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sam2085's review against another edition
3.0
An almost important book on a personally and arguably nationally important issue.
She begins the book by stating that American culture has changed, and baseball will need to transform itself as it has during previous societal shifts. Yet most of the book is spent decrying the ‘distraction culture’ of today, essentially calling for the kids to put down their phones and enjoy the game and for baseball to make relatively few changes.
The book is strong when presenting data on the game and American society. The author’s love of the game and personal experiences are also compelling.
Baseball does matter, particularly as a symbol of positive American patriotism. Jacoby, at times, drives this point home (get it?), but perhaps a bit too infrequently.
She begins the book by stating that American culture has changed, and baseball will need to transform itself as it has during previous societal shifts. Yet most of the book is spent decrying the ‘distraction culture’ of today, essentially calling for the kids to put down their phones and enjoy the game and for baseball to make relatively few changes.
The book is strong when presenting data on the game and American society. The author’s love of the game and personal experiences are also compelling.
Baseball does matter, particularly as a symbol of positive American patriotism. Jacoby, at times, drives this point home (get it?), but perhaps a bit too infrequently.
duparker's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting take on baseball and the way it fits into the current culture of America. On the one hand it is slipping away from people, especially the youth. On the other hand it has a strong tradition and a connection with our past. The sections on attention span and the various distractions we all have were interesting, and the notes about how commercial breaks adding time, but not adding negative impact to home viewers was interesting.
12dejamoo's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
I did like this, but I also struggled with some aspects of it. I will admit I'm not a dedicated baseball fan, but as the daughter of one, I was interested to read this. Jacoby makes some good points in terms of reasoning why she reckons interest in baseball has gone down, as well as debunking some common classist and racist theories. However, I think she is a little hung up on the shortened attention spans of young people. Okay, yes, it's true that attention spans have gone down, and yes, baseball is a game that requires patience, but I also think it's not fair to people who enjoy getting highlights and updates on their phones to dismiss them as 'young people with shit attention spans'. She returns to the point a lot of times, to the extent that you feel she's completely exhausted it.
Furthermore, she complains a lot about proposed rule changes. Okay, again, I'm not someone who watches baseball all the time, or is old enough to have experienced the 'good old days' of baseball, but I also think she's too harsh on ideas to update the game. I don't know enough to judge whether the changes would be good for myself, but I think her habit of simply listing proposed changes and catastrophising that they would each 'change the game' beyond recognition got a little old at times.
She did make so many interesting points when talking about why black people and women tend to be less interested in baseball these days, but these points seem skimmed over when compared to the 'young people on their phones' argument. Also, she has great analysis of youth involvement in sports, but relegates a whole load of this to the conclusion. It doesn't make sense to me to have a lot of your best points shoved at the end.
There is a long section where she looks down upon fantasy baseball (and fantasy sports in general). Again, maybe I'm not a purist, but why shouldn't people hang out to look at statistics and imagine exciting games? Okay, maybe I agree that gambling shouldn't be as big a factor as it is, but she seems to look down upon even those who play fantasy baseball casually. I'm not sure that those who are interested in fantasy but not real-life baseball would suddenly become interested in trips to the ballpark if fantasy baseball vanished.
Overall, I enjoyed a lot of her points, but I also felt that despite her assurances at the beginning that people's rose-tinted baseball pasts never truly existed, she still seems to cling to them. She seemed to catastophise every point. I will give her points for actually offering solutions at the end, though, rather than just present problems.
I guess my final point is that, having read two from this Why X Matters series, I now don't know if I understand what they're supposed to be about. Why the Museum Matters seemed to answer the question posed by the title, but this just mourned the loss of popularity of the once ubiquitous 'American pasttime'.
Actually final final point, because I just remembered this. She bitterly denegrates racism against black people, but then, in her conclusion, when discussing racisim against Japanese people, is less verbose. Reading between the lines, it definitely read like she wasn't in favour of it, but I wasn't entirely sure, and there was one line which read as if she meant it as a joke, like 'look what people might have said, weren't they horrible?' but it felt very tonally different to the surrounding text, and did not feel necessary at all. It was right near the end and really took me by surprise.
Furthermore, she complains a lot about proposed rule changes. Okay, again, I'm not someone who watches baseball all the time, or is old enough to have experienced the 'good old days' of baseball, but I also think she's too harsh on ideas to update the game. I don't know enough to judge whether the changes would be good for myself, but I think her habit of simply listing proposed changes and catastrophising that they would each 'change the game' beyond recognition got a little old at times.
She did make so many interesting points when talking about why black people and women tend to be less interested in baseball these days, but these points seem skimmed over when compared to the 'young people on their phones' argument. Also, she has great analysis of youth involvement in sports, but relegates a whole load of this to the conclusion. It doesn't make sense to me to have a lot of your best points shoved at the end.
There is a long section where she looks down upon fantasy baseball (and fantasy sports in general). Again, maybe I'm not a purist, but why shouldn't people hang out to look at statistics and imagine exciting games? Okay, maybe I agree that gambling shouldn't be as big a factor as it is, but she seems to look down upon even those who play fantasy baseball casually. I'm not sure that those who are interested in fantasy but not real-life baseball would suddenly become interested in trips to the ballpark if fantasy baseball vanished.
Overall, I enjoyed a lot of her points, but I also felt that despite her assurances at the beginning that people's rose-tinted baseball pasts never truly existed, she still seems to cling to them. She seemed to catastophise every point. I will give her points for actually offering solutions at the end, though, rather than just present problems.
I guess my final point is that, having read two from this Why X Matters series, I now don't know if I understand what they're supposed to be about. Why the Museum Matters seemed to answer the question posed by the title, but this just mourned the loss of popularity of the once ubiquitous 'American pasttime'.
