Ballpark Greats: Pro Baseball's Best Players
Set of 3 titles
From on-the-diamond exploits to off-the-diamond insights, Ballpark Greats: Pro Baseball's Best Players gives the reader a close-up look at some of the very best of today's Major League Baseball stars. Championship winners and statistical leaders are showcased in a fun-to-read and visually interesting examination of each player's outstanding career. The series gives the reader tangible evidence and insights into why each player is considered one of the best in pro baseball. Each volume in this series provides a glimpse into what the player is like both on and off the diamond by delving into their childhood and family, media interactions, education and charitable works.
Ballpark Greats: Pro Baseball's Best Players - School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up –Readers who have been enduring football season just to make it to baseball spring training will be happy to find this on the shelves. Each player is given the full biographical treatment, including “The Greatest Career Moments,” which are accompanied by QR codes linking to videos of the specific plays. A chapter dedicated to player quotes rates the sound-bites on their originality; some are more cliché than others. It would be an interesting research project to analyze the ingenuity of these short speeches. Text-dependent questions and research project suggestions cap off each chapter. Each book concludes with a chapter about charitable work and personal details. While mostly good, there is some questionable formatting that complicates reading. “The Greatest Career Moments” are inserted into chapter one of each book, breaking up the narrative (in the case of Justin Verlander, splitting a sentence with a nine-page break).
VERDICT Cherry-pick based on local popularity.