- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Free Press (Mar 4 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684853744
- ISBN-13: 978-0684853741
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.8 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 426 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,020,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"Bunts," explains peripatetic political commentator and baseball rhapsodist George Will, "are modest and often useful things." So is his latest, fittingly titled foray into the National Pastime. Unlike his splendid Men at Work, which offered long, detailed exegeses on the way Tony Gwynn, Orel Hershiser, Cal Ripken, Jr., and Tony La Russa sweat the details of mastering specific aspects of the game, Bunts is a less unified, but wider ranging collection of Will's shorter baseball journalism--columns, essays, and book reviews--assembled chronologically from 1974 through the 1997 season. Each piece may be brief, but taken individually or as a whole, the collection is certainly useful, and like a good outfielder, it covers plenty of territory.
Will, to be sure, is an elegant writer, a little verbose at times, but dependably knowledgeable, stirringly erudite, thoughtfully opinionated, and, here and there, delightfully personal--as in the volume's leadoff hitter in which he traces his own conservative principles to growing up a Cub fan. His lineup continues with a breezy ode to Louisville Sluggers; encomiums to Casey Stengel, Camden Yards, Ripken, Gwynn, and Curt Flood; a startling about-face on the DH; an early homage to statsmeister Bill James; and indictments on the selfishness of Ted Williams, the callousness of the owners in labor- and fan-relations, and the sordid personalities of Pete Rose and Billy Martin. The volume ends with a pair of doubles in the form of larger essays on Jon Miller and the distinctive craft of broadcasting, and a concluding one on the state of the game.
"Baseball," Will observes, "is a habit. The slowly rising crescendo of each game, the rhythm of the long season--these are the essentials and they are remarkably unchanged over nearly a century and a half. Of how many American institutions can that be said?" The answer, of course, is not many, which is why Bunts provides a necessary and pleasing public service. --Jeff Silverman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Edward Herrmann reads these essays on our national pastime with genuine enthusiasm. Political columnist Will states here that nothing about baseball is trivialAand he proves his point. As a bench sitter for an underachieving Little League team sponsored by a funeral home in Champaign, IL, Will began studying the game at an age when most boys were actually playing it. We should all be pleased that he didn't turn out to be just another great player. His observations are richly textured and colored with anecdotes that one will never forget. Baseball personalities seem to stride onto the field as if they never left. Chicago Cubs fans may want to chill out before listening to the author's opinions on their team, but all baseball fans will love this excursion into nontrivia. A home run!ARay Vignovich, West Des Moines P.L., IA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
A Reader demands to know how I contracted the infectious conservatism for which he plans to horsewhip me. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A Reader demands to know how I contracted the infectious conservatism for which he plans to horsewhip me. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bow-Tie Reflections on Baseball,
By
This review is from: Bunts: Curt Flood Camden Yards Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball (Hardcover)
Those who have read Will's "Men at Work" already are aware of the author's knowledge of the game as well as his talent to put it into words. This is a compilation of the author's articles on Baseball that have appeared primarily in his newspaper columns over the years. Mr. Will, a spokesman for the political right, discards his politics for these excursions into his passion. Indeed, one is surprized by how often Mr. Will sides with the players in the labor/management diputes that litter modern Baseball. The author shares his nostalgia for the past and his appreciation of the heros of the present. If he seems a bit caught up in his Cubs and Orioles, he can be forgiven because the reader has his/her own favorites. We know the frustration and joy of the same loyalties he shares with us.I read the first two thirds of the book one "column" at a time between other books. I did so because I had read "The Best of Jim Murray" some years ago and did so over the course of several days. By the mid-point of that book, I came to the realization that Mr. Murray had written the same column for decades. It was just a matter of changing the name of the subject. You don't catch on to that reading two or three columns a week. Well, I read the last third of the book in the course of several hours. I did not get the same reaction that I got to Murray's book. However, I lost track of the number of times the total season attendance of the 1935 St. Louis Browns (80,922) was compared to the Opening Day attendance of the 1993 Colorado Rockies (80,227). There were other such repetitions of facts and figures that were noticeable when the book is read cover to cover. I suggest you savor the articles and let the book entertain you throughout the course of a summer or a year. However you choose to read it, don't miss this intellectual appreciation of what was once known as "America's Pasttime".
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bunts Hit A Homerun With Me!,
By "wildkarrde3" (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bunts (Paperback)
Bunts by George F. Will is a collection of works written by Will between the years 1974 and 1997. Throughout this book, Will discusses the major changes in baseball, such as the designated hitter rule, unionization, recent franchise additions, free agency, and more. A long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan, Will, in several funny articles, describes what it is like to be a fan of a tema that hasn't won a pennant since World War II. A skilled political columnist, we are drawn into the argument over free agency and designated hitting. I love baseball, but sometimes find books about the sport to be tedious and overly stuffed with statistics. While this book does contain statistics (Will knows a great deal about the sport he loves), you're not smothered by them. It was a pleasurable read. The only part of the book I disliked was the rehashing (several times) of the strike disputes and how many times Will felt it necessary to prove that the owners were wrong about free agency. But believe me, you can get through that. Besides, this is a compilation of works - it's not like he intentionally meant to repeat himself. Will's reflections on baseball are remarkable considering that the man never played the sport professionally and is just an avid fan - so much of a fan in fact that he once owned stock in the Cubs franchise! The pictures are great, and the things I learned from this book. I thought I knew alot about baseball, but George F. Will proved me wrong in a way that I found to be interesting and alot of fun!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exemplary stuff,
By
This review is from: Bunts (Paperback)
My grandfather taught me never to trust a man who wears a bow-tie, but I have to give George Will credit for his deep knowledge of the sport (which never bogs down into pedantry) and - a far rarer commodity in baseball writing - his sterling prose. You don't have to agree with his sour political conservatism (which, in an impressive display of self-knowledge, he attributes to being a Cubs fan) to find this a cracking good read.
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