Roads to Redemption: A Guide to Major League Baseball

For the UK baseball novice it is hard to get started. I bought a small, under-explained (and overpriced) book of rules; and started video-ing Channel 5 baseball (which is broadcast once or twice a week, in the middle of the night) - and got hooked.

In order to find out even the basics of the sport, I've spent a fair bit on books, and lot of time on the internet (Wikipedia has plenty of information). But all the books and web articles assume a basic level of knowledge impossible to the English fan - especially concerning the abundant jargon and slang, basic history, great players, notorious events etc.

Along comes Craig W Thomas who has produced the perfect solution to this problem of bridging the UK-US gap with Roads to Redemption - especially with his superb (and superbly opinionated) Dictionary of Baseball which makes up the second-third of this book. There is also a concise 'history' of the sport full of amusing asides. There is stuff about the great players, team profiles and more. So all the necessary facts are packed-in.

The only significant (albeit minor) problem with the book is the proof-reading - there are large numbers of minor 'typographical' errors, and mistakes in spelling, headings etc. This is inevitable with big and complex books published by tiny publishers to a tight deadline. But the book looks very good, is well illustrated, and handles well - so the publishers deserve overall congratulation - and if R to R runs into second and further updated editions (as it deserves to) then these minor niggles can be corrected.

But - useful facts aside - the special appeal of this book comes from the fact that Thomas is such a good writer. He is an enthusiast, prone to enjoyable set-piece mini-rants (of endorsement and of irritation), on topics both likely and unlikely (eg. he loves both the Boston Red Sox and baseball poems) - with a line in witty, self-deprecating honesty honed in the school of soccer fanzines.

Indeed, the style of humour makes this this is a very English book about a very American sport. Roads to Redemption is more than just an 'introduction': it has new things to say and a new voice to say them.


Baseball Arrives.   March 28, 2005
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

There are not too many Baseball books around that have the UK fan in mind so I was very pleased to hear about "Roads To Redemption", the author is a UK based RedSox fan and this is the basis for the book.
As a relatively new fan of Baseball the Author describes various situations that all UK fans of the game will be familiar with. Refferences to the deeds of players from another age and such like. he then does his best to try and explain some of it from a fans point of view.
The book has lots of very useful stats and information ideal for newish recruits to the twilight world of UK MLB fandom, as well as these technical sections there is some very good stuff about the FIVE baseball show (which was the catalyst for many of us to really get into the game) including some insight into the characters of the people who bring us the show twice a week throughout the season and on the authors own experiences as a RedSox fan during their historic 2004 World Series season, naturaly this features quite prominently as does as a season long review of 2004 and a look at the history of the game from the early years of Cobb, Young & Ruth etc.
All in all a very worthwhile effort and a book that would be very usefull to UK Baseball fans both for the technical content and as an entertaining read. It's not perfect but it is a big step beyond the usual "Baseball For Dummies" type offering that we tend to find on our bookshelves, read it and judge for yourselves.