Squeeze Play: A Novel by Jane Leavy

Squeeze Play: A Novel Reviews

• 
  Ben

  Belatedly finished this one, and glad I did. A good read. So many insights into what sportswriting was like around 1990, and I find that interesting. Also lots of observations about what it was like for women sportswriters in particular at that time, which is also interesting. Sure sounds like it was pretty crazy (sexist) at that time. Kind of obvious it would have been that way when you think about it, I guess, but this novel sure spells it out. Beyond that, had great insights about baseball beat-writing that still hold up today.
  Some really fun writing where she has great turns of phrase. Sometimes she goes off on tangents that don’t quite resonate with me. Either way, it’s really a fun & funny read.
  I even like the character’s writing. She has a fun habit of writing sentences like this: “Jane Leavy, the former sports columnist and award-winning author whose remembrances of Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle sharpened our understanding of some of baseball’s biggest stars, once wrote fiction, too. It was pretty entertaining stuff.”
  
• 
  Maya Senen

  This was something of a let down. If you are familiar with Leavy's nonfiction biographies ("The Last Boy," for instance, on Mickey Mantle), you know she is abundantly familiar with the game and more importantly "what baseball is all about." Given her pedigree as a writer, I really was expecting more. As it stands, this felt like an attempt at a charming recast of Bull Durham, from the perspective of a budding young journalist. It's not quite a hit, but not a total out- I guess it will be your fielder's choice?
• 
  Kris Dersch

  This delightfully funny baseball romp caught me by surprise. Yes, it's light and fluffy, but light and fluffy of the truly delightful sort. A dash of romance, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny with more than enough baseball to satisfy a true fan, told by an author who knows the game and the inside of a locker room too well. Always on my spring training shelf.
  Featured on the No Extra Words Podcast Episode 108.
• 
  Allison

  2.5 stars
  
  I'm writing a review for this for a new baseball blog that is launching soon and I will link to that once it goes live in a couple of weeks.
• 
  Alison (Lady Coffin) S

  Good
• 
  Jeff Hookey

  The literary equivalent of Major League. Uproariously funny! Anyone that ever played the game can relate to the craziness that comes with a group of men playing a kids game.
• 
  Herb

  Funny, sometimes LOL funny. Enjoyable.
• 
  Barry Mann

  Just couldn't get into it
• 
  Aaron Lozano

  A very enjoyable read, I thought that it started with such a bang there was only downhill from there. However, the ending was magnificent.
• 
  Amy

  I've read this book at least a dozen times--checked it out from the library when it was first released, bought a copy for myself and reread it a number of times, and just now bought it again on Kindle. I love the book, love the characters, and feel the baseball story ringing true every time.
  
  But I still feel like, in the end, Ari chose the wrong man. She gave up the honorable man, the one who made good choices for good reasons after thinking things through, the one who made her toes curl. And instead, she took back the one who behaved imperiously, rudely, and abruptly, and who cheated on her (while she cheated on him).
  
  It is a mark of a very good writer that one can be brought to care this much about fictional characters.
• 
  matteo

  Baseball! It's absurd, it's ridiculous, it's like Bull Durham without actually having to look at Susan Sarandon!
• 
  Coki

  on CD
  
  
  
• 
  Marvin

  A trashy baseball novel with a female sportswriter as the narrator.
• 
  Tim Chizmar

  Look up the word MISANDRY.. This book is full of it