Full Count by Frank Messina, is a fantastic read for baseball fans, whether you love the Mets or hate them, for anyone who was a kid in the city, for anyone who didn't grow up in the city, for anyone who has friends and family and for anyone who doesn't have any of the above. Simply put it is a must read for anyone who has a heart/pulse or had one and needs to find theirs again. The book ranges in diversity of style and emotion. With a distinctive style his own, he starts off with childhood memories and feelings, but he grows up and you grow up with him. Yes, with all the emotions; the joys, hurts, disappointments, hopes, fears and love that cannot be avoided growing up. Let me not forget, it covers baseball also.
The writing, to me, is a little reminiscent of three gifted and great U.S. writers Twain, Poe, Vonnegut. As in Twain, Frank gives you childhood lightheartedness and adventure, but turn a few more pages and some of his verses become absurd, dramatic and eerie, reminding me a bit of Poe. Similarly, as the brilliant Vonnegut does, Frank with his work uses his poetry to draw you into a social and cultural awareness that to the unsuspecting reader usually ends with a slap in the face to make you think. In this book he has used baseball as a forum, but his writing brings you into a strange journey of the highs and lows life.