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jfranco77's review against another edition
5.0
This book gets better as it goes along. Barry describes the circumstances surrounding the longest game in baseball history - a 33-inning affair between Rochester and Pawtucket (Triple-A level) in 1981. The story is about more than the game - it's about the players and coaches, the town of Rochester, McCoy stadium, where they have come from, and where they are headed.
It is a well written book with dense language and excellent narrative. Sometimes it seems a bit overdone for something as simple as a single minor league game, but Barry lends gravitas to a game that can still be incredibly poetic and reminds you that baseball is more than just a game. Barry describes friendships and families, success and failure, and the burning desire to make it to the major leagues. Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs played in this game, but Barry doesn't give them any more focus than career minor leaguers like Dave Koza and Joe Morgan (in fact, he probably gives them less).
More Stephen King than Halberstam in introducing new characters. King's style is a few paragraphs about a new character, a brief action and then moving on to another character. Barry uses a similar style. This allows him to come back to the characters later and build on the reader's knowledge about them.
Barry's description of the building of McCoy stadium, is awesome. As is the history of baseball in Pawtucket. These things will keep you going as the book builds to its halting conclusion (game suspended after 32 innings!), its actual conclusion (ends in the 33rd after a 2-month delay and a lot of fanfare) and its emotional denouement (following up with the characters after the fact).
Much like the game itself, this book gets better as it goes along, and when it ends, you wish it could somehow keep going.
It is a well written book with dense language and excellent narrative. Sometimes it seems a bit overdone for something as simple as a single minor league game, but Barry lends gravitas to a game that can still be incredibly poetic and reminds you that baseball is more than just a game. Barry describes friendships and families, success and failure, and the burning desire to make it to the major leagues. Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs played in this game, but Barry doesn't give them any more focus than career minor leaguers like Dave Koza and Joe Morgan (in fact, he probably gives them less).
More Stephen King than Halberstam in introducing new characters. King's style is a few paragraphs about a new character, a brief action and then moving on to another character. Barry uses a similar style. This allows him to come back to the characters later and build on the reader's knowledge about them.
Barry's description of the building of McCoy stadium, is awesome. As is the history of baseball in Pawtucket. These things will keep you going as the book builds to its halting conclusion (game suspended after 32 innings!), its actual conclusion (ends in the 33rd after a 2-month delay and a lot of fanfare) and its emotional denouement (following up with the characters after the fact).
Much like the game itself, this book gets better as it goes along, and when it ends, you wish it could somehow keep going.
mmadans's review against another edition
1.0
I love baseball and was looking forward to this book. I remember this game happening and figured this would be a fun read. Instead, there were so many words...if wrote my review like this book, it would be 37 pages. Enough said.
eely225's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful, transcendent book. It almost invites you into the meditative state of that longest-ever game, drifting easily between innings and biographies, histories and statistics. It's the kind of book that makes you fall in love with baseball all over again, or perhaps even for the first time.
theartolater's review against another edition
4.0
If you're a baseball fan, you understand how the pace, the flow, the movement of a game works. There's so much to a game, the little things, the details not only of the current game but of the impact they'll have on other games. I like reading books about baseball, but this is probably the first baseball book that has gotten the real feel of the game for me.
In 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings played a baseball game that ended up going 33 innings. Cal Ripken Jr played in the game, as did Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, and a number of other marginally famous to instantly forgotten players. This book excels in that it takes a significant amount of time with each player involved, both then and, if possible, today. It's perfect how the book handles the entire thing, the absurdity of the game and of a professional baseball player's life itself.
The book has a very literary, poetic tone that sometimes drags the narrative down. With that said, I won this off of a Goodreads contest and I'm glad I got to read it, because it was, like that game, something special.
In 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings played a baseball game that ended up going 33 innings. Cal Ripken Jr played in the game, as did Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, and a number of other marginally famous to instantly forgotten players. This book excels in that it takes a significant amount of time with each player involved, both then and, if possible, today. It's perfect how the book handles the entire thing, the absurdity of the game and of a professional baseball player's life itself.
The book has a very literary, poetic tone that sometimes drags the narrative down. With that said, I won this off of a Goodreads contest and I'm glad I got to read it, because it was, like that game, something special.
hmurphy's review against another edition
4.0
A jammed pack book of not only great sports fun facts but an incredibly interesting tale of McCoy Stadium. The story was absolutely amazing and not being a sports person I was enthralled with the in depth story telling of the players, the management and the town. Whether or not you are a baseball lover or not it is a heartfilled/heartbreaking story of America's pastime.
verybaddogs's review against another edition
4.0
I felt cold reading this book. Cold, lonely, and tired. Dan Barry does an excellent job of evoking the feeling of professional baseball's longest game, on a Easter eve in 1981. He places the reader there at McCoy stadium, watching a game unfold and then go on forever, one scoreless inning after another, briefly explaining how such a thing could happen.
Like it must have been for the fans who stayed in the stands, Barry wanders, and takes the reader with him. The 33-inning game brings up thoughts of ballparks, batboys, managers, and mostly ballplayers - players who desperately hope to make the major leagues. Some will, some won't, and two who played this game will eventually make the Hall of Fame. As Barry tells the story of the longest games, he flits away for the player's stories, for the beginnings and the endings of the stories that have a middle in Pawtucket. I appreciated this artistically, but it made the book hard to follow, and the information hard to digest. Someone with a stronger baseball background coming in would probably be able to enjoy it more.
Timing is everything, right? The book's release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the longest game ever. Such a long game happened in part because of weird coincidences of timing. Players' careers, we learn, are made or ended in part by accidents of timing, of what sort of talent is needed when. The randomness makes it hard to call this a pleasant story. But it's not exactly a sad one, either. It's cold. Cold and late and with a sense of being much longer than it really is, and once it's over you feel like you've gone from looking at a game through a kid's eyes to growing up and seeing what it takes from people, and that, ultimately, maybe you're OK knowing that.
I received my copy of Bottom of the 33rd from the Goodreads First Reads program.
Like it must have been for the fans who stayed in the stands, Barry wanders, and takes the reader with him. The 33-inning game brings up thoughts of ballparks, batboys, managers, and mostly ballplayers - players who desperately hope to make the major leagues. Some will, some won't, and two who played this game will eventually make the Hall of Fame. As Barry tells the story of the longest games, he flits away for the player's stories, for the beginnings and the endings of the stories that have a middle in Pawtucket. I appreciated this artistically, but it made the book hard to follow, and the information hard to digest. Someone with a stronger baseball background coming in would probably be able to enjoy it more.
Timing is everything, right? The book's release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the longest game ever. Such a long game happened in part because of weird coincidences of timing. Players' careers, we learn, are made or ended in part by accidents of timing, of what sort of talent is needed when. The randomness makes it hard to call this a pleasant story. But it's not exactly a sad one, either. It's cold. Cold and late and with a sense of being much longer than it really is, and once it's over you feel like you've gone from looking at a game through a kid's eyes to growing up and seeing what it takes from people, and that, ultimately, maybe you're OK knowing that.
I received my copy of Bottom of the 33rd from the Goodreads First Reads program.
bronxgrrl's review against another edition
5.0
"Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay?" "Because we are bound by duty. Because we aspire to greater things. Because we are loyal. Because in our own secular way, we are celebrating communion, and resurrection, and possibility."