Rating: 
Summary: Actually 4 1/2 stars
Review: Don't get me wrong this was a really good book. And I am so close to giving it 5 stars. It was just a little too short for me. The story invloving the ball game was great and showed why baseball is so pure at its core. The only thing that was lacking in the story was the story outside of the game. You will fly through this book, it is a good story and you will feel satisfied after reading it, even after that mild short coming I mentioned. Just my opnion, I could be wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Actually 4 1/2 stars
Review: Don't get me wrong this was a really good book. And I am so close to giving it 5 stars. It was just a little too short for me. The story invloving the ball game was great and showed why baseball is so pure at its core. The only thing that was lacking in the story was the story outside of the game. You will fly through this book, it is a good story and you will feel satisfied after reading it, even after that mild short coming I mentioned. Just my opnion, I could be wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: For the Love of the Game.... A Must Read!!
Review: FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAMEThe grass freshly cut always in diamonds so the ball almost skips right off of it. The dirt mixed with clay is drug before every game making the infield look so perfect that you are a afraid to set foot on it. The game itself America's pastime where a 40 year old man can be a kid again and a 1 year old child can have his first hot dog. While having 60,000 fans on the edge of their seats waiting to see what that same 40 year old man would do next. But, is their more to the game than that perfect picture? What about those men day after day that are treated like gods is that all they are? What about after all the lights are turned out and the uniforms are removed. Then what , those men once heroes are now normal people , no different than you or I . In Michael Shaara's novel For the Love of the Game baseball is given a new life , a man's life where only two things matter, baseball and the love that he is about to loose. Much like in other novels by Shaara his in depth detail really depicts life in baseball. Much like in the The Killing Angels Shaaras's Pulitzer Prize winning novel , the two stories both put the reader in the characters mind, where Shaara uses detail like " He played every game in this way: from man to man, from pitch to pitch aware of the way they stood, all their motions, with total concentration which excluded everything else"(pg.76). to enunciate his surroundings. Shaara has a style of writing that is so powerful that along with The Killer Angels this novel For the Love of the Game were made into major motion pictures. In this story the author uses a man's emotions to tell his life instead of his mind. The book gives the reader a look at the heart using baseball as a metaphor for life. Billy Chapel a pitcher for the Detroit. Now in his 19th season as a Tiger, is reaching the end of his career . Chapel now a legend winning every award the game has to offer. Is faced with the decision of his life. On the brink of being traded to the Giants. The Tigers season comes down to a final game against a must win Yankee team . Detroit already with no hopes of a playoff birth can destroy the Yankees hopes with a win . Billy is moved up a day to pitch. With his mind on his girlfriend and the hole city of New York against him. Chapel must pitch the game of his life to save his life. This book to me is now one of my favorites. For anyone who has ever competed when they had other things on their mind or even watched an athlete give everything he has when everyone is against him, then you must read this book. This book helps people put life in perspective. It has just the right amount of sports and romance. The author uses baseball to tell the story of a man, which is inciting and creative. I would recommend this book to everyone. The story has something for us all even if you hate sports Shaara gives us a lesson in life.
Rating:
Summary: As good as the movie
Review: GReat book with the exception of too much driffitng and too many elispes. Todd
Rating: 
Summary: It's All the Little Things!
Review: I love baseball stories, and I really liked 'Killer Angels', so I thought I would give this book a shot. This is not a baseball story. This is a story about lost love maybe, about regrets maybe, or about finally growing up maybe, but it's not a real baseball story. The ballgame serves as backdrop to the actual story, and really doesn't play a factor in the story until the end (No, I won't spoil any plot points). But there are so many little errors regarding the ball game, that they really got in the way of the story. First of all you have the Atlanta team, called the 'Hawks' here playing in Yankee Stadium. The Hawks are portrayed as a bunch of losers just riding out the last few days of the season. Obviously the Hawks are a National League team, because at one point the unlikable hero, pitcher Billy Chapel, gets up to bat. WHY would a pitcher be coming to the plate at Yankee Stadium, an American League team and stadium?? As if that isn't bad enough, Billy Chapel only gets up to bat twice. In a nine inning game, that's 27 outs total, with 9 players on the field, he would get up at least 3 times to bat, and with his team getting 5 hits, most likely 4. How is he skipped in the batting rotation?
Yes, yes I know....I sound like a Star Trek geek disecting every little bit of the story, but come on, this book was supposedly written by a baseball fan, and the dust jacket says how baseball fans will love the story. But all of these little things just kept getting in the way.
Now, getting away from the story completely. I just do not like novels, or stories written as if we are reading a person's train of thought. One minute Chaple is talking about his Father, and then about baseball, then about Carol, then about Gus, then about baseball, then about God, then about Carol, then about a skiing vacation......there was no cohesion. I know there was a movie version of 'For Love of the Game' done a couple years ago, and I am interested in seeing it, if for no other reason, than to see how the filmmakers accomplished making a movie where most of the action takes place in a guy's head.
