James Buckley Jr.

America's Classic Ballparks by James Buckley is a fun read for any fan of the sport, even the most casual of one.

Part of the fun of going to a professional baseball game is the atmosphere, and a large part of that is the ballpark itself. One of the best feelings is coming through to the seating area and getting that first glimpse of the field. This book brings back all of those memories.

Baseball nostalgia is almost a beast unto itself. We fondly remember the places and games we saw, but we show more also tend to be nostalgic for things we never saw but only heard about. I have been to a number of the ballparks included here, and certainly enjoyed my walk down memory lane. But the ballparks I never visited I still felt nostalgic over, because they are such a big part of the history of the game. Many baseball fans become fans when they are young, so even the history-based nostalgia can take us back to our childhood. At least it does me.

While the truly iconic parks are included, readers will remember the places that stand out for them, usually because of where they lived. For me, Memorial Stadium in Baltimore is the place of my childhood (both baseball and football). DC/RFK Stadium was the other one for me because my dad, poor guy, was a Senators fan. While neither stadium is included the book still brought back memories of those ballparks.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes baseball. Whether the feel of going to the ballpark or the memories of baseball's milestones, this volume will take you back.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

The National Baseball Hall of Fame Collection by James Buckley is an absolutely fun book for any baseball fan from the most rabid to the most casual.

My intention was to take my time going through the book. The design, short entries and plenty of pictures, lends itself to jumping in and out of the book when convenient. But I found myself looking forward to which players might be covered next that I went through it (the first time, there will be more) quicker than I expected.

I have been a show more baseball fan for as long as I can remember, at least as far back as 1963. I spent a year as a batboy for the Senators when Ted Williams was manager. My interest in the game has waxed and waned since that time but I never fell out of love with the game. Now you have an idea of the type of fan I am, mostly casual now but with the knowledge of a more serious fan (since I have been one on several occasions).

The entries are short, really just to let the reader know why the player was inducted and where he fits in the larger scheme of things. A few entries are larger, sometimes for a special player, sometimes more topically driven but still including key names. This is not an in depth book, there are plenty of those out there. This is like walking briskly through the Hall of Fame itself, highlights and memories.

I think a casual fan who has never been into the game very much will appreciate the short entries and key contextualizing elements of each. A fan for whom these are all familiar names will have a great time remembering names they had forgotten and reliving old times. As an Oriole fan who had family in Los Angeles, I was able, at 8 years of age, to attend all four games of the '66 World Series. The thrill then was sweeping the Dodgers, the thrill later was knowing I watched Koufax pitch his last game. Those memories came back when I saw entries on some of the players involved. Every fan will have similar memories that will come back when they read this book.

I highly recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in the game.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

A solid graphic novel biography of the life of Muhammad Ali. I'm not really in love with the narrators, child versions of uncle sam and lady liberty, but I did like that they stayed solidly in Ali's corner, even when he was fighting for his right to conscientiously object to Vietnam. It's a fairly complicated story, explained well, with a lot of respect for Ali throughout. I loved that as much as his story centers on fighting, he's also clearly a person of integrity, which was a consistent show more message. show less

Jesse Owens is well-known as a legendary track and field star who was a pioneer for black athletes, attending Ohio State University, going to the Olympics, and winning four gold medals. Much is made of Owens being a black man demonstrating his prowess in front of Hitler and the Nazis, but this book also points out that German fans cheered for him and a German athletes befriended him. There's also a unsettling moment when it appears that the US Olympic Team may have made Owens run a relay in show more place of a Jewish runner. Celebrated at home, Owens also received jeers from prejudiced whites and from more radical blacks who thought he should not have gone to Nazi Germany. Later in life, Owens criticizes the Civil Rights movement but later has a changed of heart. All in all this is a story of remarkable and complex man, and I appreciate that this children's biography worked through the many layers of nuance. show less