3. Baseball America’s 2011 Baseball Almanac

Category: 50 Books

I know what you’re thinking. “She read a baseball almanac? Nerd much?”

Well you can shut your judging judgehole. First of all, half of the book is just tables and stats, and I didn’t read all of those. I looked at the stats for the teams I like, but I skipped ALL of the high school, college, minor, independent, and international league stats because I don’t work for baseball.

I thought it did a good job of giving a summary for the the 2010 year, and I enjoyed reading about the year all at once. I had forgotten so many things happened last year. One of the things I read about and went, “Oh yeah! That.” was the retirement of Ken Griffey Jr.. And I vaguely remember something about him getting in trouble for falling asleep in the clubhouse during a game. And then a few days later he retires? As interesting as that story sounds it seems like it was popular for a day and then vanished. Wha’ happened? Oh well, the sooner he retires the sooner they can elect him in the HoF, right?

Anyway, it was a rehash of last year’s season as well as highlights of how awesome some pitchers did. The book goes over every team and starts out each team section with a one sentence summary of how the team did. These were great. I do wish they had been more colorful or snarky, but that’s just me. The writing in the book is really straightforward facts, and not much else. Still, you wouldn’t read this if you didn’t like baseball.

I did scan through the minor and international league stuff, but only to look at the names of some of the teams. Oh my gosh I love the names of minor league teams. Here, I have made a list of some of the more “the who now?” teams:

Rail Cats, Jackhammers, IronPigs, Mud Hens, T-Bones, Wild Things, SkySox, Zephyrs, Thunderbolts, Beach Bums, Cornbelters, Isotopes, Sounds, Crushers, Otters, Freedom, Flying Squirrels, Curve, Biscuits, Rox, Revolution, Wingnuts, Hooks, Dash, Marauders, Miracle, Airhogs, Saltdogs, Owlz, Bees, Lugnuts, TinCaps, Loons, Ghosts, Chukars, Dust Devils, Spikes, Scrappers, Lake Monsters, Sand Gnats, Drive, and Intimidators.

The Isotopes? Really? Owlz, with a Z? 
I love it.

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