johnny
06-05-2002, 11:40 AM
On a scale of 1-10, I give this a 6.5-7. I recommend it only if you are very interested in stadiums.
For a former Bush speech writer, Smith has a very weird writing style. Very jumbled, with a weird form of syntax. It took me a while to get used to it.
Good points are, he takes you through a history of the game using stadiums as the basis. Starts in the beginning days and goes up to the newer parks like Comerica and Enron. Good details on the old stadiums (like fence and outfield wall distances and heights and how they changed over the years, surroundings, statues and art in the park, which I loved because that is the area I learned most about, little things that made a park different and how it affected the game played inside). Plenty of quotes and anecdotes (many of them are familiar, and some are repeated throughout the book), including quotes about what was going on around the rest of the world at the given time. Nice research tools in the back, with lists of every team and where/when they played.
Color reproductions of some Bill Goff collection paintings of parks old and new, which are beautiful and helpful in seeing the old parks in color, but...
The bad:
No photographs at all. I would rather see photos than paintings.
Writing style is so unusual...I was about 50 pages or so into it until I adjusted to it (if you see the book on a shelf, open it to any page and you will see what I mean), but it is 600 pages or so long.
Much of the early stuff seems rushed, as though he was trying to get to the modern era very quickly.
If you love anything on stadiums and can get used to the style, check it out. I recommend thumbing through it before you buy, however.
For a former Bush speech writer, Smith has a very weird writing style. Very jumbled, with a weird form of syntax. It took me a while to get used to it.
Good points are, he takes you through a history of the game using stadiums as the basis. Starts in the beginning days and goes up to the newer parks like Comerica and Enron. Good details on the old stadiums (like fence and outfield wall distances and heights and how they changed over the years, surroundings, statues and art in the park, which I loved because that is the area I learned most about, little things that made a park different and how it affected the game played inside). Plenty of quotes and anecdotes (many of them are familiar, and some are repeated throughout the book), including quotes about what was going on around the rest of the world at the given time. Nice research tools in the back, with lists of every team and where/when they played.
Color reproductions of some Bill Goff collection paintings of parks old and new, which are beautiful and helpful in seeing the old parks in color, but...
The bad:
No photographs at all. I would rather see photos than paintings.
Writing style is so unusual...I was about 50 pages or so into it until I adjusted to it (if you see the book on a shelf, open it to any page and you will see what I mean), but it is 600 pages or so long.
Much of the early stuff seems rushed, as though he was trying to get to the modern era very quickly.
If you love anything on stadiums and can get used to the style, check it out. I recommend thumbing through it before you buy, however.