Birthday greetings, belated and present

Playing a little catch-up here:

Aug. 30

• Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman
• Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager and Frank Robinson, Born Leader, by Al Hirshberg. As with many African-American superstars, there are a number of books aimed at kids.

Aug. 31

• Ted Williams (1918) has numerous titles devoted to his life on and off the field, including Leigh Montiville’s excellent Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero. Other good choices include two coffee-table editions by Bill Nowlin: Ted Williams at War and Ted Williams: The Pursuit of Perfection (there are other Nowlin books on the Boston slugger as well). Then there’s Ted Williams: A Baseball Life by Micheal Seidel; What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now? : A Remembrance by Richard Ben Cramer; by John Underwood (who also worked with Williams on his classic instructional Science of Hitting); Hitter: The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams by Edward Linn; and Ted Williams Reader by Lawrence Baldassaro, just to name a few. Several of these were published following Williams’ death in 2002.
• Tug McGraw (1944) was the author of the 1974 autobio Screwball (with Joseph Durso) and Ya Gotta Believe: My Roller-Coaster Life As a Screwball Pitcher and Part-Time Father, and My Hope-Filled Fight Against Brain Cancer, released shortly before his death in 2004. He also published Scroogie, a “comic book” in 1976.

Sept. 1

• Olde-Tyme Hall of Famer Jim “Orator” O’Rourke (1850): Orator O’Rourke: The Life of a Baseball Radical and From FarField to Newfield: The Baseball Dream of Orator Jim O’Rourke.

Sept. 2

• Olde-Tyme ballplayer, owner, and innovator(and Hall of Famer) Albert Spalding (1850): A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball: The Promise of American Sport, by Peter Levine and Spalding’s own America’s National Game, first published in 1911.

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Tagged as: Albert Spalding, Frank Robinson, Hideo Nomo, Orator O'Rourke, Ted Williams, Tug McGraw