Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I Love Baseball is broken up into different sections that outline why different groups, from athletes to fans to commentators, love baseball. This book gives lots of historic examples, although I wish the author had given more examples within modern baseball - most of the anecdotes from before the 1980s.

I've read every book on baseball there is and even I learned some new facts I didn't know. It can read, at times, like a Wikipedia article on baseball, but I think baseball fans will enjoy this nice, easy read.

I thought I Love Baseball by Wayne Stewart was a good book. This was the first book I read by this author and I enjoyed his writing. The book was a bit different from what I expected in that the stories, quotes, and interviews were very short. However, the author chose great quotes and stories to include. I liked how the book was organized. It was not just a bunch of quotes thrown together, instead, the book was well organized by topic. I found the information to be varied and include well know as well as more obscure information. The love of baseball was definitely apparent throughout this book. It would make a great gift for any baseball fan.

I decided to request “I Love Baseball” by Wayne Stewart in part to my son’s love of the game. I am not a huge baseball fan, but over the years my son played (lived, breathed, and enjoyed) the sport, I grew to at least appreciate the game. I will be in the minority, but I was greatly disappointed when reading this book. From the summary, I thought it would be a bunch of short interviews with people who love the game - from the players - famous and not so well known - to regular fans - to those who spent years connected to the industry (managers, beat writers, announcers, heck even a bat boy or two). Instead, this book seemed to be more a collection of bits of stories - albeit a decently organized collection ranging from quotes to tidbits about games. The other thing is that, understandably, this author focuses mainly on his home town team … situated back East. I don’t know a number of the players names - nor some of the historical information associated with those players. While there is information about games up through 2023, I was surprised in a section about respecting other players, that Justin Verlander mouthing “Wow” when Pablo Sandoval hit his second homer off him in the 2012 WS wasn’t mentioned in the book. I do know that Mr. Stewart did make asides of “sorry if your favorite wasn’t mentioned” when listing things/people, but about half-way through the book, I started skimming as it seemed that my local teams were mentioned in historical context, but not recent ones too often. This book wasn’t for me - and I would not purchase it for my son, even with that amazingly catchy title. I think the book I thought this was going to be would have been more up my alley - this book, while I’m sure a labor of love for the game, feels like a collection of baseball related things. I wanted to like this book, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t.

Thank you, Globe Puquot Publishing Group, Inc. and Lyons Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished I Love Baseball: Players, Managers, Sportswriters, and Fans Talk about Their Love for the Game, by Wayne Stewart.

This book will be released on December 3, 2024.

This was a very enjoyable collection of short stories on why we love baseball. In the hands of a lesser author, it is very easy to see how this kind of book would get tiresome very quickly. But, Stewart did a great job in writing it. I am giving it an A on the strength of how enjoyable it was to read.

I do have to point out that I found a single error. According to the book, last season, Elly De La Cruz became the first player to steal three bases in a single plate appearance since Rod Carew did it in 1961. But, Carew didn’t make his MLB debut until 1967. Carew had achieved the feat in 1969. But, that error did not detract from my enjoyment of it and it passed all random factual checks.

I do own this author’s biography of Stan Musial, but have not yet read it. After reading this book, I have added it to my “current list” of books to read. There’s a mere 153 on it, but my history in this area has shown I will get it done before the year is over.

I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on September 19, 2024.