Tim Kurkjian's Book Cover

I love books. And often one of my favorite parts of any book is its cover design. My friend Trupe and I always discuss books that look so awesome and clean and full of greatness that we want to eat them. There is no greater compliment in the publishing world than releasing an edible book, at least in our eyes. I have often bought a book on its cover alone, staring the old adage in the face and punching it right in the jaw. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but taking home a fresh, crisp new book is a wonderful thing.

That being said, this book cover is pretty ridiculous, right? I mean, the title is kind of corny, but to me the cover is beyond nerdy. This is NOT an edible book. I recently bought this book as a gift for someone since I've always enjoyed the author's intelligent, unbiased work on ESPN, and the description made it sound like a good baseball read. (My plan was to attain it for myself if it received a solid peer review.) Also, since the author has a very bizarre frog-like voice, I've always wondered whether that has affected how I viewed his reporting. Here was a chance to imagine a new, less distracting voice delivering me the same thoughtful information and analysis! But Kurkjian, what were you thinking? Having a 3/4 body picture of yourself, in a suit, with a baseball mitt? Superimposed over a much smaller stadium, giving the feeling that a giant Tim Kurkjian is taking a break from a post-production meeting to just have a catch? Just shagging some balls in the miniature outfield with some analyst buddies without unfastening a button or loosening your tie? That does not conjure images of what a great game this is - in fact, this decidedly does not look like a great game. This looks like a really lame, sad game if all of the players are wearing suits and grinning like idiots. And so many words!!! The title itself is a rhetorical question with two forms of punctuation, there is a subtitle with a dash that really makes it two subtitles, and even the author's name has a qualifier in a red box! Barf.

I did get a really good review of the book, though, and I'm already borrowing it. So I'm not entirely superficial.

BaeRating: D