From the category archives:

trivia

Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Missed posting last week because of the trip. Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions of books; calendars (even though Amazon includes them on their lists), no audiobooks (as much as I enjoy them), and no kindle (because I’m old school). Second, since the rankings are updated every […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Don’t know how I missed this one. Must have been making dinner.

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding was the guest for Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me‘s Not My Job segment last week. So the writer thought it would be cute… PETER SAGAL: Second base is baseball, the great American pastime. SPALDING: Oh no. SAGAL: One of the worst baseball players ever was one Smead Jolley. Mr. Jolly was […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Last night, an entire category devoted to “Ways to reach first base.” The contestants answered each one correctly, although the $200 clue remained on the board after the first round. $400: 4 wide ones (What is a walk?) $600: Craig Biggio had it happen 285 times; ouch! (What is hit by pitch?) $800: A defensive […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Yesterday on Jeopardy: Then I sat down to do the Times‘ crossword: Crazy, man. One of my Facebook friends suggested there should be a version of Jeopardy devoted solely to the national pastime. Baseball in Jeopardy? You’re welcome.

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

But I don’t know how to classify this bit of uber-trivia from Numbers Don’t Lie: Mets: The Biggest Numbers in Mets History, by Ross Cohen with Adam Raider. The chapter for “10” features Tom Seaver’s 10 consecutive strikeouts against the visiting San Diego Padres on April 22, 1970 and comes with this fun fact: Seaver […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Twice this week, the national pastime was part of the unofficial national quiz show. On Wednesday, the topic was teams that had never won the World Series (although perhaps it was teams that had never been in the Series; I should have kept track). One of the answers was wrong at the time of airing, […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I tuned into the Yankee game on Friday just as Alex Rodriguez was coming to bat, looking for his 3,000th hit. Timing is everything: ARod launched a home run for the milestone. It was the third time a player hit a home run for the magic number, including former teammate Derek Jeter. The difference is […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Just finished thumbing through A History of Baseball in 100 Objects, the latest baseball release by Josh Leventhal, author of several other well-produced baseball titles. The objects included herein represent the game since before its “formal” recognized inception in the mid 1800s (and please don’t write about the exact DOB of the game). But the […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Enough is enough?

February 17, 2015

So now the NY Yankees are getting set to retire another number: Andy Pettitte’s 46. This has led to a couple of speculative ponderings. One, should they reward an admitted PED user? And, when is this retirement stuff going to stop?  

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

* Josh Wilker’s forthcoming book, Benchwarmer: An Anxious Dad’s Almanac of Fatherhood and Other Failures gets a thumbs up from Kirkus. Upshot: “This almanac of fatherhood (and other failures) is honest, relatable and humorous—an indispensable read for fathers (and sons) whose joy in life comes not from winning the big game but being alive to […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Boy, these things really do come in threes, don’t they? Charlie Williams is the answer to a trivia question: Who was traded for Willie Mays? The 67-year-old pitcher died on Tuesday. No obituary, so far, from the NY papers, but I think (hope) it’s only a matter of time. Williams was actually born in Flushing […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The “personal edition.” I had two reviews appear last week: The Closer, by Mariano Rivera with Wayne Coffey on Bookreporter.com The Cubs Quotient: How the Chicago Cubs Changed the World, by Scott Rowan in ForeWord Magazine.

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bits and Pieces, April 18

April 18, 2014

The Passover holidays have played havoc with my schedule, so there’s a lot to catch up on. First off, can you remember those Bicentennial Minutes that CBS used to broadcast in the months leading up to the big celebration? Well, Dan Epstein, author of the new Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Over the years, I’ve expressed disappointment in the changing times, when magazines about the fantasy baseball outnumber those about the “regular” game. Fantasy Sports is a multi-billion dollar business. With so much at stake, there have to be rules and governing bodies, otherwise there’s chaos. From time to time, I try to get with the […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Baseball book ‘prospects’

February 27, 2014

This it the time of year when the baseball media offer their considered opinions on their favorite prospects. Sometimes they’re spot on, other times, not so much. So I thought, why not apply this to the upcoming “rookie crop” of baseball books? That is, titles that are making their debuts in 2014 — no reprints/reissues […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The beverage, not the drug. Honestly, get your mind out of the gutter. From Mark Aubrey, my “proofreader,” comes this item on eBay: “1967 Coke Cap RARE PASSOVER variation Willie Stargell Pittsburgh Pirates HOFer” Asking price: $75. When I was a kid growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, there was a kosher […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();