Rating: 
Summary: Lupica Keeps Memories Of Great Baseball Season In Family
Review: "Summer of 98" is sports reporter Mike Lupica's sentimental, fast-read reaction to the heroes restoring baseball (if but for that season) to the forefront of American sports conversation. Lupica writes as father and son, journalist and fan while weaving the season's top stories (Kerry Wood; the New York Yankees and stars David Wells and Darryl Strawberry, most notably the Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire chase of Roger Maris' home run record) into a seamless, personal account.As McGwire chases Maris, then as Sosa chases McGwire, Lupica feels their impact most through his sons (for whom he updates the games with notes by their bedsides) and dad (who shared the Roger Maris chase of Babe Ruth when Lupica was nine). It's a refreshing, reassuring story: posters, cards and uniforms decorating a kid's room; the first day of Little League; dad taking kids to baseball games or watching them late on TV, then the chatter at the breakfast table before school; the reaction to McGwire's 62nd homer traveling from son to father back to sons. Despite occassional corny prose, Lupica succeeds by casting the story not in a mythical Iowa cornfield but in the lives of those who saw respite in these successes: a rest from the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, from the cynicism and avarice grown over sports, especially baseball, like Wrigley Field ivy. Lupica also draws the game's legends back into his narratives. Strawberry and the legendary Joe DiMaggio battle life-threatening illnesses (DiMaggio's two appearances at Yankee Stadium that year provide touching bookends to the story; Strawberry's travails here are made more notable by his recent relapses.) Orlando Hernandez shares a private, then public moment with his daughters as the Yankees march through the playoffs. Tony Gwynn takes his son to the monuments at Yankee Stadium where Lupica took his father. It adds up to what Lupica calls "a love inside a greater love" where news unites and bonds, not divides, generations. This story could only have been told about winners; it is thus a story Lupica's sardonic, brilliant ESPN colleague, Bill Conlin, could not have written. "Summer of 98" succeeds because ALL its characters are heroes: managers, old players, new players, fathers and sons (and Lupica praises the "baseball moms" too). Like any championship effort, everything had to go right to win. In the summer of 98, as in "Summer of 98," it did.
Rating: 
Summary: A Home Run
Review: A book about the home run race between McGwire and Sosa from veteran sportswriter/ESPN personality Mike Lupica seemed logical and appealing, but it's more than just a baseball book. Lupica follows the race while sharing it with his sons, just as his own father did as Maris and Mantle chased Babe Ruth in 1961. Some reviewers have ripped Lupica for this story, but I really don't understand why--the fast pace befits the air of soaring home run balls, and the bonding between father and sons (and his own father) is quite touching. An excellent choice.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Great
Review: An entertaining month-by-month account of the many reasons why 1998 was such a memorable baseball season, including the stories behind the stories. Unfortunately, the book is marred by the author's penchant for name-dropping. The common fan who spends a week's pay to take his kids to a game will have trouble relating to the the privileged Lupica clan as they stroll through Yankeee stadium with Buck Showalter, share intimate conversations with baseball legends old and new, and receive gifts of personally autographed bats on their birthdays. Not to mention great seats for all those games. Sure, we're just jealous, Mike, but rubbing our noses in it shows a lack of class.
Rating: 
Summary: A So So Baseball Book
Review: Baseball's season of '98 was, indeed, great. Especially if you are a Yankee fan as is Lupica and his children. They had a great team to root for, and he and his kids had a lot of memorable moments. This makes for a good story for fans of winning teams. Wouldn't it be nice if fans of small market teams had the same advantage as the Yankees and Mets?
