Secure A Season To Forget: The Story Of The 1988 Baltimore Orioles Depicted By Ron Snyder Readable In Paperback

book about theBaltimore Orioles a team that lost their firstgames of the season, Gamebygame look at the losses and interviews with players, coaches and sportswriters amp broadcasters looking back at that horrendous season.
A trip down memory lane for me theOrioles are one of the sporting touchstones of my life, so reacquainting myself with a lot of these names was pretty fun.
Meh Although the title seems to offer a rather thin subject matter, the author could have done so much more.
The book lists atpages, but that includes two chapters that go into depth about thegame losing streak and a wherearetheynow piece.
Another significant chunk of the book, is devoted to theseason, Instead of this padding, I wish the author had done a deeper dive into the lives of the players, coaches, management, broadcasters, etc.
involved in that terrible season, He mentions Larry Lucchino, who helped develop theRed Sox, just in passing, Couldn't we learn more about the Ripkin family And he recounts the Orioles' acquisition of Glenn Davis without explaining his relation to Storm Davis.
In sum could have been much better, This was an incredibly enjoyable look at the disastrousBaltimore Orioles season, Full of interviews from players and those around the team, the book shed some light on this very memorable point in Orioles history.
Man, I really wanted to like this book more, I love baseball A Season to Forget's on season's and when I saw this I thought I would love, But this isn't really a book on one season with the Baltimore Orioles, it's about one month, One bad, terrible month when they loststraight games, Oh yes, the author does talk abuta little and how the team got to how bad it would be inby mentioning the years, and the author does talk about the almost miracleseason for a chapter.
But this was a book on basically, one month, And although some of the information is great, it's just repeated and repeated and repeated over and over and over again.
Liketimes over again. And I started to think, you know, this just isn't a good book, What I mean is, it can't be a good book, It CAN be a great long magazine article, I think the author tried to stretch this out to make it a book atpages, but the story really could have been told in less than, but then who buys the book If this was edited a little better, Ron Snyder could have had an excellent Sports Illustratedtypepage article that would have been a great read.
But it's a book and I'm sorry it just drags, Maybe the topic is just not book worthy Be willing to give the author another shot though, Only Die Hard Baltimore Orioles fans will enjoy this, and they might not, I mean, they did losestraight.
I credit the author for interviewing overpeople for this one and producing a book about theBaltimore Orioles.
He also reminded me how much fun theBaltimore Orioles were to watch, In one of the most ignominious and improbable stretches of play in the history of Major League Baseball, theBaltimore Orioles started their season.
While certainly an interesting topic that deserves examination, "A Season to Forget" just didn't pull me into the overall narrative like it perhaps should have.


The biggest issue I had with this work was how oddly paced it was, Hardlypages in, the bulk of the material devoted to the streak had been completed, A long stretch then detailed the rest of the season, which I found to be rather boring, Then, a brief section is given to the O's remarkable comeback to almost capture a division title in 'the part of the book I actually enjoyed the most! Finally, there is an appendix,

of sorts, that goes gamebygame of the losing streakodd that such information was not incorporated into the upfront material.
As such, I felt that "Season to Forget" was a rather disjointed experience,

I also believe that being a diehard fan of the Orioles I am notjust a big baseball fan in general would help one's enjoyment here substantially.
Author Ron Snyder goes into very specific detail about individual players, including where they came from and where they ended up.
Not great in the casualfan narrative sense, but probably hits much closer to home and heart for Baltimore denizens.


All of that being said, "Season to Forget" did provide me with some interesting information about an event I really didn't have much knowledge of besides its general existence as an odd/bizarre streak.
It was far from useless in that sense, However, any information gleaned came at the price of not being all that sucked into the overall narrative whether due to fandom or organizational issues.
In, the Baltimore Orioles set a baseball record that a team would never want to claim they lostconsecutive games to start the season.
While the Orioles had been declining since winning the World Series in, no one expected a team led by Cal Ripken Jr.
and Eddie Murray to perform so terribly, The streak and the state of the Orioles before and after the streak is told in this book by Ron Snyder.


There is writing about the Orioles both before and after the chapters on the streak itself, The beginning chapters tell a brief history of the team and the success it had for nearlyyears betweenandwhen the team won three World Series titles and appeared in two others.
Then, after the awful season of, there is a nice write up about their nearly complete turnaround inwhen they fell one game short from winning the American League East Division.
That was called the “Why Not” season and certainly a terrific feelgood story,

However, the books main topic, thegame losing streak in, was described in what is best described as haphazard fashion.
The games were not recapped in chronological order, at least not regularly as one will read about say gamein the streak, then a player interviewed will talk about game.
At least it starts with theopening day loss to the Milwaukee Brewers and the chapters on the streak does end when the Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox.
None of the games during the streak are analyzed in depth and there isnt a lot of information on any player or manager written.
Not even Cal Ripken Sr, the shortstops father and manager of the team who was fired six games into the streak,

While the book certainly has its flaws, it was one that was a quick read and something this reader wanted to finish to the end and see what happens, much like how the media and fans all over the world were following the Orioles streak.
It gained international attention and when the streak was over, it was a relief for everyone, not just the Orioles players and staff.
One other noteworthy occurrence that should be mentioned as it gained its own chapter, The Orioles ended the streak in Chicago, After losing two more games to the White Sox, they came back home to a soldout Memorial Stadium on a Monday night where it was announced that the team would be getting a new ball park.
It was quite a sight to see a packed stadium come out to watch a team with arecord.


While this book was at best only a cursory description of the historic streak, the author does mention in the foreword of the book that this was written from the viewpoint of both a journalist and a fan.
Reading that and finishing the book was enough to give this book a passing grade, but for more information on the streak, players or Orioles of thatseason, it is best to seek that elsewhere.


sitelink blogspot. com/ It may have been a season to forget, but today it's a warm and interesting memory of a city that embraced a team that seemed to be able to do nothing right.
This book tells the story in all its infamy with all the characters involved, Betweenand, the Baltimore Orioles were considered the best team in baseball, During that span, the team won three World Series, advanced to three others, and competed for a playoff spot just about every season.


The Orioles were a model franchise thanks to its “Orioles Way” approach to building a franchise through a strong farm system.
Future Hall of Famers like Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Cal Ripken Jr, and Eddie Murray made their ways through the ranks and helped put consistent winners on the field,

But five years after Ripken caught the final out to clinch the Orioles World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, the franchise was in disarray.
From not understanding how to utilize free agency to having their once famed farm system dry up of talent, the onceproud franchise was spiraling downward.


Heading into theseason, the Orioles expected to struggle after aloss season the year before, Not even the return of famed manager Earl Weaver inandwas enough to turn the team around, The Orioles attempted to revamp their roster inwithnew players on the roster compared to the year before.


The team opened that season, shattering the record for futility to start a season by eight games.
They consistently found different ways to lose each night to the point that President Ronald Regan sent a message of support to the lovable losers from Charm City.
Religious leaders and mental health professionals even offered to help the team find that elusive first win,

In the same vein as Jimmy Breslins Cant Anyone Here Play This Game on theNew York Mets, author Ron Snyder discusses just how did a once model franchise devolved into a team with the distinction of having the worst start of any team in MLB history.
A Season to Forget takes an indepth look at the lead up to that season, a gamebygame breakdown of the streak, and the toll it took on those who lived through it.
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