Bits and pieces, July 9

All I know about Yankton, South Dakota, was that it was an element in one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Deadwood.

Al Swearengen: Bloodletting on my premises that I ain’t approved I take as a f***ing affront. It puts me off my feed.
Hearst:How do we know when you are off your feed?
Al Swearengen: You’ll start to see me tearing things down. Speeches tonight are canceled. Unless the insult’s cured by tomorrow, there’ll be further tearing down. F*** the f***ing elections, and f*** the agreement with Yankton. Let the camp return to its former repute: unstable and unsafe for commerce.
Hearst: I’m a great believer in those.
Al Swearengen: Oh, stability, Sir, and commerce? I can f***ing imagine. Think of all they’ve helped you accomplish.

Now that’s writing.

Anyway, this piece includes mention of Tom Dunkel’s Color Blind regarding a barnstorming trip by Satchel Paige to that town in 1959 in terms of finding out more information.

I would tell the writer of this piece on his son’s new-found love for the national pastime, “better late than never,” but for crying out loud, the kid’s just 10 years old. Seems new technology isn’t always a distraction from the game.

If you’re a subscriber to the on-line edition of The Wall Street Journal, perhaps you can tell me what this piece by Leigh Montville on “enduring works of baseball fiction” on July 5 is about.

Delaware  native and former manager Dallas Green was in Rehoboth Beach recently to promote his new book, The Mouth That Roared – My Six Outspoken Decades in Baseball.

Review corner:

Strike Three, You’re Dead from the Daily Republic in Mitchell, South Dakota. How about that, I’ve never reference South Dakota in all the years of doing this blog, and now I’ve done it twice in the same entry. What are the odds?

Kevin Cowherd at the Baltimore Sun offers his thoughts on the best baseball books ever written. “‘Ever written?’ you say skeptically,” he writes. “Yes, that’s what I said,” he self-answers. While I think all his selections are fine — all but two of the eight of the titles appear in 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die — I think he just throws a couple in to be controversial, knowing what’s heading his way: “In fact,” he writes, “I’m already preparing for the deluge of emails and phone calls confirming the excellence of the choices.” Yeah, right. With all due respect, I find such blatant calls for attention somewhat annoying.

The Salt Lake Tribune offers these suggestions for younger readers and their parents.