This was a difficult book to rate. Seldom have I felt such a need for half stars, or maybe a different set of stars for various parts. The storytelling on the individual vignettes was superb. I'm not surprised to see that the author writes for a newspaper. Each story is drama, words are carefully chosen, each word seems to have maximum impact. I feel emotionally involved with all the characters, even the people who only get a paragraph of story.

Now for the downsides. Writing a book about a game, even a long game, is not easy. To just tell the story of the game would be... as boring as some people think baseball really is. (What do they know?) So I can understand the author's choice to intersperse the action of the game with the stories of various people connected with the game. But I frankly kept getting lost. Just during one infield pop-up, we got pages of background on each of the two guys vying for the ball. As I read, my son periodically asked me what inning I was in, and I seldom knew.

For the first half of the book it was hard to keep track who we were talking about. Even if I remembered the guy's name, which team was he on? It would have helped immensely if there was a Cast of Characters at the beginning of the book listing the rosters of each team, the managers, owners, reporters, anyone who was worth giving more than a paragraph of background on. I saw that the box score was added at the end of the book in the final copy, and that is a good thing. But I wouldn't have wanted to refer to it as I read, because that would have spoiled the ending. (I like that we don't know who would win until we really get there.)

I know language doesn't bother some people, but I don't much care for swearing. And there was a lot of f-word type swearing. Yes, I know that is how the players really talk. But I appreciate that the players don't usually say those words when being interviewed by the media. Maybe I shouldn't have expected a similar standard for the book.

Back to positives, I loved to learn so much about baseball at the minor league level, so many mini-histories of players, so much tying it all together. I recommend this book for anyone with a love of the game. How much should you love it? If you know who Wade Boggs and Cal Ripkin, Jr. are without needing google, if when someone says "Sox" your first thought is Boston or Chicago, if "Cooperstown" doesn't sound like a brand of shoes to you, then you'll love this book. If not, you may want to learn enough about baseball first, so you can thoroughly appreciate what Dan Barry has done in telling the saga of the longest game ever.