Baseball Fever

I think we're all familiar with stories in which fathers continually plead with their sons to get involved with baseball. These kinds of tales abound, usually ending with the father accepting that just because a boy doesn't like baseball, that doesn't mean he's less of a human being. But how common is it to stumble across stories in which a father disapproves of his son actually liking baseball? Such is the case with Johanna Hurwitz's male bonding tale, "Baseball Fever". When a snobby German intellectual and his all-American, baseball-lovin', pumpkin pie eatin' son try to find a common ground for their interests, it takes a great deal of energy on both their parts to find anything that interests them both. Ezra Feldman's got a problem. No, not his name. He has a father that is aiming to win the Least-Cool-Dad Award of the year. Now his dad's a genius, don't get him wrong. Smart as a whip and a sociological scholar to boot. But while Mr. Feldman may appreciate (what he considers) the finer things in life, he just cannot understand baseball. And Ezra most certainly can. Ezra has been a baseball fanatic ever since he could understand the game. So while dear old dad sighs over the rotting of his second child's brain with sports, Ezra is totally enmeshed in the highs and lows of his favorite team, the Mets. The two have their blow-ups over this seemingly innocuous problem and perhaps they would have counted on ever enjoying one another's company impossible had a fellow scholar of Mr. Feldman's not explained that Ezra's national pastime was actually a good thing. And then there's the fact that Ezra's been learning a little more chess in his spare time, just so he can play his dad and beat him. Slowly, through careful steps on both their parts, the two begin to find that they have more in common than they may have thought after all. The book is a good early chapter book for those sports obsessed children who are just beginning to understand the beauty of reading. Originally written in 1981, the book has aged in odd ways. There's the fact that Ezra keeps lamenting that the Mets are either in last place or second-to-last place. There's the fact that Ronald Reagan is the last president mentioned. But otherwise there are timeless elements to this tale. I was a little amazed that a book of this reading level was tossing about words like "nepotism" and "capricious" hither and yon, but maybe kids will be inspired to look them up. Stranger things have happened. The pictures in the book are a bit of a throwback as well. They're old, no question. For example, after Mr. Feldman remarks on the diversity of the baseball-attending populace, we are privy to a picture of an almost entirely white crowd of baseball fans (with the exception of one very nervous black person near the front of the shot). If you've a baseball fan of your own who hasn't quite fallen for the whole reading-is-good-for-you line of reasoning, you may wish to craftily

I would recommend Baseball Fever to any child 4th through 6thgrade.It is a very exciting book about a boy and his dad challenging each other to a baseball chess battle! But then forced to a decision.Baseball Fever was an overall great book for anyone!

I first read this book a few years ago, having graduated from Matt Christopher greats such as Catcher with a Glass Arm and Shortstop from Tokyo. This book trumps the banal, Christopheresque cadre to introduce a more highbrow milieu into the baseball scene. Aces Monroe for this one. It's the best baseball book ever. EVER!

Baseball Fever is an interesting book that could enhance a child's vocabulary as well as improvise his or her interests in Baseball. It is about a typical family in which the father despises Baseball at first and pushes his son into learning chess, which in his opinion is a good mental gameworth spending time on. But later in the end, the father Dr.Feldman and his son named Ezra learn to compromise by understanding that everyone specializes in some subject. It was a pretty interesting book and also short enough to capture a child's mind.

I am going into the 6th grade and I have to read this book for an honors reading course. I personally like baseball and I think that this book has nothing to do with baseball(as in the sport). But, still, it is a good book. I am a girl and this particular book didn't appeal to many of my friends. I think that it has a great storyline, but the title shys away a majority of the female readers. Trust me, BASEBALL FEVER is a good book. The defect is in the title. =)