A Special Season: Players' Reflections on an Inspiring Year

Rating:
Summary: "A Special Season" makes for a Special Book
Review: I highly recommend this book to any and all Cardinals fans who want to remember the way the St. Louis Cardinals played through triumpf and tragedy to make it just short of the WS. This book, which was in journel type form, has great comments from Opening Day to the final game of the NLCS. It covers a wide variety of subjects from the new guys in the clubhouse, the most thrilling comeback wins, the deaths of the great Jack Buck and Darryl Kile, the strike threat, and the play offs. It's both heart warming and heart wrenching but worth every dime!
~JFB~DK57~
GO CARDINALS!

Rating:
Summary: "A Special Season" makes for a Special Book
Review: I highly recommend this book to any and all Cardinals fans who want to remember the way the St. Louis Cardinals played through triumpf and tragedy to make it just short of the WS. This book, which was in journel type form, has great comments from Opening Day to the final game of the NLCS. It covers a wide variety of subjects from the new guys in the clubhouse, the most thrilling comeback wins, the deaths of the great Jack Buck and Darryl Kile, the strike threat, and the play offs. It's both heart warming and heart wrenching but worth every dime!
~JFB~DK57~
GO CARDINALS!

Rating:
Summary: A special book for Cardinals fans
Review: Unlike most other baseball biographies, A Special Season focuses for the most part on everyday players, instead of super-stars. The majority of entries in the journal-style collection are from the team's thoughtful and intelligent Gold Glove catcher, Mike Matheny, often described as the team's spiritual leader. Pitching ace Matt Morris also has several segments, along with Fernando Vina, Kerry Robinson, Jason Isringhausen, Andy Benes and Miguel Cairo. Going beyond the cliched responses heard in most post-game interviews, the observations of the Cardinals players give fans an inside look at how players made it through the long, trying season. Although some entries deal with the tragedies the team endured in 2002, they don't dwell on them constantly. Starting with Opening Day and going through the last game of the National League Championship Series, the "diary" gives fans a look at the inner thoughts of the players. I would have liked a longer book, with commentary from more players and from coaches, but the chosen excerpts from these players were all insightful and interesting. Accompanied by a few black and white photographs with scrapbook-like captions and a list of results of every game of the 2002 season, paragraph-long biographies of the final 25 man roster, and team statistics, the book makes a nice keepsake for Cardinals fans who also endured that special and difficult season. Suitable for baseball fans of any age, the book is absolutely G-rated.