Rating: 
Summary: Readable and unique, but not without caveats
Review: The book should come with a large disclaimer: A GREAT DEAL OF THE MATERIAL IN THIS BOOK WAS ALREADY PUBLISHED IN WILL'S PREVIOUS BOOK, MEN AT WORK. I would estimate 40-60% in fact. In addition, Will apparently still only knows how to write two kinds of sentences, one of them so laden with commas that one would have enough time to engage in foreplay during all the pauses. Is this is what Will was doing while writing it? Still, the book is still worth reading since few others are writing so intelligently about the game. And it is interesting to see all in one book this supposed conservative's attitudes change toward things like the Designated Hitter rule, Ted Williams and free agency. San Francisco readers will especially appreciate the tribute to broadcaster Jon Miller, even if the facts it recounts differ somewhat from those in Miller's own excellent and much more readable book, CONFESSIONS OF A BASEBALL PURIST.
Rating: 
Summary: As masterful as a well-laid bunt itself
Review: The bunt is the quintessential unspectacular stroke of beauty in all sports. Unlike the slam dunk or home run, it lacks the self-aggrandizing adreneline essential to most other athletic feats. Appropriately, then, George Will has titled his book, a collection of stories about the unspectacular and the beautiful in baseball, after this most awesome of offensive maneuvers.Whether he is decrying the DH or lamenting the democratizion of sports, in "Bunts" George Will brings an intelligent and unique perspective to the national pastime. It is a must for all fans who find sports pages, sports magazines, and sports radio lacking. Passionate and intelligent, "Bunts" scores!
Rating: 
Summary: It just didn't deliver.....
Review: The first 100 pages of Will's book was a simple retelling of stories from "Men At Work." In the end, the repetition and banality of a his writings made it far less enjoyable than his (or other authors') baseball books. On the plus side, the time-line of baseball events that he provides the reader proved interesting. I enjoyed watching the progression of the game through the two decades of his work. If you've read "Men At Work," think seriously about passing this one by......You may find it redundant.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Bunt!
Review: There is one thing I must say to George Will -- Please take into consideration being Baseball Commissioner. Bunts is splendid and Mr. Will knows the game as he knows politics -- good! He elegantly tells a baseball story like Sammy Sosa hitting one out of Wrigley. An excellent book that belongs on the shelf with the autographed Joe Dimaggio baseball.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Homerun, But a Solid Hit
Review: This book contains more than 70 articles written about baseball by George Will between 1974 and 1997. Many of the essays are from the week of opening days or a post script of a season that just ended and these essays all have a similar tone and information, but all of them are well written and contain numerous facts, opinions and insights. The book also covers significant events in the history of baseball--the banning of Pete Rose, the strike of 1994, the fight for free agency and of course the yearly collapse of the Chicago Cubs, which is the team for which Will is a lifelong fanatic. This is not the best book of baseball stories I've read, but it is entertaining and thought provoking, so it deserves to be read by baseball fans and should be picked up by sports fans who want to learn why baseball is the most elegant sport and why it has so many diehard fans.
Rating:
Summary: Bow-Tie Reflections on Baseball
Review: Those who have read Will's "Men at Work" already are aware of the author's knowledge of the game as well as his talent to put it into words. This is a compilation of the author's articles on Baseball that have appeared primarily in his newspaper columns over the years. Mr. Will, a spokesman for the political right, discards his politics for these excursions into his passion. Indeed, one is surprized by how often Mr. Will sides with the players in the labor/management diputes that litter modern Baseball. The author shares his nostalgia for the past and his appreciation of the heros of the present. If he seems a bit caught up in his Cubs and Orioles, he can be forgiven because the reader has his/her own favorites. We know the frustration and joy of the same loyalties he shares with us. I read the first two thirds of the book one "column" at a time between other books. I did so because I had read "The Best of Jim Murray" some years ago and did so over the course of several days. By the mid-point of that book, I came to the realization that Mr. Murray had written the same column for decades. It was just a matter of changing the name of the subject. You don't catch on to that reading two or three columns a week. Well, I read the last third of the book in the course of several hours. I did not get the same reaction that I got to Murray's book. However, I lost track of the number of times the total season attendance of the 1935 St. Louis Browns (80,922) was compared to the Opening Day attendance of the 1993 Colorado Rockies (80,227). There were other such repetitions of facts and figures that were noticeable when the book is read cover to cover. I suggest you savor the articles and let the book entertain you throughout the course of a summer or a year. However you choose to read it, don't miss this intellectual appreciation of what was once known as "America's Pasttime".
