6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Peace, love, and baseball!, June 11, 2009
This review is from: Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic (Hardcover)
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Before writing a review of this book, I feel that I should be honest by opening with a disclaimer. Truth is, I've never liked baseball. Ever. I've always found the game too slow, boring and something that's bound to elicit plenty of yawns from me. I've been to one (1) baseball game in the past 15 years, and my motivations for going were less than authentic when it comes to the sport. Rather, the lone reason I chose to go was because my city's minor league team had special guests: the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders! I left after my photo-op with them in the 7th inning stretch.
So, you ask, why oh why is this guy inclined to read a book about baseball? Well, there are two reasons. The first one is the most obvious: I absolutely adore Alyssa Milano. As she's just four years my junior, I kind of feel like I've grown up w/her. I own most of her movies, including the really bad ones.
Secondly, while I don't enjoy baseball games, I do have an appreciation for the history of the game. Ironically enough, I'm also very fond of a great many baseball movies. In fact,
The Natural is my all-time(!) favorite sports movie.
Enough about me. This is a book that I (almost surprisingly?) found to be immensely entertaining. It is a well-written, intimate account of a woman's genuine love for a game. Her team is the L.A. Dodgers and she can tell you the batting average of the entire roster @ the drop of a baseball cap. Beyond that, she has an impressive erudition of the game that extends well beyond her Dodgers; the book is filled with curious stories / anecdotes about various franchises as well as allusions to the giants of yesteryear such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig & many more. All of the readers out there who consider themselves to be "baseball encyclopedias" will admire her knowledge of the game.
While baseball has never been my gig, as a sports fan I can certainly relate to the influence that baseball has had on Alyssa's life. For myself, college football is my game. In particular, Michigan State football. When Alyssa recounts her pre-game rituals, the highs of winning & the lows of losing and all of the drama of BEING there for big games, it reflects a great deal of my own pre-game rituals & how much of an impact that MSU football has on my life. Hence, even if you're disinterested in baseball, there's still bound to be something for you in this book - so long as you're a sports fan.
{As a personal sidenote, my heart melted when I learned the Alyssa has a sports-crush on MSU alumni & former Dodger Kirk Gibson - he was a Spartan legend in both baseball & football}
So many times in the past, I've looked up to celebrities only to find out that they were very shallow human beings. This cannot be said about our girl Alyssa Milano. Her passion for baseball is real, and this book recounts the myriad ways in which baseball has helped shape her life. I've always had a fascination with women who were both beautiful and women of substance @ the same time. She certainly fills the bill on that one.
If you're interested in a book on sports (not even necessarily baseball) that's told through the eyes of a fan, then I don't know of a better one than this. As a woman whose passion for sports is the real-deal, I'm sure Alyssa would be a blast to go see a game with! While options such as that are closed-off to mere mortals such as myself, it's still nice to know that there are women out there who are every bit as big on athletics as most men are. In a way, Alyssa is the voice of all those women out there who are frustrated by people who don't take their love of the game seriously.
So, if you're big on baseball nostalgia & enjoy films such as
Field of Dreams (Widescreen Two-Disc Anniversary Edition) and
Stealing Home, then this book is in the ballpark of what you're looking for. As for the author, I have but 5 words: Thank you Alyssa. For everything.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The woman knows her baseball, and writes well, too..., August 16, 2010
Miss Milano, whose adult acting career I have not followed, is 30 years younger than I am, and 50 years younger than my mother-in-law, who bought and liked her book and urged me to read her copy. So perhaps she did not expect to get an audience of readers between 65-85, but there you are...baseball love leads us to unexpected relationships (one of the central messages in her book, if "message" is the right word at all.) I grew up in New Jersey, adopted the Brooklyn Dodgers as my team at age 12, saw them off to California with a broken heart, and became a Pittsburgh Pirate fan in 1959. (They used to be a major league team, with three World series titles between 1960 and 1979. Now they are allowed to play against real major league teams, but not allowed to win more than they lose. Been the truth for the past 18 seasons. Alas, I am still a fan.) Her book explains the history of Dodger fandom in her family of origin, and how the L.A. version of "Da Bums" finally won over these transplanted New Yorkers. Milano does a good job of explaining the basics of the game and the benefits of loyally rooting for one team or another for a lifetime. There is very little in here about her entertainment career, and not much more about her personal adult life. This is a tribute to her family and to baseball itself, flaws and all. I enjoyed it.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
truly a fan, June 4, 2009
This review is from: Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic (Hardcover)
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I don't watch baseball so I was interested in a young woman's perspective on the sport. Alyssa Milano writes a sincere, breezy, easy to read book about how she fell in love with the game of baseball as a young girl and how important the game has remained in her life. She clearly loves the game and (to me) seems very knowledgable and articulate about both individual players, teams, and current issues affecting the sport such as the steroid scandel and how baseball has evolved into a money making machine and it's impact on players and the game. I don't get the baseball as a metaphor for life stuff.....but that's just me. I still found this an enjoyable book to read. It's a one person perspective of the impact of a sport on her life. If you are very knowledgable about the sport, you may not find it that captivating.
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