Reviews

Not only did I never receive the product, the MLB Vintage World Series Films of the Yankees, the seller has never yet responded to my email query about its non-arrival.

Yes...THE BEST OF THE BEST ...what more needs to be said about the greatest sports franchise in sports history. All the great players , all the great plays from 1943-2000. Non believers and Yankee haters take note...buy, watch and enjoy these DVD'S...they are baseball history..they are baseball at it's finest...Joe D, The Mick, Yogi, Reggie, Jeter and a cast of other greats have made and will continue to make great baseball history for as long as baseball is played...It's to bad films from the other 10 New York Yankee World Series Wins do not exist...would love to have had those included....A GREAT BUY !!!!!!!

Whether you are a Yankee fan or not these videos contain rare footage of the Yankees 17 World Series wins from 1947 to 2000. You will see rare footage of Shibe Park, Ebbets Field, The Polo Grounds, Crosley Field, Original Milwaukee County Stadium, and of course, old Yankee Stadium before the renovations. These are complete highlights of each of the 17 Series wins. If you were to purchase these individually you would pay several hundred dollars. The quality is very good considering the age of the original broadcasts. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching these classic games from the past. They are a must for avid historical baseball fans who would like to add to their collection. The 1958 World Series on are broadcast in color.

Amazon had the best price and availability for this item. Shipping was fast and on time too! We are excited to watch it!

I am a huge fan of the New York Yankees. I remember watching every single inning of the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 but wasn't born for any of the prior ones. That's what makes this collection so great, I can relive the favorite moments I was around for and see for the first time the highlights that I wasn't around for. The four most recent championships are absolutely fantastic and I could watch them over and over. The earlier ones are great because you get to watch the Yankees win the world series but the presentation isn't as good. The narration is a little boring and the footage is a little grainy so it makes the older World Series a little less cinematic. Diehard Yankee fans like myself don't need that sort of thing because the footage and the games speak for themselves but a casual fan might find them boring. This is definitely a great gift idea, I probably would have asked for it had I not already purchased it for myself!

Reviews

This video contains all the World Series that the Dodgers won since moving to Los Angeles. This is great for Dodger fans. As a Yankee fan I was most interested in their two confrontations in 1963 and 1981. Both were very memorable to me. The Yankees also played the Dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 World Series but the Dodgers were on the short end of those series, so they are not included. In 1959 the Dodger won in only their second year in Los Angeles. They beat Al Lopez's White Sox in 6th games. This was the beginning of the Koufax and Drysdale Dodgers but the pitching hero was a reliever named Larry Sherry. Casey Stengel's Yankees only lost the American League pennant twice in the 1950s and both times it was to a team managed by Al Lopez. First the Cleveland Indians with the pitching of Feller, Wynn and Lemon in 1954 and then to the White Sox in 1959. In 1954 the Indians amassed an amazing total of more than 110 wins in a 154 game season and so a Yankee team that won as many games as any in the 1950s lost out. 1959 was the only bad year that the Yankees had under Stengel and they finished a distant third that year. In 1963 the Yankees still had Mantle and Maris and Skowron, Howard and Berra. They were the defending World Champions but got swept by the Dodgers in the series due to phenomenal pitching. Mantle did hit his 15th World Se3ries home run off Koufax in game 4 to tie a record that Babe Ruth held at the time for most World Series home runs. Three of the games were pitchers battles with Ford battling Koufax twice and Bouton against Drysdale. But the Dodgers were able to win each game. A young Al Downing picthed the other game. 1981 was another interesting year. It was a strike year with a split season where there was a playoff in each league between the teams that won each half season. I think Cincinnati had a better overall record than any team in the National League but because of the peculiar format they didn't even get into the playoff since their record in each half was not the tops in the league. It was Fernando Valenzuela's rookie season and the popular Mexican was the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young award winner. The excitement due in part to the large Mexican-American population in the Los Angeles area led the media to refer to this as Fernando mania. He was able to lead Lasorda's Dodgers to a victory over those Yankees that Tommy's team couldn't achieve in 1977 or 1978. The 1988 Dodgers were the team led by Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson. They beat a strong Oakland As team. Gibson was unable to play in the Series but in the nonth inning of game 1 the Dodgers had the tying run on base with two outs. The As had brought their ace reliever Dennis Eckersley into the game. Lasorda decided to pinch hit with Kirk Gibson. Gibson hobbled up to the plate and if he hit a long "extra base" hit he would be lucky to make it just to first base. Amazingly, Gibson made contact with a fast ball and somehow got the leverage to hit it into the right field seats at Dodger Stadium. Jack Buck was calling the game for the national network on radio and was so stunned that he uttered the famous line "I don't believe what I just saw!"

