More Than a Ballgame: An Inside Look at Minor League Baseball

Rating:
Summary: Wanted More at The End
Review: A very insightful book. Full of interesting characters and unexpected stories. I have a much clearer idea of the pro's and cons of what many see as a dream job after reading it. Very detailed and lots of humor. I wish they added an Epilogue. Some questions are unanswered at the end. But if you are considering working in minor league ball, this book is required reading. The sole 1 star review looks like sour grapes to me.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy of attention by baseball readers and enthusiasts
Review: Books about minor-league baseball are usually from three basic viewpoints: (1) the baseball fan who is severely disgruntled at the major-league level. They travel with family in their van, or with a dog in a Winnebago to a backwater, minor league town for the love of baseball and its positive meaning in American life; (2) the zany antics of the ballplayers and operators are described with great humor and clever photography; (3) carefully crafted minor-league history books with excellent photographs of old ballplayers and detailed, color presentation of old uniforms. Their content, and in several cases their historical accuracy, are quite limited. Sam Lazzaro's book does not fit into any of these categories. For that reason alone it is worthy of attention by baseball enthusiasts. Although Lazzaro does not give accounts of the major-league ballplayers who developed during their stay in the Carolina League, he does give exceptional accounts of the day-to-day operations and the various people involved in the minor-league franchise. Definitely a book worth a good look! David Kemp, quoted from "The Sioux Falls Argus Leader"

Rating:
Summary: I sense a man who loves baseball, so much so he would move
Review: When I visited relatives in Germany, they took me to many of the famous places in Europe; but they also took me to little out-of-the-way places -- streets, eateries, towns, backroads -- that the typical tourist never visits. I got a unique flavor of Europe because my relatives had lived there and they knew far more than what was on the surface. This was my perspective of minor league baseball from More Than A Ballgame. I've never really been to Elmira, but I feel like I have because Sam Lazzaro took me thre. I've never been where Sam has in his associaiton with baseball, but I feel like I have an inside view of it now. On the one hand, I'm still the 10-year-old who says being in baseball for a living would be great. On the other hand, I'm the nearly 52-year-old body who says a baseball career is not so glamorous a ride that I would want to deal with all of the baggage that goes with it. I got the former (without the latter) in More Than A Ballgame. I'm sure getting to know great people in the game was a great thrill. So was seeing people and places "then and now." But mud holes for visiting locker rooms wasn't. Nor long bus rides. Nor aggravating individuals who thought they knew it all because they had money. I sense a man who loves baseball. So much so he would move from state to state and put up with obnoxious people just to be a part of that game. I didn't ask for Shakespeare to write the book. Polish is nice. But it's nothing without the vehicle, and Sam provides that vehicle because he knows whereof he speaks. Having worked in the same Carolina League organization as Sam, I know personally something about his work ethic, his aim for perfection, his planning ahead and getting the job done right and on time -- hopefully with others' help, but sometimes by himself. I know how an organization benefits from Sam's ability and love for his job, and how it hurts when he's gone and there are all those undone things that were taken for granted because Sam did them. He's not flamboyant. Not glamorous. Just solid. Sam is a lot like an umpire. He calls 'em the way he sees 'em. He has a job to do and does it. He expects flak. He makes mistakes. There will always be someone to disagree with him. That happens when you're a man of integrity. I can tell through what he says in More Than A Ballgame that baseball has given Sam a lot, and he is very appreciative for all of it. He chooses to see the positive far better than the negative. He makes me wish I'd been there. And in one sense, I feel like I have. Thanks for the tour. I loved it. Call me when the bus loads again.