“There has been no World Series baseball in New York since 2009, a relative eternity for a city with the highest of expectations.
“New Yorkers have no reason to feel warmly toward either of the Series foes. For those who are nevertheless reluctant to entirely take a pass on baseball’s crown jewel, Tyler Kepner’s “The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series,” presents a perfect fix. It’s less an introduction for rookies than manna for devoted seamheads.
“Mr. Kepner, the baseball writer for the Times, is well placed to write the story of the annual championship pageant. He has spent time on both the Mets and Yankees beats, in addition to chronicling a couple of clubs on the coast. A previous book, “K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches,” evinced encyclopedic knowledge and a spry pen. In the last 22 years, he has missed only two World Series games.
Mr. Kepner recounts the stories of lesser-known players who made a “seismic impact on a victorious World Series while barely registering otherwise in the Major Leagues,” as well as of the franchise architects tasked with executing the trades and signings required to assemble a champion. He recounts the heroes and the heartbreakers, and moves agilely between statistics and anecdotes.
