Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember

Editorial Review:

Pitchers are the heart of baseball, and John Feinstein tells the story of the game today through one season and two great pitchers working in the crucible of the New York media market. Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina have seen it all in the Major Leagues and both entered 2007 in search of individual milestones and one more shot at The World Series-Glavine with the Mets, Mussina five miles away with the Yankees. The two veterans experience very different seasons--one on a team dealing with the pressure to get to a World Series for the first time in seven years, the other with a team expected to be there every year. Taking the reader through contract negotiations, spring training, the ups of wins and losses, and the people in their lives-family, managers, pitching coaches, agents, catchers, other pitchers--John Feinstein provides a true insider's look at the pressure cooker of sports at the highest level.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

Tedious:

I bought this book with great optimism. I'm a fan of baseball non-fiction and thought the concept was great. Unfortunately it has proven to be a tedious read. There is very little real insight into the mind of the pitcher and is basically a re-hashing of two teams' seasons.
Nice idea but could have been accomplished in about 75 pages. I learned more about Tom Glavine's divorce and re-marriage than about the perspective of a starting pitcher.

Decent book but could have been better:

As someone who has read John Fienstein's books for more than ten years now I can say that I have seen some of his books that are good to great and some that are poor to lousy. This one sadly rates in the second category. Overall it is a weak and overwrought story and essentially a 500 page plus book that could be half that length with a good editor.
The book also contains a number of errors that a good editor would have caught along with the long winded phrases. Plus the fact that he dwells so long on... more info

Inside Pitch:

What I love about John Feinstein is his ability to take the sports fan into a world we don't normally see. In "Living on the Black" he uses his journalistic credibility and his extraordinary story telling powers to create a "behind the scenes" story of two veteran pitchers, Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. Each pitcher is struggling to eek one more season out of his "ancient" body. Mr. Feinstein approaches his story with the same pacing of the baseball season itself (this may put off some readers). His... more info

Good Book But A Little Too Detailed:

John Feinstein is a very good sports author. I love most of his books. I thought this was an interesting concept for a book. I enjoy both pitchers, Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine, that he chose to follow. Mr. Feinstein showed a different side of both pitchers. He had a great season to follow with the New York Mets collapse and the New York Yankees fighting to make the playoffs. I really enjoyed Mike Mussina's breaking down of what a pitcher truly is and what they do.
Now the bad, I hated that Mr.... more info

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