Rating: 
Summary: Don't Bother If You Like Baseball
Review: For a baseball fan, this book is awful, almost painful. It's pretty clear the author doesn't really understand baseball. The book is full of obvious errors. For example (from page 69):"Scott Maloney, pumped up for the battle, came straight out and whacked a double off Fisher's second fastball, straight into the left-center gap. Ray Sweeney came up and took the first pitch, an inside fastball he banged right between the first and second baseman. This put runners and first and second." Okay, a double followed by a single puts runners at first and second? A single on a pitch the batter "took"? Not only is the author clueless, but apparently no one bothered to employ an editor. Not all of the baseball-related errors are this awful, but most of the baseball narrative has minor flaws, inconsistencies, and just doesn't sound right. I gave up after about a hundred pages, but according to other reviews the book gets worse as it goes along. DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS BOOK!!
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother If You Like Baseball
Review: For a baseball fan, this book is awful, almost painful. It's pretty clear the author doesn't really understand baseball. The book is full of obvious errors. For example (from page 69): "Scott Maloney, pumped up for the battle, came straight out and whacked a double off Fisher's second fastball, straight into the left-center gap. Ray Sweeney came up and took the first pitch, an inside fastball he banged right between the first and second baseman. This put runners and first and second." Okay, a double followed by a single puts runners at first and second? A single on a pitch the batter "took"? Not only is the author clueless, but apparently no one bothered to employ an editor. Not all of the baseball-related errors are this awful, but most of the baseball narrative has minor flaws, inconsistencies, and just doesn't sound right. I gave up after about a hundred pages, but according to other reviews the book gets worse as it goes along. DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS BOOK!!
Rating: 
Summary: the best book ever
Review: i totally agree with jeff reardon when he says "this is the best book about baseball...ever!" i have never read anything better than this book and i 100% reccommend it
Rating:
Summary: the best book ever
Review: i totally agree with jeff reardon when he says "this is the best book about baseball...ever!" i have never read anything better than this book and i 100% reccommend it
Rating:
Summary: the best book ever
Review: I'm somewhat taken aback by the negativity of some of the reviews that other readers have posted regarding this book. Yes, there are inconsistencies but this isn't Bill James and the Baseball Abstract. At its heart it's kind of a romantic novel that uses baseball as its backdrop in writing about setting goals and reaching them. Focusing on the baseball content of this book and then criticizing it for it's lack of accuracy, would be about as stupid as watching Get Smart to do research on the CIA. Instead, I would suggest that readers focus on some of the relationships between the characters in this book. The interplay between star pitcher Jack Farber with his father and catcher make for great reading. The same is true for the descriptions of the Northeast and some of the some small cities the Cape League plays their games. Where the book does tend to fall apart is at the end. The writer attempts to make a negative statement about the attitudes of professional athletes by concocting an unrealistic ending that is far too predictable. Still, I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to most people. In fact, I would even it recommend it to most baseball fans with the exception of those geeks that spend way too much time with box scores rather than with real life. Finally, another recommendation for a fun baseball book would be Summerland by Michael Chabon.
Rating: 
Summary: A Pleasant Story -- Flawed but Fun
Review: I'm somewhat taken aback by the negativity of some of the reviews that other readers have posted regarding this book. Yes, there are inconsistencies but this isn't Bill James and the Baseball Abstract. At its heart it's kind of a romantic novel that uses baseball as its backdrop in writing about setting goals and reaching them. Focusing on the baseball content of this book and then criticizing it for it's lack of accuracy, would be about as stupid as watching Get Smart to do research on the CIA. Instead, I would suggest that readers focus on some of the relationships between the characters in this book. The interplay between star pitcher Jack Farber with his father and catcher make for great reading. The same is true for the descriptions of the Northeast and some of the some small cities the Cape League plays their games. Where the book does tend to fall apart is at the end. The writer attempts to make a negative statement about the attitudes of professional athletes by concocting an unrealistic ending that is far too predictable. Still, I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to most people. In fact, I would even it recommend it to most baseball fans with the exception of those geeks that spend way too much time with box scores rather than with real life. Finally, another recommendation for a fun baseball book would be Summerland by Michael Chabon.
