I was a guy who has loved going to games all my life, I always had a good time but I was more interested in the sunshine, hot dogs and beer. I always loved the game but never really dug into it, then something happened a few years ago and I started digging into it. I read everything I could get my hands on. There are a lot of really bad baseball books out there, the worst ones by far are written by well known authors. There are lots of baseball books supposedly written to educate the fan but most of them are simple collections of personel acecdotes about such and such Yankee game blah blah blah. The worst are the authors who are endlessly impressed with their own writting ability or how much more they know than you and by the way you will never understand the game as well as they do so don't even try.Jerry includes anecdotes however he uses them to describe or teach what is going on and what to watch for when similar situations arise in the game you are watching. This was one of the first books I read when I wanted to learn more and I still consider it one of the best books written for the fan. I re-read it every winter and I discover something new every time. This is a great book for any level of fan, I have given it to lots of people who come to games with me, who like me never studied the game and are now ready to explore and learn....it sure makes the games more fun to watch. I wish there were more books like this out there.