Customer Reviews

Baseball Great

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ISBN 0061626864 - As a baseball fan, I'll read any baseball book - statistical analysis to childrens' book. As a parent and former coach, I especially like childrens' books that ring true, partly because they remind me of my kid - now playing college ball. This book doesn't quite ring true and I detract a star for that, but it is good, it's very readable and I think the target audience will look past things that bother me.

Josh is following in his father's footsteps. Mr LeBlanc is the MVP of a Triple A farm team and Josh is better than his father was at his age, in part because his father is determined to make it so. Josh's skills between the lines catch the eye, and the heart, of new girl and baseball fanatic Jaden, who crowns him the great hope of the school's team in an article in the school paper. Meanwhile, cut from the team when he is deemed over the hill, Josh's dad turns his energy to Josh's baseball future, forcing him to quit his school team and join an elite travel team coached by Rocky Valentine. Jaden and Benji, Josh's best friend, don't like this news and friendships are strained - until Josh finds himself in over his head and in need of help.

The story is great. It's well written and a very easy read. This is a huge thing in books geared toward boys, who are often the more reluctant readers. My problems with the book - First, there's Josh's dad. I've known plenty of has-been and never-were ballplayers who live vicariously through their sons and I found the "anything to win" outlook believable. What is not believable is that the man worked his entire life in a sport currently and frequently in the news for steroid abuse, from the MLB players to high school aged kids, and he failed to question, or even suspect, the training system in use by Coach Valentine. Sorry, but I don't buy it. Also - U14? 14U = 14 and Under. U14 would seem to mean Under 14 - so why are there 14 year olds on the team?

Next, I have two problems with Josh and his friends. Talk about precocious twelve year olds! The conversations they have are off. Maybe one of them, most plausibly Jaden, might speak as if they were adults, but the whole lot of them? Not only does this not ring true, but it seems to me that it creates an unintentional distance, so that the average 12 year old reading the book would see the characters as older and not immediately relatable. That would put the lesson in the "won't matter until I'm older" category and THAT would be counter-productive. Beyond conversations, there are the romantic entanglements that (a) simply don't work for 12 year olds and (b) add nothing to the story. Green seems to back off the romance with a stilted conversation in which two twelve year olds attempt to define "going out". I cringed.

Last, the book itself, a couple small things. The chapters are bizarre. Sometimes, the chapter will end almost mid-conversation, which is weird but it gets weirder - the scene continues in the next chapter. So why have a chapter break? Especially since some of the chapters are just barely a full page of text, spread out over two pages with a lot of white space. The amount of white space also bothers me, if only because it's a waste of paper. The font is huge, appropriate to books for younger kids, but wrong in a book for older ones.

The good news is, none of this ruins the story much. The topic is compelling and timely, one all baseball fans, young adults and adults, will enjoy. And, if you've got a budding baseball great of your own, it's a nice, non-preachy way to enlighten them about the very real dangers of steroids.

- AnnaLovesBooks

I teach 4th grade and also coach baseball and basketball for kids aged 8-13. Tim Green's newest book is a warning against steroid use in youth travel teams, and is on a par with Mike Lupica's book,"Travel Team," in terms of quality. That means that while boy readers might like the book for its short chapters and sports-themed action, the quality of the book isn't high.

This story features a bloody fist-fight in a mall bathroom, kids using steroids, and some boy-girl drama that is totally out of place within the confines of the story. The main character is forced by his father to quit his school baseball team and try out for a travel team. Many of the kids act in ways that are superficial and unrealistic.

If short chapters that stop and start at artificial breaking points don't bother you, and your only goal is to get your kid to read a book, this book will fit the bill!

It's not literature, but it's entertaining.

My 5th grade son loves books about sports. He's grown out of (the great) Matt Christopher books, and I am always on the lookout for YA sports books.

Last year Tim Green, a former Atlanta Falcon, wrote 'Football Hero' and 'Football Genius'. I immediately snapped them up for my son, and he devoured them and begged for more like them. We were sad to discover that although Tim Green has written other books, they are adult novels. So I was thrilled to see a new YA sports-themed Tim Green book released.

My son read 'Baseball Great' in one day and gave it a 10 out of 10 rating!

This is a story about Josh, a 12 year-old who moves from town to town because his domineering Santini-esque father is a minor league baseball player and keeps getting traded. Josh plays baseball too, he's got talent, and baseball season is about at his new school; he's excited to play for the team with his friends, and to maybe the star of the team. But his father yanks him off the school team and forces him to try out for a traveling U14 youth league team, the Titans, run by Rocky Valentine. Rocky makes his boys lift weights, drink 'Super Stax' shake supplements, and work hard. Despite being only 12, Josh makes the team. Now his school friends are mad at him for leaving the team, and the travel team kids hate him for causing one of them to be cut to make room for Josh. Things, of course, get worse from there, and Rocky is indeed the villain.

'Baseball Great' is an exciting, fast-paced book that should appeal to most YA readers (I would think that boys ages 10-13 would most enjoy this book). You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy it, it has plenty of middle-school themes, but a sports-oriented kid will really love this book.

My main disappointment is that this is supposed to be for the under 14 readers. It is not. I wish that authors would quit making 10-12yo kids into adults.

