Usually when I read a book of essays or short stories, the final result ends up being a mixed bag – some good, some not so good and some in between those two areas. This one doesn't fall into that category as I was enjoying every single word of this collection of mostly baseball essays by Andrew Forbes.

I say "mostly" because not every part of every essay is about baseball. There are some very personal and moving sections about Forbes' family life, a little social commentary and other personal observations. They are all related to baseball by the end of the essay, but they do give a snapshot into not only Forbes' personal life but also how much the game of baseball plays into his life.

Residing in Ontario, Forbes is a Toronto Blue Jays fan and some of the writing deals with them – the Jose Bautista bat flip in the 2015 postseason is one of the better topics when he writes about his team. But he saves his best work for his writing about Ichiro Suzuki and how his success in Major League baseball after an excellent career in the Japanese leagues shows how much that one player affected him.

This is not to say Forbes writes only about Ichiro in glowing terms, although he mostly does so. This is also not to say that this book is ONLY about Ichiro, although he is the subject of many of the essays. Instead, the book is best viewed as a tribute to baseball and a reminder of how important it is in the lives of those who play the game, watch the game or otherwise enjoy the game. Ichiro is the main illustrator of how this is done, and Forbes does a great job of conveying that message in short sections that will be enjoyed by anyone who fits the above categories.

I wish to thank Invisible Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A niche-interest collection of baseball essays.

Forbes writes thoughtfully and lyrically, and his love of baseball comes through in each and every piece in the collection.

I can see how many of these individual stories would be enjoyable to read as an independently published column or essay. Unfortunately when gathered into one volume, Forbes’ content becomes pretty repetitive.

There is a LOT of Ichiro in here. And it’s pretty tough to get sick of reading about Ichiro for most baseball fans, myself included. But many of the talking points are the same from one piece to the next.

The same issue shows up when the author starts talking about his family. A little of you, the author in a collection like this is ok, even welcome at times, but there’s entirely too much of that sort of content here.

We all think our personal lives are interesting, our baseball experiences as a family unique, but for a stranger reading this, it provokes a “yeah yeah, can we get back to baseball?” feeling. Again, I suspect when read as standalone content, this wouldn’t be an issue for the individual essays, but when grouped together it becomes tiresome.

This collection also has a pretty strong regional bent. Understandable that the author, being Canadian, would likely zero in on Canada-adjacent teams like the Mariners and Tigers (oddly, I could actually have done with more Blue Jays content), but it really limits the potential audience. It’s pretty tough to find anyone outside the Detroit fanbase who wants to read multiple essays about the Tigers.

While both of these franchises certainly have some interesting stories to tell (and I personally am very fond of any and all Mariners-related material), it’s not exactly tailored for mass appeal to the average baseball fan. Which I suppose is ok, as long as it’s presented as such rather than with the generic “baseball essays” descriptor that is currently being used.

This is a pretty good collection of essays about baseball. I suspect the author of being Canadian, but I won't hold it against him. It turns out they play baseball in Canada, too. And Japan, which also gets some attention in this collection.

I am increasingly a fan of the essay form. It allows for a wide range of topics to be covered, united by a common thread, but drawing in a wide range of inspirations. This latest collection from Andrew Forbes has the Japanese baseball player Ichiro Suzuki running through it, but it is really the author’s devotion to the game that shines here.

There is lots of history within these pages, lots of statistics as there always is with this game, but also an essential personal touch as Forbes connects the turning seasons with the progress of his own life. That’s what sport does for fans, it grounds us and places us in a timeline of events, a particular game that recalls a big life change, a player that represents our youthful hopes and aspirations. Just as music fans have a soundtrack to their life, sports fans have a fixture list.

Obviously, this is a baseball book but it is wonderfully written and passionately observed, such that if you have loved anything you can enjoy and relate to this author’s love for baseball. I associate this to my own love of football in England, and perhaps Forbes captures it best when he says:

“…it’s the same flutter that baseball sometimes gives me, a recognition of lineage, and time passing, and things being handed along. How our entertainments and distractions can take on the dignity of labour if invested with enough care and love.”

Whether it is baseball or football, I have this same affinity to the game, this sense of being a part of something bigger than my own experience of it. Maybe this is just a case of middle-aged men wanting to justify the amount of time and energy they devote to something that on the surface can appear so frivolous, but when captured in this way, it feels not.

The main attraction to baseball for me, three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean from the major leagues, was this romance and mythology that imbued the game. The writing and the films that captured this essence were more important than the games themselves and with no deeply partisan affiliation I was able to absorb and enjoy all of this history.

I love that baseball fans still talk so passionately about the heroes of the past, that lineage that Forbes mentions is central to the experience and passed on through the generations with reverence. It has always felt to me that this is something that is lacking in football, despite the history, the characters, the glories and the scandals being just as rich.

Forbes is an accomplished narrator of the game and The Only Way Is the Steady Way is a pleasure that I fully expect to return to whenever I feel a need for a top up. Whether you have grown up surrounded by baseball or been drawn to it from afar, there is much to enjoy.