It’s not often you scoop The New York Times.
Back in November of ’07, I wrote this review on Mike Vacarro’s 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports in which I wrote, “Of course, there’s always a problem, especially in the world of sports, of declaring anything ‘the greatest.’ But it does make for some interesting reflection and discussion.”
Earlier this month, I wrote about Richard Bradley’s use of the superlative in The Greatest Game, about the 1978 Red Sox-Yankees face-off. “As I’ve said in the past, one can cause a great deal of controversy by employing such words as Best, Greatest, All-Time, etc. in the title,” I said in this one.
In January, I added my commentary to a Library Journal feature about titles coming out in 2008. “How many greatest games can there be? And what is the criteria? Greatest according to whom? A particular player? A fan? A city?”
And while not quite “the greatest,” I asked about Change Up: An Oral History of 8 Key Events That Shaped Modern Baseball:
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.
In today’s Times, Richard Sandomir, the media sports columnist, considers this very topic in “In the World of Books, Every Game is the Best.”
Although he includes books about other sports, I would like to think Mr. Sandomir is a loyal visitor to The Bookshelf and filched the idea from me, but we all know better. I’m happy to consider it case of great minds thinking alike.
is available on Amazon.com,
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