A utilitarian tribute more likely to find itself in the dugout than the lineup.
A worshipful portrait of a nice farmer’s boy from Ohio who grew up to become (by far) the winningest pitcher in major league baseball history.
Pitching Denton True (“Dent,” later “Cy” for “Cyclone”) Young as role-model material from the get-go, Longert introduces him as “a good man, a good husband, a loyal friend, and a gentleman both on and off the baseball field” before going on to a bland account of his long and lustrous career. Students of the game’s history may be able to draw some juice at least from the generous set of period team, town, ballpark, and trading card photos and perfunctory notes on how baseball’s rules and playing fields evolved. Even team names hark to a different era, as between 1890 and 1911Young compiled totals that will never be surpassed while hurling for the Spiders and the Naps of Cleveland, the St. Louis Perfectos, and the Boston Americans and Braves. But the author is a better historian than storyteller, and his narrative alternates dry strings of season overviews with anemic anecdotal hacks: “He did not allow a run until the eighth inning, when the Spiders already had a big lead. The final score was Cleveland 12, Cincinnati 3. While batting, Cy had gotten a single and scored a run.” A final 10-page chapter barely skims Young’s four post-retirement decades, including his 1937 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame and the posthumous creation of the award that justly bears his name. Stats geeks will have to look elsewhere for a table or even a summary list of his awesome achievements.
A utilitarian tribute more likely to find itself in the dugout than the lineup. (timeline, glossary, endnotes, source list) (Biography. 10-13)Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8214-2419-3
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Ohio Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
In no particular order and using no set criteria for his selections, veteran sportscaster Berman pays tribute to an arbitrary gallery of baseball stars—all familiar names and, except for the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, retired from play for decades. Repeatedly taking the stance that statistics are just numbers but then reeling off batting averages, home-run totals, wins (for pitchers) and other data as evidence of greatness, he offers career highlights in a folksy narrative surrounded by photos, side comments and baseball-card–style notes in side boxes. Readers had best come to this with some prior knowledge, since he casually drops terms like “slugging percentage,” “dead ball era” and “barnstorming” without explanation and also presents a notably superficial picture of baseball’s history—placing the sport’s “first half-century” almost entirely in the 1900s, for instance, and condescendingly noting that Jackie Robinson’s skill led Branch Rickey to decide that he “was worthy of becoming the first black player to play in the majors.” The awesome feats of Ruth, Mantle, the Gibsons Bob and Josh, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb and the rest are always worth a recap—but this one’s strictly minor league. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4022-3886-4
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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