A review by eely225
Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere by Lucas Mann
5.0
10/7/2013
An unbelievably compelling book. The author delivers a thorough investigation into the question of who would work for, play for, cheer for an small ball, single-A club of a weak franchise. In doing so, Mann explores identity, the transforming American economy, American cultural mores and contradictions, and, of course, professional baseball. Nothing is as simple as it appears and the personal nature of Mann's investigation means he's growing as you're reading.
Something about this book took hold of me and won't let go, even months later. An immediate favorite.
10/24/2019
Until I checked on Goodreads, I didn't notice that I started re-reading this book exactly six years after I first read it. Something about the baseball season winding down must make me want to live out another one.
This book helped reignite my love for the sport in 2013, and I'm happy to say that much of what was appealing about it back then remains so. The book is not strictly a baseball book, of course. It's a document of one young man entering adulthood and not sure what to do about it. A baseball season is the means by which he is able to reflect on himself and his perspective on those around them, but reporting on the season itself isn't the point. There is not much of a narrative arc. Rather, it is a series of sequences preceding an ending, rather than a conclusion. This is much truer to life than most baseball books choose to be.
When you read this book, you won't read it for the shocking twists. You will read, and continue to read, it for the small observations of unfamiliar lives, each laced with doubt and ambiguity. It's a loosely-bound collection of mostly-chronological essays on people who are struggling to get by in their own way. Mann's strength is his desire to find a way to be sympathetic the struggles of millionaire 19 year-olds and middle-aged bleacher bums in the same breath.
The first time I read this book, I read it very fast. This time, I went slow. The experience is different when it is relished, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Maybe on October 5, 2025, just for the sake of consistency.
An unbelievably compelling book. The author delivers a thorough investigation into the question of who would work for, play for, cheer for an small ball, single-A club of a weak franchise. In doing so, Mann explores identity, the transforming American economy, American cultural mores and contradictions, and, of course, professional baseball. Nothing is as simple as it appears and the personal nature of Mann's investigation means he's growing as you're reading.
Something about this book took hold of me and won't let go, even months later. An immediate favorite.
10/24/2019
Until I checked on Goodreads, I didn't notice that I started re-reading this book exactly six years after I first read it. Something about the baseball season winding down must make me want to live out another one.
This book helped reignite my love for the sport in 2013, and I'm happy to say that much of what was appealing about it back then remains so. The book is not strictly a baseball book, of course. It's a document of one young man entering adulthood and not sure what to do about it. A baseball season is the means by which he is able to reflect on himself and his perspective on those around them, but reporting on the season itself isn't the point. There is not much of a narrative arc. Rather, it is a series of sequences preceding an ending, rather than a conclusion. This is much truer to life than most baseball books choose to be.
When you read this book, you won't read it for the shocking twists. You will read, and continue to read, it for the small observations of unfamiliar lives, each laced with doubt and ambiguity. It's a loosely-bound collection of mostly-chronological essays on people who are struggling to get by in their own way. Mann's strength is his desire to find a way to be sympathetic the struggles of millionaire 19 year-olds and middle-aged bleacher bums in the same breath.
The first time I read this book, I read it very fast. This time, I went slow. The experience is different when it is relished, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Maybe on October 5, 2025, just for the sake of consistency.