![]() ![]() My last several baseball books, I will admit to getting bored and not finishing. I consider Jon a friend so even if I didn’t like the book I would never say that, but since Jon is one of the best writers in the world of baseball that was never going to be an issue. I’m not a proper book reviewer as I’m sure those who do this for a living have a certain way of reviewing a book. Heck I expected to see Bob Timmermann used as a source and sure enough, he was mentioned in the acknowledgments.Įven the casual fan knows about Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton, Fernando, Orel, and Kershaw, but if they were just learning about Johnny Podres, Claude Osteen, Bill Singer, Burt Hooton and Jerry Ruess there is no better guide than Jon Weisman. It was also cool to see Jon use sources such as Eric Enders who once said something about me that kept me writing when I figured no one was reading. As much as I already knew about these pitchers, Jon found new information that was always a pleasant surprise. One problem with being a Dodger fan as long as I have, you don’t get surprised but for those fans who are new to baseball, or simply were Dodger fans but not crazy fans, these chapters should enlighten anyone about the arms who build the great Dodger pitching legacy. Jon hits almost all the pitchers I was interested in reading about. Jon made a great point to show that for every infamous defeat, you could almost always point to how the pitcher was pitching on guts alone. ![]() I know now, that all pitchers of that generation were used and discarded at the whim of management, but to see the numbers they put up still staggered me. I had read all about these hurlers back when I was 10 – 15 and knew every name quite well but a boy of 10 didn’t know jack about innings pitched, and as I read how each of these hurlers were slogged by their respective managers, I will have to admit that admiration and anger were the emotions that played around in my mind. Jon starts us off with the legends of the early Brooklyn pitchers, and while it was interesting, he didn’t really grab my attention until he got to Ralph Branca. To be sure Jon does talk about wins a lot, which might seem foreign to someone who just read Keith Law’s Smart Baseball, but in the context of the era that most of these hurlers pitched in, it made perfect sense to use the antiquated Win stat. Many of us already understand these stats but for those fans who have never touched a sabermetric stat, and don’t get to listen to Joe Davis explain these modern-day statistics because they don’t have the Spectrum option, it was a good idea to start the book with an explanation of these stats. ![]() I liked that Jon started it off with a full chapter devoted to the type of stats he was going to use. I was also given an advance copy of the PDF, but I’ve found that I’m quite addicted to reading now on my kindle so I waited for my kindle version. For anymore information feel free to reach out to Brent directly at 310.666.2825. Hopefully some of the DTW crew can make it, as it should be a really fun afternoon and good chance to meet and hear from Jon.Ĭommon Space Brewery is located at 3411 W. The brewery will have a food truck on-site and also offer non-alcoholic beverages for those that don’t drink beer. The event starts at 12:10 with the Dodgers first pitch, and around 2 or 3 Jon will read parts of his book and be available to sign copies of the book or chat. Jon Weisman will be signing copies of his recently released second book – Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition. For those of you that enjoy beer and/or the Dodgers, which hopefully is most of you, this should be right up your alley. I could have bought the hardcover but I’m waiting to buy some of those from Jon himself when he does a book signing at the Brewery on June 3rd.īook Signing with Jon Weisman – June 3 at Common Space BreweryĬommon Space Brewery in Hawthorne, opened up earlier this year by Brent Knapp, is hosting a book signing and Dodger game viewing on June 3. His book is called Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition and is now available in both hardcover and kindle versions.Įven though his book had dropped over a month ago, the Kindle version didn’t drop until this past week on May 15th. When Jon Weisman announced his new project last year I was excited to see what kind of prose he could put together about the pitchers of my youth and the pitchers I read about in my youth.
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