Baseball DIY

As I think I've stated before, I'm currently reading Three Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger (well, I'm reading it at the gym; I'm reading George Will's Bunts during free time around the house). I've been really surprised to see how much national media attention the book has gotten; this surprise is probably due in large part to my assumption that anything concerning the Midwest would not register anywhere else. I guess Tony LaRussa's managing style elicits strong enough opinions in either direction to make a book on the subject newsworthy.

I've come to the second game of the three-game series chronicled in the book, and I'm pretty sure that I attended this game (I'll know for sure if Kerry Robinson hits a game-winning home run...Buzz has already dwelt a lot on K-Rob, so it's not improbable). Though I'm only halfway through the book and any worthwhile book review is written after reading a book's entirety, I've got a few small complaints:

1) Bissinger's insists on calling Albert Pujols the "great Pujols." I've read The Old Man and the Sea; you either say "the great DiMaggio" or nothing at all. This isn't to say that Albert's no DiMaggio; rather, Bissinger is no Hemingway.
2) For some reason, Bissinger italicizes "hit-and-run" every time he uses it.
3) I'm on page 140 of a 278-page book, and Bissinger has yet to mention how much Cardinals pitching coach resembles Yoda.