Book club

Nearly a year ago, we bought the Harry Kalas tribute book Remembering Harry Kalas. A few weeks ago, I finally finished it.

I am an editor and spend all day reading and rewriting, so after a long day at work, I'm not likely to pick up a book unless it's something that I'm really enjoying. I always thought it would be awesome to get to read for a living, but once I actually started doing it as a job and realized that poring over less-than-stellar copy every day can be not so fun, my love of reading definitely took a sad hit.

That's my long way of saying, it took me so long to finish reading the book because it wasn't very good. I loved the concept behind it, but I wasn't thrilled with the execution.

Rich Wolfe, who compiled dozens of stories about Harry from friends, colleagues, ballplayers and others, says in his preface:

This book is designed solely for other sports fans. I really don't care what the publisher, editors or critics think. I'm only interested in Phillies fans having an enjoyable read and getting their money's worth. Sometimes a person being interviewed will drift off the subject but if the feeling is that Phillies fans would enjoy their digression, it stays in the book.

Wolfe says there was minimal editing done, mostly involving commas and merging paragraphs, and that shows. Some of these stories ramble on and don't get to a point. Others have barely anything to say about Harry (I'm looking at you, Tim McCarver). A few are from friends who hadn't seen or talked to Harry since high school or college. Many of the essays tell the same story, and despite Wolfe's acknowledgment of that and assertion that they bring different perspectives, they just sound repetitive.

In addition, there are these random factoids at the bottom of many pages. They don't have anything to do with Harry Kalas, the Phillies or baseball. They didn't add anything of interest and definitely could have been left out.

Worst of all, there are basic mistakes throughout the book, the kind that make me cringe. Misspellings, missing punctuation, missing words, sentences and phrases that don't make any sense. I'm not a perfect writer or editor, but I also don't have a book deal. These kind of sloppy errors shouldn't be found in any book.

There were some interesting tales I hadn't heard before, and some tributes were touching. But I think Wolfe should have taken into account that maybe Phillies fans can be editors and critics too and would have appreciated a better product.

I don't like being harsh, but because Wolfe says that he's the least likely person to write a book, that he can't type, that he's never turned on the computer and that he's never seen the Internet, I think that it's probably fair to say he's out of touch with many Phillies fans today anyway.

Next on the list: I need to finally read my Gary Matthews-Scott Lauber Phillies Confidential about the 2008 season. I enjoy Lauber's writing, so I'm sure this will be a much quicker read. It will be fun to revisit the World Championship season after some time and with a little more perspective. And come on - it has Sarge! Can't go wrong with him.

Greg is in the middle of Doug Glanville's The Game from Where I Stand, which I bought him for his birthday. He's enjoying it so far. [It's not a tell-all, but gives enough insight to make it interesting. And, we've always enjoyed Glanville's op-eds.]

And at some point we'll probably check out Harry the K: The Remarkable Life of Harry Kalas by Randy Miller. The excerpts we've seen have been juicy.

At the movies: Greg sent me this fun tidbit this afternoon:

These were the DVDs in the Philadelphia visitor's clubhouse: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard; Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Semi Pro. Obviously the Phillies are hoping the opposition will pop one in and sleep through the game.

We're highly amused that the home team provides DVDs for the visiting clubhouse. I'm also trying to figure out if there's some kind of hidden message behind providing these particular movies, if they were in the discount bin at Walmart or if they were just left behind in Brett Myers' locker.

I wonder if the Red Sox provide a complimentary copy of Fever Pitch for their visitors. [Or, do home teams leave that disaster for the Red Sox when they visit to get in their heads?]

Tonight: The Phillies were off from playing a game but participated in their annual ALS festival. They open a series in New York tomorrow night.

The Red Sox are handling the AL East leaders and are up 6-0 on the Rays in the 4th inning.

The Flyers, up 3-1, are about 18 minutes away from the finals.

Game shape

Although they're ultra-meaningless, we're just a couple days away from game action. Charlie Manuel has set the Phillies early pitching rotation, and Terry Francona has already posted the Wednesday Red Sox lineups against Northeastern and Boston College.

Christine and I spent the last couple days getting ready to watch baseball again. On Saturday, we caught some of the Pine Tar Game on MLB Network (it was more interesting than I remembered).

Then we watched some extras on Legends of the Fall - the celebration of winning the National League Championship (highlight was Carlos Ruiz shouting "Chooch" like a choo-choo train) and the 9th inning of Game 4 of the NLCS.

Finally, we returned to MLB Network to see the infamous 10-inning game in 1979 in which the Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22. Unfortunately, they used the Cubs broadcast. It would have been interesting to hear Harry Kalas' take. While I was in midseason form, conking out around 11:30 p.m., Christine was not. She couldn't stay up to watch the ending.

Last night, we watched some of the infamous 2008 All-Star game in which J.D. Drew led the American League past Brad Lidge and the National League. Christine grumbled when she remembered the abuse Clint Hurdle subjected Lidge to. Today, I reminded her that that game enabled us to witness this.

Game, well, pre-game on.

'Legends' falls short

We're not clearing out just our DVR lately, but also our "to-watch" pile of DVDs.

We recently caught Legends of the Fall, the 2009 Phillies video yearbook.

I guess it's perfunctory. There's only one little bit that got us excited (I'll get to that later), and the World Series loss was glossed over as if it were a spring training game. (Christine can't even remember whether they acknowledged that the Phillies didn't win.)

I also have a problem with the title. "Legends" implies greatness. Yes, it's remarkable that the 2008 World Champions returned to the World Series the next year, but they needed to win it in 2009 to be proclaimed legendary.

We were pleased when Raul Ibanez, the film's narrator, talked about the Phillies series in Tampa. Raul missed the series due to injury, and in the video he laments that he didn't get the opportunity to meet Elvis Burrell as he got his championship ring and woofed that now he's going to Disney World to celebrate.

Spaceman hits the big screen

I had the opportunity to clear out the DVR recently and finished off Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey.

I liked it even though it didn't blaze any new ground on one of the game's greatest characters - especially for anyone who has read Bill Lee's autobiography, The Wrong Stuff.

I read that book several years ago. I've always admired Lee's honesty and willingness to be himself even though it meant less opportunity to play the game he loves. And watching the movie gave me the sense that it was a "documentary based on the book."

One major difference was Lee's aunt stealing the show in her commentary, especially punctuating how he probably pitched while high but that it didn't affect him.

There was also a part about a barnstorming tour Lee took in Cuba a few years ago. That was some fascinating stuff, especially the bit in which he's walking around cow fields in full uniform trying to find a stadium. You had the feeling he would bump into Fidel Castro and they would have a catch. That wouldn't surprise anyone with the Spaceman.

I did gain a greater appreciation for just how much Lee loves playing baseball and how that love gives him an instant connection to so many people no matter their background.

It was definitely an enjoyable movie, and I hope MLB Network continues to show things like this. I'd rather be riding Space Mountain, but if that's not possible, I'll take a good baseball movie like Spaceman.