Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game within the Game [Paperback]

Jerry Remy (Author), Corey Sandler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Jerry Remy's name and face are already known to millions of fans. Every night during the baseball season, 400,000 or more households tune in to listen to his broadcast of the Red Sox game. But fans learned to love him years ago, when he was traded to the Red Sox in 1978, earning a trip to the All-Star game in his first year with the team; Remy hit .278, scored 87 runs, and stole 30 bases.

Injured in 1984, Remy never played another game. In 1988, he began his work as an announcer, working color commentary for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN, which is a basic cable channel throughout New England and available by satellite across the country. He covers more than 150 games per season for NESN and broadcast television, plus regular assignments on the national Fox Game of the Week. But the best part of Jerry Remy is his easy style: listeners feel like they're having a beer with a friend while they're watching the game.

If spectators just follow the ball, they are missing much of the game. Baseball is a lot more complex than that. Everyone talks about second-guessing the manager; and there's a lot of fun in that for everyone except the manager. Those opinions can be heard all day on the sports talk shows and read in the newspaper columns. But if the people are really going to get into the game, they need to start first-guessing. That's what this book is all about.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a real baseball book, written by an alert, articulate veteran of the game. It is filled with revelatory analysis of such things as hitter performance ahead and behind the count, and is interspersed with countless opinions, most congenial in this quarter--such as that inter-league play is a regrettable innovation and that Derek Lowe needs the occasional, if metaphorical, kick in the butt."
--Boston Sunday Globe

From a Boston.com chat with author Jerry Remy:

I have been reading (and enjoying immensely) your book Watching Baseball. I think that there is a lot of potential for a show on NESN for it. You can either show vintage clips.... or clips from each previous week (any team) or previous season (so we can watch baseball in the off season) and pick plays that explain to us each facet of the game that you describe in the book. I have always been a baseball fan, but I can't believe how much I've been missing from the game. Your book has helped me enjoy the game even more.

One other question, since you talk in your book a lot about defensive alignments...why can't you convince NESN to put some cameras where we can see the alignments as they shift. If would help a lot, when you watch on TV, you'd swear that the players are always playing in the same spot.

Thanks, and keep up the good work. Congrats to you and all the other Red Sox greats. This one was for you as much as the fans!

Sandy Mascola, Bristol, Rhode Island

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Join Jerry Remy, beloved Red Sox broadcaster and former second baseman, as he explains America's favorite sport. Written for both the rainy day fan and the avid addict, Watching Baseball covers the game pitch by pitch and play by play, all in the Rem Dawg's characteristic style: clear, concise, and opinionated.
In Watching Baseball, Jerry guides you around the diamond, pointing out: The positioning of the infielders; what's really going on during batting practice; how catchers and pitchers call a game; what a base stealer is thinking when a pitcher goes into his stretch; the difference between high cheese and a knuckler, and all the pitches in between; and so much more, including anecdotes on individual players.
Go inside the minds of the players and the coaches with Jerry as he opens your eyes to the game within the game. Whether you are a casual viewer or an armchair manager, Watching Baseball is your ticket to America's national pastime.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762730757
• ISBN-13: 978-0762730759
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,766,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Insiders View, July 1, 2004

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game within the Game (Paperback)

Baseball is such a simple game. Someone throws the ball, someone else tries to hit it, if he does he runs around .... Well you know.

But what's really going on. In this quite large (367 page) book, Jerry Remy, a former second baseman explains the game as the players see it. There are hundreds of little tips: playing in the rain is to the advantage of the hitter, should the cutoff man jump if necessary to catch a ball, what about contract negotiations. And of course there's the discussions about people. As a player and then a baseball broadcaster, and a chat room moderator he knows all the principals in the business/game. If baseball is your thing....

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for the serious fan or player, November 24, 2004

By 

Cruiser (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game within the Game (Paperback)

I bought this book for my son. It's a little less anecdotal and more technical than I expected. If you really want to understand the strategy of the game, this book is for you. It is light-hearted and there are also some funny baseball stories and info on the Red Sox, but that's not the main part of the book, and if that's what you're looking for this probably isn't the book for you. Overall, I very much recommend this book for those who are true students of the game, and especially for kids about age 12 and up who want insights into how to become a better player MENTALLY, or those interested in coaching. Jerry doesn't explain how to hit a fastball, but he explains the STRATEGY of the game exceptionally well.

33 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Baseball 202 -- Intermediate appreciation, April 9, 2004

By 

T. Little (Lowell, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game within the Game (Paperback)

I have enjoyed Jerry Remy's astute analysis during Red Sox games for many years and anticipated that Watching Baseball would offer the same depth that he provides as a color commentator. Unfortunately the book, while enjoyable, proved to be a bit of a let down.

Watching Baseball seems to be aimed at the fan who has a basic understanding of the game but may not appreciate all of its nuances. For these readers -- such as my wife -- Remy's book will be extremely helpful in deconstructing the proverbial game within the game.

For those like myself who have been watching and playing baseball for several decades, Remy's book comes up a little short. In particular I found that his analysis was somewhat shallow; he would begin to get into a topic and then move on to something else just as things were starting to get interesting.

While Remy provides anecdotal examples from his own playing days, I would have appreciated more emphasis on strategy. It would have been more interesting if, for example, he had picked one game from the past season and broken it down "pitch-by-pitch" from batting practice to the final out.

The book is also very Red Sox-centric -- with a particular emphasis on the 2003 season. This is understandable given Remy's connection to the team, but a lot of his insight might be lost on a casual fan from Kansas City or Oakland or New York. A second edition of the book would do well to try to appeal to a broader audience.

Watching Baseball also suffers from spotty editing (the organization is choppy and there are several typos -- as if the book was being rushed into print) and is filled with what I consider gratutious quotes in praise of Mr. Remy himself. I found the latter in particular to detract from the book: I didn't need to find a quote every tenth page telling me what a scrappy ballplayer Remy was, or what a great broadcaster he is.

My final analysis: Watching Baseball is good for the casual fan who wishes to improve his or her appreciation for the game; serious fans will find the book lacking, however. Still, 3 for 5 ain't a bad day at the ballpark.