{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0803217560?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0803217560","authors":["Gary Gildner"],"book_id":"9780803217560","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-warsaw-sparks-9780803217560","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780803217560.jpg?v=8a9942a27b7825d6","description":"In 1987 noted poet and author Gary Gildner went to Poland on a Fulbright scholarship to teach at the University of Warsaw. One January day, a Warsaw sportswriter came knocking on Gildner’s classroom door with a problem and a request. The professional baseball team he had organized the year before could not win; would the professor—who he had heard was a baseball player—come help? Told with gripping lyric simplicity, The Warsaw Sparks is about an American’s experience coaching a baseball team in Poland and about hope and memory and the education of a poet. Prepare to meet an unlikely cast of characters, including Stan Musial, Lech Walesa, Dariusz the Organizer, and such Sparks as Froggy, Pizza Hut, the Cubans, and little Jerzy Bin the catcher: “Call me George, Coach. Like George Herman Babe Ruth.”","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780803217560","publication_date":"20080901","publisher":"Bison Books","slug":"the-warsaw-sparks","subtitle":"A Memoir","title":"The Warsaw Sparks"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SPO003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Coaching","score":0.7113,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Essays","score":0.7106,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball History","score":0.7074,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SPO003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Coaching","score":0.7113,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Essays","score":0.7106,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball History","score":0.7074,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO026000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Personal Memoirs","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Baseball","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Baseball Coaching","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Baseball Coaching","score":0.7113,"slug":"baseball-coaching"},{"label":"Baseball Essays","score":0.7106,"slug":"baseball-essays"},{"label":"Baseball History","score":0.7074,"slug":"baseball-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in an American coaching baseball in Poland","Readers drawn to memoirs about hope, memory, and a poet’s education"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Ron Koertge"],"book_id":"9780763629397","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780763629397.jpg?v=72842b9e81041193","score":0.6458,"title":"Shakespeare Bats Cleanup","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780763629397"},{"authors":["Dan Schlossberg"],"book_id":"9781613218365","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781613218365.jpg?v=cc0d6d4302d9e564","score":0.6364,"title":"The New Baseball Bible","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781613218365"},{"authors":["Bill Schroeder"],"book_id":"9781637273036","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781637273036.jpg?v=a36bd981ca9b64b9","score":0.6308,"title":"If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781637273036"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Cross-cultural baseball, Hope and memory, A poet’s education.","Reading lane: Baseball Coaching and Baseball Essays.","Publisher: Bison Books."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.92,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in an American coaching baseball in Poland","Readers drawn to memoirs about hope, memory, and a poet’s education"],"themes":["Cross-cultural baseball","Hope and memory","A poet’s education"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":6,"goodreads_reviews_count":2,"quality_score":0.827}}