Rating:
Summary: Low and Outside
Review: My "bad book" antennae were alerted on page 1 of this tome when I noticed a rather pathetic typo (Mississippi is misspelled), and nothing on the succeeding 400 pages allowed them to relax, even though I went into "skim for big events" mode about halfway in. This is a bad novel, with all the authenticity of hair in a can, and as flat as the troublesome slider thrown by the nominal hero of the story. The baseball action is described in aimless, excessive, and error-prone detail, almost every plot line is preposterous and full of holes, and the dialogue reads like something out of a Chip Hilton story. Examples beyond what has been offered in other reviews: - Hard luck mother of catcher despairs of his ever getting started with a law career if he wastes a couple of precious years trying to play baseball. Yep, those law firms hate to hire former athletes... - A pitcher from a college baseball powerhouse goes from summer league MVP to being essentially cut from his team, AND NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT. Did Einstein predict the presence of media black holes, too? - A pitcher (from Stanford, no less) continues to pitch through pain; apparently the lure of the Ted Kennedy Trophy (I'm not making this up) is far greater than the $2 MM+ signing bonus he'll get for being a first round draft pick. Ugh. Even the "local color" of the summer league scene, which was the reason I picked up the book in the first place, is trotted out with a sort of Truman Show kind of gloss, and goes nowhere. No runs, no hits, and too many errors.
Rating:
Summary: Not For Baseball Fans
Review: Patrick Robinson is obviously a Brit writing about the American Pastime. There are many basic flaws in his description of the game's play-by-play. From a batter sharply pulling an outside fastball to a runner only advancing from second to third on a double, the fundamentals of baseball are repeatedly broken. Many times, his descriptions of the game's action will confuse you. Of course, that confusion is nothing compared to the disbelief the last third of this novel instills in you. The outlandish, drawn out, fantasy ending to this story may cause a violent reaction from your gut...
Rating: 
Summary: Weak storyline but plenty of suspense
Review: Patrick Robinson's "Slider" is like a cool glass of lemonade on a warm summer's night. It satisfies. If you are looking for a baseball book, look someplace else. This is a summer story about a Louisiana farm boy who pitches summer ball in the Cape Marlin League. It is a story about his Farmer's Almanac dad struggling to make ends meet from the sugar cane harvest while waiting and praying for the drilling crews on the western end of the farm to find a natural gas strike. It is a story about his teammate, the catcher from Chicago, and his music teacher mother who detests that baseball is drawing her son away from law school and an escape from poverty. The book is chock full of late inning heroics by collegians trying to get noticed by the major league scouts who camp out in the summer on Cape Marlin (Cape Cod) claiming to work for a living charting players and clocking the speed of pitches. The innings and games move quickly through the book, never lingering too long to be dissected by baseball purists. I like Robinson's work. He doesn't overpower you with a fastball, but his "Slider" is good enough stuff to keep you reading and enjoying until the end.
Rating: 
Summary: As Good as a Ground Rule Double
Review: Patrick Robinson's "Slider" is like a cool glass of lemonade on a warm summer's night. It satisfies. If you are looking for a baseball book, look someplace else. This is a summer story about a Louisiana farm boy who pitches summer ball in the Cape Marlin League. It is a story about his Farmer's Almanac dad struggling to make ends meet from the sugar cane harvest while waiting and praying for the drilling crews on the western end of the farm to find a natural gas strike. It is a story about his teammate, the catcher from Chicago, and his music teacher mother who detests that baseball is drawing her son away from law school and an escape from poverty. The book is chock full of late inning heroics by collegians trying to get noticed by the major league scouts who camp out in the summer on Cape Marlin (Cape Cod) claiming to work for a living charting players and clocking the speed of pitches. The innings and games move quickly through the book, never lingering too long to be dissected by baseball purists. I like Robinson's work. He doesn't overpower you with a fastball, but his "Slider" is good enough stuff to keep you reading and enjoying until the end.
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