The Voices of Baseball: The Game’s Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America’s Pastime

McKnight, a sportswriter and blogger, nicely captures baseball’s best moments, players, and places through the eyes of the folks whose job it is to paint pictures with their words—baseball announcers. Each chapter focuses on one team, its ballpark, and its announcer, so it is sometimes hard to figure which of these is the key element of the story, but McKnight’s choice to present each story in a announcer’s unique voice makes them lively and charming, and each chapter comes together in its own special way. Of course, some memorable moments are more dramatic (like Joe Castiglione reminiscing about the Red Sox breaking the curse of the Bambino) than others (the Angels’ announcer bragging about nicknaming David Eckstein “the X Factor”). Most of the announcers McKnight interviews focus on more recent history and new ballparks, but he is smart enough to include to chapters on past ballparks, dear departed announcers, and living legend voices to convey the profession’s rich lineage and create a work that is a testament not only to the baseball’s TV generation, but also to its golden age. (Aug.)