The following is based on an article by Bob Cottrell, Margaret Heilbrun, Paul Kaplan (no relation), and Gilles Renaud from the Feb. 1 issue of Library Journal My comments appear in parenthesis; the writers’ in the indented paragraphs.
The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your- Own-Risk Code of Conflict, by Ross Bernstein. Triumph. March
Having written The Code: The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL, Bernstein now turns to baseball in a wide-ranging work on the tactics of fear, intimidation, and possible retaliation that govern major league baseball (MLB). He looks at beanballs, fights on the field, hard slides, breaking up no-hitters with bunts, and imperial umpires. There’s more to this code, e.g., seeking an edge by pilfering signs or by tanking up on pharmaceuticals.
***
Asterisk: *Home Runs, Steroids, and the Rush to Judgment, by David Ezra. Triumph, March
This is fundamentally a defense of Barry Bonds. Ezra challenges the ready assumption that Bonds became the all-time home-run champ through the use of illicit drugs. Undaunted by the star’s almost wholly abrasive personality, he refutes countless “half-truths, speculation, innuendo,” etc., pointing to Bonds’s innate skills, unprecedented work ethic, and unsurpassed baseball knowledge. Bonds’s fans may appreciate this more than others.
***
Working at the Ballpark: The Fascinating Lives of Baseball People—From Peanut Vendors and Broadcasters to Players and Managers, by Tom Jones. Sterling, April.
(This type of book has been done several times over the years).
Here are insightful interviews with baseball folk—50 men and two women (a percentage well below women’s still-low numbers in off-field positions). In their own words, edited slightly “for clarity and brevity,” they speak about their work, how they got where they are, and what it means to them. Arranged thematically, from front office to playing positions, ballpark crew, and reporters, the resulting mixture of the personal and vernacular with the precision expertise gained only over years of devotion to the game is fascinating.
***
The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of ’78, by Richard Bradley. Free Press (Simon and Schuster), March.
(How many greatest games van there be? And what is the criteria? Greatest according to whom? A particular player? A fan? A city?)
Bradley…here retells the classic elimination game of October 2, 1978, almost pitch by pitch, giving moving accounts of the players and framing many of them, e.g., catchers Fisk and Munson, in confrontation. Though not original in the use of player recollections or the consideration of baseball in that volatile era, Bradley is an adept writer who replicates tension even with an outcome that is known. His discussion of the players—and America’s—ongoing challenges makes interesting reading.
A Yankee Stadium Scrapbook: A Lifetime of Memories, by David Fischer. Running Press, March.
Yankee Stadium: A Tribute, by Les Krantz. HarperEntertainment (HaperCollins), March.
Magic Moments Yankees, by Phil Pepe. Triumph, March.
Memories of Yankee Stadium, by Scott Pitoniak. Triumph, May.
This upcoming season will be the last at both of New York City’s stadiums. Of course, the house that Ruth built, and the Yanks who played there, get greater bibliographic attention than Shea or the Mets. Fischer’s offering is indeed rendered like a scrapbook, so there’s little text, but it manages to skim gracefully through nine decades. Krantz’s includes an original DVD documentary. It’s got all of the classic moments, via photos and text, from Babe’s 60 homers to Gehrig’s and Ruth’s farewells, and onward with hitting streaks, pitching aces, and future hall of famers.
Pepe’s approach is to cover 50 “moments” in Yankee franchise history, mostly the heroic ones but including such notorieties as the Peterson-Kekich wife swapping and an early Billy Martin episode. Pitoniak’s work is different. Billed as an oral history, it uses the stadium as the lens through which a deeper selection of moments and memories are shown, interpreted by a more comprehensive selection of men connected to the team—sometimes simply by devotion. As with Tom Jones’s Working at the Ballpark (reviewed above), women get surprisingly short shrift, given that the book is not merely about players. Nonetheless, this is highly recommended. Strong writing and large-format photos make Pepe’s a keeper, too, while Fischer’s is optional and Krantz’s is recommended where demand warrants lots of Yankees books.
***
Change Up: An Oral History of 8 Key Events That Shaped Modern Baseball, by Larry Burk, Peter Thomas Fornatale, with Jim Baker. Rodale, March.
(Again, how do you pick the key events? I certainly hope the ones listed below are not in order of impact. If you include the rise of foreign players, which I don’t think can count technically as an “event,” what about the change in the construction of the ball itself, which opened a Pandora’s box of offense? Or the strike of ’94? Or Hank Aaron breaking the all-time home run record? Etc.)
Through roundtable discussions drawing on comments by former and present major leaguers and sports writers, the authors highlight the phenomena that they believe formed baseball as we know it today: the Mets bringing the National League back to New York, the rise of Latino and Japanese ballplayers, Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, the player’s union, the designated hitter, the first black major league manager, and Cal Ripken’s streak of consecutive games.
***
Blackball Tales, by John B. Holway. Scorpio, April.