Having grown up a Dodgers fan, the '81 and '88 championships are part of my youth. However, I had never seen much footage on any of the other championships that they won after moving to LA. With the exception of the '65 series, every game is shown in detail. 1959: Dodgers beat the White Sox in six - Only their second year in Los Angeles, this team has been compared to the Amazing Mets because of the unlikeliness of their season. It shows the bridge between the Brooklyn Dodgers (Duke Snider, Johnny Podres, etc) to the '60's Los Angeles Dodgers (Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax... including Koufax's first postseason start.) The credits show the narrator as "Vince Scully"... the familiar voice of the Dodgers for more than 50 years. 1963: Dodgers beat the Yankees in four - Ahhh... to sweep the Evil Empire (even on video) is sweet! Scully is back (now known simply as Vin) to walk us through the four game pitching demonstration. The first game saw Koufax break a record for most strikeouts in a World Series game (15) and the Series as a whole showed a grand total of four Yankee runs. 1965: Dodgers beat the Twins in seven - This is the one series that seems to be missing footage. Both game 2 and game 4 are rolled up into one single replay from the respective game with a very brief overview from Scully. Probably the most interesting thing about this series is the fact that both the Dodgers and Twins brough their Game 5 pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Jim Kaat, respectively, back for Game 7 on two days rest. For the Dodgers, that meanst skipping Drysdale's start... a HOF'er in his own right. Even more incredibly, Koufax pitches a complete game shutout! 1981: Dodgers beat the Yankees in six (at the time, it was only the second time that a team had lost the first two games and then won the next four) - This series recap shows more than just a scoring / highlight replay of the games. For the first time in the series of videos, the producer attempted to "set the scene" and provide some drama to the storyline. While I think all of these recaps are taken from their original productions, it does show the differences in how the game was marketed in the late 50's / early 60's versus the 80's. The other nice feature is that is does show some very limited highlights from both the Dodgers and Yankees earlier playoff series (including Rick Monday's dramatic homerun against the Expos). From a series perspective, it showed games that I had seen in the original broadcast, which brought out a flood of, "Oh yeah... I remember that!" feelings. From Ron Cey's diving catch of a foul bunt and doubling the runner off first in Game 3 to Cey getting hit in the head with a pitch in Game 5 to the controversial decision to remove Tommy John after four innings in Game 6 (just prior to the flood gates opening), the moments are there. It also included three straight one-run victories by the Dodgers while playing in front of their home crowd. 1988: Dodgers beat the A's in five - What can be said about this series that hasn't already been said? Obviously, Game 1 is one of the all-time classics in World Series history. Jose Canseco's second inning grand slam became the A's only runs of the game (and, ironically, Canseco's only hit of the series). From that point on , Dodger relievers held Oakland in check and the offense got just enough to set up Kirk Gibson's dramatic homerun in the bottom of the ninth. Games 2 and 5 showed the mastery that was Orel Hershiser that season (he ended up as the winner of the World Series MVP, NLCS MVP, and the Cy Young winner for that season.) This truly was the little team that could.

For a long time I have been wanting to find some footage of the old Dodger teams playing but MLB have made it hard to see it but this DVD has a lot of what I was looking for.

After wearing out my VHS versions, MLB productions have finally put their WS films on DVD. As al ifelong Dodger fan I wish they had also included the 1955 WS. Also why haven't they made all of the other MLB team Series available. Still need the Mets, Tigers, Braves and Indians I think. But the quality is still there on the new DVDs ans having them all in one package is great for a baseball lover like me. Also think MLB productions should put out more box sets of famous series like the 88 or 91 or maybe a playoff package like the 86 playoffs or the the 2003. Anyway if you love baseball like me you should pick these up

Over the years, I bought all those World Series videos for the Dodgers that now go for $50-$100 apiece on auctions, Amazon and elsewhere. Now they are all available in all their glory on this two-disc DVD set. No special music or extras here (which would be welcome), just the tapes transfered to DVD with narration by Vin Scully throughout except for the 1988 Series narrated by Bob Costas (complete with the puns but without the Gatorade drenching he got after the game where he said the Dodgers had the worst team in Series history on the field). Since I have the original tapes, I was able to make a direct A-B comparison with the DVD set and the quality is very similar. No disappointments here but remember the old shows done in the late 50's and early 60's aren't up to par technologically with the later shows. Still it's a welcome set to those who have been searching for those VHS tapes of Dodger World Series Championships. Go Blue!

