Review roundup

Once again, a semi-regular attempt to catch up on reviews from other sources…

From BlueBirdBanter, a Blue Jays-centric site — this on Stacey May Fowles’ Baseball Life Advice: Loving the Game That Saved Me. Upshot: ” It is deeply human and relatable, even when dealing with uncomfortable situations which would be easier to gloss over.”

From the Baseball America site, this on Jay Jafee’s The Cooperstown Casebook: Who’s in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Who Should Be In, and Who Should Pack Their Plaques. The upshot: “It is the most comprehensive, most enjoyable evaluation of the Hall of Fame since [Bill] James two decades earlier.” (Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News posted this interview with the author.)

From Red Reporter, a section of the SBNation family, this review of Tom Van Riper’s Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue: Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Rivalry. Upshot: “While this rivalry may not have had the longevity of some of the other well-known baseball rivalries, but [sic] a read-through of this book shows that it ranks up there with the best of them.”

From the Philadelphia Tribune, this review of William C. Kashatus’ Dick Allen, The Life and Times of a Baseball Immortal: An Illustrated Biography.

From the NY Daily News, this review of Marty Appel’s Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character. Upshot: “Casey Stengel is a vivid, loving, deeply researched valentine to the greatest character in the history of baseball…”

From Baseball Reflections, this review of David Block’s Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game. Upshot: “There are certainly times in the book that the text gets extremely dry. To get through it, the reader must be interested in the subject as it is a history, in some ways a text book, of baseball and we all remember from our schooling days that text books didn’t have the most exciting language. In Block’s defense, he did have a much more exciting subject to work with, and the dryness doesn’t run through the whole text. If nothing else, it’s also a handy reference book to have on hand as the argument of who, or what, created baseball is seemingly always just around the corner.”