Book review: Nine Aces and A Joker, by Joe Gray

As British Baseball’s leading historian, the Chairman of the British Baseball Hall of Fame and in his work with Project COBB (Chronicling Of British Baseball), Joe Gray not only has access to the most comprehensive details about the great game here in the UK, but has himself compiled a substantial chunk of it.

No surprises, then, that the second book around the sport’s history here in the UK published by Project COBB is another triumph of bringing to life an era that, for so many, has been lost in the annals of local newspapers and fading memories.

Gray has called on some of the greatest living writers who’ve covered the British game to give their insights on nine of the era-defining pitchers from here in the UK. He starts with ‘familiar’ territory, beginning in 1890 season following Derby’s John Reidenbach – a protagonist in Gray’s first book, What About the Villa? – and takes us all the way through to Jason Roberts’ unbeaten 2010 campaign with the London Mets, in which he threatened to break a number of modern pitching records.

Where in What about the Villa? Gray drew heavily on his self-compiled data from the available records in hundreds of local newspapers across the UK, he and his cohorts are able to give more anecdotal explanations of why their chosen pitcher in their chosen season was deserving of a chapter in this must-have book.

As is the case today, most of the nation’s leading domestic pitchers are also the most feared hitters, and although their numbers would be less impressive in the USA, winning 12 or 13 games in the UK usually delivers a pennant. The interesting thing about the Aces, and the Joker, are that although their individual seasons were excellent and a great example of how they had dominated their league, they alone were not enough to deliver the all-important title. Of the profiled pitchers, only a minority actually hurled their main sides to success in the chosen year through the chapter, while one’s post-season pitching forced a change in the rules here in the UK.

Matt Smith (BaseballGB.co.uk), Harvey Sakher (The Blokes of Summer), Mark George, Joanne Hulbert (SABR.org), Jeff Archer (Strike Four) and Josh Chetwynd (both a leading broadcaster and author on the game) are among Gray’s collaborators, and there was great help from Alan Smith, former GB Baseball General Manager, as well as a host of domestic stars, some still playing and some who’ve either hung up their mitts or moved abroad.

Contributions and small tales about other exciting seasons or one-off pitching performances (ranging from an almost perfect sweep for the Croydon Pirates when a one-hit shutout was followed by six beautiful innings in south London in mid-summer 2007 through to international heroics on the world stage) supplement the delights of reading through such stoic hurlers, and the joker at the end of the pack has the reader giggling in fits; not because of the ‘gentleman’s’ antics, but because those of us who’ve played the game in Britain could identify his demeanour with a number of our own colleagues or opponents on any given Sunday!

With the National Baseball Championships just round the corner here in the UK, as well as the final stages of the regular season and the playoffs, it’s a great book that’ll get you in the mood for the big stage as well as providing some important historical information about the domestic game.

This is one for the fan at all levels and is on a par with some of the recommended reads from those who’ve covered, or fictionalised, the Great American Pastime in their quest to make the Great American Baseball Novel. Books like this are the sort of chronicle that helps ensure the sport will endure here for generations to come.

Joe will be at the National Baseball Championships on the 25-27 August at Herts Baseball Club’s Grovehill Ballpark. Nine Aces and a Joker can be ordered via Fineleaf.co.uk at: http://www.fineleaf.co.uk/titles/nineacesandajoke.html for the special price of just £12 in the UK.