Dear reader, you are going to thank me for posting this review of Jim Turvey’s Starting IX: A Franchise-by-Franchise Breakdown of Baseball’s Best Players, because I have just solved all your holiday shopping dilemmas, at least the holiday shopping dilemmas for the baseball fans in your life.
Turvey, who writes for DRB as well as several other baseball outlets, has put together a charming and informative romp through baseball history, filled with trivia, whimsical digression, and a lot of good baseball discussion.
The book’s format lends itself to all of the above. Here’s the premise: For each of the thirty major league teams, Turvey provides us with an ideal line-up — the best player at each position over the team’s history.