Customer Reviews

The Last Nine Innings

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

 

 

In his book, "The Last Nine Innings: Inside the Real Game Fans Never See," Charles Euchner uses the final game of the 2001 World Series as an operating platform - where he takes the events of the game, by inning, and by each plate appearance (and sometimes by each pitch) and then uses those particular events to segue into narrative examination on the details behind copious key elements of Major League Baseball today.

These topics include sports training and conditioning - both for the mind and body, defensive technique and skill throughout the diamond, pitch selection, pitching and batting mechanics, manager decisions, the impact of the baseball statistical revolution, and the globalization of the baseball talent pool.

To be candid, as I started reading "The Last Nine Innings," being someone who has listened to professional commentary from parts of over 3,000 big league baseball games and who has read nearly 150 books on baseball, my impression (about roughly 10% into the book) was "I'm not seeing much that I don't already know." However, that reaction quickly changed - within minutes - as I began to continue reading. In fact, the further that I went into this book, I became increasingly (at what seemed like an exponential rate) more impressed with Euchner's storytelling and the amount of detail provided therein.

I especially enjoyed the passages concerning Steve Finley's work with chiropractor Edythe Heus, the role of the brain's rostromedical prefrontal cortex in body movement, the elements of a batting swing, the research performed at the American Sports Medicine Institute on pitching motions, the impact of particular game events on the change of win probability, the advantages of veteran players, the development of the Athletic Desire Index, and how Chuck Knoblauch taking Randy Johnson deep in the count during an 8th inning At Bat actually helped the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Having read "The Last Nine Innings," in its entirety, I can submit that this book is one of the best available encapsulations of everything inside and behind the scenes of modern baseball. This is not to imply that it is just a cold collection of facts. It is quite the opposite. In addition to being a robust collection of "everything you need to know," Euchner's book is very entertaining. (And, this is coming from a Yankees fan who always imagined that nothing but pain would come from ever revisiting Game Seven of the 2001 World Series.) When you consider all the interesting players and personalities involved in this particular game, just the numerous and insightful interviews (alone) that Euchner provides with several of these participants make this book worth the price of admission. When you tack on the plethora of other information that "The Last Nine Innings" provides, it's a great experience obtained at a bargain.

To summarize the benefit from reading "The Last Nine Innings," I would offer that this book is the perfect primer for the neophyte baseball fan who wants to expeditiously learn everything that is essential to the game today while also serving as an effective multipurpose reference tome for the more experienced baseball enthusiast.

To be fair, I did notice two small faux pas in the edition that I read. When describing the fan salute that Paul O'Neill received during Game Five of the 2001 World Series, it refers to him as the "Yankees' left fielder." And, when mentioning Tony Womack's hit during the 9th inning of Game Seven of the Series, Euchner states "Womack hits the ball hard to left field." When, in reality, O'Neill was a right fielder in Game Five and Womack's hit in Game Seven was to right field. But, in the grand scheme of things here, these are just two minor nitpicks and do not change my recommendation on "The Last Nine Innings."

"The Last Nine Innings: Inside the Real Game Fans Never See" should be considered as an essential element of any worthwhile baseball library and is highly recommended.

Some of my favorite books are narrative nonfiction, such
as Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine" and "House", or
Michael Ruhlman's great books about cooking and building
wooden boats. When done well, these sorts of books are
interesting whether or not you know about or care about
the underlying topic. The reader is entertained, and
learns a topic in great depth.

Charles Euchner's book is in the same league (no pun intended)
as these gold standards of narrative nonfiction. The dust
jacket reviews are true... I will never watch a baseball game...
even my son's Little League game...in the same way again.

The book covers topics such as the physics of the game, the
international supply chain of talent, and the physical
punishment that the game brings to players.

Definitely a cool read whether you know alot about baseball
or just want to learn something new in an entertaining way.

I love all kinds of sports, but am only "technically knowledgeable" in football. While I had some notion of the science behind athletes training, I had no idea that baseball involved so many intricacies, with every pitch, hit, and fielding play. That's the great surprise I had with Last Nine Innings.

I thought I'd like it because I really enjoyed the 2001 World Series between the Yankees and Diamondbacks, but I found discovering the "inside world" of baseball even more enjoyable; the author wrote about it in an easy to understand way. What I'm trying to say is: As an Average Joe fan, this book helped me appreciate intricacies of the game which I would have never known about, and never would have bothered to study about in an almanac or reference book. A very good read!

For nine taut innings in early November of 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees did battle in Game Seven of the World Series. In this book, author David Euchner dissects not only that classic matchup, but also all the "little things" about baseball that often don't meet the eye of the casual fan.

The strength of this book is author Euchner's attention to detail. Nearly every aspect of the game is touched on in some way, from batting to pitching to managing, to the mechanics of throwing a baseball, swinging a bat, and running the bases. All of this information is also nicely tied into the 2001 World Series and the players who made it a classic.

Oddly enough, though, this detailed tome also bogs down the book at many occasions. Often, Euchner tries to take on everything at once, and as such the volume of information can be a bit overwhelming. This is especially true regarding the technical portions of the book, where you are almost reading a biology or physics textbook. It isn't that bad, but gets tedious at times.

