INDEPENDENT BOOK REVIEW – Reviewed by Warren Maxwell, September 24, 2025
STARRED Book Review: Sometimes Orange Is Almost Gold by Jim Antonini and Suzanne Reynolds
Hilarious, warmhearted, bite-sized stories of a cult softball team from West Virginia
“…a dash of the tall tale, the frenzied sports announcer, and the romantic writer who can memorialize the most insignificant moments, lift up failure, laugh at it, and love it…”
“…I’ve never read a book quite like this one. It has charm, wit, adventure, and a strange anthropologic intrigue. It is a record of a unique kind of community, one that centers around sports yet values friendship and joy above anything as commonplace and shallow as winning…”
“…it’s difficult not to get swept up in the mythology of this rambunctious team…”
“…an explosive array of photos of all shapes and sizes clustered on pages alongside ever-expanding paragraph-long game summaries, grabs the eye and invites readers to bounce from story to story…”
“…the book exudes a rules-be-damned attitude that emphasizes fun over any specific method for reading…”
“…there’s a special beauty to this book that comes from a sheer of-the-moment authenticity…”
BOOKTRIB REVIEW – Reviewed by Joanna Poncavage, October 20, 2025
Joy of the Game: When Losing Feels Like Winning for Morgantown Softball Legends | BookTrib.
Two hundred pages of the highs and lows of the Bondsmen’s memorable games.
“…an amplified score card…”
“…more than a game: a story of community…”
“…Chico’s is different from other softball teams in that it was a team for those who wouldn’t ordinarily have a team — the misfits, bartenders and musicians — where winning isn’t always the most important outcome…”
THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT:
Home – Jim Antonini an award-winning author from WV.
Sometimes Orange Is Almost Gold a book by Jim Antonini and Suzanne C Reynolds – Bookshop.org US