Bits and pieces, May 9

Looking over the overlooked in baseball books stuff.

In honor of Mothers’ Day, this piece by David Seideman in Forbes urges you to “Forgive Your Mom For Throwing Out Your Baseball Cards.”

Is it my imagination or are Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner turning into Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson? MLB.com described Mookie’s new memoir as “a candid look at career, life…” Well, if you’re not going to be candid, what’s the point?

Here’s an excerpt from Bill Madden’s new book, 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever, via the NY Daily News.

The Boston Globe printed this brief piece about a book by a couple of Harvard guys on their attempt to complete one of those road trips where one goes to every Major League ballpark. Sorry, but hasn’t this already been done? The writer notes, “Spoiler alert: They succeeded in their mission.” No kidding? Somehow I don’t think there would have been a book if they had failed.

If you print it, it will fit on a bookshelf, so here’s news about a study which states that race has no bearing in baseball salaries.

Will Leitch published a review of The Closer, by Mariano Rivera and Wayne Coffey in The Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, the on-line version is behind a paywall. The memoir was the top-seller on the Barnes and Noble website as of the time this piece in the Daily News appeared, but you know how quickly that changes. Even so, I would have loved to see 501 as the #1 seller on any list for any length of time. Here’s another review from the Los Angeles Times.

Redbird Rants, a Cardinals-centric blog, posted this review of The Hall, a 75th-anniversary coffee table book celebration of the Cooperstown landmark.

Considering his place in the record books, one wonders why there haven’t been many books about Nolan Ryan prior to this one.

I have no idea as to the quality of this book, but I had to include it simply because of the headline in this profile from the the Ocala (FL) star banner’s website: “Stripper-turned-author targets baseball in novel.” I wonder if the viewership for the piece might have been different if they noted up front that it was a male stripper.

Tagged as: Baseball Cards, baseball fiction, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bill Buckner, Bill Madden, Bobby Thomson, Mariano Rivera, Mookie Wilson, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Nolan Ryan, Ralph Branca, Willie Mays