If you are baseball fan, pick up the biography 'The Train' about Senators pitcher Walter Johnson, or watch 'The Natural' with Robert Redford, but avoid this book.
Rating:
Summary: This little novel left me in tears (Don't tell anyone.)
Review: I read the book in one easy afternoon sitting, and I'm not a speed reader. The story started slow, but grew better as the book went on - right to the very last sentence of the last page. I have not seen the movie, but I plan to now. It is a simple novelette with a powerful emotional appeal, and a very uplifting message about loyalty, love and determination.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent one-sit read!
Review: In spite of the fact that Kevin Costner will soon be interpreting this novel, I bought this book because I was curious about a baseball story written by my favorite author. I was not disappointed!! Michael Shaara's stream-of-conscience style transported me into Billy Chapel's mind. Even with little understanding of the thrills of baseball, Chapel's story really touched home. A perfect book for the airplane! (3 hour read max) If you liked this book, read "The Killer Angels"! It remains my favorite book of all time!
Rating:
Summary: a hero's tale
Review: Many of you will have read and loved Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of Gettysburg,
The Killer Angels (see Orrin's review). For Love of a Game is a previously unpublished baseball
novella that Jeff Shaara found amongst his father's paper after he died. Baseball was apparently a
great love of his father's and that love is apparent in this work. The story concerns a future Hall of Fame pitcher, Billy Chapel, who has spent his whole career with
one team, but now as he nears the end of his career he learns that he's been traded. As he takes the
mound for his final game of the season he ponders whether it will be the last of his career.
Compounding his problems, his long time girlfriend, Carol, has just told him that she's leaving. Billy
has always been a consummate professional, driven by respect for himself and the game, but like many
athletes, he's remained somewhat immature, a status that is best reflected in his inability to
acknowledge, to her or to himself, that he loves Carol. Over the course of a brilliantly pitched game,
Billy has to come to terms with the reality he has been able to hold off until now. He has to grow up. Shaara tells Billy's story as a kind of internal monologue, which inevitably makes for a talky and,
despite the intercut action of the game, somewhat claustrophobia-inducing tale. But Chapel is nearly
religious in his commitment to excellence and his determination to always use his gifts to the utmost of
his ability. He brings a refreshing respect and seriousness to his craft and takes deserving pride in
what he has accomplished. Because of this, we can actually believe that he is capable of taking on the
responsibilities he now faces. He's a very likable character, but more than that, he's admirable, both as
an athlete and as a man. And that's more than enough to carry the book through some slow spots. GRADE : B
Rating:
Summary: a hero's tale
Review: Many of you will have read and loved Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of Gettysburg,
The Killer Angels (see Orrin's review). For Love of a Game is a previously unpublished baseball
novella that Jeff Shaara found amongst his father's paper after he died. Baseball was apparently a
great love of his father's and that love is apparent in this work. The story concerns a future Hall of Fame pitcher, Billy Chapel, who has spent his whole career with
one team, but now as he nears the end of his career he learns that he's been traded. As he takes the
mound for his final game of the season he ponders whether it will be the last of his career.
Compounding his problems, his long time girlfriend, Carol, has just told him that she's leaving. Billy
has always been a consummate professional, driven by respect for himself and the game, but like many
athletes, he's remained somewhat immature, a status that is best reflected in his inability to
acknowledge, to her or to himself, that he loves Carol. Over the course of a brilliantly pitched game,
Billy has to come to terms with the reality he has been able to hold off until now. He has to grow up. Shaara tells Billy's story as a kind of internal monologue, which inevitably makes for a talky and,
despite the intercut action of the game, somewhat claustrophobia-inducing tale. But Chapel is nearly
religious in his commitment to excellence and his determination to always use his gifts to the utmost of
his ability. He brings a refreshing respect and seriousness to his craft and takes deserving pride in
what he has accomplished. Because of this, we can actually believe that he is capable of taking on the
responsibilities he now faces. He's a very likable character, but more than that, he's admirable, both as
an athlete and as a man. And that's more than enough to carry the book through some slow spots. GRADE : B
Rating:
Summary: Plot draws you in despite uneven writing
Review: Not having seen the movie based on this novel, I did not know what to expect. The story of retiring Billy Chapel's final game, pitching against the vaunted Yankees, is one for all baseball fans, but the love story which winds itself through Billy's mind between his trips to the mound is one for every romantic. I enjoyed the story immensely, thanks to the character development as a star athlete faces the end of his career. My only complaint is due to the many fragments employed by the author as he attempts to recreate Billy's thoughts and discussions. Frequent uses of "So." and "But." as sentences is distracting and left me with the feeling that the novel had not been edited one final time. Even so, this short novel is a jewel for anyone interested in the men who played the game for love, not for the unbelievable sums of money now demanded by players.
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