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Dewey Decimal Number: 796.3570973 EAN: 9780671582227 Edition: Abridged Format: Abridged, Audiobook ISBN: 0671582224 Label: Audioworks Manufacturer: Audioworks Number Of Items: 2 Number Of Pages: 3 Publication Date: May 01, 1998 Publisher: Audioworks Studio: Audioworks Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: "Bunts," explains peripatetic political commentator and baseball rhapsodist George Will, "are modest and often useful things." So is his latest, fittingly titled foray into the National Pastime. Unlike his splendid Men at Work, which offered long, detailed exegeses on the way Tony Gwynn, Orel Hershiser, Cal Ripken, Jr., and Tony La Russa sweat the details of mastering specific aspects of the game, Bunts is a less unified, but wider ranging collection of Will's shorter baseball journalism--columns, essays, and book reviews--assembled chronologically from 1974 through the 1997 season. Each piece may be brief, but taken individually or as a whole, the collection is certainly useful, and like a good outfielder, it covers plenty of territory. Will, to be sure, is an elegant writer, a little verbose at times, but dependably knowledgeable, stirringly erudite, thoughtfully opinionated, and, here and there, delightfully personal--as in the volume's leadoff hitter in which he traces his own conservative principles to growing up a Cub fan. His lineup continues with a breezy ode to Louisville Sluggers; encomiums to Casey Stengel, Camden Yards, Ripken, Gwynn, and Curt Flood; a startling about-face on the DH; an early homage to statsmeister Bill James; and indictments on the selfishness of Ted Williams, the callousness of the owners in labor- and fan-relations, and the sordid personalities of Pete Rose and Billy Martin. The volume ends with a pair of doubles in the form of larger essays on Jon Miller and the distinctive craft of broadcasting, and a concluding one on the state of the game. "Baseball," Will observes, "is a habit. The slowly rising crescendo of each game, the rhythm of the long season--these are the essentials and they are remarkably unchanged over nearly a century and a half. Of how many American institutions can that be said?" The answer, of course, is not many, which is why Bunts provides a necessary and pleasing public service. --Jeff Silverman Product Description: Political columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner George Will, author of "Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball", returns with this collection of finely-honed pieces about the sometimes recondite, sometimes frustrating, always passionately felt subject: baseball. Here are Will's stump speech, essays from Dan Okrent's "Ultimate Baseball Book" and Ken Burns's "Baseball". Average Rating:
 Rating:  - As good as any baseball book I have read, and I have read a lot of themWhile George Will's political opinions are often subject to my snorts of derision, his feelings about baseball are beyond reproach. An unrepentant Cubs fan who once responded to the statement made on a national news show in 1984, "The Cubs winning the division title is not exactly a momentous event in the history of Western Civilization" by saying, "Sez who?", his writing about baseball is absolutely the best. He truly loves the game and he demonstrates it in every sentence. His honesty about what ... Read More Rating: - Intelligent look at Baseball George Will brings his flowing if slightly verbose style to the issue of baseball. The book is a collection of newspaper columns and some essays concerning the state of baseball during the 1980's-1990's. As a Chicago Cub fan, Will focuses largely and perhaps a bit too heavily on that team plus the Baltimore Orioles, who are near his job in Washington D.C. There's also coverage of baseball labor issues, sociology, politics, trends in attendance and style of play, even some mention of oft-ignored teams ... Read More Rating: - Not a Homerun, But a Solid HitThis book contains more than 70 articles written about baseball by George Will between 1974 and 1997. Many of the essays are from the week of opening days or a post script of a season that just ended and these essays all have a similar tone and information, but all of them are well written and contain numerous facts, opinions and insights. The book also covers significant events in the history of baseball--the banning of Pete Rose, the strike of 1994, the fight for free agency and of course the yearly collapse ... Read More Rating: - Bow-Tie Reflections on BaseballThose who have read Will's "Men at Work" already are aware of the author's knowledge of the game as well as his talent to put it into words. This is a compilation of the author's articles on Baseball that have appeared primarily in his newspaper columns over the years. Mr. Will, a spokesman for the political right, discards his politics for these excursions into his passion. Indeed, one is surprized by how often Mr. Will sides with the players in the labor/management diputes that litter modern Baseball. The ... Read More Rating: - Bunts Hit A Homerun With Me!Bunts by George F. Will is a collection of works written by Will between the years 1974 and 1997. Throughout this book, Will discusses the major changes in baseball, such as the designated hitter rule, unionization, recent franchise additions, free agency, and more. A long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan, Will, in several funny articles, describes what it is like to be a fan of a tema that hasn't won a pennant since World War II. A skilled political columnist, we are drawn into the argument over free agency and designated ... Read More |
