Battle Creek

Rating:
Summary: Non-Baseball fan crazy about this book...
Review: Despite the fact that the central plot of this book revolves around baseball, and I'm not a fan, I thought this was a great book. It put a real face issues that we all face in our lives. I'll be looking for more from Scott Lasser in the future.

Rating:
Summary: A Great story well told
Review: Excellent! Lasser's sharply written account of the lives of the members of a minor league baseball team is deeply engaging. His ability to capture the essence and subtlty of human interaction will draw you into this page turner. One of the best books i've read in years.

Rating:
Summary: Battle Creek a Good Read
Review: From the Detroit News: Saturday, May 29, 1999 Battle Creek is abaseball book that transcends the game Battle Creek By Scott LasserRob Weisbach/Morrow (A good read) By Cameron McWhirter The Detroit News Battle Creek pretends to be a baseball novel. But like all good novels about sports, the actual game isn't important, but the lives of the players are.    Scott Lasser, who grew up in suburban Detroit, has written a compelling first novel that follows the season of an amateur team sponsored by a funeral home. The Koch and Sons team is a motley crew of has-beens, never-weres and never-will-bes(...).year. They work hard. They drink too much. They all are plagued by growing old and accomplishing too little.    They dream, but they know in their hearts that those dreams are never going to become a reality.    Whatever their personal tragedies, they always return to the game. They know they can go back to baseball and perhaps, if only for an afternoon, win. Lasser sums up the plight of the main characters when the coach reflects on the poor rankings of the Tigers. (..)But on the whole, Battle Creek is a solid first effort that presents in stark relief the desperate lives of those saddest of all American species: the aging athlete.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable baseball tale
Review: Gil Davison coaches the BATTLE CREEK Koch and Sons semi-pro baseball team. For the past four years, Gil's talented team has played in the national championship game, only to lose each time. Though weary, Gil thinks this team can climb the final hump because of a new star hitter, recently released from jail.

As the season unfolds, Gil thinks of quitting after this year. He has fully enjoyed his three decades with the game, but is tired as outside concerns yanks at his mind. His father is dying from cancer. Though feeling guilty, Gil takes advantage and raids the senior citizen's check book to buy baseball supplies for his team. His mother has no idea how to even pay a bill. Already divorced, his son absolutely hates him. He also deals with the emotional ups and downs of the players. Simply, Gil is mentally worn out from the tugs of other people.

BATTLE CREEK is an entertaining baseball story that centers on the lives of semi-professional players and coaches, and their loved ones. The story line is fun, especially anticipating whether this year's team is to continue to be the Buffalo Bills of semi-professional baseball. Gil is the only person who seems fully developed as readers fully understand his inner turmoil. Women act as either sex objects or dingbats, and the players act more like cereal box heroes or goats. In spite of this flaw, Scott Lasser is a talent who makes the diamond an enjoyable place to visit even in a novel.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Best "guy" book this girl's ever read
Review: I became so immediately involved with the characters in this story that I forgot I was reading a book about baseball and men's lives ... I was completely engaged in everything about the story, and hated to see it end ... Thanks to Scott Lasser's amazing craft for characterization, I am now intrigued with baseball and the players and looking for an amateur baseball game, as well as Scott Lasser's next novel...

Rating:
Summary: Happy endings are not always totally happy
Review: I bought this book as a fathers day present for my dad, who was my little league coach, after reading about it in the Detroit Free Press. Prior to giving it to him, I read it and was deeply drawn to the story of fathers and sons--coaches and players.

But is some ways this is a morality tale. Sometimes to get what you want and maybe what you feel you deserve, you need to bend the rules. Do we as society like this--no, but in many ways the reward for success enourages it. Increasingly more and more of us are blurring the lines of morality and ethics to reach the top. Gil and Ben represent the proverbial bridesmaids who will do a little something extra to reach for the brass ring and we have to live through their mistakes and moral lapses.

My one concern was the issue of Gil and his father. The final act between father and son seemed to be as much about money as about pain. Maybe that's reality and is one reason why the happy ending is not totally happy.

Great first book.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read in years.
Review: I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting. A story of real people with real lives. Mr. Lasser is able to capture the readers attention right from the beginning and never lets go. This is a must read for all of us men who never got a chance to tell our fathers what we really felt. For some there's still time, for others it's too late. Looking forward to reading his next book.

Rating:
Summary: As Compelling as a Check Swing Single
Review: Like baseball, this book can be enjoyed at a very basic level. Unlike baseball however, Battle Creek lacks the depth and complexity to be treated as much more than a pleasant diversion. I sped through Battle Creek quickly and easily, without having to put too much thought into it. Being a Michigander, and a baseball fan, Battle Creek should have grabbed me and not let go. Instead, it merely guided be through page after page of everyday life. The characters were drawn well enough, they just never really popped from the pages. The baseball scenes seemed realistic and the relationships possible, if not a little shallow. I have no real complaints about this book. Likewise, I wouldn't call a friend to tell them to read it either. Instead, I'd suggest that anyone looking for real baseball reading pick up Bart Giamatti's "A Great and Glorious Game" and read the first essay, "The Green Fields of the Mind." That four page masterpiece contains more human drama, baseball knowledge and rich prose than Battle Creek achieves in over 200 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding!
Review: Mr. Lasser writes a compelling tale about people. The premise is baseball, which admittedly is a subject that doesn't interest me, but in spite of that, I really enjoyed the book. A true work of literature, and not just another mindless page-turner, this high-quality work is haunting and yet strangely uplifting.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book - I highly recommend it
Review: Scott Lasser's first book was an outstanding achievement that is clearly the beginning of a succesful career writing novels. Quit your day job Scott - you've found your calling. Although one might incorrectly confuse the novel as a story of baseball, it is really a book about dreams, people and relationships. Scott uses baseball as the common thread that binds the people together, and while baseball keeps the book moving, it is the insights provided by the characters and their development that makes the book a must read. I look forward to reading many more Scott Lasser novels in the future