Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, (Paperback)

from librken

I keep wanting to give this four stars, but the book constantly feels as if it's stretching to be more than it ever achieves. The book spends far too much time dwelling on the economics of the small city of Clinton, particularly with the corn processing plant run by ADM. Conversely, it spends far...

from joeldinda

An interesting but frustrating read. A book full mostly of paper people, and pretty weak analysis. Some parts, though, are very good. I kept wondering how Mann would have portrayed me, had he watched the Lansing team (or, better, Battle Creek, though he'd have to time-shift somehow) instead of C...

from SamSattler

"Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere" is, not very surprisingly, a fairly depressing book. But what else can one expect from a book about a little town in Iowa in which most of the "characters" simply want out of town as soon as possible. Not only do the A-ball baseball players hope to ...

from nmele

Mann followed the Clinton LumberKings for a season and this book is about his experiences and that season. Unfortunately, from my point of view, much of the book concerns Mann's feelings rather than the team's. He does get inside the viewpoints of a few dedicated Clinton fans, and at times he giv...

from JNSelko

The book does an excellent job of showing the narcissistic and juvenile personalities of the players even at the the lower levels of OB and in what disregard they hold the fans while at the same time showing the "real" fans to be missing something deep and important in their lives. A good if depr...