Everything Happens in Chillicothe: A Summer in the Frontier League With Max McLeary, the One-Eyed Umpire
*Starred Review* Every baseball fan fed up with baseball as a metaphor for life should read this book. Right now! Damn it, baseball is a game, and people play it for fun more often than they do to uncover universal truths. Take Max McLeary, a middle-aged, one-eyed umpire in the Frontier League (you can't go any lower on the professional baseball ladder). McLeary does it not because it reminds him of playing catch with his father but because he gets to hang out with the guys and hoist a few beers after the game while telling stories about all the other fun times he has had doing the same thing. Shannon, editor ofSpitballmagazine and author of several other baseball books, spent the 2000 season hanging out with McLeary and his partner, Jim Schaly, while the pair umped games in the unaffiliated Frontier League, the graveyard of organized baseball. All prospective umpires will benefit from the real-world tales of the umpiring life, but fans everywhere will respond to the humor, the poignant moments, and the insights into living in small-town America. Mostly, though, it's just plain fun, and it will make readers wish they embraced their lives with the same enthusiasm as McLeary, Schaly, and Shannon.Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved