Initial Impressions

“A fan’s travel’s in the land of umpires.”

By the subtitle of this book, one can tell that the author considers umpires to be in a class all their own when it comes to the different groups in professional baseball. And in a way, you can see his point. There is a very distinct separation in baseball from the fans to the players and coaches, which can be evidently seen whenever you happen to catch even a glimpse of an ordinary game. The umpires, however, seem to be towards the middle. They are not playing the game, but they are not merely watching it, either. Their job is much more important, as they are in charge of keeping the game in order and ensuring that everyone follows the rules.

I selected this book mainly because of the statement in the above subtitle. I am a huge baseball fan, but have never gotten the experience of getting so close to the game from a completely different perspective. I believe that the reason Bruce Weber chose to experience this side of the game was because of the numerous possibilities from this wholly separate and different perspective; and because he also wishes to show readers what it’s like from this new side of the game of baseball. I don’t know a whole lot about Bruce Weber, but I am very excited to share in his experiences and to learn more about baseball from this new and different perspective he is offering to the readers.