Actually final final point, because I just remembered this. She bitterly denegrates racism against black people, but then, in her conclusion, when discussing racisim against Japanese people, is less verbose. Reading between the lines, it definitely read like she wasn't in favour of it, but I wasn't entirely sure, and there was one line which read as if she meant it as a joke, like 'look what people might have said, weren't they horrible?' but it felt very tonally different to the surrounding text, and did not feel necessary at all. It was right near the end and really took me by surprise.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, and Classism
Racism/Xenophobia against the Japanese mentioned quite indelicatelyjbmorgan86's review
4.0
Baseball is in a time of crisis. Millennials and post-millennials find it more challenging to watch a three-hour game because of attention spans that have been shortened by smartphones and tablets. Fewer African-Americans are watching and playing in the MLB than in previous decades. Women fans seem to be an untapped audience. Overall, baseball is losing out to other major sports. Fantasy sports create fans who cheer for their players but may care less about an actual team in real life. What is a league to do? Why Baseball Matters (a bit of a misnomer of a book title) investigates these questions.
The powers-that-be seem to be stuck on the idea that game time must be shortened. Therefore, play clocks have been added, replays have been restricted, etc. The minor league has even tried starting a runner at second in extra inning games. Jacoby argues, however, that all of this is missing the point. All of these actions may only shave a few minutes off a game. No significant change has been made. Besides, all of this is treating a symptom, not the cause of the problem. The problem is that fans in the 21st century have shorter attention spans and are constantly distracted while watching. (Jacoby also mentions other interesting suggestions like having a defensive team and offensive team [like football] or rotating positions [like volleyball]).
Some stadiums have attempted to insert more entertainment into the live game with kiss cams, games on the big screen, pools, rocking climbing walls, restaurants, shopping, etc. Jacoby wonders if a stadium can do something to educate the fans about the subtleties of the game rather than contribute to the problem of distraction.
At the end of the day, Jacoby is not a baseball purist that demands rigid adherence to a tradition. She admits that baseball has had to reinvent itself after the invention of new technologies (radio, TV), social changes (integration), and scandals (the '94 strike, the steroid era). Baseball will continue to evolve and will survive.
I really enjoyed reading this book. However, it seemed really disjointed. Jacoby seemed to rehash a lot of the same ideas (Millennial, African-American, Hispanic, and women fandom) without any clear direction. For that, Why Baseball Matters is a 4-start instead of a 5-star read.
The powers-that-be seem to be stuck on the idea that game time must be shortened. Therefore, play clocks have been added, replays have been restricted, etc. The minor league has even tried starting a runner at second in extra inning games. Jacoby argues, however, that all of this is missing the point. All of these actions may only shave a few minutes off a game. No significant change has been made. Besides, all of this is treating a symptom, not the cause of the problem. The problem is that fans in the 21st century have shorter attention spans and are constantly distracted while watching. (Jacoby also mentions other interesting suggestions like having a defensive team and offensive team [like football] or rotating positions [like volleyball]).
Some stadiums have attempted to insert more entertainment into the live game with kiss cams, games on the big screen, pools, rocking climbing walls, restaurants, shopping, etc. Jacoby wonders if a stadium can do something to educate the fans about the subtleties of the game rather than contribute to the problem of distraction.
At the end of the day, Jacoby is not a baseball purist that demands rigid adherence to a tradition. She admits that baseball has had to reinvent itself after the invention of new technologies (radio, TV), social changes (integration), and scandals (the '94 strike, the steroid era). Baseball will continue to evolve and will survive.
I really enjoyed reading this book. However, it seemed really disjointed. Jacoby seemed to rehash a lot of the same ideas (Millennial, African-American, Hispanic, and women fandom) without any clear direction. For that, Why Baseball Matters is a 4-start instead of a 5-star read.
guinness74's review against another edition
5.0
Certainly I did not need to read a book entitled ‘Why Baseball Matters’ because, to me, it matters a great deal. But given the details in this book, I find that I’m in an ever-shrinking minority and that most of my peers have either lost interest in the national pastime or never had an interest to begin with. I will say that I do, occasionally, find myself ‘not in the game,’ but I still have a passion for issues between the lines and, though my statistics abilities are subpar, I still delight in the box score and the incredible minutiae of stats that forms the history of Major League Baseball. All of this is to say that Jacoby has written an excellent book detailing what is happening to Baseball and how it doesn’t necessarily need to be fixed (at least not in the ways that are being currently tried and/or suggested), rather that folks need to be reintroduced to the game and engaged with it on its cerebral and leisurely levels.
howwoolatthemoon's review against another edition
4.0
I think the book didn't totally deliver on the title, although I do think baseball matters, and I enjoyed the book's discussion on baseball.
bghillman's review against another edition
5.0
This was an enjoyable book that makes a fairly forceful argument about baseball. More constructive work could have been done on how baseball is going to be baseball and that its "boringness" may be a problem of narrative. I think baseball will be fine no matter what.
qrhodes7's review against another edition
3.0
certainly this book has its bright spots that make one appreciate the patient game of baseball, but the author also acts as if it is near a sin to appreciate faster paced games.
janp's review
3.0
Read/skimmed. Jacoby is a huge baseball fan (White Sox, now Mets). I enjoyed reading about her love of the game and how it came about. She also analyzes the popularity of the game over the ages and the reason for ups and downs in attendance and specific fan bases such as teens in this time of digital distraction. And the allure of fantasy baseball. She ends by offering "suggestions to owners, players, and anyone else who cares" to woo back the masses.