Imperfect

An Improbable Life
Jim Abbot and Tim Brown - 2013 Random House Publishing

What impressed me most about Imperfect is how well it is written for an athlete's autobiography.  This may seem irrelevant but, considering there are numerous autobiographies of athletes in which the author stayed a little too true to his subject, this was a nice change because it's a good story and it's well written.

The book is supposed to be set up around Jim Abbott's no-hitter with the Yankees but the way the chapters are written the structure doesn't work as well as it should.   There are little blurbs about the no-hitter followed by longer chapters that tell Abbott's story.  Because of this, the few pages dedicated to the no-hitter in between read more like an interruption to the storytelling.   Also, most of these sections don't really describe the game but instead present a few lines about Abbott's thoughts during the game and some of the closer calls that happened.

Despite this, the story is still a good one and I would say it's worth giving this book a shot.

Living on the Black

Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember
Jonathan Feinstein - 2008 Hachette Book Group

True to Feinstein's writing, Living on the Black meets the two basic tenants of good books; (1) it's easy to read and (2) it's informative.

The book follows the seasons of Tom Glavine, in the year he was chasing his 300th win with the Mets, and Mike Mussina, when he hit lucky number 250 with the Yankees.  Aside from the interesting parallels writing about pitchers on these two teams creates, the very subject matter of these great pitchers is plenty interesting by itself.

I like that the book really focuses on the pitchers and, while it does follow the teams and mention bits about other teammates and the managers, the focus does not waver far for long.

The information about a season of pitching and the insight about what it means to be a pitcher based on the personal accounts of these two pitchers makes this a book worth the read.