Holway’s third series of oral compilations relates the joys, travails, and aspirations of members of the Negro Leagues. Holway has done as much as anyone to chronicle the story of segregated black baseball. Here, he offers accounts by both well-known figures, like Frank Duncan, Clint Thomas, and Piper Davis, and arguably lesser lights like Connie Johnson and Doc Sykes.
***
Facing Clemens: Hitters on Hitting Against Baseball’s Most Intimidating Pitcher, by Jonathan Mayo. Lyons (Globe Pequot), March.
(As the Clemens story plays out, look for quick-to-print books to hit the stores ASAP.)
This book begins with the authority of a Clemens fastball—a foreword by the man himself. Mayo (senior writer, MLB.com) provides quote-rich information on how such major leaguers as Ripken and Griffey tried, with relatively little success, to hit the only hurler to win seven Cy Young awards. Unfortunately, the theme of hitting against Clemens is harder to sustain than his career has been, but the Mitchell report and further congressional hearings will surely increase interest beyond merely avid students of hitting or pitching.
***
But Didn’t We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball’s Pioneer Era, 1843–1870, by Peter Morris, Ivan R. Dee, March.
(Morris is a two-time winner of SABR’s Seymour Award for best baseball book. As good a writer as he is, it’s hard to believe the market for the genre of “ancient” baseball history is still out there.)
In this title, which is sure to be popular, prolific baseball historian Morris engagingly describes the poorly appreciated early years of the game as it evolved to adopt a consistent set of rules. The well-known but much-misunderstood contributions of the New York Knickerbocker Club are reviewed fully, together with fascinating depictions of the development of umpiring, professionalism, and sportsmanship.
***
Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid: The Year That Changed Baseball Forever, by John Rosengren. Sourcebooks, March
(Words like “best” and phrases like “change the game forever” kind of bother me, the latter especially, since any change — unless it’s temporary or reverts to the original model after a time — is “forever,” if there is such a thing as forever, on the grand scale of things. Don’t get me started.)
Other books (e.g., Phil Pepe’s Catfish, Yaz, and Hammerin’ Hank: The Unforgettable Era That Transformed Baseball) have noted the 1970s as a crucible for change in baseball. Here, Rosengren narrows it down to 1973 with the vivid story of a young Reggie Jackson on Charlie Finley’s A’s and the veteran Willie Mays on Yogi’s Mets, both destined for the ’73 series. It was a season in which Hank Aaron, who avoided showmanship, attracted racist hostility as he busted the 700 mark in homers. There were many years that changed baseball forever, and this was certainly one of them. For all public libraries.
***
Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, by Andy Strasberg. 
Hal Leonard, April.
(One of those off-beat books that will either be a treasure or a bust. Nice cross-genre, though: music and baseball)
It’s one of the most popular songs of the 20th century, but do you know who wrote it? Jack Norworth, who’d never been to a game, wrote the lyrics in 1908, and Tin Pan Alley’s Albert Von Tilzer set them to music. He’d never been to a game either, but then the song is about wanting to get there, not being there. In time for its 100th anniversary, here’s its history chock-full of anecdotes, photos, illustations—and with an audio CD. Public library patrons will be asking to “take it out.” Well worth acquiring.
***
Benchclearing: Baseball’s Greatest Fights and Riots, by Spike Urusho. Lyons (Globe Pequot), March.
Urusho intriguingly recounts many of baseball’s most notorious moments. Included are the infamous tantrums involving [Johnny] Roseboro and [Juan] Marichal, [Thurman] Munson and [Carlton] Fisk, [Robin] Ventura and [Nolan] Ryan, [Mike] Piazza and [Roger] Clemens, [Jason] Varitek and [Alex] Rodriquez, and so on. Appropriately, Billy Martin gets his own chapter. Remembered too are riots during a Ten-Cent Beer Night at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium and a Disco Demolition evening at Comiskey Park.
***
The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made It to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minors, By Chris Coste. Ballantine, March.
(Used to be, a previously unheralded major league player whose team won the World Series might be counted on to write a book — and then fade back into obscurity. Now the minor leaguer’s are starting in.)
In his intriguing rags-to-not-quite-riches tale, Coste (Hey…I’m Just the Catcher) relates his long struggle to make it into the major leagues. Lacking a big college pedigree, he bounced around in independent baseball before enduring an extended stretch in the minors. There was also winter ball in Mexico. In 2006, he finally got the call-up that seemed unlikely ever to occur—and he took full advantage: .328 in nearly 200 official trips to the plate for the Phillies.
***
The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball, by Nicholas Dawidoff. Vintage (Random House), May.
Dawidoff offers a superbly written elegiac memoir combining a child’s love of baseball with an emerging understanding of the role mental illness plays in destroying love, life, and simple pleasures, notably radio broadcasts of Red Sox games serving to induce sleep as a fan’s joy deflects the fears of childhood. Essential reading for anyone who wishes a balm for heartbreaks in youth, torn family life, love, and seventh-game losses.
***
Yogi: The Life & Times of an American Original, by Carlo DeVito. Triumph, March.
