Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball

George Will has long been one of my favorite columnist to read. I knew that he is a passionate Chicago Cubs fan. His book is every bit as readable and informative as his newspaper columns are. Definitely a book worth reading for passionate Baseball fans such as my self. The book was written in the late 1980s a favorite time of mine. This book brought back some great memories.

If you really, really love the mental part of the game of baseball this is for you. You need to have at least one friend who has read this so you can go to a game with them. And George Will has a great command of the language, he is a great communicator, and he has a wonderful and engaging writting style. The men he picked to interview were great choices. If you love baseball you won't be able to put this down. If you don't, the detail will overwhelm you and put you to sleep.

Without a doubt, George Will is a baseball afficiciando and, well, nerd. I suppose he remembers every box score back to his birth, maybe to the birth of the sport. "Men at Work" is one of his most popular books. This edition comes with a new, sixteen-page introduction. The concept of his book is ingenious. Select four basic baseball jobs—managing, pitching, batting, defense—interview four representatives of each (in the 1980s: Tony La Russa, Orel Hershiser, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken), and give baseball fans four insiders' look into how professional baseball works in and behind the scenes. At its best the book is fascinating. At its most frustrating it so overwhelms with details and nit-picks that it can be a tiring read unless (1) you're as fanatical as Mr. Will or (2) you read the book in small bites. The problem with Option 2 is that one tends to forget all the figures and players and internal cross-references. "Tiring read" is a hard claim to make of Will's work, because he writes so well, but there I find myself. At a certain point—about fifty pages in—I was so exhausted and I laid the book down. I haven't yet returned to it. Someday I shall, because of its quality and obvious love of the game. Nevertheless, I must pace myself. The book's epigram is by Tony La Russa: "There's a lot of stuff goes on." That goes for baseball and for "Men at Work."

If you have ever wondered how the players and managers prepare to do the amazing things we see every day of the baseball season this is the book for you! I have loved the game for my entire life, but I never realized so much preparation goes into every little aspect of the game. George Will covers each part of the game - pitching, hitting, and fielding - by observing and interviewing some of the greats of the game; Hershiser on pitching, Gwynn on hitting, Ripken on fielding, and Larussa on putting it all together. George Will quoted Wes Westrum in this book - "Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand." This book increased my understanding of the game and as a result has added to my enjoyment of baseball. I see things I didn't see before I read this book - the nuances of the game have become more clear. I did not believe I could love the game more, but after reading this book, I do! I would highly recommend this book to both students of the game and to newcomers looking to understand the game.

Absolutely great read if you're a diehard baseball fan. Written with information gathered around 1989, this book still reads very relevant. The information from the four participants is so in depth, that you realize there isn't a movement on the baseball diamond, that doesn't have a reason, intent or purpose. Signs, fake signs, signs that are a fake fake sign, signs just to see how/if the baserunner reacts, ways of finding out where a shortshop is "really" going to play you after the pitch etc, etc. It is endless. I don't know that this is for the casual fan, but then again this could be the tipping point for some people. The Craft of Baseball could not be a better subtitle for this book. This makes me watch baseball completely differently than I used too.

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I found "Men at Work" surprising in some ways and predictable in others. George Will is a very accomplished writer, and he learned and conveyed a lot of information in writing this book. As a baseball "lite" level of fan, I learned a great deal. The detail was excessive at times. For example (hypothetically), if someone embellished discussion about a team by noting that they were one of four National League teams before 1960 that had five or more consecutive losing seasons, I would prefer that the other three not be named. Being a thorough soul, Will invariably did so. The organization into four sections (hitting, pitching, fielding, managing) with a primary (and impressive) interviewee for each one was interesting, but Will wandered far afield from these primary sources fairly often. Sometimes these diversions were great. At other times, not so much. Admirably, I found Will's train of thought easy to follow throughout, which I cannot routinely say about his regular columns. I found Will's book, "A Nice Little Place on the North Side" much more enjoyable. That book focuses on Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs. "Men at Work" appears on more than one top 20 or 25 baseball books lists. If you prefer intense immersion in baseball techniques, history, and statistics to reading a good nonfiction baseball book, then "Men at Work" will find a place on your top 25 list as well. I've probably read 20-25 nonfiction baseball books, and it would fall into the bottom 20% for me. Still, I'm glad I read it, because I learned so much.

Undoubtedly the best and most detailed writing of its type in the subject. Reading it in the current era,it's striking the things the same and the immense changes. MAGNIFICENT

Bets Baseball book ever written.