Who is Alyssa Milano

Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic

by: Alyssa Milano

Amazon Price: $1.98 (as of 05/27/2012)

The woman knows her baseball, and writes well, too...
Miss Milano, whose adult acting career I have not followed, is 30 years younger than I am, and 50 years younger than my mother-in-law, who bought and liked her book and urged me to read her copy. So perhaps she did not expect to get an audience of readers between 65-85, but there you are...baseball love leads us to unexpected relationships (one of the central messages in her book, if "message" is the right word at all.) I grew up in New Jersey, adopted the Brooklyn Dodgers as my team at age 12, saw them off to California with a broken heart, and became a Pittsburgh Pirate fan in 1959. (They used to be a major league team, with three World series titles between 1960 and 1979. Now they are allowed to play against real major league teams, but not allowed to win more than they lose. Been the truth for the past 18 seasons. Alas, I am still a fan.) Her book explains the history of Dodger fandom in her family of origin, and how the L.A. version of "Da Bums" finally won over these transplanted New Yorkers. Milano does a good job of explaining the basics of the game and the benefits of loyally rooting for one team or another for a lifetime. There is very little in here about her entertainment career, and not much more about her personal adult life. This is a tribute to her family and to baseball itself, flaws and all. I enjoyed it. William E. Adams, Midland, Texas, USA