I loved this account of the 2008 Phillies by ESPN.com writer and lifelong Philadelphian Jayson Stark. His quirky sense of humor was perfect for relating the story of the long-suffering Philadelphia baseball franchise and the city's snake-bitten sports fans. At the time the Phillies won this World Series, the city of Philadelphia had gone longer between major sports championships than any other city with teams in all four major pro sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) -- 25 years, since the 82-83 Philadelphia '76ers basketball team.

OK, maybe he wore out the "long-suffering Philadelpha" theme, but anyone who has gone through life as a fan of the Phillies -- the first team in MLB history to reach the 10,000 loss mark -- can resonate with that.

This book started out as a collection of Stark's ESPN.com columns about the 2008 Phillies team. But they have been re-written significantly, and bunches of delightfully offbeat statistics have been added.

Stark gives us glimpses of the team at pivotal points in the regular season. Then he does a day-by-day account of the divisional series, League Championship series, and World Series. At the end of each game's account, he includes a complete box score and a page of "Useless Information" -- the kind of oddball statistics guaranteed to delight any stat rat.

I really enjoyed this book. I'd recommend it to any Phillies fan, and I think most baseball fans could appreciate it. ( )