Thursday, January 31, 2013

Book 2 - As They See 'Em

Book 2 - As They See 'Em
by Bruce Weber

Amazon: As They See 'Em

First, I love baseball.

Second, I've always been frustrated by fans in the stands who think they can umpire better than the pros. True, umpires make mistakes; however, they are humans. I have a soft spot for people who act like humans. Honestly, I'd be pretty annoyed if umpires were perfectly perfect every single time. Look at baseball as a whole, as of today, there have been 21 perfect games since 1900. How can we expect umpires to be equally as perfect every game.

All this aside, I appreciated Bruce Weber's perspective in writing this book. Not only did he attend umpire school, but also he followed around minor and major league umpires for multiple seasons to get their full perspective. Often, Weber narrated both sides to a story after interviewing multiple involved parties. The anecdotes and insight into the world of umpires was a refreshing perspective into my favorite sport. Finishing this book has made me even more excited to go to our fourth spring training in Arizona in March. I'll definitely be looking at the umpires a little differently.

Third, this was an awesome read! Recommended.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Book 1

I have no clue what the book was even called...but I spent over a week studying it to take the CSET for health. I am counting this toward my book total because it consumed so much mental time.

Overall, the [study] book was very informative on the topics of health covered by the exam, and those which I need to teach this semester. It was concise. I appreciated the amount of detail, and found quite a few of the facts covered on the exam. Oh yeah, and the 97 practice multiple choice questions at the end were more difficult than those on the test. Win.

To anyone forced/coerced/recommended to take the CSET for health, this is a great starting place.