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Good for diehards, but dated and riddled w errors

Revisado: 03-02-17

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This had been in my queue a while and was a good listen to get back into baseball during spring training. Some great history, anecdotes and perspective on how the sausage is made in building baseball organizations. It is remarkable just how distinct the baseball scouting process and the formation of teams are from the process of Human Resources that govern most of the rest of the professional world.

Obviously, the book is dated. It shows in ways expected by the baseball fan, for example how completely lacking statistical analytics were in the era, and the unavailability of video of prospects. It also shows in ways that were unexpected if not unsurprising, with players being described with phrases like "a loosey-goosey black," or in the scouts' reliance on racial stereotype, i.e., "blacks are fast," "Italians get fat in their 20s, just when Polish kids are losing their baby fat."

Finally, I am always amazed when a narration includes rampant mispronunciation. After all, this production was meant to be read out loud. I guess the narrator is a member of the author's family, and that is great, but obviously he is not as much a fan of the game as the author. Juan Marichal is "Mar-I-Kal," Birdie Tibbets' last name is pronounced like the region of Tibet with an "s" on the end, Frank Viola is "Vee-ola," and then of course there is Bill Veeck (who must hold the baseball record for having his name mispronounced in audiobooks: c'mon guys, Veeck's autobiography is titled "Veeck as in Wreck"). The list goes on and on. I am not going to list all of the names mispronounced here. It is probably a minor thing. An annoyance. But in a production that is meant to be read out loud, literally that has that as its purpose, should it be excusable? It did take away something from the enjoyment for me.

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A Worthy Listen, With Limitations

Revisado: 02-15-17

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First, there is very little new here. I don't know how well that is advertised in the description on Audible, but if you read Taibbi's stuff regularly, the only new stuff here is the foreword and epilogue. Everything else was previously written, published and available for free.

As someone who does read Taibbi regularly, I do think that there is value in having all of this content collated and organized as it is here. It is a great rehash of the 16 cycle, and it shows Taibbi going from his first chapter position (American politics is broken and the process is corrupted), through the rise of Trump and his disbelief that Trump could or would carry on, and 180 degrees back to the conclusion that the process and politics are broken and inexplicable.

But then, he tries to explain it. In fairness, that's his job. But, he struggles. This is the other redeeming quality of having the work all together in one volume. Taibbi is smart and perceptive, but his writing always has a stream of consciousness style. I can almost feel the keys banging as he harangues, goes on tangents, returns to his main arguments, sometimes refutes them, and so on.

Some of his habits get heavy at times. He appears to like no one. Everyone is a clown or a knucklehead, or worse. He tends to seize on a single characteristic or even statement by a person and embellish that to become their identity. His invective can be creative and sometimes laugh out loud funny, but it is also merciless. He includes a paean to Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr and tolerance in the epilogue. But he can apparently tolerate no one.

He chides President Obama for breaking a long list of campaign promises, but also celebrates his discipline and marvels at his self control. In Trump, the same inveterate lying is intolerable, evidently because Trump lacks the same self control and discipline.

Taibbi blasts one candidate for mixing his metaphors, and includes a dozen of his own in these pages (politicians refused to "hear" what Americans were "thinking.")

The point is that Taibbi, and his work, exemplifies the complexity of morals, manners and politics of our age. Be skeptical of anyone who tries to tell you it is simple - even Taibbi, when he does. But mostly, he doesn't. He tries to understand, to assimilate facts and changing information. Watching that process play out is instructive.

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Interesting take on a 5-year period in two famous lives

Revisado: 11-24-16

There are a lot of books, movies and other sources out there on these two men, but this is the story of five tumultuous years that they were at the center of. Definitely offers a new take - and, in part, a takedown - of their lives. Certainly an expose of rampant corruption and criminality within the NOI. The author accuses the NOI of orchestrating Malcolm X's murder and also hints at some complicity on the part of the FBI.

I thought that the narration was good overall, but with a couple major flaws that were annoying. This is a well-done production, the producers and narrator should make sure that they are pronouncing words correctly, including Accra (e-krah, emphasis on the second syllable) and reporter Dick Schaap's last name, rhymes with chap not chop. Finally, imitating Ali is always fraught with peril and the narrator has to attempt it on several occasions. As Ali's onetime fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco once said, "if you say it, you sound childish; if he says it's funny."

Other than those minor problems a worthwhile listen.

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Really close to five stars. Great listen.

Revisado: 05-17-16

Passan has a lot to say, and like me I would guess that most baseball fans will consume this book ravenously. To me, a five-star book is among the best ever, this is not quite there but it's really close. The story covers a very wide breadth, and there are times when some of it doesn't quite hang together (I love NPB too and I'm sure the trip to Japan was fun, but not sure how much it adds) but all in all it is a compelling piece of baseball writing that also really qualifies as journalism.

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Good read for hard-core baseball fans

Revisado: 05-06-16

Southern League is a solid baseball book overall. My only objection with the author would be the very chopped up way in which the story is told. Also, I would've mixed in more elements of the contemporary politics earlier in the book before introducing each and every one of the characters in such detail.

The audio performance is adequate. The actor has some really laughable Southern accents, and there are some faux pas (for example, reading baseball scores with the word and instead of the word to, so "the Barons won, 7 and 2.")

Those are the things that bring it down to a three for me, but it is a compelling story about an interesting season and should definitely be on a must-read list for baseball fans.

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