World Series: An Opinionated Chronicle - Hardcover

Joseph Wallace has written many books, on topics ranging from dinosaurs to undersea life, including two well-received baseball books for Abrams: The Autobiography of Baseball (nominated for the Seymour Medal for Best Baseball Book of 1998) and The Baseball Anthology (named one of the best gift books of 1994 by Sports Illustrated and Business Week). He lives in New York.

Author and editor of several baseball books (including The Autobiography of Baseball and The Baseball Anthology), Wallace here offers his personal fan's notes on the baseball century. Wallace evocatively narrates each series, noting the highlights and offering his personal rating: the 1907 series, for instance, ranked fifth on his 10 worst series list (with Cobb batting poorly, "it was one of the least competitive World Series on record"). A suitable layout makes this volume as easy to read as it is enjoyable to look at. The black-and-white photos capture the times, such as the one showing a Philadelphia street close to Shibe Park teaming with Athletics fans awaiting the game against the Giants; color photos (which don't appear regularly in the book until the history reaches the 1980s) depict such moments as the Twins celebrating their improbable 1991 win against the Atlanta Braves. Baseball fan Stephen King offers a warm epilogue that says: "I really believe that any World Series game a man or a woman can watch with their nine-year-old sons or daughters is a perfect game."
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