Overall, then, "The Last Nine Innings" is an interesting baseball read. At times the overload of information is a bit taxing, but at least the information itself is interesting enough, and in a well-imagined format, to make you keep flipping through.

Every so often, a book comes along that is really special -- it contributes to the way people think about a topic, and possibly encourages them to look at something in a completely different way. The Last Nine Innings is one of those books.

Rewind to Game 7 of the 2001 World Series between the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Yankees were looking for a fourth straight ring, while the Diamondbacks, only in their fourth year of existence, were staking their claim on the game's greatest prize with a collection of top-notch veterans and role players. One team was going home with the hardware that night - while the other would be going home with a lot of what if's and a long wait until the next season.

Charles Euchner takes this amazing setting and breaks down nine innings of baseball - mixing physics, storytelling, play-by-play, history, medicine and statistics to literally rip every thread out of the seams of a ballgame and examine the makings of a championship game. It analyzes the amazing amount of stress and almost torture that the human body endures playing the game. It takes you inside the impact that the Diamondbacks had on baseball in the greater Phoenix area, and how they have transformed the Valley of the Sun into one of the hotbeds of youth and amateur baseball.

Euchner takes you on the field, into the clubhouse, the front office, and the heads of some of the games biggest stars, while never taking the game over your head.

This is one book that will both engage and challenge the serious fan, while entertaining and enlightening the casual one. As a serious follower of baseball, I would love to be able to put this book into the hands of anyone who has ever or will ever watch a baseball game so that they might better understand the inner workings of what happens on and off the field -- and not frivolous details such as a player's favorite food. From the moment I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Especially during this final week of the postseason, it is a timely read that will help you appreciate just what is going on between the final two teams left.

Enjoyable? Absolutely. Worth adding to your bookshelf? Definitely. In fact, I'd suggest adding it to a friend's bookshelf as well - it is that good, and you'll benefit from it as much as your friend will.

--Pat Lagreid
[...]

You have to wonder if a book about one single baseball game could really be that interesting. Well, this book doesn't answer that question, because it merely uses Game 7 as a vehicle to explain the many intricacies of modern baseball.

This book is a front-row seat to the inner-workings of modern baseball. Euchner explains baseball's sophisticated use of statistics, medical techniques (no, not drugs, but measuring and analyzing the motion of the best athletes), and even management methods. What I learned both surprised and impressed me.

Perhaps the author's best touch is that the "details of the sport" are presented in a way that is interesting and appealing to the non-sports-nut (that's me, an ordinary Joe).

Highly entertaining!

Caveat emptor: reading this book made watching a baseball game more interesting to me than before.

A couple of years ago, when I started reading sports books again regularly, this book stunned me. I had thought I knew a lot of baseball, but this book gave me so much new inside information about how the game is played, I just couldn't believe. Right from the first paragraph, you learn why Steve Finley is one of the greatest fielding centerfielders in history, and how difficult it is to make "it look easy." It was fascinating - and very interesting - material.

Baseball is a simple game understood by almost everyone, yet at the pro level, it is very complex. Author Charles Euchner explains just how complex, but it very readable form. His examples are the players participating in this seventh game of the 2001 World Series, featuring two of the best pitchers in the history of baseball: Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling. This almost a textbook on baseball....and a great read, certainly not dry.

On the surface, you could easily skip this book because Yankee fans don't want to read about a loss, and there aren't enough Arizona fans to warrant this book being a best-selling. However, that's not the essence of the book: it's about what baseball is like at the dawn of the 21st century and you will learn more about the sport in this book than probably any other book you'll ever read about baseball.

Whether you like either team, all the nuances of the last inning make this book a great read. From the art of throwing a perfect pitch to a perfect swing, from the training that went in to get to this inning, to the backgrounds of all the players, all combined for that perfect fit.
You can't read this book without looking at the game different and seeing things from a players/manager perspective.

In a book that details one game nearly pitch-by-pitch, there were some GLARING ERRORS that someone should've caught before this went to print:

-Danny Bautista is NOT a switch-hitter as stated in the book
-Danny Bautista does not play left field, he plays right. Luis Gonzalez played right field for the D'backs from 1999-2006.
-as I saw in a post below, Tony Womack's game-tying hit went to right field, not left
-as they also pointed out, Paul O'Neill plays right field, not left

I am sure there are others that we missed. That lack of attention to detail undermines much of the credibility of the book.

While I enjoyed the biographical information on Finley, Randy Johnson, etc., this book lacks continuity: some chapters are about the science of hitting, one is about Latino ballplayers struggling to adapt to America, one part relates to which parts of the brain relate to various-baseball functions.

I was at Game 7... so it was neat to re-live one of the most amazing nights of my life... but as far as sports books I give this one a solid "C-".... I would definitely say it's a library rental or borrow-from-a-friend book... not one you'll cherish.

Game 7 of the 2001 World Series served as the back drop for this book's analysis of baseball behind the scenes. As the game becomes more dependent on statistical analyses understanding what batting average and era are isn't good enough.