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This is a photo of the cover of Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure by Craig Robinson, with a Foreward by Rob Neyer, published by Bloomsbury. The cover has an outline of a baseball diamond, and on the pitcher's mound there is a pie chart showing that 43% of baseball books have a baseball on the ocver and 57% don't. The book is sitting next to a white New York Yankees baseball cap.

Book Review: Flip Flop Fly Ball

Sports geekery meets dataviz geekery in Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure by artist and illustrator Craig Robinson.

As a baseball fan and research communicator, this book has been on my To Read list for a while. I finally got a chance to curl up with it over the long Labor Day weekend, and it was even more delightful than I was expecting!

It is informative!

After seeing Robinson’s infographics about retired jersey numbers, I found myself wondering, “How many more do the Yankees* have left?” Then – holy cow! – I turned the page and my question was answered:

This is a line graph titled Yankees' Retired Numbers. It shows the 17 players whose numbers had been retired as of the book's publication, and it projects that the numbers will run out around the year 2100.

It is innovative!

Sure, this book had its share of standard bar charts, line graphs, and pie charts. But, probably due in part to Robinson’s artistic background, there were some really cool pieces, like a silhouette x bar chart mashup to describe the size of Boston’s** Green Monster and a single chart bar (representing the Yankee’s most expensive tickets**) spanning four pages:

This graph shows that the green monster is taller than Ted Williams and the world's tallest man, but shorter than the marine corps memorial, the o in the Hollywood sign, NFL regulation goalposts, and the Statue of Liberty.

This shows a two-page spead of 2009 major league baseball ticket prices. The bars for the Dodgers and the Yankees spill onto a second page.This is a continuation of the Yankee's ticket price bar, across a third page and onto a fourth.

It is hilarious!

I thoroughly enjoyed Robinson’s comments on Minneapolis’s “Hubert H. Humps-My-Humps-My-Lovely-Lady-Lumpreydome,” his illustrated directions (targeting youngsters) on how to remove stickers from one’s baseball cap, and his discussion of the total distance Barry Bonds walked over the course of his major league career:

This text reads: Barry Bonds currently holds the record for career walks. During his 22 seasons, he walked 2558 times: 611 for the Pirates, 1947 for the Giants. 2558 multiplied by 90 feet equals 230200 feet or 43 point six miles. If he walked in a straight line extending from home plate at A T and T Park over first base and on and on for 43 point 6 miles, this is the route he'd take. Bonds would need to be able to walk on water and walk through walls to achieve this. I have no concrete proof that Bonds can't do these things. He'd probably have to wak through a lot of private property, too. But one would imagine that wouldn't be too much of a problem because he's Barry Bonds, not a known burflar. And frankly, if Barry Bonds walked through a wall in my house, his trespassing would be the least of my concerns.

It is (surprisingly) heartwarming!

The infographics are interspersed with Robinson’s essays and artwork. Readers follow his journey from being a 30-something British dude who knew nothing about baseball to a superfan who streams games in Europe until dawn and went on a multi-month, cross-country stadium tour. This isn’t just a book written by a clever, artistic, numerically savvy guy…it’s a book written by a guy who loves everything about baseball (except The Wave).

Have you read any great dataviz (or baseball) books this summer? Comment below!

*I was born in the Bronx, NY, and am a lifelong Yankees fan. The fact that the Yankees are also Robinson’s favorite team only further endeared him to me.

**Boo.

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