Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks
Whether you’re a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, Watching Baseball Smarter leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny fan’s guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national pastime.What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?
At which stadium did “The Wave” first make an appearance?
How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?
Which positions are never played by lefties?
Why do some players urinate on their hands?
Combining the narrative voice and attitude of Michael Lewis with the compulsive brilliance of Schott’s Miscellany, Watching Baseball Smarter will increase your understanding and enjoyment of the sport–no matter what your level of expertise.
Zack Hample is an obsessed fan and a regular writer for minorleaguebaseball.com. He's collected nearly 3,000 baseballs from major league games and has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows. His first book, How to Snag Major League Baseballs, was published in 1999.
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. "Professional fan" Hample (How to Snag Major League Baseballs), who falls squarely in the "deeply serious geek" category, has put together an invaluable resource for armchair fans. A former college shortstop, four-time attendee of Bucky Dent's Baseball School and an obsessive baseball collector, Hample covers basics like what to watch for in pitchers, catchers, hitters, fielders and base runners; he also provides answers to such nagging questions as why spectators stretch in the seventh inning and why most ballplayers grab their crotches. He explains the difference between a change-up and a split-finger fastball, breaks down a box score and offers an extensive glossary of baseball slang that defines both a "courtesy trot" and a "dying quail." Other sections address free agency and fair balls, umpires and uniform numbers, stadiums and superstitions. Trivia abounds, including the names of the 10 switch hitters honored in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and a record of inside-the-park homeruns. Hample hits the equivalent of a reference-book homerun with his witty, loose and readable style-taking a friendly for-a-fan-by-a-fan approach that doesn't hide his enormous depth of knowledge. Highly recommended for baseball watchers, Hample also schools amateur players and coaches with well-illustrated examples of some complex pitching, hitting and base-running scenarios.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Hample is known in the blogosphere as the foremost snagger of major-league baseballs (read all about it at snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs .com). Here he turns to ink and paper with a Baseball for Dummies-type guide that, thanks to its irreverent, tongue-in-cheek style, will also appeal to fans who left the dummy stage long ago. He covers such topics as the amateur draft, grips for various pitches--slider, curve, splitter, etc.--and what managers talk about on their visits to the mound. There is discussion of the seemingly obvious (the role of starting pitchers) and the more arcane (when not to slide), and there is plenty of genuinely fascinating historical trivia (how the letter K came to be the scorekeeper's symbol for a strikeout). All in all, this is a light but informative tome that will be just the ticket to get fans in the right frame of mind for opening day. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“This isn’t the first book to take on the challenge of explaining baseball intricacies, but I’ve never seen it done better. . . . When it comes to producing ‘aha moments’ of baseball enlightenment, the book indeed has a high batting average.” —The Seattle Times
“Hample calls himself an obsessed fan—obsessed in a good way—and the product of his torment is a funny and informative guide for all levels of fans.” —Yankees Magazine
“Engaging. . . . Hample’s book is both deceptive in its simplicity (the basic rules, but also the ten different ways a pitcher can commit a balk) and surprising in its range.” —Fortune
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews
The Baseball Collector
Not only is this a great book for the novice, experienced baseball fans will get something out of it as well. Hample writes about what he knows... and that's "How to Collect Baseballs" and How to watch baseball smarter. If you doubt his skills, just know that he caught the last Mets homer at Shea... EVER. He actually does what he preaches. He also wrote a foreword for the Sports By The Numbers series MLB book. Here is their Yankees book, that you may love as well: New York Yankees: An Interactive Guide to the World of Sports (Sports by the Numbers). Buy both books. You will love them.
Slightly above beginner
Your view of this short book depends on how much you know about baseball already and how much you want to know. Being that you are looking at it and the title, you are at least a little interested. I found myself speed reading through some sections, but others sections I read with great interest due to knowledge base or lack thereof. The author loosely organizes the book on sections about player positions, stadiums, and so forth. Organization is not a strong part of this book. But, there are some great facts in here. For 200 pages, I learned a lot.
insights for a baseball mom
This is a great book for moms who have sons playing baseball. I only wish I would have had this book when my son was younger. I always thought I knew what was going on in a game, but I didn't know so much. I have learned a lot from this book and highly recommend it to anyone who loves or hates the game of baseball.
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