FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moneyball

Billy Beane had it all.  The talent. The looks. Intelligence.  He lacked one thing though: mental toughness.  Drafted out of high school to play for the New York Mets, Beane was suspected to be even greater than the now legendary Darryl Strawberry.  Both outfielders were drafted at the same time and came up through the minors at the same time, but Darryl seemed to possess a poise in the batter's box that evaded Billy.  Billy could catch, field, and run but he could not swing the bat to save his life.  He thought too much, and the batter's box made him feel clausterphobic, trapped, immersed in the anger that followed each failed at bat. 

Billy thought too much.  He focused on everything he did wrong and never on what he did right.  Growing up he always excelled and did not possess a failure mechanism to help him bounce back.  What astounded me was the fact that he gave up.  He gave it all up to become a scout, even with over half of his career left ahead of him.  I do not think I could accomplish such a task.  I love baseball too much to throw it away after a couple years of failure.  That's the beauty of the game of baseball: you can fail 3 times out of 10 and still make it into the Hall of Fame.  It's a game of mental toughness and overcoming adversity. 

After finishing the Hunger Games Triology, I found myself looking for different novels that would suit my fancy.  Since baseball is what I sleep, eat, and dream about I figured Moneyball would be an interesting selection.  It has been my experience that stories about baseball tend to become boring with stats and figures, not bad aspects of the game, but it doesn't make for a good novel.  Moneyball, so far, has incorporated the present with the past to examine and predict the future.  I sit reading and keep wanting to flip the page to find out what happens next to the players in the MLB posed in the novel. 

I am hoping this book continues to develop a plot though.

Victory?!?

The Capitol has fallen, but with grave consequences.  Prim was killed in a bombing.  What made me confused and conflicted was the fact that the bombs were similar to the ones that Gale had designed in 13.  When the time came for the execution of President Snow, Katniss killed President Coin instead.  THis really surprised me.

How would you feel if your entire was turned upside down and one of the two people you could trust couldn't be trusted anymore?  Well, this is what happened to Katniss.  Living in 13 is difficult.  Everyone looks to her as the "mockingjay" a symbol of the rebellion.  The president of 13 has a secret agenda, trying to use Katniss as little as possible, but that's not how Katniss wants it.  They want to air promos of the rebellion just like the Capitol did.  I personally don't like this because it shows the numerous similarities of the Capitol to the resistance.  The only noticable difference is the treatment of the Districts, but even that is iffy.  Katniss also has the issue of chosing a man, and when Peeta is captured by the Capitol after the Games, it seems that the decision is simple, but hold the phones.  Peeta is recaptured, only this time by the rebels, but is severly unstable.  The Capitol had performed various experiments and tortures to his mind and body, including injecting tracker jacker venom, causing him to turn on Katniss.  He even tries to kill her when they first see each other again.  What I don't understand is what comes next, though.  They allow him to train with the army, with weapons!  I personally think that President Coin, the leader of 13 intended or hoped that Peeta would surely kill Katniss, still using her though as the symbol of the resistance from the grave.  Kinda twisted.