Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks

This book has been pummelled by reviewers who hate Curt Smith's writing style. Granted, sometimes he writes like someone in a mental hospital stitching phrases together in bursts. Other times he writes like your buddy telling stories in a bar. Because of the huge scope of content (ie. the entire history of baseball told via a tour of its ballparks), this clipped style works. At over 500 pages, this is still a weighty read. I would have given it 3 stars, but it earns a 4th one for the cool colour inserts that show a couple dozen paintings of historic and current stadiums at gametime.

Its about time that a book of this subject matter was written. Not nearly enough attention is paid nowadays to the classic ballparks of the 20s and 30s other than the storied Ynakee Stadium and through this book we are introduced to not only the stadiums which at the time were cutting edge but to the players and stories of what occured within their fences. And much applause to Mr. Smith for finally giving some props to the much maligned former homeof the Houston Astros the Astrodome.