Customer Reviews

The American Game: A Celebration of Minor League Baseball

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book combines Studs Terkel-style commentary by baseball professionals with some background facts and pictures of selected minor league parks and the author's admittance tickets. Of all of the parks highlighted, I believe only one park falls outside of the Eastern Time Zone. No pictures of any of the parks in the Texas League, Pacific Coast League, or Pioneer League. Independent teams are limited to the Northeast. A great addition would have been John O'Donnell Stadium, located on the Mississippi River in downtown Davenport, Iowa or Bowen Field in Bluefield, West Virginia. Too many parks are Yankee affiliates or northeastern parks. With a title like "The American Game" and a Smithsonian imprint, I expected wider coverage.

Enjoyed this author's first book and enjoyed his second one even more! Great pictures with great interviews of present and past ballplayers with their memories of minor league parks. Can spend days looking through this great book filled with so many great pictures. Enjoy as I did!

Nearly every featured ballpark is along the east coast, particularly New Jersey, Mass and NY. So the regionalism was very disappointing. I'm glad I did not pay very much for it. Mr. Rosen needs to leave his coastal environs to put together a complete book. The best parks are in mid-America, the south and out west. Typical.

Beautifully illustrated book of the best minor league ball parks in the country. You can almost hear the crack of the bat, smell the hot dogs and feel the warmth of a summer evening. Ira Rosen has captured the essence of what makes minor league baseball such an important part of American culture.

Photographs, statistics, player statements, and ties to the major leagues; this book has it all! The author has expanded on his first book, Blue Skies, Green Fields: A Celebration of 50 Major League Baseball Stadiums with a comprehensive collection of minor league ballparks and their teams. He has really done his homework on the minors, with history, organization, and players from each team who moved on to the majors. Highly recommend both books for every baseball fan.