Review roundup, April 11

April 11, 2012

♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest in his 30 books.30 days series: High Fives, Pennant Drives and Fermandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years 1977-1981, by Paul Haddad.

♦They’re not exactly timely, but by waiting more than 40 years since the publication of Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, this review on Paste has a  certain charm, noting, among other things, that it seems almost quaint in its scandal factor compared with more recent releases:

Read today, Ball Four doesn’t seem all that inflammatory…. At the time, however, Ball Four got Bouton hauled in to the commissioner’s office. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn wanted Bouton to retract all that he’d written because it went further than sports books or journalism of the day had ever gone. Reporters of the time generally passed themselves off as pals with sports icons. Kuhn felt it bad business to piss off your sources by revealing their peccadilloes—how many drinks and how many dames they had on the road, for instance.

 

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Tagged as: Ball Four, Jim Bouton

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