Reviews

You don't have to live in Cincinnati to enjoy this bit of history. The '75 game may go down as one of the best ever! Just a great piece of nostalgia for baseball fans

I was a big fan of the Reds in the 70's. This DVD is a major disappointment. It is full of too close shots of players swinging the bat and Joe G. telling you what happened - you don't actually see it. Most of the game shots are of a player running or swinging the bat. Very few actual plays are shown. Most home runs are shown with a close-up of a player swinging and then a cut to the outfielder looking over the wall. It almost felt like they didn't have the real game action and were cutting the story together from clips they had. All in all it doesn't capture any of the excitement of the 75 series. One of the best ever. 76 is much of the same.

I was a big fan of the BRM when I was a tyke. I almost gave this a 4 because it does not do that team justice: they were one of the greatest teams ever, and frankly, at the very end of the original era in baseball: as the new series "The Bronx is on Fire" shows, the very next year, free agent reality created the age of the team of hessians. There's a sense in watching this of not really getting how these guys were so good that they just completely blew out the Yankees in 1976. Having grown up through the 75, Gowdy 'we was robbed' nonsense (that apparently cost him his job, and Snyder doing it on the news in NY), it was good to see them frame the series as a great battle and quote Fisk even as saying he was honored to play in Game 6. It is great that quality stuff like this is available for so little money. I am going to look for some stuff that is more in depth, though.

Reviews

When i rec'd the package, it was in a box exactly the same size as the box the tea set came in. There was no bubble wrap and no fragile sign on the box. If the seller would send me a yellow and a green plate, it would perfect!

Bought this to replace one that has seen many tea parties! It is large enough to actually drink from and is perfect for my 4 year old granddaughter. It could, of course, chip if not treated gently, but seems to be very sturdy. We prefer the ceramic versions to those of tin or plastic, and believe that adds to the authenticity and makes it even more special to her.

I was very impressed with this tea set. The colors are much brighter than the picture shows. It's really a very nice set. It's glass, so breakable, but that's what I was looking for. I also wanted a tea set that would be for boys and girls as it was for my grandchildren. It was exactly what I wanted & more!

We liked them very much. The only problem is that one of the sets came broken.

I loved this set! My daughter immediatly started to play and we set up some animals and began our first tea party...and then "clank!". I realized...oh my god it's glass! My 3 yo is playing with a glass tea set! Within the week, 3 of the plates were broken. The quality is great..but I recommend this for tea partiers 7 yo+ only! There are some nice plastic sets out there for littler tea partiers and I recommend you go with those! I give it a one star for durability.

Reviews

Wish the video was longer, which would allow more detail and video of each worlds series and maybe a review of each season.

Very good DVD. Entertaining review of three world championship seasons ... Brooks and Frank Robinson were unbelieveable! And three different managers took them to the top -- Hank Bauer, Earl Weaver and Joe Altobelli. Thoroughly enjoyed.

This was an excellent product, first of all; however as a long time fan and follower of the Baltimore Orioles, I have a few suggestions. The highlights were too short, there could have been many more. More features with the players and other tidbits (for instance, a nice feature on Earl Weaver?), are in order. Earl was a veritable highlight reel himself, and his numerous confrontations with umpires and Jim Palmer, plus his tomato patch at Memorial Stadium make for great copy and interest for those of us who loved him. I suggest that more of the historical context of the 1966 Series be made as well. All in all, a fine introductory piece for the casual fan; but hardly a fulfilling project for the long-time, hard core O's lover like myself. Perhaps an update in the future could flesh this out a bit more--and increase the price too. Now--when do we get something to honor the BALTIMORE Colts hmm??

