You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my blog,  <a href=”https://www.mrbooksbookreviews.com”>Mr. Book’s Book Reviews.</a>

Thank you, Rowman & Littlefield, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished Talking Baseball With Major League Stars, by Wayne Stewart.

This book will be released on February 18, 2025.

This book wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting. I had been expecting chapters on interviews with particular MLB stars. Instead, the book was divided into six chapters: hitters, pitchers, fielders, managers, covering all the bases and life in the big leagues. Then, each chapter is divided into different categories, with quotes or stories from various players on topics such as hitters talking about facing star pitchers, hitters intimidating pitchers, how pitchers have to be hard throwers just to impress scouts (nothing new about that insight, but that particular section was still very good), players from the past dealing with racial issues and many more topics.

I’ll admit that, in the beginning, I was disappointed, thinking that having the focus on different aspects would prevent from having a lot of really good stories. It did result in the stories being limited to the shorter ones, but overall, it didn’t take me long before I started enjoying this book much more than I thought I was going to after the initial realization.

I give this book an A.

This is the third book by this author that I have read and his third A: I Love Baseball (to be released on December 3) and The Gigantic Book Of Baseball Quotations (given an A in 2012) also received A’s. I also have his biography of Stan Musial and his book on the 1960 Pirates, which are in my current to read list (estimate on them is by the end of the year).

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on October 20, 2024.