Rating:
Summary: Bow-Tie Reflections on Baseball
Review: Those who have read Will's "Men at Work" already are aware of the author's knowledge of the game as well as his talent to put it into words. This is a compilation of the author's articles on Baseball that have appeared primarily in his newspaper columns over the years. Mr. Will, a spokesman for the political right, discards his politics for these excursions into his passion. Indeed, one is surprized by how often Mr. Will sides with the players in the labor/management diputes that litter modern Baseball. The author shares his nostalgia for the past and his appreciation of the heros of the present. If he seems a bit caught up in his Cubs and Orioles, he can be forgiven because the reader has his/her own favorites. We know the frustration and joy of the same loyalties he shares with us. I read the first two thirds of the book one "column" at a time between other books. I did so because I had read "The Best of Jim Murray" some years ago and did so over the course of several days. By the mid-point of that book, I came to the realization that Mr. Murray had written the same column for decades. It was just a matter of changing the name of the subject. You don't catch on to that reading two or three columns a week. Well, I read the last third of the book in the course of several hours. I did not get the same reaction that I got to Murray's book. However, I lost track of the number of times the total season attendance of the 1935 St. Louis Browns (80,922) was compared to the Opening Day attendance of the 1993 Colorado Rockies (80,227). There were other such repetitions of facts and figures that were noticeable when the book is read cover to cover. I suggest you savor the articles and let the book entertain you throughout the course of a summer or a year. However you choose to read it, don't miss this intellectual appreciation of what was once known as "America's Pasttime".
Rating:
Summary: Bow-Tie Reflections on Baseball
Review: Those who have read Will's "Men at Work" already are aware of the author's knowledge of the game as well as his talent to put it into words. This is a compilation of the author's articles on Baseball that have appeared primarily in his newspaper columns over the years. Mr. Will, a spokesman for the political right, discards his politics for these excursions into his passion. Indeed, one is surprized by how often Mr. Will sides with the players in the labor/management diputes that litter modern Baseball. The author shares his nostalgia for the past and his appreciation of the heros of the present. If he seems a bit caught up in his Cubs and Orioles, he can be forgiven because the reader has his/her own favorites. We know the frustration and joy of the same loyalties he shares with us. I read the first two thirds of the book one "column" at a time between other books. I did so because I had read "The Best of Jim Murray" some years ago and did so over the course of several days. By the mid-point of that book, I came to the realization that Mr. Murray had written the same column for decades. It was just a matter of changing the name of the subject. You don't catch on to that reading two or three columns a week. Well, I read the last third of the book in the course of several hours. I did not get the same reaction that I got to Murray's book. However, I lost track of the number of times the total season attendance of the 1935 St. Louis Browns (80,922) was compared to the Opening Day attendance of the 1993 Colorado Rockies (80,227). There were other such repetitions of facts and figures that were noticeable when the book is read cover to cover. I suggest you savor the articles and let the book entertain you throughout the course of a summer or a year. However you choose to read it, don't miss this intellectual appreciation of what was once known as "America's Pasttime".
Rating:
Summary: Clever, literate, caustic views of baseball, et.al.
Review: Will is a clever writer who never minimizes his readers' intelligence. While I personally disagree with almost everything the man stands for politically, I find myself agreeing with most of his stances on the American Pastime. This collection of essays, laid out chronologically, gives the reader an historical perspective on the sport, as well as a collection of opinions of this most opinionated man. I tired a bit of his incessant belittling of the DH, and his self flaggelation for his Cubs obsession, but overall Will's essay are inciteful and crisp. The best thing about a book of essays is its readabliltiy: a great bathroom book, so to speak. Read a little, read a lot. "Bunts" is not as good as "Man at Work," but it got me through a couple of snowy February nights in Colorado.
Rating:
Summary: An intelligent insight from an enduring fan of the game.
Review: Will's book is segmented by nature. It is a collection of essays and reviews, and is therefore not a narrative at all. However, each short stanza reflects as much about Will's personal devotion to the game as his refreshingly candid assessments of American culture. It is primarily a book for Chicago Cubs fans. He traces the evolution of baseball as a whole and counterparts this with the mediocre constancy of his beloved Cubbies. "Bunts" is about undying patriotism to the American pastime and one's team. He speaks well of the connection between media broadcaster and team loyalty. Will cites evidence that an over-reaching Federal Communications Commission once tried to take control of baseball broadcasts and ban partisan sportscasting. If they had succeeded, the late Harry Caray would have never had the chance to delight us as the voice of the Cubs, whose popularity outnumbers nearly every team despite ninety years without winning a World Championship. For the real baseball fan, intent on remembering the past with sentimentalism, intelligence, and conservative flair "Bunts" belongs in the baseball book Hall of Fame.
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