The New York Times, 5/27/10
"... an almost literary fantasy ... a seance with the game's past."

The Boston Globe, 6/10/10
"a delight"

Sports Illustrated, 4/19/10
"... goes by faster than a David Price aspirin tablet."

The Washington Post, 8/25/10
"(A) book of delightful digressions."

New York Post, 2/28/10
“Wendel draws you in right from the first pitch.”

Sacramento Book Review, March 2010
“An interesting foray into the history of the fast ball…High Heat will appeal to anyone with an interest in baseball and most especially to those interested in pitching and the fastball.”

Library Journal’s BookSmack!, 3/4/10
“When it’s cold outside, I love a good baseball book because it reminds me that sunny days and the crack of the bat are not far away. I got that warm feeling appropriately enough from Tim Wendel’s High Heat…No chin music here! High Heat will make you think.”

Associated Press, 3/15/10
“Feel free to disagree with [Wendel’s] conclusion, but be sure to enjoy the book. Far from just a statistical inquiry, it’s packed with stories about baseball and some of its extraordinary players…He traces how fireballers left their marks on the game, spurring such innovations as the walk and a lengthening of the distance from the mound to home plate…This is a fascinating book for a baseball fan.”

ForeWord magazine, March/April 2010
“This is no armchair investigation. Wendell treks across the US, visiting ballparks, an aerodynamic testing lab, and baseball’s Valhalla, Cooperstown’s National Baseball Hall of Fame, where he sifts through the artifacts of pitching legends. Especially intriguing is Wendell’s frank and frightening examination of the beanball, which uncovers a taboo subject in a game dominated by macho athletes: fear…At the conclusion of High Heat, Wendell selects his Top Ten fastball pitchers, a list that may surprise and which will certainly spawn debate. High Heat is more than just a cursory ranking of baseball's fastest arms, it's a fun and fact-filled flip through baseball's record books that brings to life the players we previously only knew from our baseball card collections.”

Internet Review of Books, March 2010
“If you have any interest in pitching and/or pitchers, you’re going to love High Heat…A lot of fun to read.”

Booklist online, 3/23/10
“This is a really engrossing volume for baseball fans, filled with anecdotes, behind-the-scenes tales, and subjective thoughts on the mysterious activity of throwing a ball more than 90 miles per hour.”

Newsday, 3/21/10
“[An] entertaining book…Wendel looks at how the fastball developed in the early years of the game, and travels the country talking shop with sports medicine experts about the mechanics of the pitch—there’s no correlation between physical size and the ability to throw hard—and gets into lively debates about who, exactly, had the best fastball in history.”

Raleigh News & Observer, 3/21/10
“For baseball fans, the book is endlessly interesting…[Wendel’s] brief profiles of each hard thrower resonate, because they explain what it’s like to meet the high expectations established when an arm can throw a baseball at an astounding velocity.”

Roanoke Times, 3/21/10 “Who was (or is) the fastest of all time? There can be no definite answer even in this era of radar guns, which have their own variations. That did not deter Tim Wendell…He traveled all over America, to ballparks, to an aerodynamic testing lab, to the homes of ex-baseball greats, to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He read up on history and biography, and interviewed active and retired players, scouts and managers. The joy of such a quest, and of its telling, lies in baseball’s rich lore and legend…As with the game itself, the fun of the book is more in taking part than in the outcome. See for yourself.”

Washington Times, 4/2/10
“These are two dandy books destined to be hardball classics. They are fresh, intelligent and created by writers eager to please their readers with precise, high-speed prose befitting their topics…Mr. Wendel's work is picaresque—a quest to find the fastest pitcher who ever pitched regardless of when or where he pitched…You will have to read the book to learn who his choice is as the fastest pitcher ever. You may not agree with him, but it is hard not to have enjoyed every moment of his journey to that selection.” (with another baseball book)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/27/10
“[Wendel] does a good job of showing the dominant place the fastball, and the pitchers who throw it, has in baseball history. And talking to the players who threw it and/or tried to hit it, he shows that it's not enough to throw hard, that the best fastball pitchers are those who have taken the talent they're given and back it up with smarts and a good work ethic.”

Time Out Chicago, 3/31/10
“One of the more creative baseball books to appear on opening day.”

Bookreporter.com, 4/2/10
“In addition to looking at some of the artists on the mound—the Fellers, the Walter Johnsons, the Koufaxes, and the contemporary “kings of the hill”—readers learn what happens to the unfortunate batter who can’t get out of the way of a high-velocity spheroid, as well as the studies in the lab and the amazing advances in medical technology that allows the pitcher to return to what would have been a career-ending injury a few decades ago.”

Bookviews.com, April 2010
“The game’s enthusiasts will enjoy High Heat...This book attempts to identify the one man who could out-pitch the rest. The problem is that many of these and other greats have worn the crown of fastest, but the truth is that it is the quest the book set out upon that is the real fun, along with the opportunity to learn just about everything there is to know about that rocket known as a fast ball.”

Deseret News, 4/3/10
“High Heat is a perfect companion for fans of America's greatest pastime…Wendel takes his readers on a fantastic journey through time to answer the question: Who is the fastest pitcher ever?...A whirlwind tour of all the pitching greats—Nolan Ryan, Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax and many others…This book is much more than an organization of baseball facts. High Heat reads like a parlor-room discussion of the American sport with truth laced with the tall tales…High Heat is a must-read for baseball fans and is a great resource for anyone interested in the baseball history.”

Los Angeles Times, 4/4/10
“High Heat hums when Wendel profiles the fastest of the fastball pitchers, tracing the lineage of the pitch from Amos Rusie in the 19th century to Walter Johnson in the 1920s to Sandy Koufax in the 1960s and, finally, to the Washington Nationals' 100-mile-an-hour prospect Stephen Strasburg.”

Charleston Post and Courier, 3/28/10
“Veteran baseball author Tim Wendel strikes again with High Heat…Wendel tracks his fastball fascination with chapter titles that read like an instructional manual—The Windup, The Pivot, The Stride—but lead to profiles.”

January magazine, 4/3/10
“Tim Wendel, one of baseball’s leading contemporary chroniclers, here dissects the fastball and those who would throw it…High Heat is a fascinating book written with passion and aplomb by someone who clearly loves the sport nearly as much as he loves writing about it.”

Smoke magazine, April 2010
“A journey through the past and present of our national pastime, and a vivid reminder of why we love the game.”