Rating:
Summary: don't waste your money
Review: boring,childhish writing, not the real world of baseball
Rating: 
Summary: For Lupica Family members only
Review: Dont' read this book if you want a recap of the 98 baseball season. Do read it if you want to know more about Mike Lupica's kids, their favorite player, the name of their little league team, and the rules at the Lupica house for the boys bedtime. If you are related to Mike Lupica or are a friend of the family, by all means buy the book, you'll love it, since most of it is about people you know. For the rest of us, who bought it thinking we were getting the story of the 98 season, it is a waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: not very well written
Review: I am about 2/3 through this book and find myself continuing to read more to see if the bad writing could get much worse than for any other reason. Mike Lupica is just not a very good writer. The 1998 baseball season was definitely an interesting and memorable season. Thankfully, this book is a quick read - how could it not be with paragraphs like this: "Yet." I also find myself irritated at Lupica's lack of sense of what baseball is like to the average fan. He talks about baseball as experienced by a famous journalist, with access to much that we average fans will never get to see. Of course, that would be fine for a retrospective of the 98 baseball season. Unfortuantely, this book is also about Lupica's passing of his baseball love to his children. Very nice, but it would be hard to pass this along to my son to read, as I cannot bring him to the Yankee clubhouse; or to my father, who would probably love to set foot on the field in Yankee Stadium just once. He tells a story about racing down the highway to try to catch a possible perfect game at the Stadium while listening on the radio - hey, that could have been my family he endangered while driving like a maniac! He couldn't watch it on TV like the rest of us? It must be nice to have those connections. Yes, I know that Lupica has worked to gain these advantages. It seems in reading the book that Lupica takes them for granted. The one thing I like about this book (aside from the quick read) is that Lupica is positive about everything. He somehow even finds a way to praise the Yankee announcer John Sterling - no small feat. So I give this book one star - readable, but just barely. If you are looking for a restrospective of the 1998 baseball season, you might want to hold out to see if a good baseball journalist (Roger Angell?) will write one.
Rating:
Summary: Brought tears to my eyes!!
Review: I am not a true Baseball fan -- I am a true Yankee fan. But after last season, I've gotten into watching other teams other than the Yankees just to see what some of these players were doing. After reading Mike Lupica's book, it brought so much back of that season and I can remember where I was when I would hear the news of all the teams/players. Yes, it's true, Lupica tends to get a little "sappy" and yes, it's true, he's got an advantage I will never have -- but I still think the book is very well written and at times makes me choke up when I read a little excerpt out loud for someone else to hear and does bring tears of joy when reading not only about my beloved Yankees of today but of the old timers also. I will pass this book on to anyone who loves the game of baseball and the Yankees. Maybe if Lupica reads this review he'll get me to stand on the field at Yankee stadium -- it's my dream too!
Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment. Really. I thought so.
Review: I bought this book only because I love baseball and only because it was [inexpensive]. My uncle is also mentioned in the book, so I thought Id give it a try. I assume Mr. Lupica is a sportswriter, but I wish he would stick to his day job. This book is an abomination. Lupica thinks by writing constant incomplete sentences that it adds emphasis to his sentences. Sure, this works for a while, but when there is one in every paragraph, it gets old. Fast. Real Fast. Example. Here for you. The Reader. Of my review:
(PG. 20-- "McGwire had attended one of those Fan Fests that big-league teams hold during the winter, and had signed more than 300 autographs. For free. It only made him more of a giant. More like Babe Ruth." I mean, how does this drivel slip past the editor? I found myself skimming this book instead of reading it. Lupica repeats OVER AND OVER the phrase, "magical season," to the point where it's just not so magical anymore. When authors include their real life experiences, I like to hear how everyone really sounded. Lupica's 8-year old child just does not speak like this. I'm sorry. Ugh, I regret spending [money] on this and am sad that someone I know was mentioned. In it. Blegh
Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment. Really. I thought so.
Review: I bought this book only because I love baseball and only because it was [inexpensive]. My uncle is also mentioned in the book, so I thought Id give it a try. I assume Mr. Lupica is a sportswriter, but I wish he would stick to his day job. This book is an abomination. Lupica thinks by writing constant incomplete sentences that it adds emphasis to his sentences. Sure, this works for a while, but when there is one in every paragraph, it gets old. Fast. Real Fast. Example. Here for you. The Reader. Of my review:
(PG. 20-- "McGwire had attended one of those Fan Fests that big-league teams hold during the winter, and had signed more than 300 autographs. For free. It only made him more of a giant. More like Babe Ruth." I mean, how does this drivel slip past the editor? I found myself skimming this book instead of reading it. Lupica repeats OVER AND OVER the phrase, "magical season," to the point where it's just not so magical anymore. When authors include their real life experiences, I like to hear how everyone really sounded. Lupica's 8-year old child just does not speak like this. I'm sorry. Ugh, I regret spending [money] on this and am sad that someone I know was mentioned. In it. Blegh
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