Public libraries probably have books by or about Yogi, but DeVito…aims to be definitive with his long and admiring look at Lawrence Peter (Lorenzo Pietro) Berra’s life, detailing the man behind the malapropisms. A more thorough treatment than most star players receive, it’s likely to appeal more to seasoned buffs than to fans of Yogi’s AFLAC commercial.
***
Charlie Gehringer: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Tigers Second Baseman, by John Skipper. McFarland, March.
(I wonder how many out there will be chomping at the bit to read about Yogi, let alone Gehringer.)
His reliability as a hitter (MVP with .371 in 1937), his seemingly effortless fielding, and his Coolidge-like demeanor meant that Gehringer never quite got the adulation he still deserves. Veteran McFarland author Skipper (e.g., Biographical Dictionary of Major League Baseball Managers) presents a biography somewhat akin to its subject: reliable and on the mark. An essential component of any thoroughgoing baseball history collection.
***
Chief Bender’s Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star, by Tom Swift. University of Nebraska Press, April.
(See above.)
Signal thanks to journalist Swift for this authoritative biography of Charles Albert Bender, the early 20th-century pitcher who managed to shine in both the big leagues and in life while confronting poverty and racism. Swift sets aside the myths about this most famous American Indian player while vividly describing him in the context of the famed Carlisle Indian School, baseball’s Golden Age, Connie Mack and his Athletics, and the effects of gambling and alcoholism on sports. For all interested in the First Nations, quite apart from baseball.
***
Far from Home: Latino Baseball Players in America, by Tim Wendel and Jose Luis Villegas. National Geographic, March.
(Villegas came out with a similar book a couple of years ago. Seems like a bit of a rip-off.)
This spare but terrific book offers revealing photographs of both the star and the lesser-known Latino players, accompanied by concise, insightful text. Villegas’s pictures (there are also archival images) show players in motion, along with fans and athletes in still frames. Wendel’s narrative celebrates early icons like Luque and Dihigo and generational counterparts Minoso, Clemente, and Cepeda. The book mainly points to Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Venezuelan stars. A useful time line is included.
***
The Baseball Bluebook: 2008 College Baseball Guide and Scouting Register, February
The Baseball Bluebook: 2008 Professional Edition, April. Both from Precision Marketing.
This year will mark the 100th edition of the Bluebook, highly reputed as the single source for player listings, contact info on field personnel, front-office and media relations, etc. The college guide enables high school athletes and their parents to research every Division I and Division II program and its past success with All-American picks and the pro-draft. The pro edition covers all major and minor league schedules for the year as well as comprehensive contact info and ballpark data. Both editions also provide scouting directories, and MLB team histories have been added for the pro centennial edition. Excellent for all sports reference collections.
***
Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History, by Josh Chetwynd. McFarland, March.
In what must be a one-of-a-kind book, Chetwynd offers a country-by-country account of baseball’s evolution Over There. Most useful are brief accounts of European championships. Appendixes trace such details as the number of players in each country, title holders, world event results, national champions and federations, European-born U.S. big leaguers, major leaguers who played in Europe, and a glossary of terms.
***
Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-Related Fatalities of Players, Other Personnel and Spectators in Amateur and Professional Baseball, 1862–2007, by Robert Gordon and David Weeks. McFarland, March.
(As I mentioned in a piece on McFarland, their presentations might be a little staid, but you can count on them to come up with ideas you won’t find anywhere else.)
While fans are aware of some famous on-the-field MLB tragedies, as when Carl Mays submarined a pitch into batter Ray Chapman’s head during the 1920 season, they will learn a lot more in this methodical recounting. Organized in chapters by cause of death, natural and otherwise, the book covers pro and amateur players, managers, umpires, and spectators.
***
Mets by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by Uniform Number, by Jonathan Springer. Skyhorse, March.
(Look up the meaning of the word “tirvia” and you’ll find this book. It’s amazing the things Springer has come up with. Very amusing and informative. A nice gift for any hard-core Mets fan.
The format of the chapter headings, e.g., “#1. Leading Off: Mookie Wilson,” may lead readers to think only one significant player is covered for each number. Yet the narratives (each with a data box obscurely called “Progression” listing all such numbered Mets) does refer to every man who wore the numeral in question, but in glancing anecdotal fashion.
***
Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season To Remember, by John Feinstein. Little, Brown, May.
Sportswriter Feinstein follows star pitchers Tom Glavine (Mets) and Mike Mussina (Yankees) through their 2007 seasons.
***
The Red Sox Way: A Season in the Life of a Manager, by Michael Holley. HarperEntertainment (HarperCollins), April.
(A Red Sox version of Three Nights in August?)
Holley…was granted inside access to the 2007 Red Sox and especially to manager Terry Francona.
***
Writers’ credits: Robert C. Cottrell, author of Blackball, the Black Sox and the Babe, teaches history at California State University, Chico. Paul M. Kaplan, Head of Adult Services, Lake Villa District Library, IL, has reviewed for LJ since 1988. Gilles Renaud is a judge on the Ontario Court of Justice, Canada. Margaret Heilbrun is social sciences editor, LJ book review.
is available on Amazon.com,
Comments on this entry are closed.