Reviews for Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball

The average rating for Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-08-11 00:00:00 Dave Simms The one word description of George Will’s “Bunts” is quaint. “Bunts” is a collection of Will’s short articles on baseball taken mostly from newspapers and magazines, written between 1974 and 1997. I found them quaint for two reasons. One is that they come across like small town newspaper columns, like Will likely read in hometown Champaign, Illinois when he was growing up. They came across as very conversational and matter-of-fact, even though they were in national publications like Newsweek and the Washington Post. The pieces repeat a lot of details, and a lot of opinions. Apparently readers forgot what Will wrote in his previous columns, or grew comfortable with repeatedly reading about the same odd stats, such as the St. Louis Browns home game attendance during the decade of the 1930s being below part of a season’s attendance of many modern clubs. If this stat is mentioned fewer than a dozen times, I’d be surprised. Will is big on the business of baseball, as well as the traditions. You do get to see his rethinking some traditions over time, like the designated hitter, which is pilloried in early essays and grudgingly accepted by the end. And his documenting of a tradition I didn't realize was a tradition - the smug superiority displayed by Cardinal fans - was quite humorous and pretty much spot on. (Like Will, I also grew up in the land between the Cardinal network and the Cub network, and my heart also leans toward the ivy.) The second reason I found these quaint was that Will tried repeatedly to explain how player’s statistics were getting so much better in the eighties and nineties. He came up with plenty of reasons, but really didn’t touch on the use of steroids beyond two of his earlier essays. It was like he was trying to ignore, to will away, what we now know, that juicing was relatively widespread. These essays read like they are from an earlier time, and so they are. Despite all that, I enjoyed the short articles and found a lot of interesting thought had gone into them. The pictures were also a welcome addition to break up the stories and remind me of some of the players I had forgotten.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-07 00:00:00 Emanuel Karas This book is made up of a series of newspaper columns on baseball by political commentator George Will, stretching from 1974-1997. They provide an interesting look into baseball and the personalities of baseball from that era. The articles are generally well-written. Some shine, while others aren't as good. There are a couple of negatives to the book. Since Will grew up in Chicago and lives and works in Washington, most of the articles pertain to either the Cubs or the Orioles. Also a number of articles touch on the common theme of free agency (Perhaps because Will is a libertarian?), and as such a number of the same arguments and comments appear repeatedly in different articles. Read as they were meant to be read, as individual newspaper articles, this is not an issue. But put back to back in a book it starts to feel redundant. He has written a couple of longer pieces especially for the book which are quite good. An interesting book for fans who remember the players of that era or who have an interest in the business of baseball and how we got to where we are today.