Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game Within the Game - By: Jerry Remy with Corey Sandler

This book explains some of the thinking behind what goes on in a

baseball game. Why is 2-0 a hitters count? When is a good time for a squeeze play? Why does the shortstop keep opening his mouth behind his glove? It allows the reader to look at a baseball game the way a manager might, and explore it beyond the swings and misses. It hints that people who don’t like baseball, or think that it is boring, simply don’t understand enough about it.

Unfortunately, this book was not written for me. If you’ve watched Red Sox baseball with any regularity, you’ve heard Remy discuss most of the items in this book many times. Therefore, I was already aware of most of what was explained in the book. The things that were new to me were way beyond the effort I want to spend when watching a ball game. I can only watch the footwork of the left fielder so long before I start missing the actual game. While this book claims to be for the “rainy day fan and the avid addict”, it’s definitely geared towards the former. I want to like this book a lot more than I did.

I’d rate it at 2 bases.