Review of "Boy’s Life Book of Baseball Stories," edited by the editors of Boy’s Life

Review of

Boy’s Life Book of Baseball Stories, edited by the editors of Boy’s Life


Four out of five stars

 These stories feature boys from roughly thirteen through the high school years. With the publication date of 1964, the championships that the teams are playing for vary from that of the county to the state. The featured players sometimes have different backgrounds than the usual. For example, one of the stories has the new player having a background in cricket and another is a French-Canadian lumberjack that swings a mean axe but knows nothing about baseball.

 My favorite story is one called “Bullpen Catcher.” Artie Platt is an overweight boy that has been on the Forest Prep baseball team for three years and has only batted once. There are two other quality catchers on the team, he stays in the bullpen to warm up the pitchers. When the two other catchers are both injured and unable to continue, Artie is forced to go behind the plate. What he lacks in skill he makes up for in grit and hustle, sparking his team to engage in the extra effort that wins the game.

 It is raining right now, and the baseball season is on hold due to the pandemic. This was a nice book to pass the afternoon with, nothing dramatic, just solid stories about baseball with good endings.