Note: Thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and author Gary Williams for the advanced reader copy of this book. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

The first thing you’ll notice about this book is that the author is the grandson of Fred “Cy” Williams. The book is a sort of love letter to the grandparent he remembers spending time with as a child. It also happens to highlight a player who I never heard of before, even with my love of the game of baseball. Cy Williams was unique in many ways, as his grandson points out.

Cy Williams was one of the first major league ballplayers to earn a college degree prior to his playing time, having graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in architecture. He played many sports at Notre Dame and gave a eulogy for Knute Rockne after his death. One thing that was against Williams for his entire career was his age. Due to circumstances at home, he didn’t begin college until he was 21, and his first season with the Chicago Cubs didn’t happen until he was 25. Williams’ career also straddled the “dead ball” and “live ball” eras in baseball, which allows for some great comparisons on how the changes made to the ball impacted player careers.

Baseball is a game of statistics, and the author provides plenty of them here to back up his assertions that his grandfather was a unique player in many ways. It also bolsters the argument that the changes in the ball impacted player performance. Some of the statistics just went over my head. The author does a great job explaining what the statistics are and what they mean. As someone who became a fan before there were statistics such as OPS, this was very helpful.

Like many players of this era, Cy was a victim of ownership that profited off of his performance while not compensating him adequately. Again, his age was against him as teams did not want to take a chance on an aging player, no matter how good he seemed. Instead, he played with the Cubs and then the lowly Phillies. Phillies ownership at the time was notoriously cheap, using their draft choices as a cash cow and paying a star like Williams the minimum. With the reserve cause still in play, there was nothing Williams could do about it.

I enjoyed the trip down memory lane and a look at a player I should have heard much more about but didn’t. The writing is good, if a little confusing at times. The author jumps around between different topics and occasionally repeats the same information several times. I liked the baseball history and the details as to what made the actual ball used in the game different. He also details things like how the composition of the bats changed over the years as well as the impact of a baseball commissioner, which occurred about midway through Williams’ career. It’s a good bit of baseball history.

I think most players are unique in some way, and the author pays tribute to his grandfather by highlighting what made him unique in baseball history. It’s a bit of a slice of life of what it was like for a ballplayer at the time. They weren’t the wealthy stars that they are today. Most of them worked in the off-season to support their families while the owners made money off of their talent. Cy was no exception, but it highlights how his off-season occupation actually helped him in the game. It’s an interesting book, although I felt it could have been organized better.

The only thing that was available to download was the table of contents.

I contacted NetGalley and the author to let them know about the problem. NetGalley told me the publisher would be contacted. But, enough time has passed for me to conclude they were not interested in fixing the problem.