Rating: 
Summary: All Time Favorite
Review: I fell in love with this book on my first reading. Since then, I've given it as a gift to my father, brother, grandmother, and several friends. None of them gave it anything but a rave. My brother and grandmother are diehard Giants fans, but none of the rest of this group follows baseball as far as I know. You don't have to be a baseall fan to love this book. It's a beautiful coming of age story about a man who's only having to come of age just as middle age is dawning on the horizon. I love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: It's All the Little Things!
Review: I love baseball stories, and I really liked 'Killer Angels', so I thought I would give this book a shot. This is not a baseball story. This is a story about lost love maybe, about regrets maybe, or about finally growing up maybe, but it's not a real baseball story. The ballgame serves as backdrop to the actual story, and really doesn't play a factor in the story until the end (No, I won't spoil any plot points). But there are so many little errors regarding the ball game, that they really got in the way of the story. First of all you have the Atlanta team, called the 'Hawks' here playing in Yankee Stadium. The Hawks are portrayed as a bunch of losers just riding out the last few days of the season. Obviously the Hawks are a National League team, because at one point the unlikable hero, pitcher Billy Chapel, gets up to bat. WHY would a pitcher be coming to the plate at Yankee Stadium, an American League team and stadium?? As if that isn't bad enough, Billy Chapel only gets up to bat twice. In a nine inning game, that's 27 outs total, with 9 players on the field, he would get up at least 3 times to bat, and with his team getting 5 hits, most likely 4. How is he skipped in the batting rotation?
Yes, yes I know....I sound like a Star Trek geek disecting every little bit of the story, but come on, this book was supposedly written by a baseball fan, and the dust jacket says how baseball fans will love the story. But all of these little things just kept getting in the way.
Now, getting away from the story completely. I just do not like novels, or stories written as if we are reading a person's train of thought. One minute Chaple is talking about his Father, and then about baseball, then about Carol, then about Gus, then about baseball, then about God, then about Carol, then about a skiing vacation......there was no cohesion. I know there was a movie version of 'For Love of the Game' done a couple years ago, and I am interested in seeing it, if for no other reason, than to see how the filmmakers accomplished making a movie where most of the action takes place in a guy's head.
If you are baseball fan, pick up the biography 'The Train' about Senators pitcher Walter Johnson, or watch 'The Natural' with Robert Redford, but avoid this book.
Rating:
Summary: This little novel left me in tears (Don't tell anyone.)
Review: I read the book in one easy afternoon sitting, and I'm not a speed reader. The story started slow, but grew better as the book went on - right to the very last sentence of the last page. I have not seen the movie, but I plan to now. It is a simple novelette with a powerful emotional appeal, and a very uplifting message about loyalty, love and determination.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Wonderful Book
Review: I read this novel for the first time two months ago. I am difficult to please, and I find most "serious" contemporary fiction mediocre or worse. "For Love of the Game" was outstanding in almost every respect, and reminded me of the joys of reading great fiction. There are many things that truly impressed me about this novel: the compact, but rich telling of the two stories in the book -- the aging ballplayer's last game and his breakup with his girlfriend of four years; the compelling descriptions of the ballplayer's inner thoughts as the game progresses; the riveting description of the final play of the game; and finally, the moving end to the story. This short novel is far more than a book for sports fans -- it is truly a work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Another artsy pseudo-intellectual baseball book
Review: I've never read Michael Shaara before and I probably won't now. Why not? Because, no matter how much better he may put words together in another novel (if some of the reviews here are to be believed) the core phony who wrote this book cannot change. Haven't we all had enough of Bob Costas by now? I love baseball. I know the time period Shaara was writing about. I understand his frustration with modern ballplayers and the way money has transformed the game. But couldn't he have written about it with some enlightenment instead of an incredible string of cliches? Furthermore, contrary to what some of the reviewers on this page say, this isn't a family values book. Oral sex on a plane? Oh, that's right, it was cute-funny like that cute-funny cartoon girl character in the story. And then there's the fact that anyone, and I mean anyone, could predict what was happening in the big game 30 pages before it is revealed. The plot was laughably bad. Sorry, didn't like it, won't read any more by the guy. 'Nuff said.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent one-sit read!
