Thinking about renaming this segment of the blog “This or That.” Waddya think? Anyway… Author Tom Clavin put in an appearance recently to discuss his latest, The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, and Their Pursuit of the American Dream. Here’s an “op-ed”/review of Joseph Sutton’s The Years The Giants Won The Series: A [...]
‘Tis the season when authors start popping up on NP programs, and I hope to join their ranks this year. Mike Piazza was on Fresh Air last week to discuss his memoir, Long Shot. You can read/listen here. Robert Fitts, who was recently named winner of SABR’s prestigious Seymour Medal, was a guest on last [...]
Tagged as:
Japanese baseball,
Mike Piazza,
Only a Game,
Robert Fitts,
Trading Bases
Just received Francona: The Red Sox Years. Hope it’s better than the last couple managerial memoirs (Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre). One person who’s evidently looking forward to reading it is current Red Sox outfielder Ryan Kalish. As per the Boston Herald, “I absolutely plan on reading it,” Kalish told the Track. “I’m 2 1⁄2 books [...]
Tagged as:
Terry Francona
Jeff Pearlman did this interview with SI‘s senior baseball writer Tom Verducci and Rob Neyer added his thoughts based on a single passage, which I reproduce here because I think it’s going to change my professional life: Imagine Johnny All-Star tells you his father used to throw bottle caps to him to hit in their [...]
Tagged as:
Jeff Pearlman,
Tom Verducci
The author of the recent Yankees history, Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss, was a guest on a recent installment of WNET’s MetroFocus.
Tagged as:
Marty Appel,
New York Yankees
Saturday was a busy day for baseball news. One of the questions on Wait Wait Don’t Tell me involved a certain high-priced player on a certain recently-vanquished playoff team: PETER SAGAL: Right now, panel, time for you to answer some questions about this week’s news. Luke, Alex Rodriquez, the most highly paid player in baseball [...]
Tagged as:
Alex Rodriguez,
Tony La Russa
♦ The Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel published this piece by Mark Souder, a former congressional representative, about his favorite White Sox books, including this year’s Paul Dickson contribution, Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick. ♦ Tony La Russa is making the rounds on his book tour. He was a recent guest on NPR’s The Leonard Lopate Show (which [...]
Tagged as:
Bill Veeck,
Chicago White Sox,
Leonard Lopate,
National Public Radio,
Paul Dickson,
Robert Siegel,
Tony LaRussa
The documentary featuring Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey begins its national run this week. Here’s a review by Scott Tobias on the NPR website. By the way, the film will be shown in my neck of the woods as the Yogi Berra Museum on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can [...]
Tagged as:
Knuckleball,
RA Dickey,
Ricki Stern,
Tim Wakefield
The High Holy Days are upon us and each year brings the inevitable question: will the handful of Jewish Major Leaguers play on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, or will they sit? The most prominent stars to refrain from taking the field during this time were Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax [...]
Tagged as:
Chicago White Sox,
Hank Greenberg,
High Holy Days,
Ray Robinson,
Sandy Koufax,
Yom Kippur
Now that the 501 manuscript has been returned to — and received by — the copy editor, I can take a breath and get back to the business of blogging. So here’s an attempt to catch up with a few items from recent days. ♦ The RadioIowa site posted this piece on Bob Meyer, author [...]
Tagged as:
Art of Fielding,
Cardboard Gods,
Joe Rudi,
R.A. Dickey,
Tony LaRussa
Time for the occasional declutter of the accumulated links and stories, so here goes. “Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, which honors a nonfiction book on the subject of sports.” More here. From the Yogi Berra Museum: Former Yankee star second baseman Bobby Richardson, a cornerstone [...]
♦ The Louisville Courier-Journal posted this Q&A with Katya Cengel, author of Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life. ♦ Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News, blogged about Not Exactly Cooperstown, a documentary about The Baseball Reliquary by Jon Leonoudakis (look for a review of the film as well as a [...]
Tagged as:
Baseball Reliquary,
Jon Leonoudakis,
Rob Neyer,
Tim Wendell
* John Rocker‘s memoir is not exactly new but it’s still getting some buzz. Whether or not it’s good is besides the point. I think a lot of people want to know if he’s as big a train wreck as he came off in that Sports Illustrated piece in 1999. * Dennis Anderson sent me [...]
Tagged as:
John Rocker,
Sports Illustrated
As mentioned in a previous post, Arnold Hano wrote one of the must-read books for any serious student of the national pastime. A Day in the Bleachers was the first, and in many ways the best, of the single-game analyses genre. His deconstruction of the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New [...]
Tagged as:
Arion Press,
Arnold Hano,
Baseball Reliquary,
Fans,
Mark Ulriksen,
New York Giants,
Willie Mays,
World Series
Surely you remember these. But for me, going to “Judaism and Baseball” at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT, next weekend will be even more fun. The program, which runs from Friday, June 29, to Sunday, July 1, features a number of speakers with whom I have become well familiar since [...]
Tagged as:
Aviva Kempner,
Hank Greenberg,
Howard Megdal,
Ira Berkow,
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center,
Israel Baseball League,
Peter Levine
♦ Bruce Spitzer, author of the sci-fi-ish novel about Ted Williams rising from the dead, was on Beyond the Game, a White Plains community access cable channel. ♦ ♦ Received a copy of Ronnie Joyner‘s new Hardball Legends and Journeymen and Short-Timers: 333 Illustrated Baseball Biographies yesterday. It’s a throwback to the days when newspapers [...]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Bruce Spitzer,
Cal Ripken,
Doug Glanville,
Ted Williams
Rob Neyer at SB Nation posted this item about Gary Bedingfield, host of Baseball in Wartime and author of Baseball’s Dead of World War II: A Roster of Professional Players Who Died in Service. Awhile back I had a chance to e-chat with Bedingfield, a native of Great Britain, about his interest in paying tribute [...]
Tagged as:
Gary Bedingfield,
Rob Neyer,
SB Nation,
World War II
Naugatuck Patch posted this story about Jack Cavanaugh, author of Season of ’42: Joe D, Teddy Ballgame, and Baseball’s Fight to Survive a Turbulent First Year of War. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran this feature on R.A. Dickey. When you think about it, every town the Mets play should carry a story about him. And how [...]
Tagged as:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
RA Dickey
I get a kick out of how foreign media handle the occasional baseball-themed story. They almost seem apologetic that they have to explain what baseball is, as in the introduction to this audio interview with the author of The Art of Fielding from the Australian Broadcasting Company: American Author Chad Harbach is hot stuff in [...]
Tagged as:
Art of Fielding,
Australian Broadcasting Company,
Chad Harbach
The Bleeding Pinstripe Blue blog published this Q&A with Appel, author of Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss, the new “definitive” history of the Bronx Bombers. Wouldn’t it be cool if Mantle was saying, “Psst, hey, Appel. Pull my finger?”
is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
and
Bits and pieces
August 30, 2012 · 0 comments
Time for the occasional declutter of the accumulated links and stories, so here goes. “Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, which honors a nonfiction book on the subject of sports.” More here. From the Yogi Berra Museum: Former Yankee star second baseman Bobby Richardson, a cornerstone [...]
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