Baseball's Biggest Bloopers: The Games that Got Away

Features

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Cover Type: Paperback with 176 pages
• Published by: Puffin May 1, 1995
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0140376151
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0140376159
• Book Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 5.4 ounces

Product Description
Some ball players are remembered for their home runs and great plays--but imagine being famous for blowing the game. Offering play-by-play descriptions of the games, historical trivia, and lifetime statistics of key players, this book shows how life goes on even after the worst moments--and how a little mistake can sometimes make a very big difference. Photos.

Reader Reviews
We all make mistakes and if you love baseball and if you enjoy hearing about how other people made bigger mistakes than you ever will - mistakes that cost World Series titles - then Dan Gutman has written a book for you. "Baseball's Biggest Bloopers" is a pleasure to read, because "Biggest Bloopers" reviews the charming history of twelve (12) major league mistakes in baseball's past, provides follow-up information so that we know the mistake-makers recovered and lived a happy and productive life, and prepares us to expect mistakes in the future that could cost us and our friends a lot of money - and to not get excessively upset about it. Gutman refreshingly writes in the introduction, "Even the best in the world screw up now and then. Nobody's perfect. Mistakes are a part of life. We're only human. The greatest players in the game make mistakes" (p. x). A person might object and say that there are only 12 mistakes reviewed in the book and the history of baseball clearly has a bunch more. My response is to say that while it is pleasurable to read about another person's major blunders and to learn how he humbly admitted his mistake and laughed it off, the chapters deal with tragic experiences that can bum a person out. So thankfully Gutman includes only twelve. Gutman's "Biggest Bloopers" makes a perfect birthday or Christmas gift, since his book is easy to read, gives touching and personal information about the "goats" who blew major games, has a handy review of stats and baseball history at the end of each chapter and contains vintage photographs of early baseball players.