The Baseball by Zack Hample, is a book about baseball. It’s not about the sport or the history of the game, it’s about the baseball itself.
There are three parts: Baseball in the News, Historical and Factual Stuff, and Facts on How to Snag a Major League Baseball. All of these parts go into depth about those aspects. There have been many books about baseball, but not about the baseball itself, until this book.
Zack Hample
Hample is best known for ball-hawking. Ball-hawking is the process of going to major league games and catching a bunch of baseballs. He has caught more than 10,000 baseballs including Mike Trout’s first home run and Alex Rodriguez’ 3,000th hit. His other big feats are owning the world’s largest rubber band ball and holding the world record in the game Arkanoid. He also has written three books: How to Snag Major League Baseballs, Watching Baseball Smarter , and The Baseball. On top of all that, he often donates to a charity called, Pitch in for Baseball.
Summary
The first part of the book is “Baseball in the News”. In this part, Hample goes over times baseball has ended up in the news and media, for good or bad reasons (and by “bad” I mean he has an entire chapter on times people have been killed by a ball). My personal favorite chapter is foul balls in pop culture. He goes over times a person has caught a ball in pop culture and judges how realistic they are.
The second part of the book is “Historical and Factual stuff”. This part goes over the changes to the ball over time and how to make and disassemble a ball. In chapter 6, he goes over the changes in the baseball from 1847 to 2011. It is interesting to see the changes in baseballs overtime but going over every change year by year is not needed. Chapter 7 goes over how a baseball is made, this chapter was very interesting and helped get my interest in the book back after it was lost in chapter 6.
The third part of the book is “How to Snag Major League Baseballs.” The odds of grabbing a baseball are low, 1 in 556 to be exact. Hample manages to breaks these odds every day, as he catches multiple majors league balls every game he goes to like it’s nothing. He goes over how to catch a ball in all the parts of the game. He also gives you tips on where to be and which stadiums to avoid.
Review
I would not recommend this book for everyone, only the biggest baseball fans. I’m not saying it’s boring or too complicated, I just don’t think a non-baseball fan would enjoy it. However, if you are a huge fan, I would recommend this book to you. There is not another book like it so you get a unique experience while reading.
Although it is a good book, there are flaws. The biggest flaw is that some of the chapters go on for too long. This most applies to chapter 6, which goes on for 62 pages. This can make topics become boring because you read about them for so long.
This book’s biggest strength is the writing. Hample found a good way to balance humor and information. This book is supposed to be informative, but it’s good to add humor so it doesn’t just feel like a wall of text. However, too much humor can mess with the flow of the book. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it’s something you should add to your reading list.
