Lonnie Wheeler’s new baseball book focuses on the game’s little things

A new baseball book by Cincinnati author Lonnie Wheeler is always something to appreciate. As is a real book review in a newspaper.

Wheeler, former sportswriter for both The Cincinnati Post and The Enquirer, has published Intangiball, subtitled “The Subtle Things That Win Baseball Games.” The book was reviewed in The Washington Post last week.

“Baseball writer Lonnie Wheeler isn’t opposed to sabermetrics, the application of sophisticated (and often recondite) statistics to professional baseball,” reviewer Dennis Drabelle explains. “But he does object to a habit that stat-hounds sometimes fall into: disregarding the old-fashioned baseball virtues.”

Having co-authored books with baseball greats Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson and Mike Piazza, Wheeler certainly knows and loves the game’s subtle virtues — only he thinks they don’t have to be labeled old-fashioned in today’s numbers-driven climate.

Read the full Washington Post review here.