Jesse Dougherty

Obviously my rating this book is essentially shooting fish in a barrel but believe me when I say it is way more than I expected. It is laid out as a chronological look at the 2019 season for the Nationals and I assumed, incorrectly, that it would mainly just be recycled versions of the stories Mr. Dougherty had written as the beat writer for the Post on the Nats, but amazingly it seems to have a ton of new material. I would have to go back to see how much he reused but I know that most of what is in this book did not appear in his gamers or profiles. I know because I read those as they came out during the season. He provides a lot of the tick tock of a season but what this book does really well is delve deeply into the background of the players, coach, and GM of the team and really bring them to life. The stories are varied, informative, and interesting, which again is a pretty remarkable achievement given the timeline here (season ended in late Oct. and this book is out in March!). In many ways this reminded me of the baseball writing of Tom Boswell and Roger Angell. These are human stories, not just sports stories, but the sports is there too. As you can see it took me all of one day to read it.… (meer)

This is a book which Washington Nationals fans particularly would enjoy. Writing in a popular style, Mr. Dougherty, who covered the Nats for the Washington Post, described the complete 2019 season of the baseball team from the "finalizing" of the roster prior at the beginning of the season through the World Series and a bit after. The Nats went from a record of 19-31 on May 24th to winning the series. One of the keys to their success was their team chemistry. Mr. Dougherty's description included interesting biographical information of some of the key players including their backgrounds and personalities.

Most of the story was told chronologically. As the midseason trading deadline approached, Mr. Dougherty described the Nats' management efforts to acquire relief pitchers, their weak spot. I felt that the most exciting part of the book was the playoff and World Series; at each level the Nats had to win on the crucial last day of the series. It was interesting to hear that the team suspected that their World Series competition, the Astros, were cheating. (After the season the Astros cheating in the 2017 World Series was announced, and several of their administration were fired.)

This book was published on March 24th prior to the scheduled Major League opening day of March 26th, which, of course, did not happen. I felt reading the book that the publication was rushed; there were a few missing words, and on page 31, it sounds as if the team played the New York Mets in Philadelphia! Unfortunately, the book lacks any appendices. It would have been helpful to have had the complete schedule with the scores of the games plus box scores for the playoff and World Series games. The book also lacked an index, which would have been useful.… (meer)