Sports Illustrated

The New York Mets (2023) by Sports Illustrated. Ahhh…, the joy of baseball. There is nothing like going out to the ball park, catching some rays, shagging a beer or two, or the soft drink of your choice, and watching your favorite team hopefully win the game. Myself, I loved playing the game with all the effort and near misses and strategy involved. Baseball is a great game because when you play it you lose yourself in the effort, all else flies away and it is just you and the ball.
Watching it is another thing. Unless you tie yourself to one particular team, unless you live and die with their fates, baseball can be pretty boring. Don’t get me wrong, I love going out to games and getting the buzz of the crowds and hearing the vendors shouting, smelling the aroma of hot dogs and popcorn, and watching the “exciting” parts of the game.
But if I’m not there, the game is pretty blah. I don’t sit around watching broadcasts of the games. There are so many teams, and the season seems to be getting longer every year, and unless my team is playing well and is atop the standings, I’d rather watch soccer.
Having said all that, I want to talk about this coffee table sized homage the those marvelous Mets. I’m not a Mets fan (Go Chicago!!!) but I’m a fan of history and that is what this book is all about. As you would expect from Sports Illustrated, there are a lot of great photos included. A lot! Players, full teams, managers, owners, the hype guys, scouts, stadiums, seemingly everything but the bat boys (or is that now the bat children?) The photos are arrayed strategically throughout the book with the first being a photo of the magnificent Casey Stengel. If you don’t know who that is, don’t call yourself a fan of the game. Shame on you.
We start the book with portraits of some of the most outstanding, or misunderstood, players in the past 60 years. You may not know the team, but Gil Hodges, William Shea (as in, you know, that stadium?), Mookie Wilson (had to be a great guy just from his name), Darryl Strawberry (a great pick), Randy Staub and Tom Seaver just to name a few. There are thirty different profiles of Mets’ greats offered, each with a unique history.
Then comes the stories from the pages of SI and written by an all-star cast in their own way. We start with the worst team of 1962, a few more years follow as a pretty bad team, a few of the so-so years and what caused them, and into the “World Champion Mets” of 1969. There are the full stories of the team gleaned as originally written along with significant photos of the action or lack thereof in the early years. The stories continue beyond the Miracle Mets and up to recently, all well written, amusing and entertaining.
There is a very nice introduction to the book by pitcher John Franco, a life-long fan of the Mets and one of the Mets’ hall-of-famers. At the other end of the book are a collection of stats for the team and finally a gallery of the fantastic SI covers that featured the team.
In short this is a great read about a baseball team that over came the odds of their rookie season and rapidly won it all. As usual, Sports Illustrated has lived up to their own high standards and, even if you aren’t a fan of the team, you can be a fan of the book.… (altro)

Thanks so much to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to review this book

Although its obviously for children, this would be an ideal book for anyone just getting into watching the game too. It is well illustrated and explains things in easy to understand terms which even some of my stalwart hockey friends may learn a thing or two of which they didn't know!
I think every ice arena should have copies of this book, especially over here in England. It would maybe help to get more people interested in the sport instead of it been classed as a minority sport… (altro)