As a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, we really haven't had much to cheer about in the last ten years. It's nice that MLB put the World Series Films from all three Orioles championships on one DVD. Each film runs about 40 minutes long with highlights from each game. 1966 - The Orioles shock the world and beat the favored LA Dodgers behind the masterful pitching of Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker, and Dave McNally. Homeruns from Paul Blair, and Brooks and Frank Robinson helped too. 1970 - Possibly the best team in Birds history. McNally, Palmer, and Mike Cuellar provide the pitching. Boog Powell and the Robinsons provide the power to beat the mighty Big Red Machine with Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez. 1983 - The last hurrah. The Birds have a brilliant mix of veterans like Rick Dempsey and Jim Palmer, and young players Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr. to beat the Philadelphia Phillies in five. Next year will be 25 long years since the last championship. As for the MLB logo at the top of the screen mentioned by the other reviewer. I agree, it's completely unnecessary, but after like five minutes, you really don't notice it. Don't let that prevent you from two hours of Baltimore Orioles glory.

I was thrilled when I first read that MLB Productions was finally issuing a DVD version of highlights of the Baltimore Orioles' three World Series victories. I already owned the VHS versions, one of which (the 1970 World Series) had a major flaw in the audio synchronization (watching the last third of the highlights was like viewing a badly dubbed foreign film). Finally, I could own all three highlights reels on one disc and without the sync error on the 1970 World Series. Much to my dismay, the MLB logo is permanently, and obtrusively, displayed on the upper right corner of all three programs. What's that all about? Does MLB Productions think I'm going to illegally copy and distribute stills? Thank goodness I don't own a plasma TV or I'd be staring at that stupid logo for the next five years! Sound and picture quality are okay otherwise. But....that logo is really annoying.

Reviews

Zack Hample knows his baseball and both novice and the seasoned follower will gain from these pages. Yet, he did not target his reader, and that's where I feel he "dropped the ball". Someone new to baseball will appreciate most of the basic stuff that he so carefully describes, and then get bogged down by the heavy and thick technical elucidations. And someone with a decent knowledge of the game can truly expand his command of the sport (as a fan) yet suffer with all the triviality directed at the newby. If one could only foretell when to read and when to skip, the book would be more enjoyable and, of course, a sweeter read.

buy this book. Like a bad student paper, Hample comments on basic Baseball fundamentals. Why would anyone publish this? In my opinion, this book is fradulent in purpose and execution. Make the "smarter" choice--pass it by.

I'm a deeply professed baseball geek, sabremetrics aficianado, and obsessive baseball watcher. I bought this for a quick read through and a help for my darling girlfriend, who struggles to understand what I'm talking about when I reference "Old Abner," an eephus, or some of the finer points of baseball rules. As a baseball geek, I got a little out of this. Some of the anecdotes were interesting, and I learned a handful of things I didn't already know. On that basis, I'd rate it 3/5 stars for the serious baseball geek. My girlfriend, on the other hand, rates it 5 stars, and I rate it 5 stars on that basis - as now she understands me! She went from being passe toward baseball to actually enjoying the games, and occasionally trying to keep score herself. This book is a great success to help the layman understand what us obsessives are talking about!

This review is of the Kindle Edition. In the statistics section, there are numerous arithmetic formulae. For some reason, the author or typographer chose to use the ÷ symbol rather than the now-more-prevalent /. Unfortunately, in the Kindle edition (perhaps due to OCR?) nearly every ÷ has been replaced by a + instead. This really screws up the math. There's another spot, when talking about pitcher stats, where the G (for games played) is rendered instead as a 6. These don't strike me as typos -- they seem like they have to be OCR errors, as though Amazon had scanned & then poorly-proofread a physical copy of the book. I don't understand why the publisher couldn't provide Amazon with a fully proofed soft-copy of the book. As far as the content goes, it's enjoyable to read. On my iPhone, the glossary is very difficult to use, but that's not the author's fault (it would have been nice to have every instance of a glossary term actually linked to the glossary rather than just italicized, but since Amazon couldn't even get the proofing done properly, I know that's too much to ask). I do agree with the reviewers who state that it's neither for true beginners nor for deeply serious geeks. It's too disorganized, and assumes familiarity with a wide range of concepts more advanced than just the basic field positions & game-play, to really be for beginners. But it doesn't go into nearly enough depth or arcane depth to be more than passingly amusing to a deeply serious geek.

As the topic of baseball, I have been fixated as far as the history of the game. However, I never played the game at the high school level. I learned to be a student of the game. Hample writes examples such as the following: hat the pitcher is trying to throw, why the outfielders are aligned to a certain position in the outfield,new terminology that I didn't know existed. Zach has an informal style & even flings humor & history to his illustrations.