Review: In spite of the fact that Kevin Costner will soon be interpreting this novel, I bought this book because I was curious about a baseball story written by my favorite author. I was not disappointed!! Michael Shaara's stream-of-conscience style transported me into Billy Chapel's mind. Even with little understanding of the thrills of baseball, Chapel's story really touched home. A perfect book for the airplane! (3 hour read max) If you liked this book, read "The Killer Angels"! It remains my favorite book of all time!
Rating:
Summary: a hero's tale
Review: Many of you will have read and loved Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of Gettysburg,
The Killer Angels (see Orrin's review). For Love of a Game is a previously unpublished baseball
novella that Jeff Shaara found amongst his father's paper after he died. Baseball was apparently a
great love of his father's and that love is apparent in this work. The story concerns a future Hall of Fame pitcher, Billy Chapel, who has spent his whole career with
one team, but now as he nears the end of his career he learns that he's been traded. As he takes the
mound for his final game of the season he ponders whether it will be the last of his career.
Compounding his problems, his long time girlfriend, Carol, has just told him that she's leaving. Billy
has always been a consummate professional, driven by respect for himself and the game, but like many
athletes, he's remained somewhat immature, a status that is best reflected in his inability to
acknowledge, to her or to himself, that he loves Carol. Over the course of a brilliantly pitched game,
Billy has to come to terms with the reality he has been able to hold off until now. He has to grow up. Shaara tells Billy's story as a kind of internal monologue, which inevitably makes for a talky and,
despite the intercut action of the game, somewhat claustrophobia-inducing tale. But Chapel is nearly
religious in his commitment to excellence and his determination to always use his gifts to the utmost of
his ability. He brings a refreshing respect and seriousness to his craft and takes deserving pride in
what he has accomplished. Because of this, we can actually believe that he is capable of taking on the
responsibilities he now faces. He's a very likable character, but more than that, he's admirable, both as
an athlete and as a man. And that's more than enough to carry the book through some slow spots. GRADE : B
Rating:
Summary: a hero's tale
Review: Many of you will have read and loved Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of Gettysburg,
The Killer Angels (see Orrin's review). For Love of a Game is a previously unpublished baseball
novella that Jeff Shaara found amongst his father's paper after he died. Baseball was apparently a
great love of his father's and that love is apparent in this work. The story concerns a future Hall of Fame pitcher, Billy Chapel, who has spent his whole career with
one team, but now as he nears the end of his career he learns that he's been traded. As he takes the
mound for his final game of the season he ponders whether it will be the last of his career.
Compounding his problems, his long time girlfriend, Carol, has just told him that she's leaving. Billy
has always been a consummate professional, driven by respect for himself and the game, but like many
athletes, he's remained somewhat immature, a status that is best reflected in his inability to
acknowledge, to her or to himself, that he loves Carol. Over the course of a brilliantly pitched game,
Billy has to come to terms with the reality he has been able to hold off until now. He has to grow up. Shaara tells Billy's story as a kind of internal monologue, which inevitably makes for a talky and,
despite the intercut action of the game, somewhat claustrophobia-inducing tale. But Chapel is nearly
religious in his commitment to excellence and his determination to always use his gifts to the utmost of
his ability. He brings a refreshing respect and seriousness to his craft and takes deserving pride in
what he has accomplished. Because of this, we can actually believe that he is capable of taking on the
responsibilities he now faces. He's a very likable character, but more than that, he's admirable, both as
an athlete and as a man. And that's more than enough to carry the book through some slow spots. GRADE : B
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment from an accomplished author
Review: Michael Shaara usually spins a good tale and pulls the reader into the world of his characters. In this work, however, he seems to be disengaged. Perhaps it is because he was a boxer rather than a baseball player in his youth. Perhaps his agent was pushing for something to publish. Shaara misses the mark and not only doesn't make us ex-ball players identify with the characters, the story line is weak and transparent. Not up to the standards of The Broken Place or Killer Angels. Kinda like a weekday soap as opposed to Masterpiece Theater. The best thing about the book is that it is mercifully short.
Rating:
Summary: Simply transcendent
Review: More like a fable than a novella, and therefore lacking the complexities of character that make for the absolute best of the best literature, "For Love of the Game" nevertheless will stand as a classic American narrative. With a zen-like simplicity and clarity of vision, this beautiful story about a man's growth into the fullness of his life reminds us of what is important in life, of what makes living worth the effort. The comparison to Hemingway is a good one; both authors write with amazing economy. But Shaara is softer and gentler, and his prose somehow manages to be paradoxically both more lyrical and more transparent. Despite its simplicity, you'll want to read this one more than once.
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