Quite a while back, a friend of mine, Craig T, posted a quote on his website from Charlie "Tremendous" Jones that said "You are the same today as you'll be in five years, except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read." Just as it inspired Craig to read more, it has done the same for me. Especially since I don't like meeting new people, I figured I better pick up a book.
With Tony La Russa recently signing a contract extension and the Cardinals letting McRae go and hiring McGwire, I thought of a book I finished about 2 months ago called "3 Nights in August." It's by Buzz Bissinger, who also penned Friday Night Lights. In the epilogue, he explains that while he didn't intend for the book to be an answer to Moneyball, it turned out being considered that. The book is geared more toward hard core baseball fans, and La Russa and his staff (at the time of the book anyway) are certainly of the old baseball guard and not the Harvard MBA, number-crunching stat nerds that are praised in Moneyball. The book chronicles the Cardinals 2004 season through the window of a 3 game series. The book goes inning by inning, sometimes pitch by pitch through a 3 game series (in guess what month). Mixing that with La Russa's baseball stragedy, career experiences and life, and the season so far keep the book flowing and not feeling as if it's a book simply about a 3 game series. Overall, I recommend the book to anyone who is a baseball fan and particularly anyone who as read Moneyball, to see the other side of the story.
Also, another book to keep you going through the baseball offseason, I finished "The Long Journey" home this fall as well. It's the story of a minor league prospect during World War II. It's a good mix of baseball and history.
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