In an effort to read more in 2025, this series is dedicated to a monthly recap of what we at TGP have been reading each month. Feel free to add what’s on your TBR below!

Title: Short Game: Mitsuru Adachi’s Baseball Short Story Collection
Author: Mitsuru Adachi (translated by Matt Schley)
TGP Contributor: Jared
Synopsis: A collection of short baseball comics about Japanese high school baseball and those who play and have played it, translated into English for the first time.
Review: Mitsuru Adachi is one of the foremost creators of baseball comics, and might be the foremost. His work is only partially available in English (his 2005 series Cross Game is available in full, but most of his other works, including Touch, the 1980s work that made him a superstar, are not), so this release is a rare treat. The book consists of a variety of short baseball stories, all standalone. Adachi’s signature is a blend of romance, small-town domestic life and baseball, and these comics offer precisely that. There’s baseball action depicted here, but most of the focus is on the off-the-field lives of high school players, or those who once were high school players. Many of the comics offer similar beats– a seemingly stern coach revealing himself to have truly cared for his players all along, a club manager revealing her hidden affections for a player at long last– but while these stories tend not to surprise, they do offer plenty of charm. Adachi’s art is particularly delightful, offering a rounded, slightly cartoony style that pleases the eye. There’s a few quibbles I could list–one of the stories, blending the romantic reunion of a former player and a team manager with a mutual friend’s attempt to swindle the latter, makes an odd blend of sour and sweet that doesn’t quite work, and the mini gag comics included as interstitials aren’t particularly memorable– but on the whole, this is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a genre of comic that doesn’t often make its way stateside.

Title: Vegas Heist
Author: Van Allen Plexico
TGP Contributor: Smarty
Synopsis: It’s the Holiday Season of 1965 and the fabulous Caesars Palace Resort and Casino is about to open in Las Vegas. And the vault is filled to bursting with cash. John Harper and Saul “Salsa” Salzman roll into town with inside information: A secret way into the casino, leading right to the vault itself. But jobs like this never go as planned. A beautiful widow, a jealous enforcer and a murderous rival casino owner all want a piece of the pie. Before New Year’s Day arrives, Harper and Salsa will be lucky to escape Sin City with their lives!
Review: I was headed to Las Vegas for a vacation, so I wanted to read a book set in the city.

The book is titled Vegas Heist, and sure enough, it’s about a heist that takes place in 1960’s Las Vegas. The problem is, the story is painfully generic.

You’ve got your charismatic crew leader who is cool under pressure, and always has a contingency. You’ve got your suave ladies man who sometimes bites off more than he can chew. You’ve got your beautiful femme fatale. You’ve got your evil mob boss who definitely deserves what’s coming to him.

If you liked Ocean’s 11, this is in a similar vein, except in a different time period, and a lot less exciting. It was a breezy enough page turner, but at no point was I surprised by anything that happens and you can see the plot twists coming well in advance.

July Books that Ended on a Walk-Off Catcher’s Interference

Title: Moneyball
Author: Michael Lewis
TGP Contributor: Allie
Synopsis: You know the story…
Review: I wasn’t sure where to put this one because it was neither a home run nor a strikeout, so I made up a totally unlikely scenario where the game ends and no one knows how to feel about it for this new category. A win is a win, and this book is a book.

The story itself is fascinating, and I loved learning more about how some of today’s most-used stats originated. What Billy Beane and the A’s front office revolutionized the way we think about baseball.

With that being said… today’s reader doesn’t need the extended stats primer that was required when the book was published in 2004. For the era this was written in, it’s a brilliant resource to understanding the “new” thought process. But anyone picking this up in 2025 already understands how the combination of a player’s overall successes and failures come together. We understand that a batter with a lower batting average but a high OBP can be more valuable than a player with a reasonable batting average but few walks, and that a poor fielder can make up for it by being an outstanding hitter. For that reason, much of this story is now superfluous.

I think a revision of this story that takes into consideration what’s “common knowledge” in today’s baseball world would have been much easier to read. That being said, the way this is written as-is serves as a reminder that much of what we know and understand now about baseball statistics wasn’t common knowledge two decades ago. It’s a good snapshot of this period of change in history, despite being a bit tedious at times.

Overall, I’m glad that I finally read it. I can (and will) find silver linings in even the worst of novels. I won’t, however, be recommending it to anyone with even a modicum of current baseball knowledge.

Title: K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
Author: Tyler Kepner
TGP Contributor: Allie
Synopsis: A history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today.
Preview: I picked this up when I was at my local library looking for Moneyball, because it sounds interesting. If nothing else, maybe I’ll learn a little more history like how/why new pitches were developed and what influences usage trends.

Title: The Men In Blue: Conversations with Umpires
Author: Larry R. Gerlach
TGP Contributor: Jared
Synopsis: An oral history of umpiring, tracing the 1920s through the mid-1970s, as told by 12 major league umpires.
Preview: This looks like the umpire version of Lawrence S. Ritter’s classic The Glory of Their Times. Given how much I adored that book, I expect to enjoy this thoroughly as well. Umpires aren’t ever forgotten, but are rarely made the protagonists, and as such this promises to be an unusual offering in the world of baseball books.

Title: Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How The Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television-and America-Forever
Author: Alan Siegel
TGP Contributor: Joe Edinger
Synopsis: “This comprehensive account of the meteoric rise of The Simpsons combines incisive pop culture criticism and interviews with the show’s creative team that take readers inside the making of an American phenomenon during its most influential decade, the 1990s.”
Preview: I didn’t have much time to finish anything this month thanks to the trade deadline (thanks Minnesota), so I’m planning on rewarding myself with this once I find the time now. For anyone that follows me on any social media, or pays close attention to some of my writing, or even to some of TGP’s socials, you’ll quickly learn that I am a massive Simpsons nerd. I’ve been waiting for someone to write a book like this for years and am beyond excited to start it.