Working at the Ballpark

This is a delightful book. Tom Jones has collected a series of interviews with those people who make their livings in baseball, from players to peanut vendors, general managers to batboys. The interviews are presented as-is, with little rhetorical flourish or editing. The subjects relate the day-to-day goings-on in the world of baseball that exists just outside the sight of the average fan in the stands. Tom Jones takes you beyond the usual sportswriting and takes you deep inside the inner workings of the game.

I recommend this five star book by author Tom Jones.My brother did a phenomenal job interviewing the people he selected in telling there stories behind the scenes. I also find it amazing he had the ability to seek out his interviees in all situations and exposing the fact that most people that like baseball only know what they see on tv and in the media concerning the sport.Tom gives the reader a rare inside look of the dedicated lives of people working at the ball park. Greg Jones SUNNNYAVLE,CA [...]

Tom Jones is apparently this author's real name, and he has an ear for the real people who bring us the real game of big-league baseball. Done in a Studs Terkel style, "Working at the Ballpark" lets us know what it's really like behind the scenes on game day in the voices of the people who make the games possible. A must for any baseball fan.

This is an entertaining book. I like how the author preserves the speaking styles of the 50 baseball people interviewed. This makes for very enjoyable reading. I especially enjoyed reading about batting, hitting, and coaching techniques from people like Leo Mazzone, Ron Jackson, and Mike Hargrove. I also enjoyed peeking into clubhouses to see what really goes on, to read about the tensions between ballplayers and the media, and to read how plain folks like ushers, beer vendors, and mascots make their living. I recommend this book strongly. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in readking about baseball from a different perspective. If Studs Terkel had written a baseball book, this is probably what it would have read like.

50 interviews with people with ALL SORTS of careers at a ballpark--players, clubhouse workers, mascot, landscaping, announcer, ballpark vendors (food, beer, etc.). My favorite interviews were the ballpark architect, the umpire, the shortstop who goes to art galleries when he travels around the US, and the "from Connecticut" ticket hustler. I like that I can read one interview at a time or several in a row. This would be a good gift for any man. I will keep it in mind for the impossible-to-shop-for 15-25 year old. It also strikes me as a good graduation gift because everyone in the book talks about how they came to have that job. I am female 32 years with limited interest in pro sports...