Mussina, pitching during a sour summer in the Bronx, bombed out to the tune of an 11-10 record and a 5.15 ERA.

Glavine, in his final season with the Mets, was a respectable 13-8 with a 4.45 ERA, but his season was defined by his epic first-inning meltdown against the Marlins on the final day of the regular season -- a meltdown that cost the Mets a playoff spot and handed the NL East to the Phillies.

Who wants to read 515 pages about those two and their 2007 seasons?

And we're not just talking 515 pages of fascinating "inside baseball" from a couple of pitchers who theoretically have a lot to say about the sport over the past 20 years.

No. It's also 515 pages of Feinstein attempting to craft a literary masterpiece framed around, in his words, "two great pitchers trying to perform at the highest level possible in the twilight of their careers, in the biggest media fishbowl in America."

And so that gets us passages like the following one, describing the final day of the 2007 regular. The day started with Glavine allowing seven runs in the first inning against the Florida Marlins at Shea Stadium. Here's the how the day ended, according to Feinstein's prose:

At 4:31 p.m., the Mets' season was over: Marlins 8, Mets 1. Four minutes later, while the players were still shuffling silently into the clubhouse, Phillies closer Brett Myers froze Wily Mo Pena with a rising fastball for strike three in south Philadelphia.

Phillies 6, Nationals 1.

Phillies 89-73, Mets 88-74.

It was the over. The 2007 Mets, like the once-mighty gods of Gotterdammerung, the final opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle, had been destroyed.

Gotterdammerung? Wagner? (And that's Richard Wagner, not Billy Wagner.)

The book could have also used a stronger copy editor. In describing the final Saturday of the season on pages 477 and 478, Feinstein writes:

There was good news later on though: the Phillies, perhaps feeling the pressure of now being the hunted team, had lost to the Nationals. That mean the Mets and Nationals were tied for first place with one game to play.

Oops.

So, if you want 515 pages of two pitchers' somber seasons, along with some Wagner (Richard, not Billy) mixed in, then I guess you should pick up Feinstein's new book.

But mostly you have to feel bad for the author, who hitched his wagon to a couple of aging pitchers who were not up to par in 2007. Feinstein mentions in the introduction that he also considered following Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Curt Schilling and Al Leiter. Any of those choices, except the retired Leiter, might have led to a more compelling book about the 2007 campaign. Smoltz and Schilling, particularly, are a pair of outspoken, fascinating figures, who were still on top of their games in 2007.

Maybe next time.