This book had an interesting concept — blending baseball with lessons from ancient philosophy and epic literature — and there were moments that really stood out. Christian Sheppard clearly knows his baseball history and brings a lot of passion to connecting the game to bigger life themes like perseverance, teamwork, and the hero’s journey.

However, the writing sometimes felt a little uneven. Parts of the book came across more academic than I was expecting, and I found myself skimming in places where the pacing slowed down. I was hoping for a little more storytelling or real-life anecdotes from players to bring the philosophy side to life in a more engaging way.

That said, readers who enjoy baseball history, Greek classics, and thoughtful reflections will probably find a lot to appreciate here. It’s a unique niche read — just be prepared for something a little heavier than your typical sports book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Books press for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this book was super fun for the baseball lovers, from casual fan to diehard, this was such a fun book to apply the rules of baseball to life. I will definitely revisit parts of this book in the future as well.

The narrator (the author) did a great job. It almost felt like listening to a podcast.

As a fan of baseball and a fan of history I was in love with this book from the beginning. I enjoyed how the author used baseball juxtaposed against ancient history to tell the stories. My husband is excited to read this book as he is a huge baseball fan.

OK disclaimer, I am really not a sports girl. That said this book was amazing! I really got into the author's passion for the game of baseball. I expected to read a series of essays about his interest in sports and a bunch of other stuff related to baseball but the way he tied in baseball to Homer's odyssey and epic tales was inspiring. This is definitely something that I would recommend to so many of my students and also could see being suggested to anyone reading a book study on the Odyssey. I think it definitely helps to create parallels between classic literature and real life.

This book was rather unique, infusing baseball, Classical Greek myths and values, along with some memoir sections woven in good measure. While I enjoyed the comparisons to America’s pastime to millennium old tales, it wasn’t quite a home run, but it was a solid extra base hit.

Each of the chapters are named after an inning, which was very fitting. There’s even a seventh inning stretch inside, along with an extra inning. It all starts with Sheppard’s origin story with the Red Sox in his hometown Boston and then his current life in Chicago as a Cubs fan, and how an experience decades ago when his daughter was born made him think about moral values and how to live. The chapters weave back and forth between the myths, linking how the two are more similar than most would have thought about. Throughout, Sheppard adds his own emotions and experiences in his baseball life when needed, adding a human touch to these stories, modern and ancient. I found myself intrigued by a lot of the stories told in the book itself. I felt some of the stories didn’t fully connect, but it might need subsequent readings to fully understand, though I think the narrative bounced back and forth too much at times.

Christian Sheppard narrates the audiobook himself and the passion of the subject seeps into each word and made the stories more enjoyable.

In the end, it was an intriguing link between past and present and highly recommended for baseball fans everywhere.

I am loving this book. It’s a great way to enter the new baseball season and I love the author’s insights, and analysis.

This is a short and engaging audiobook really geared for baseball lovers. The author has an interesting approach of comparing baseball to mythology. It seems like a weird combination but he makes it interesting. I enjoyed the way that he describes some significant events in baseball history. Since the author read the book himself, his enthusiasm really comes through. I love baseball lingo so found the book a real pleasure to listen to. I think the book will have a small audience but I would definitely recommend it for baseball fans. I received an ARC copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.

I can’t say I had foreseen a book coming which employed such a weird and very specific collision of my personal interests, but I dare say it worked.

There’s a popular argument that you can relate almost anything to Greek myth and Classical history if you work at it, and that’s part of the schtick here. But what’s important is that the comparisons actually do get there.

And it’s a delightful mashup, especially for anyone who loves both baseball and classical history, though I would argue that this would also work for someone who is an enthusiast of one or the other.

I was particularly taken with the “Yankees suck” portion of the personal narrative, not because of the Yankees suck of it all (although they do), but because it was such a vibrantly well-drawn and humorously accurate portrait of the childhood Red Sox fan.

The author hits mostly on major baseball history that if you follow the sport at all you’re already very familiar with, but I always love hearing individual writers’ versions of and thoughts on these events as long as they have something original and interesting to say, which Sheppard absolutely does.