Having grown up in the 60s with many bullies and some tough times in school, a great love of baseball at a time when Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, "Yogi" and all the greats played the game then and we kids would play baseball every weekend during the summer and dream of getting to the minors, let alone the majors... this book took me back in time as well as any a time machine could. It brought back the emotions, the bumps and bruises (both physical and phycological) and memories of growing up to me in a book that really draws the reader in right off in the very first chapter. I was not familiar with Tim Green until I read this wonderful book. Having researched his background, bio and his other books, I'm certainly delighted to be familiar with his name now! This book is about growing up, about dreams many kids have to aspire and be like our (sports) heros and of a parent that many of us have/had that wanted us to achieve more and have a better quality of life then they did, and who at the time we were kids, seemed quite harsh and tough with us until years later (gratefully) when we realized they had done it all to help us back then. A great book is one you have a hard time putting down, allows your mind to perfectly picture, like a movie, what the author wants you to see and hear and like a good movie, jerks your emotions and often brings back a moment in the past or an emotion or feeling that you'd thought you'd forgotten forever! While this book seems oriented for younger readers, it is still a book any parent would enjoy reading as well. This book would in fact make a great movie (many movies originated from a book!!), it's simple at best for a general theme and yet there's an interweaved and in-depth plot that brings in many components as would real life. Well done and worth the price you pay for this book. If you have an aspiring baseball player, a sports fan or a motivated "dreamer" in the household, this is one book they must read. Parents; This book is for you to read too!

A star defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons, Tim. Green played Little League baseball for a number of years before changing his focus to football. As of now he has worked as an NFL analyst for FOX Sports and an NFL commentator for National Public Radio. He knows what he writes about as many have seen in Football Genius and Football Hero - the same may certainly be said of Baseball Great, which is gauged for young readers ages 8 -12.

Green begins his story with young Josh wondering why when something really good happens, something else comes along to spoil it. Kids his age have probably wondered the same thing numerous times. However, chances are what they consider a spoiler may not be as dramatic as what faces Josh.

Josh is happy playing baseball with his school team. Not only happy but optimistic as a new girl from Texas, Jaden Neidermeyer, is the school reporter, and she has big plans for the team, even to calling him the school's best hope for a first ever citywide championship. But then Josh's Dad intervenes by taking him off the school team and signing him with Coach Rocky Valentine's youth championship team. Undoubtedly, this was well meant but it doesn't turn out to be a good move after all.

The other kids on Valentine's team are not only older but tougher, a rough bunch. Josh doesn't really fit in with them for countless reasons including possible steroid use.

What price a championship? Young readers will not only enjoy this exciting story but may find they have much to think about as they examine their own standards.

- Gail Cooke

"Baseball Great" is a topical book about baseball and steroids. I suppose the target audience is boys, but these days, almost half of baseball fans are female, and girls grow up playing Little League and softball, so girls may enjoy it, too. Also, girls use steroids a lot more than you might think (though their motivation is often to lose weight, not to get an edge in sports).

The author, Tim Green, is a former pro football player. He obviously understands the game of baseball, and his descriptions of games are a lot of fun for a baseball fan. His grasp of the business end of minor league baseball seems more nebulous, but I doubt young readers would notice (or care).

The story is fast-paced and interesting. It's set in Syracuse, NY, and residents of the area will no doubt get a special charge out of his depictions of the local landmarks. The ending is predictable, but hey, it's a kids' book.

There's mild violence (a fight between school boys), and a brief mention of off-screen premarital sex. Young Josh reveals that he's the reason his parents got married - the result of their celebration of his dad being drafted in the first round out of high school. It's pretty mild compared to some of the stuff you find in books these days, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case.

All in all, a book any young baseball fan will enjoy.

This book is ideal for middle and highschool students even though it will be a quick read. It is relevant, humorous, serious, and intriguing. I read it at bedtime to my 8 and 9 yr old sons and heard, "Read another chapter!" from them just about every single night I read it to them. There is a bit of mystery and detective work, as well as both moral and ethical dialogue. I thoroughly enjoyed reading such a realistic book that did not shy away from uncomfortable topics as bullying, peer relationships and trials, economic hard times, illegal steroid use in minors, knowing right from wrong and doing the right thing even when faced with adversity. When I finished the book one of the first thoughts I had was wondering if the other books the author has already written are equally good. I am familiar with Syracuse, NY where the book takes place and it was funny to read the local businesses mentioned in the book. My kids gave it two thumbs up!

"Baseball Great" is the story of Josh LeBlanc, a 12 year-old boy who loves baseball, and plays like a pro. Well, good enough to play with the 14 year-olds at least. His father wants him to push himself as hard as possible and play with a more professional team for older kids, not his small school team. But Josh isn't sure that's what he wants. Then the story gets into the steroid issue, and obviously warns against the dangers of them.

The book is constructed in a very simple manner; very short chapters (some taking literally only a minute to read) and rather simplistic writing, heavy on the metaphors (an example: "like biting into a ruby red apple only to find a brown worm crawling through the crisp, white fruit"). This is a good formula for kids that like sports to get more interested in reading.

Although I'd probably have enjoyed this book more if I was into baseball and a few years younger, (duh) I still found it to be pretty good. So I'm sure younger boys who are into baseball would really enjoy this book.

I didn't read it myself but my 11 year old gives this a thumbs up. He's a sports nut, and baseball is his passion, so this was right up his alley. 4 stars instead of 5 because he wasn't calling all his friends and telling them to read it, which is what he does when he *LOVES* a book.