25 years later, still doesn't feel dated

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	• Nine Innings Daniel Okrent Houghton Mifflin, 2000 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

25 years later, still doesn't feel dated

The events in this book will reach their 25th anniversary a few months from my writing this review, and the only things that feel stale are the salary figures. The book has a deceptively simple concept: nine chapters, one for each inning, but with descriptions of the game events and extended reflections on why they happened, mostly from the perspective of his hosts, the Milwaukee Brewers. For example, when Milwaukee's Ted Simmons comes to bat, Orkent discusses the machinations behind the trade that brought Simmons to the Brewers in the first place. Orkent, one of the godfathers of fantasy baseball, and now the Public Editor of the New York Times, is a truly gifted writer. This is fine baseball writing, suitable even for fans who have yet to celebrate their 25th anniversaries on Earth. It's so good that if I pulled it out in another 25 years, it would still be relevant and beautiful.

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Great! Make Another One!

This book is about the last game in a four-game series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Milwaukee Brewers. It is an old book (I was four years old when this baseball game was played), but I still found it VERY interesting. I do not know a lot of the players, coaches and other baseball personalities in the book, but I still loved it. Especially interesting was tracing the life and career of Bud Selig. Who would have known that this owner would turn out to be one of the most controversial baseball commissioners in baseball history? Also interesting in the book was chapter six's discussion of the history of the baseball commissioner and how it had evolved since its inception after the Black Sox scandal. I consider myself a big baseball fan, but there were a lot of baseball things I had no clue about.

I really enjoyed the writing style of the author. He did not dramatize the baseball game, but told it very matter of factly as most radio announcers and followers of the game see it. With almost 3,000 games a season, it is hard to be too dramatic about any of them. The book does a great job of reflecting the different baseball personalities, and not only their careers but also a bit of their personal lives. Almost always included was the business aspect of their careers.

My only complaint about the book is that at times I was lost in the onslaught of names. Several times throughout the book, there were so many names being used, I couldn't keep track of them all. This was frustrating, but did not cancel out the value of the book. I wish they would make another one (make it a Braves game please).

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Nine Innings-

I read this book back in 1998, when I was getting back into baseball. To read it is to enjoy a baseball game, just the same as if you are in the stands, pitch by pitch. It gave me all the background that I was interested in ( 40 man vs 25 man roster, free agency rules though those need to be updated with every collective bargaining agreement). The stars of this game are gone, but it calls back there names, just as a good conversation with the guy in the seat next to you might. I agree it could be updated, and to do a new game would be a beautiful picture of how the game has changed.

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solid read, but too verbose.

Daniel Okrent is no doubt a talented writer. This book is a good read but it makes you wonder if he wrote it with a thesaurus in toe. I liked the player stories, but it is more than one-sided in favor of Milwaukee Brewers coverage. Being a die-hard baseball fan, this didn't bother me all that much. If you are a casual though, you may want to skip this one. Not as essential as others will have you believe.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

You'll never watch baseball the same way again.
A timeless baseball classic and a must read for any fan worthy of the name, Nine Innings dissects a single baseball game played in June 1982 -- inning by inning, play by play. Daniel Okrent, a seasoned writer and lifelong fan, chose as his subject a Milwaukee BrewersBaltimore Orioles matchup, though it could have been any game, because, as Okrent reveals, the essence of baseball, no matter where or when it's played, has been and will always be the same.
In this particular moment of baseball history you will discover myriad aspects of the sport that are crucial to its nature but so often invisible to the fans -- the hidden language of catchers' signals, the physiology of pitching, the balance sheet of a club owner, the gait of a player stepping up to the plate. With the purity of heart and unwavering attention to detail that characterize our national pastime, Okrent goes straight to the core of the world's greatest game. You'll never watch baseball the same way again.

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