“Talking Baseball with Major League Stars” was a good book all about the many stars of baseball. I like how the book was organized into hitters, pitchers, fielders, managers, etc. It was interesting to not only learn more about the game of baseball, but also hear from some of the game’s biggest stars and managers about their experiences in the game. The book was unique in that it was not just interviews with players, but simply quotes that highlight different aspects of the game. I not only learned about the game in this book, but also learned more about many individual players. I think that this book was written well, and seems well researched. It is a great book for anyone interested in baseball.

Thank you, Rowman & Littlefield, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished Talking Baseball With Major League Stars, by Wayne Stewart.

This book will be released on February 18, 2025.

This book wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting. I had been expecting chapters on interviews with particular MLB stars. Instead, the book was divided into six chapters: hitters, pitchers, fielders, managers, covering all the bases and life in the big leagues. Then, each chapter is divided into different categories, with quotes or stories from various players on topics such as hitters talking about facing star pitchers, hitters intimidating pitchers, how pitchers have to be hard throwers just to impress scouts (nothing new about that insight, but that particular section was still very good), players from the past dealing with racial issues and many more topics.

I’ll admit that, in the beginning, I was disappointed, thinking that having the focus on different aspects would prevent from having a lot of really good stories. It did result in the stories being limited to the shorter ones, but overall, it didn’t take me long before I started enjoying this book much more than I thought I was going to after the initial realization.

I give this book an A.

This is the third book by this author that I have read and his third A: I Love Baseball (to be released on December 3) and The Gigantic Book Of Baseball Quotations (given an A in 2012) also received A’s. I also have his biography of Stan Musial and his book on the 1960 Pirates, which are in my current to read list (estimate on them is by the end of the year).

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I finished reading this on October 20, 2024.