Reviews

...that I struck out against his younger brother in high-school. Or that his father was a source of irritation to our coach, barking at the ump from behind the screen during that Wachusett/St. John's h.s game in April, 1984. He also wouldn't know that as a "purist" I found this read to be a refreshingly unorthodox take on the baseball "genre." What a decent change-up, actually. And even though Ron's imprint around central Mass. in the 80's could have led to the impression that he'd "gone N.Y.," this book grounds him as workmanlike professional. From this pov, his voice read a bit like an expression of shared, regional roots. And yes, in his most salaried prime, I once saw Ron drive past me on Sherman St., Alameda in his exquisite convertible. At the time I thought: What a gulf between us, 6 years and all his acclaim. But as I finished the book last night, just as he concluded his stand-up work opposite the difficult Chip Carey for the Twins/Yanks series, all I thought was that a certain "Wustah" sensibilty held sway. Oh, and the charm of it all was the abundance of very revealing game-of-baseball insights -- as opposed to MLB gossip -- for readers no matter where they're from!

Ron Darling's retrospective of what was going on inside the head of one of baseball's most cerebral performers over the course of 9 innings of various games is something any true fan of the game will relish. I loved it. Darling had a successful career as a big league pitcher, and much of that came from his mental approach to the game. Darling recalls with wonderful clarity some of his memorable moments on the mound, as well as in the broadcast booth, which give great insight into the complexities a pitcher faces when performing his task. Certainly, the thought process a hitter goes through while trying to solve the mysteries of the pitches being hurled in his direction would be even more daunting. Trying to outfox the pitcher is even more confounding that the pitcher's task at hand; still, Darling tried his hardest to make sure he was using his mental capacities to their fullest to accomplish his mission. His narrative made for a very enlightening and engaging journal. After completing this book, I couldn't help but think of Yogi Berra's great quote about the complexities of our national pastime when he said, "90% of baseball is half mental!" How true.

Ron Darling, a leader of the 1986 World Champion New York Mets, takes us inside the mind of a pitcher in different tough situations from his career, and also from what he has observed about other pitchers in his capacity as a Mets television commentator. He shares with us the mistakes and his triumphs he and other pitchers made. For baseball fans, who want more than a ESPN knowledge of this great game, this book is a must. Ron Darling is so smart; he has chosen these situations well and has obviously done a lot of thinking about their significance. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of a spectacular pitcher's battle he waged against Frank Viola while an undergraduate at Yale. In a baseball era still dominated by the home run, Ron Darling reminds that the pitcher still is the most important player on the field.

This is the best baseball book I've ever read. Darling's unique perspective is fascinating. I also watched both Ron Darling and the New York Mets play most of the examples he used therefore putting everything on a higher level. In particular is his discussion of his state of mind before and after he talked to his father on the field at Fenway Park during the 1986 World Series. Met fan or not, I highly recommend this book.

The Complete Game by Ron Darling (Mets, Expos, Athletics) is not an exposé of his time in baseball. No drinking stories, no locker room antics, no confessions of steroid usage. What you do have is a philosophical look at his time pitching, detailed pitch-by-pitch replays of games and his thoughts and decisions during them. It is written in a highly conversational style (especially if you have listened to Darling doing commentary on TBS), and Darling has an almost photographic memory for his actions and thoughts in the games he details here. As far as baseball books go, this is more like The Head Game (Roger Kahn, 2001), and not Money Ball (Lewis Michael, 2003). There aren't any secrets to pitching, just an an erudite commentary of Darling's career in the game. You won't become a better pitcher from reading this, but you will get a better insight into the nature of what might be the hardest position in baseball.

Reviews

Wow, this book is a real eye-opener. I had no idea Japanese baseball mentality was this extreme. Since this book is 20 years old, I'm curious if anything has changed. I sure hope so because the players go through hell and the people are portrayed as extremely racist. The bias against "gaijins" (any player who isn't Japanese) will have your blood boiling if you believe in fair play. However, there are a lot of laughs in here, too, and a lot of fascinating looks at baseball in Japan, from the owners, to the front office to the players and to the fans. Frankly, at least prior to 1990, most of them sounded like crazy people and generally mean-spirited. Then again, there have been crazy people in Major League Baseball, too! However, it's nothing like reported here by author Robert Whiting. Some of these accounts are absolutely shocking, and you'd think it was all exaggeration. But it isn't, and Whiting always gives both sides of every controversy. The players who have gone over to Japan and played say this is the way it was....and they either adapt or come home bitter and angry. Most of them wound up the latter. Overall, this book is absolutely fascinating reading.

