Thursday, April 01, 2010

BOOK REVIEW: MAPLE STREET PRESS METS ANNUAL 2010.

Every year for the last three years I’ve gotten a copy of the the Mets’ edition of the Maple Street Annual, thoroughly enjoyed it and found them useful, and then not gotten my act in gear to write about it before it was too late. This year, I’m not going to make the same mistake.

There are a lot of things demanding your baseball dollars these days. But the $12.99 you will pay for this tome is worth every single penny. They are jam-packed with quality writing and information. They’re especially good in helping you fill in those offseason information holes - even if you don’t hibernate and are still paying attention to baseball, there’s almost certainly going to be an information pocket that you missed. If you haven’t been paying attention at all, the Annual will catch you up. And even if you know everything that’s going on and could run your own Mets injury update hotline, the quality of the writing and the careful choices of topics makes the book a worthwhile purchase.

From the outside, it’s almost deceiving - if you didn’t know better, and saw this on the newsstand, you might just pass it by. You might think that it’s just a bunch of press releases or hackneyed articles about things you already know. I don’t know if every team’s Annual is as lucky, but the writers for this year’s edition include Adam Rubin, Matthew Silverman, Joe McDonald, Jon Springer, Jason Fry, Ted Berg and Howard Megdal. This is an embarassment of riches for a Mets fan.

In 218 pages, you get a recap of last year (as if we needed one), a solid preview of this year, coverage of the farm system, and some history thrown in for good measure (focusing on the Mets Hall of Fame inductions in August). There is excellent writing and good humor in equal doses, but everything about this tome is thoroughly professional - while still making some excellent points about the team and organization’s shortcomings.

Adam Rubin opens the book by recapping 2009. Joe McDonald covers the Jason Bay signing (oh so long ago that seems). Jon Springer covers the range of injuries the team endured last season. Ted Berg takes us around the league to give us capsule summaries of our competition for 2010. For you Ike Davis lovers, he gets a feature. I particularly appreciate the minor league section of the book because no matter how hard I try, I always seem to lose track of what’s going on with the farm teams. Jason Fry does a look around the old-timers in the Mets blogosphere (in which this blog is graciously included).

I particularly appreciated how the Annual touches on Shea in an appropriate way; unlike the Mets, who would like to pretend that the place never existed, they ably and appropriately touch on the ballpark’s legacy without descending into dwelling in the past too much.

This book is a great way to get ready for Opening Day and the beginning of the 2010 season. It gives you a great selection of articles on a wide variety of subjects that will appeal to pretty much every single Mets fan. And I would be lying if the beautiful photo on the front inside cover (that’s right, the inside cover) wasn’t one of my favorite parts. You’ll just have to pick up the book for yourself to see.

(I am grateful that cover wasn’t as - unfortunate - as the Cubs’ version.)

Full Disclosure: I am mentioned in this publication and am friends and/or colleagues with more than a few of the writers of this publication.