After reading this memoir, I was greatly impressed with the quality of writing and the voice that the author chose for it. The voice for this book was very relaxed and open, while maintaining professionalism. I could hear the author talking to me about umpiring and all the research he did, as well as the many interviews he conducted with current and former umpires.
My favorite thing about this book was the way it spoke about the Land of Umpires. Bruce Weber spoke about this Land with a mystical air. It was almost as if he had to speak about the Land in a specific way, in order to properly do it justice. When the author had been thinking about writing this memoir, he had done several interviews with umpires from both the major leagues and minor leagues. “I came away from these three stories convinced that a land of umpires exists, that it has citizens, laws, and a culture, and that it is exotic enough-both in the context of baseball and the context of, well, the known world- to warrant further exploring” (4). This land of umpires offered a great deal of promise for the author, who decided to become an amateur umpire himself in order to further research it.
The main reason I chose this book was because I felt that it offered a different perspective into the baseball world. After reading it, I see that not only did the author provide a different perspective; he introduces the reader into an entirely new world that is within the vast world of baseball. I also felt that the author considered umpires to be a class all their own, somewhere in between players and fans; however after reading, the author has created an entire new world exclusively for umpires.
I am very pleased that I was able to gain this new insight into baseball, and that I was given the chance to view my favorite sport from an entirely new perspective.
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