Book Blog - "Is This a Great Game, or What?"

Phillies Opening Day Ceremony
Originally uploaded by stksave27

Submitted by Matt Rusay

In the book "Is This a Great Game, or What?", Tim Kurkjian talks about the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). The SABR is a convention located in Dallas and is like, he claims, "a Star Trek convention for baseball" (Kurkjian 119). I found it interesting the way the Kurkjian describes this convention. He shows mixed emotions, laughs at how ridiculous this group is and admires how dedicated these members are to the game of baseball.

As an example of the level of dedication (or obsession) shown by the members, Kurkjian states that in May 1995, Todd Hundley hit a pinch-hit, extra-inning home run, and he (Kurkjian) wanted to know how often this has happened and the last time it occurred. Upon arriving at the convention, he asked one person who to ask about the frequency of this event, and that man replied by pulling a list of the instances this has occurred out of his breast pocket! Kurkjian was astonished and happy to be in a place where people love the game as much as he does. Therefore, it is interesting to see how important SABR is to sportswriters.