Review of A Baseball Story

[ej_author]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Baseball Story" by Ted Orr.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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A Baseball Story by Ted Orr follows significant events in the life of professional baseball player Robert Hamilton “Ham” Hyatt. The story begins in 1916 with a tense game between the Lookouts and the Volunteers, a game that will likely determine the futures of both Ham and the Lookouts. The setting of the story then shifts to 1914 when Ham played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The stakes are high in this part of the story as well, as the Pirates are about to take on the Cubs in an important game. As the Pirates battle their own confidence as well as the unpredictable weather, victory seems out of reach, especially if they can’t find their missing baseball bats.

Baseball enthusiasts would certainly find this story enjoyable. While I’m not a sports fan, I do enjoy biographies, so I decided to give this book a chance. Many of the descriptions did go over my head in the detailing of the baseball games, but I could follow along with the rest of the story. Therefore, I think that people who are not familiar with baseball would enjoy this book as well. It does have some light profanity and a higher reading level, so I would recommend it for older teens and adults.

I liked the fact that the author decided to structure the story around a unique event in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates that probably isn’t very well-known. I also found it fascinating to get a look at the life of a baseball player outside of the games. In addition, the book seemed to be very thoroughly researched when it came to historical events and the personalities of those involved.

However, the delivery of the story fell short for me. First of all, while the book is advertised almost like a biography of Ham Hyatt, this story only covered a couple of games in his career and mainly focused on a single minor event. While it was an interesting event to read about, as I said, it was disappointing at first to find that the content of the book did not match the description. The book was also difficult to read at times due to many editing errors and robotic dialogue. Though I wanted to engage with the characters, the way they interacted with such stilted speech made it impossible for me to connect with them.

Overall, A Baseball Story has a good concept behind it, but I think that the editing mistakes, character dialogue, and the description of the book need to be addressed before the story can fully deliver. It’s almost engaging; it just needs some serious refining. Therefore, I give it two out of four stars.

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A Baseball Story
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[kittykat6132]

This seems like a good book but am not a baseball fan, so I'll pass this one.

[T T 2]

I like books related to sports. I haven't really watched any baseball games before but would love to know more about it through this book. Thank you for a well-written review.

[Alexander C Schmoock]

I can tell the book has an intriguing plot, however, lovers of baseball will have the best time reading it. Great review.