4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thats the way the baseball bounces, June 4, 2011
This review is from: The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals, and Secrets Beneath the Stitches (Vintage) (Paperback)
Have you ever wondered what's inside a baseball? Perhaps you cut one in half as a kid for show and tell at school. Good news we get to find out what's in the baseball and how it has changed over the years. What Author Zach Hample has produced her is a multi faceted look at the ball it's effect on the game and the fans who chase these balls down.
The Baseball stunts, scandals, and secrets beneath the stitches starts back in the 1840's when the first baseball was developed basically by wrapping yarn into a ball and then covering it with hide. These days exacting measurements are used to make a baseball.
As it turns out what's inside a baseball has changed many times over the last 170 years. Author Zach Hample walks the reader through the history of the baseball, the effect the changing baseball has had on the game. Moving from the dead ball era to the live ball era undoubtedly was the most dramatic change in the game. When baseball started getting lively baseball parks started getting bigger.
It was interesting to see how the structure of the game changed. In the early days teams only had one ball per game. If that ball went into the stands it had to be retrieved before the game could continue. These days as many as 70 get used per game and fans chasing them down get to keep them.
Another interesting part of the book is the allegations that the baseball was juiced in the late 90's and early 2000's. Major league baseball did a lot of testing of the baseball and couldn't find much difference between new ball and ones produced a few years earlier. It turns out the it was the baseball players that were juiced though Hample doesn't talk about that.
Hample described in detail how the ball is made and tested before it gets into a game.
One of the most interesting sections of of the book is were Hample talks about how to prepare your self to go to the ball park and be successful at getting batting practice balls, game balls, how to position yourself in the stands based on the hitter at the plate the best stadiums to do this. This is called ball hawking. Included in the are people that are ball hawks. They talk about the most valuable ball they got, how many balls they have gotten over the years their appearances on radio and tv. Hample also talks about some the the most famous balls and the legal battles that have ensued over ownership and the right to sell them.
Very well written, informative and interesting. There is some anecdotal stuff here but basically Hample does a good job of sticking to the subject of the baseball.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The" Baseball, May 5, 2011
This review is from: The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals, and Secrets Beneath the Stitches (Vintage) (Paperback)
I've been a baseball fan for over 50 years. I've played since I was 6 years old, I played in high school and college and Over 50 baseball. I've umpired and I've collected all types of baseballs including over 3,000 autographed balls and another 2,000 logo type balls. I literally learned something NEW on every page of the first half of the book that I never knew. The research that went in to this book has never been done or at least published before. Anyone that is able to actually visit the Rawlings plant in Costa Rica certainly has my respect. It is the most incredible book I have ever read about "the ball". Thanks, Zack!!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very unique book, May 4, 2011
This review is from: The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals, and Secrets Beneath the Stitches (Vintage) (Paperback)
A reporter is meant to be our eyes and ears on a subject for which we read and learn from. Zack Hample has entered the inner sanctum of the makings of the baseball - in Costa Rica. We learn every stage of how a baseball is created, the pill, the cork, the stitching, how exacting it is, and how the ball and MLB's attitude toward it has changed- along with ballhawking, snagging baseballs. There is a treasure trove of facts here, a fascinating read.
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