figures, particularly the weird or offbeat, may be disappointed. Each player gets a short revealing chapter penned by a different author. Like any compilation, the quality varies from chapter to chapter, from sports-column bland to personal reminiscense. But the range of major leaguers--from unknowns to certified greats--is broad enough to interest any fan. The gamut runs from legends like Mantle, Mays, Williams, Ruth, to middlings like Kluszewski, Colavito, Waitkus, to bottomers like Ueker, Throneberry and Bilko. There are the burn-outs too: Fidrych, Spooner, Belinsky; and most importantly the weird cases: Piersall, Lee, and my favorites, Joe Charboneau, and Steve Dalkowski. In fact, the book suffers from not including more of the latter, that is, those unknowns who have either an unusual flair or a distinctive story to tell. The greats have had their stories told many times over, making their inclusion seem unnecessary. It's the bottomers and oddballs where the real gold lies. Theirs are the stories that add genuine color and spice, showing that the game is defined by real human beings, not by the gods of hitting and pitching--and given baseball's rate of turnover, I'm sure their ranks are legion. (Good example not included in the book- Ryne Duran, whose 100mph fastball, Coke bottle eyesight, and Jack Daniels restbreaks, sent opposing players wild-eyed and running for cover.) Peary doesn't define cult as in cult ballplayers, but his successful film series defines cult movies by their distinctive qualities, not by their popularity or excellence. I wish he had applied more of those same standards to the fertile field of baseball. As it stands, the book remains something of a promising though unfulfilled project.