Review by Booklist Review
Few sports feature as many goofy moments as baseball. Some of the sport's zaniest stories are retold here in cartoon art and comic-book-style panels that emphasize the silliness. Organized broadly into nine innings, the sketches feature some offbeat, some obscure, and some bizarre yarns that are closer to legend than fact. There's a story about the player who left the game to wrestle alligators, and another, about a catcher whose nose was so long, it fit through his mask. There are chapters about equipment, four-legged fans, and even a chapter on how players' ears have affected the game. Despite the table of contents and appended list o. Odd Facts about the Players. only one source is cited. Strictly light fare intended to lure browsers and reluctant readers, this will also be a tasty snack for baseball fans.--Perkins, Lind. Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Tocher and Curtis serve up an enjoyable, offbeat collection of trivia, from unusual pitchers (including Mark "the Bird" Fidrych) to the intervention of nonhuman fans, such as the seagulls that made their home in the Cleveland Indians' ballpark and sometimes interfered with on-field play. There are accounts of ballplayers playing with and without mitts; balls dropped from airplanes, blimps, and the Washington Monument; and the poor Phillies fan who was struck by two foul balls, once as she sat in the stands and again as she was being carried out on a stretcher. Tocher's deftly limned accounts are broadly humorous and supplemented by Curtis's giggle-inducing cartoons. One section focuses on differently abled athletes, such as one-armed fielder Pete Brown, and Jim Abbott, who pitched for the Angels for 11 seasons though he was born with only one hand. Ranging from baseball's early days to the present, this collection offers an appealing selection of entertaining baseball facts.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This light-reading volume will be snapped up by those wishing to spice up their baseball small-talk with amusing, strange, or downright gross trivia. The stories of twelve-fingered pitchers, amputated ears, and arachnophobic shortstops are treated only briefly, but there's enough information to entertain teammates on the away-game bus--or bench-sitters. Pen-and-ink cartoons contribute to the zaniness. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
