The Ballpark Book : A journey Through the Fields of Baseball Magic

Rating:
Summary: Sporting News Ball Park Book
Review: This is a good overview of Major League Baseball ball parks old and new. I feel that this book was published a bit too early and glossed over new ball parks that have recently opened in San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, and Houston. Each park is represented with a two page color painting reminiscent of the Mack/Amadee cartoons published in the Sporting News' previous ball park book (Take Me Out To The Ball Game, now sadly, out of print). The color pictures in this volume are some of the best to ever see print in book form. I did not like the organization of the book (Classics, Middle Ages, Turf Era, etc) because many of the stadiums actually fall into more than one catagory or are placed in the wrong catagory altogether (Tropicana, Pro Player). Also, some ball parks were omitted or just received passing mentions (Baker Bowl, Seals Stadium, LA Coliseum, Wrigley Field LA, Colt Stadium, Parc Jarry, Mile High Stadium, KC Muni, RFK). As the new baseball stadiums are coming along so fast, a revised volume will probably be needed as soon as next year. Hopefully they can find some way to incorporate those great Mack/Amadee stadium cartoons, reorganize the book by city, and give a fuller treatment of some of the neglected ball parks. I did enjoy reading this book but I did not feel it was as complete as the earlier Sporting News volume and these glaring omissions need to be addressed in a future edition.

Rating:
Summary: Good Update (But Could have been Better)
Review: This is a good update to "The Sporting News Take Me Out to the Ballpark" book. The pictures provide a great update and the text provides an OK overview. No doubt, the large number of new ballparks caused the exclusion of many parks covered in that earlier edition. I felt the text went out of its way to say something good about every ballpark covered, even though the short duration of many of them is an indication that the designs missed the mark with fans and owners. (The cookie cutter parks of the 60's-70's are shortlived for many reasons.) The authors also missed or didn't write about the economic drivers for ballpark replacement (e.g. the need for more private boxes, the threatened departure from many of the cities by teams forcing the building of new stadiums, etc.). If you are looking for a casual fan's view, this book is fine. If you want more of a historical perspective including economics and architecture, read "Diamonds, The Evolution of the Ballpark".

Rating:
Summary: Good Update (But Could have been Better)
Review: This is a good update to "The Sporting News Take Me Out to the Ballpark" book. The pictures provide a great update and the text provides an OK overview. No doubt, the large number of new ballparks caused the exclusion of many parks covered in that earlier edition. I felt the text went out of its way to say something good about every ballpark covered, even though the short duration of many of them is an indication that the designs missed the mark with fans and owners. (The cookie cutter parks of the 60's-70's are shortlived for many reasons.) The authors also missed or didn't write about the economic drivers for ballpark replacement (e.g. the need for more private boxes, the threatened departure from many of the cities by teams forcing the building of new stadiums, etc.). If you are looking for a casual fan's view, this book is fine. If you want more of a historical perspective including economics and architecture, read "Diamonds, The Evolution of the Ballpark".

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but has some holes
Review: Very interesting and enjoyable overall, hence the 4 stars, but they omitted some parks, like Parc du Jarry in Montreal, Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Sick's Stadium in Seattle and the LA Coliseum. And the cartoons of some of the players are a little cheesy - especially when they're interspersed with photographs. Makes me miss the black-and-white illustrations in the 1983 edition. It could have also used some more shots of places we don't usually see, like the clubhouses, the dugouts and the press boxes. Finally, the book was released a bit prematurely, with Detroit, Houston and San Francisco opening new parks this year and Pittsburgh and Milwaukee following shortly.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but has some holes
Review: Very interesting and enjoyable overall, hence the 4 stars, but they omitted some parks, like Parc du Jarry in Montreal, Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Sick's Stadium in Seattle and the LA Coliseum. And the cartoons of some of the players are a little cheesy - especially when they're interspersed with photographs. Makes me miss the black-and-white illustrations in the 1983 edition. It could have also used some more shots of places we don't usually see, like the clubhouses, the dugouts and the press boxes. Finally, the book was released a bit prematurely, with Detroit, Houston and San Francisco opening new parks this year and Pittsburgh and Milwaukee following shortly.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Visually, this is a very nice piece of work, and ought to keep most baseball fans happy. It would have been nice, however, to see more complete writing on several parks (the piece on Dodger Stadium is especially short) and more photos. With new parks opening quickly, I hope a second, larger edition isn't too far off.