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Title: Nothing Much New Here
Review: The danger when someone writes about a childhood hero (which the author admits in his introduction) is that the author can idolize the subject without question, apologize for certain aspects of his baseball life, or worse, both. Kashatus' book is well-researched, but it falls prey to both temptations. The result is a somewhat saccharine effort whose goal is to lionize Schmidt without much critical analysis regarding Schmidt's approach to the game and the fans. If you don't know much about Schmidt, then the book might be helpful, but if you do, you'll be disappointed.
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