As a fan of baseball history, I really enjoyed this book. Yes, like most autobiographies it went on tangents at times and was boring, but I was able to work through it. It tells the story of a man who is arguably the best pitcher of all time: Sandy Koufax. This Jewish pitcher, faced many obstacles for just that reason.
I've always been interested in Sandy Koufax and his story, not only because he was a great pitcher, but also because he's been one of the few great, Jewish athletes, and therefore, I was very interested in learning more about his story.
I also really liked how it was written. When sports autobiographies include things about specific games, they get very intense, exciting and fun to read. However, usually it doesn't last very long and then they go right back to some of the interesting, but more boring stuff. However, what Jane Leavy did which was cool, was she did a good job balancing the exciting and boring stuff. What she did was she would alternate chapters, between information about him and his life, and an inning of his perfect game. The chapters in which Leavy summarized parts of the game, were written from the point of view of different fans, which was a cool spin on it. It set the scene by telling a little bit about the fan and what they were doing it. This made it more interesting. Basically, by alternating the "action" and facts, Leavy got all the information across while also keeping the reader interesting, Few authors can do it this well. This made it better than most biographies.
Telling Koufax's story also teaches valuable lessons. For example, because of his religious beliefs he did not play in a World Series game because it was on a holiday. Few people would do this, and Koufax doing it shows how important it is to follow your beliefs, and do what is important to you.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in baseball and its history.
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