Posts tagged as:

PED

Been busy finalizing my forthcoming book, Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War, which has severely reduced my Bookshelf time. (Even got my first blurb! Very cool.) So in attempt to play catch-up… It’s nice to have your book referenced in a story. You never know that it might […]

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Because, let’s face it, its worth will be questionable. One of the things I loved about the old Street & Smith baseball annuals was the list of upcoming milestones that were within reach for current ballplayers. You could see, for example, that this guy was 22 home runs away from 500, or that guy was […]

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Bits and pieces, Aug. 15

August 15, 2014

As work on the new book about the Maccabiah Games becomes more urgent, I find I have less time to keep up with the latest baseball books news. Apologies. I guess the good part about the project is that it will be done before the time spring training — and the release of of new […]

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Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and the Quest to End Baseball’s Steroid Era, by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, is set to come out next Tuesday. Needless to say, it’s already getting some buzz. Unlike books by, say Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera, Mookie Wilson, or even Selena Roberts’ 2009 release, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, there’s […]

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Because you can keep your tablet and/or smartphone on a bookshelf. It’s not enough that he’s got several best-selling books out, now he’s expanding into the realm of apps? Dirk Hayhurst, who has more titles in print than years played in the majors (four to two), just released Bush League, described as “essentially a baseball […]

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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 […]

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I’m not a big Ales Rodriguez fan, but I do think MLB is trying to pull a fast one with its 211-game suspension, more than double any of the others handed down this season. Due process and all, yo. So the following is brought to you as a public service announcement. (Personally, I don’t think […]

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Just when you thought it was safe to return to the library comes the news — rather the Tweet — that Jose Canseco, author of Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big and Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball will give it another go with […]

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The first time is free

September 6, 2010

Image via Wikipedia With all the news that’s been rekindled about the PED scandal, what better time to return to those kinder gentler times when the drug of choice was cocaine. The Pittsburgh City Paper ran this review of The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven by Aaron Skirboll. Older fans can recall Tim Raines, then of the […]

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National Pastime Radio

August 23, 2010 · 2 comments

The Brian Lehrer Show ran this segment on Aug. 20 following the news of Roger Clemens’ indictment. The two guests on the show were Michael O’Keeffe of the New York Daily News, who collaborated on American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime, and William C. Rhoden of […]

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And Ozzie, too, of course. Made a major faux pas, thanks to the evil Facebook, which notified me that Logan Miller, whose film Touching Home garnered major praise, was also celebrating a birthday today. What it didn’t mention (duh!) was that it was also his twin brother and collaborator, Noah’s, birthday as well. The management […]

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* I double-dog dare you

January 24, 2010

Mark, I dare you to show yourself enough respect to offer the real story to your fans. I dare you to do what Canseco did to get this whole dog-and-pony show started in the first place and write your own book. Put down the truth. Put down YOUR truth, whatever it might be. Subject yourself […]

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* Asterisk th*s

January 24, 2010

There’s been a lot of talk about what to do with the statistics from the Steroids Era. Some want them expunged from the record books. Others, like Tony Kornheiser, want a special note on any Hall of Fame plaque, bringing into account the possibility (probability?) that said honored player partook of PED. My take is: […]

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of books about baseball and steroids. Steven Travers, author of last year’s The 1969 Miracle Mets, as well as several other sports titles, is hard at work on one. According to his page at redroom.com, a community for authors, “STRIKE THREE! by Steven Travers promises to be the first, and most comprehensive book to provide […]

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I don’t know what else there is to say about McGwire. Some, like Joe Posnanski (twice) and my literary hero, Tony Kornheiser, are more forgiving. Mr. Tony spoke about the “confessions of Mark McGwire” on both Pardon the Interruption and his eponymous radio program on ESPN 980 in DC. Others, like Ken Rosenthal, are much […]

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* Non-news item of the day

January 11, 2010

Several major outlets, including ESPN and Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch are running major announcements that Mark McGwire admits having used steroids “on occasion throughout the 1990’s,” including his record-breaking 1998 season. Surprisingly, the Post-Dispatch is using the Associated Press story rather than their own reporters. But it is […]

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New York Times story: “Court Rules U.S. Seized 2003 Tests Improperly” A fat lot of good it does those players who were outed. Not that they deserve too much sympathy for abusing the public trust, but even so.

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Use PED, of course. That’s one of the topics of Murray Chass’s Aug. 16 column, in he he ponders the advisability of a Mike Piazza auto-bio. I quote, at length: Several months ago I heard that Piazza may be doing a book. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, I was told, had signed a contract for […]

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According to a press release from the Gibson Law Firm, distributed by PR Newswire on Aug. 10: The publisher and authors of a book about steroid use in major league baseball were sued today by a Texas man who says they falsely claimed he was “pushing” steroids to professional athletes and using his gym as […]

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I was finishing up my run this afternoon. My thighs were clenching, still sore from yesterday’s workout. I started thinking about the latest product that Shaq endorses (the actual name of which escapes me at the moment): a combination ace bandage/heat wrap that you can cut to size. So I was thinking: if a professional […]

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