One Day in Mudville by Rip Pallotta: Recommended Reading

Every year, hundreds, if not thousands, of different books about baseball are published. I read a lot of books about baseball, ranging from history, to biographies and autobiographies, to statistical analysis and the behind the scenes business moves involved in the game. It's not often I see a book that strikes me as "different" or "unique". "One Day in Mudville" by Rip Pallotta is a book that I will say is unlike any other I have read.

The book is split into 21 chapters, each highlighting a single baseball game. Along with Pallotta's description of the game, the box score and game log are also provided. What makes this book different is the approach taken to choosing the games. They are not the best games in baseball history. In most cases, they are not playoff games. They are games, however, where something unique or historic happened, something that could not have been predicted. To me, this is highlights one of the great things about baseball. If you watch a baseball game, even if you've watched hundreds of games before, quite often you'll see something you've never seen before. And often, nobody would have expected that thing to happen on that day.

The games in the book are as varied as they are unique. We witness a late season game between two teams battling to stay out of last place that becomes unique when 59 year old Satchel Paige took the mound. The long-time Negro league great remains the oldest player to appear in a major league game. Most baseball fans know about the record for most strikeouts by a pitcher league pitcher in a nine inning game. But what about the record for an extra inning game? You can read all about it here. Jim Bouton returning to the major leagues after years away as a broadcaster and author, Ted Turner as Braves manager, and a switch pitcher, and a player running the bases backwards to celebrate his 100th career home run are examples of some of the more light hearted and fun games covered here.

On a more negative note, we see pitchers losing no hitters with just a single out to go and players who got only a "cup of coffee" in the major leagues, never getting a major league at bat (including "Moonlight" Graham, made famous by the movie "Field of Dreams"). We can take inspiration from the first game ever umpired by an African American, and we read about the heartbreaking injury to young Tony Conigliaro. We read about the longest game and the shortest player in history.

These unique and historic games are presented in an entertaining, light-hearted, conversational tone by Pallotta, which makes the book a quick and enjoyable read. The short chapters, each focusing on an individual game, make this a great book to read in short sittings. You can break this book up over a series of short readings and not lose anything.

I had the opportunity to speak with Pallotta in July at a SABR meeting in July, where he gave a presentation on the book and I purchased a copy (which he signed for me). He is from Fitchburg, MA, where I attended college, so we had some common ground from which to launch our conversation about the game. It is obvious that Rip is a huge baseball fan, and that comes through in the book.

I would recommend this book for any fan that enjoys the "you never know" aspect of baseball. The box scores and game logs will appeal to the geekier fans, such as myself, who enjoy watching these historic games unfold in our minds eye.