Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game within the Game - Softcover

Jerry Remy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0762730757 ISBN 13: 9780762730759

Publisher: Globe Pequot, 2004

Synopsis

Jerry Remy's name and face are already known to millions of fans. Every night during the baseball season, 400,000 or more households tune in to listen to his broadcast of the Red Sox game. But fans learned to love him years ago, when he was traded to the Red Sox in 1978, earning a trip to the All-Star game in his first year with the team; Remy hit .278, scored 87 runs, and stole 30 bases.

Injured in 1984, Remy never played another game. In 1988, he began his work as an announcer, working color commentary for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN, which is a basic cable channel throughout New England and available by satellite across the country. He covers more than 150 games per season for NESN and broadcast television, plus regular assignments on the national Fox Game of the Week. But the best part of Jerry Remy is his easy style: listeners feel like they're having a beer with a friend while they're watching the game.

If spectators just follow the ball, they are missing much of the game. Baseball is a lot more complex than that. Everyone talks about second-guessing the manager; and there's a lot of fun in that for everyone except the manager. Those opinions can be heard all day on the sports talk shows and read in the newspaper columns. But if the people are really going to get into the game, they need to start first-guessing. That's what this book is all about.

About this title

About the Author

Jerry Remy is an extraordinary broadcaster, with an intimate knowledge of the game within the game of baseball that comes from more than a decade as a major league player and more than 2,000 games as the voice of the Boston Red Sox.He is well loved by the huge Red Sox Nation.

Corey Sandler is author of more than 125 books on entertainment, travel, and business topics. A lifelong baseball fan, he maintains the arcane art of scoring a baseball game from the stands or the press box.

From the Back Cover

Join Jerry Remy, beloved Red Sox broadcaster and former second baseman, as he explains America's favorite sport. Written for both the rainy day fan and the avid addict, Watching Baseball covers the game pitch by pitch and play by play, all in the Rem Dawg's characteristic style: clear, concise, and opinionated.
In Watching Baseball, Jerry guides you around the diamond, pointing out: The positioning of the infielders; what's really going on during batting practice; how catchers and pitchers call a game; what a base stealer is thinking when a pitcher goes into his stretch; the difference between high cheese and a knuckler, and all the pitches in between; and so much more, including anecdotes on individual players.
Go inside the minds of the players and the coaches with Jerry as he opens your eyes to the game within the game. Whether you are a casual viewer or an armchair manager, Watching Baseball is your ticket to America's national pastime.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Why Baseball Matters
Here's the way a casual viewer might see a baseball play:
*The pitcher throws the ball to the plate;
*The batter swings at the pitch and hits a sharp ground ball to the left side of the infield;
*The shortstop has the good fortune to be standing directly in the path of the oncoming ball;
*The fielder catches the ball and fires the ball across the diamond to the first baseman, with the ball arriving a half-step ahead of the runner.

If that's the way you watch baseball, you're seeing the essential action, but you're missing almost all of the inside game: the strategy, planning, and execution.

In this book, you'll learn how to really watch a baseball game. I'll show you how to look at the game through the eyes of a player or a manager . . . or a television color analyst.

On the very simple play outlined earlier:
*Why did the pitcher throw that particular pitch?
*Why was it likely that the batter would swing on a 2-0 count?
*Why had the shortstop moved two steps to his right as the pitch was delivered, ending up exactly where the ball was headed?
*Why did the catcher follow the runner up the basepath toward first?
*What was the right fielder doing coming in toward the infield on a play at first?

And we'll look at much more complex elements including the art of pitching, hitting, fielding, and baserunning. I'll take you inside the minds of the players and the coaches.


The Bold and the Restless
I guess listeners know that I have a not-so-secret addiction to "Days of Our Lives." For me, baseball is also like a soap opera.

In baseball, the soap opera starts opening day and continues to the final day of the season. There are going to be so many ups and downs over 162 games and six months of playing: wins, losses, injuries, players upset at the manager, the manager upset with the players, superstars who refuse to talk to the press, and superstars who talk too much.

In football, you have one game on Sunday and then it is all preparation until the next game a week later. Baseball changes every day.

During the off-season, people ask me all the time who's going to be in the lineup on opening day. First of all, I have no idea what kind of trades the team will make and who will look good in Spring Training. And then three days into the season, the opening day roster could be thrown out the window.

Over the course of a season, we don't know if our star shortstop is going to get hurt, or if our superstar pitcher's shoulder is going to fall apart. We don't know if a guy with a great career record as a hitter is inexplicably going to have a terrible season, or if some unheralded rookie is going to tear the cover off the ball for the entire season and take the job of a veteran. These are the days of the baseball soap opera.

Edition details

• Publisher: Globe Pequot
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0762730757
• ISBN 13: 9780762730759
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400