If you are looking for a book about Japanese baseball - this is it! I have read them all and this one is my foavorite. It is a great thorough treatment of the development of baseball and baseball players as well as why some things are different and related matters that the reader would certainly want to know. If you purchase one book on Japanese baseball, this one is the one. It also gives a lot of insight into society and the psyche as well.

It is said that the UK and the US are divided by a common language. As veteran journalist Robert Whiting shows, the United States and Japan are divided by a common sport. Judged by American standards, Japanese baseball is a totally different world with its own set of assumptions and values. As foreign players who are lured into one of the twelve Japanese professional teams soon discover, it takes a special kind of person to play in Japan. A man has to deal with a different type of pitching, a wider strike zone, and unpredictable umpires. The life of a ballplayer is regimented by detailed club rules, strict discipline, and endless training sessions. The goal is to increase the fighting spirit and team cohesion. There is a belief that if a man tries hard enough, he can do anything, and players are taught to "pitch through the pain" until their arm aches so badly they can no longer raise it. People who have worked in a Japanese environment will recognize some familiar traits. There are the incessant meetings, for example: daily pregame preparatory meetings, impromptu midgame strategy sessions in which the players huddle around their manager in front of the dugout, and nightly postgame conferences to review the team's mistakes. The game requires total concentration and is played with dreadful seriousness. Japanese bring to it their sense of organization and attention to detail. There is a rigid sense of hierarchy, and a player never questions a coach's decision. As the history of the game shows, there is a desire to learn from outside but also the imperative to adapt a foreign import to Japanese mores. According to Whiting, baseball's grip on Japan's collective psyche is due, ultimately, to the fact that it suits the national character. Introduced to a people whose very identities were rooted in the group but who, oddly enough, had no group sport of their own--only one-on-one competitions like kendo and sumo--, baseball provided the Japanese with an opportunity to express their renowned group proclivities on an athletic field. Unlike other group sports, baseball also comes with a built-in individual confrontation--a test of wills--which also gave it its initial appeal to fans of the martial arts and sumo. The "get-set" ritual in sumo, for example, with its squatting, stomping, and fierce glaring, has its equivalent in the war of nerves the pitcher and the batter wage, which involves delaying tactics like calling time and cleaning spikes. Perhaps another reason for baseball's attraction for the Japanese is its relatively slow pace and frequent pauses. The natural break between pitches and innings allows ample time for long strategy sessions, responding to the need to fully discuss and analyze a problem before reaching a decision. Baseball is a commentator's sport, suitable for discussions that provide a wealth of detail on each player or each team. The use of ma, or time interval between two actions, is not unlike a Kabuki performance. But baseball has also transformed the Japanese and introduced a kind of American way of life in everyday Japan. Like American military bases, it has reinforced the umbilical link to the US and perpetuated an American presence on Japanese soil. American ballplayers, most of them refugees from the major leagues, have been an active part of Japanese baseball since the postwar era. Baseball has brought to the Japanese language a rich vocabulary of borrowed terms and metaphors. Knowing the rules of the game is often a requisite for participating in discussions about politics or business, and media commentators are as keen as their US counterparts to interpret current events in baseball terms. This adds another cultural barrier for foreigners who do not share Japan's or the US' enthusiasm for and familiarity with a sport which, unlike soccer, has never commanded a global audience.

Sure, the book is dated, but the truths and cultural differences highlighted remain in tact. The Japanese way, the concept of the group, the irrational approach to practice, still remain. Few books get to the idiosyncracies of the Japanese as well as this one does. Not a lot of "eastern wisdom" or "zen baseball" but the cold hard truth about the weaknesses of the Japanese way.

With the influx of Japanese stars into the US Major Leagues, many sports fans are becoming intrigued by the league across the Pacific and the ballplayers who play in it. Reading this book, along with Mr. Whiting's two others, Chrysanthemum at the Bat and The Meaning of Ichiro, will give you the best understanding availible. This book focuses more on the relationship between Japan and the American ballplayers who play over there, but there is a lot on Japanese players, the history of the game in Japan, and the culture of Japanese baseball. It was written in the late 1980s, but still is informative to a reader 20 years later.