Really Safe At Home

If you like baseball, but often find yourself left out of the barroom or water-cooler baseball chats, grab a copy of MacMillan's Baseball Encyclopedia and spend a few months studying it. It's a good book, and you'll learn a lot about the game. In one season's time, you'll probably be able to contribute a thing or two to those discussions. There are enough statistics, records and numbers to make you appear knowledgeable enough to participate.




If you take that approach, however, you'll be missing out on something. Baseball is a game of inches and numbers and interesting facts, but that isn't why Baseball thrives in this country. Talk to someone who knows every single one of the stats about Babe Ruth and you'll learn a few things about the Sultan of Swat. But talk to someone who saw him play, and you'll actually feel something incredible going on.

"Safe At Home, Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic", by Alyssa Milano is a book that has been dedicated to sharing that incredible feeling a hundred times over. See, with Baseball, you're either new to the game, in which case these stories will grab you and leave you wanting more, or you're a seasoned veteran, in which case you will get the sense that you're talking to an old friend who really knows her stuff, and be left wanting more. For me, this book was like a long, enjoyable evening of storytelling with an old sage of the game. There is no doubt that we could consider Alyssa Milano a pro. She has engaged in an understanding of the game that many of us can only hope for. She doesn't spare any opinion, pro or con. There are things she likes, things she loves and things she isn't so crazy about. She has an incredibly wise take on the topic of "cheating" that any fan of the game should consider. Milano holds nothing back. She addresses the questions that she knows her fans want to ask, but she never gets off track. This book is about The Game.

The best conversations happen when someone shares an anecdote, experience or moment and we say, "Oh man, I know just what you're talking about!", You just know that excitement, that exhilaration or that disappointment. This book is page after page of Baseball wisdom, for sure, but this is not just facts and figures. It's imagery that puts you in the seat next to Milano at the Stadium or on the couch in the living room sharing the nachos and the play-by-play with her. We all watch Titanic again and again, hoping this time they miss the iceberg, and a lot of us see the replay and wish that this time, Buckner would stop that grounder. We all lose our minds in a moment of sheer joy when we relive that championship season. "Safe At Home" keeps sharing those moments with the reader throughout the book, making Baseball something we all can love, should love or will love forever.

The beauty of this book is that it's something that can be read again and again. Read it during this Baseball season, to enhance the enjoyment of the game right now. Or read it during the off-season, to help prolong the good feelings, fight off the doldrums of Winter, and build anticipation and renewed hope for the coming year.

Spend some time with Alyssa Milano. Get lost in the pages of this book for a long time, the way that I did. Baseball really is about hope and inspiration. Baseball is about being human, about making mistakes, enduring disappointment and achieving triumphs. This book will convert the non-fan for sure, but it will also renew the love of the game of even the oldest Bleacher Bum.

Go ahead. Get the book. Get the feeling. Alyssa Milano really is in touch with America's pastime. You'll like what you find.

You can get the book at Amazon, or through iTunes