Rating: 
Summary: God as Fascist.
Review: A must read. The text is thicker than an onion and one cries from the smell. Politics is a dirty game, but fun.
Rating: 
Summary: A read worth the reading.
Review: Accept no warnings from dissatisfied customers without checking the merchandise yourself. I read this when it came out, years ago (my background, editor in the physical science field; baseball lover) and found it a marvelous sad take on fantasy fixations; the dread thing that was programmed to happen, possibly, does happens--and things then fall apart for real; enough said). We needn't like everything, that's certain, but people who warn you that something is not worth reading or hearing or seeing, based on their own dumb reactions, are not playing the game right.
Rating: 
Summary: Better get a life, or you'll wind up imitating this art.
Review: As others have noted, this book is the Dr. Pepper of modern novels: you're going to like it or hate it. Clearly this novel can be read and interpreted at several levels; but it is especially appropriate for those who enjoy the dice-and-chart or statistically-oriented computer baseball simulations. To Mr. Stoddard's observation about a prediction of the future, it should be added that there is currently in development a PC-based baseball simulation that, rather than reproduce the statistics of major-league baseball players, will generate fictional players and give them fictional careers in a fictional league. Coover's novel tells us that this sort of simulation can become far more powerful as an alternate reality than one in which flesh-and-blood players mediate between the real world and the fantasy. I have suggested to the developer that he not include fatalities in his injury results table.
Rating:
Summary: Baseball strangles reality
Review: Coover's novel represents the supreme good and the ultimate evil of baseball: Reality and fantasy respectively and interchangably. Confused? You should be. Coover's last chapter (8 - somehow conjuring the idea that it is, and therefore baseball is, incomplete) muddles, mangles, and meshes reality and fiction with fiction, turning baseball into "what it is": history, mythology, mind-altering, obsession, and finally an unrecognizable conglomoration of rituals and ritual-hungry beasts. For all the profundity and confundity of chapter 8, Coover's vision of baseball is undeniably chilling: A reflection of the social atmosphere out of which the novel came. If 1968 is not the most exultant yet the most shattering years of the civil rights movement, then baseball is only a game.
Rating:
Summary: Coover changed baseball fiction forever with this book.
Review: Coover's UBAI (as many people refer to it) is a definitive postmodern take on the game. Only Don DeLillo's End Zone comes close in portraying the failure of identity through sportsmanship. Whether the protagonist (whose name recalls J. Alfred Prufock) has found in his made-up game a metaphor for an empty life, or shows himself a schizophrenic through it, is left for the reader to decide. It would be a truism to say that Coover deconstructs the national pastime in this novel; more to the point, he locates the pressure points of a culture's emptiness, replaced with the illusion of meaning through identifying with nonreality. This is not an anti-baseball novel--it could be called the ultimate tribute to the game's addictiveness, and as such it pays tribute to the addictive nature of American leisure activities, used to blank out a hectic, often brutal way of life. How baseball became postmodern--through cable TV dissemination, free agency, and the Oprah-ization of masculinity (Mark McGwire's tearful press conference this fall)--is anticipated in Coover's funny, finally tragic book. Strongly recommended to serious readers.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing novel
Review: Coover, in his best novel, crafts a picture of a life, a fantasy, and imaginary 'ballplayers' which is an incredible read. Anyone, ever, who has invented a storyline, baseball league, imaginary town or any sort of character to which they subsequently became attached will adore this book. Coover is still one of the best wordsmiths of all time.
Rating:
Summary: srat-o-matic was never like this
Review: Henry Waugh is a fifty-something accountant with no family, no friends & no future at work. All he
has going for him is that he is the creator & sole proprietor of the Universal Baseball Association.
Henry has invented a Stratomatic-type baseball game & taken it to the nth degree. He has rules for
virtually every possible occurrence & potential roll of the dice. He has populated the game with
players of his own creation. These players even participate in offseason activities, like pinball
tournaments, and get involved in Association politics when they retire. There are retired players
because Henry has played out over fifty UBA seasons. Henry hasn't simply created a game, he's
created a personal Universe.The greatest player in Association history was Brock Rutherford and now his son, Damon Rutherford,
is taking the UBA by storm. Henry's enthusiasm for the Association has waned in recent years, but the
rise of Damon Rutherford has renewed his interest. Suddenly the game is fun again and Henry's life
seems full & interesting. When young Damon throws a perfect game, Henry is so caught up in the
excitement that he tampers with his own rules and allows Damon to start his next game on one day of
rest. And, of course, when the Creator tampers with his own rules, his creations will pay the price. The first 150 or so pages of this book are absolutely fabulous. As disaster befalls the Association &
Henry's life crumbles around him he loses the ability to separate reality from fantasy and the book too
becomes confused, but it is still a terrific read. GRADE: A-
Rating:
Summary: srat-o-matic was never like this
Review: Henry Waugh is a fifty-something accountant with no family, no friends & no future at work. All he
has going for him is that he is the creator & sole proprietor of the Universal Baseball Association.
Henry has invented a Stratomatic-type baseball game & taken it to the nth degree. He has rules for
virtually every possible occurrence & potential roll of the dice. He has populated the game with
players of his own creation. These players even participate in offseason activities, like pinball
tournaments, and get involved in Association politics when they retire. There are retired players
because Henry has played out over fifty UBA seasons. Henry hasn't simply created a game, he's
created a personal Universe. The greatest player in Association history was Brock Rutherford and now his son, Damon Rutherford,
is taking the UBA by storm. Henry's enthusiasm for the Association has waned in recent years, but the
rise of Damon Rutherford has renewed his interest. Suddenly the game is fun again and Henry's life
seems full & interesting. When young Damon throws a perfect game, Henry is so caught up in the
excitement that he tampers with his own rules and allows Damon to start his next game on one day of
rest. And, of course, when the Creator tampers with his own rules, his creations will pay the price. The first 150 or so pages of this book are absolutely fabulous. As disaster befalls the Association &
Henry's life crumbles around him he loses the ability to separate reality from fantasy and the book too
becomes confused, but it is still a terrific read. GRADE: A-
Rating: 
Summary: HATED IT!!!
Review: i do not like this book at all. i am sure that it was entertaining for some readers out there. but i really got confuse with the notion of reality and imagine world of the main character. this is strictly for baseball fans, if you are not, this is a warning.
Rating:
Summary: if wiliiam burroughs liked baseball
Review: I found this to be a subervisevly scary book. i have been playing strat o matic baseball for well over 27 years. I understand well the idea of playing out your life in a fantasy world. somehow i always knew that it was just a game. I do know others i have played with over the years who it seems are unable to make this distinction. This is why i find this book to be scary. It hit home. by the way, the final chapter is unreadable and sounds like a william burroghs nightmare passage from interzone or the naked lunch. just not as entertaining.
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