ACES

Just finished reading Aces, thought I would start a diary for discussion.  My overall impression was good.  As someone who reads every scrap of A's news he can get his hands on, there was not as much earth-shattering material in there as there would be for the less rabid fan, but I thought it was a crystal clear window into the kind of life and times of Tim, Mark, and Barry specifically and big league pitchers in general. Really liked the game lines in the back, that will probably be the part of the book I will come back to again and again in the future.  Thumbs up to Mychael, but when I see it on my shelf in 5 years I'm sure I'll be thinking 'What might have been . . . . '

Special moments:

-GnGG is not going to like the section where Barry discusses Alyssa Milano, but since they have broken up I'm sure it's all good

-Special irony to Hudson's admiration of the Cardinals

-In the beginning Mychael mentions how the life of a beat writer has changed in the past thirty years.  I think the way his access translated into this story will be very popular and could help bring the balance back towards the old-school ways (at least in certain situations)

-Kind of cathartic reliving last season through the book, still remember Mecir coming into the game against the Angels, remember watching Hudson get hammered against Boston in September, glad I had time to get through it all in one day.

-The discussions about Peterson were particularly interesting, my hasty conclusion would be that he is a young/inexperienced pitcher's coach, a development type.

I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks.  Also got my prospect handbook in the same shipment, so it has been a great baseball weekend for me :).