* Bits and pieces

Haven’t done one of these for awhile, so here goes:

• The Dallas Morning News ran this review of The Wizard of Waxahachie by Warren Corbett, the biography of baseball lifer Paul Richards. Upshot: “Those who love baseball’s strategies and myriad statistics probably will relish this book. The author blends them seamlessly into an entertaining, warts-and-all portrait of a true baseball man, one who liked to write about his favorite sport, yet seldom spoke – until he got into explosive arguments with umpires.”
• Jason Fry on Faith and Fear in Flushing, asks the age-old question: Why do the Mets hate Al Schmelz? Schmelz was a pitcher for the 1967 squad, FYI.
• The American Spectator ran this appraisal on the MLB Network on its one-year anniversary.
• The Columbus Dispatch ran this article on Bob Carson and “Minor Trips,” his newsletter about the bush leagues, which “contain stories and anecdotes from fans, book reviews, details about new teams and other news, trivia, history and even fiction — all about minor-league baseball. The latest issue includes a list of some of the wackiest promotions attempted in the minor leagues in 2009, such as ‘Octomom Night,’ ‘Salute to Punctuation’ and ‘Seinfield (Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That) Night.'” (For more information or to subscribe, write to “Minor Trips,” P.O. Box 360105, Strongsville, Ohio 44136  email minortrips@aol.com.)
• Sabremetric Research ran this review of Wayne Winston’s new book Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football (Princeton University Press). Upshot: it’s “a fine book.”
• Mike Silva offers this audio interview with Steven Travers, author of A Tale of Three Cities: The 1962 Baseball Season in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
• Extra Innings: Ken Burns will updated his watershed baseball documentary this spring. According to a report in the Brattleboro (VT) Informer, “The Tenth Inning” will focus “on the player strike in 1994, the New York Yankees dynasty and the team’s new stadium, the role of the game following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the revival of the Boston Red Sox and the emergence of Latin American and Asian players in the major leagues” and “will also include the so-called steroid era in America’s Pastime when the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball tested the loyalty of many fans from coast to coast.”
• Baseball GB (British perspectives on baseball), recently ran this review on The New Bill James Historical Abstract. Upshot: “Summing up the history of baseball in one book is an impossible task, but [this book] comes astonishingly close to doing just that.” what makes this piece particularly interesting is that foreign perspective, since baseball fans here make certain assumptions about common knowledge.
• Ricklibrarian posted this review of Cooperstown Confidential by Zev Chafets. Look for books about the Hall of Fame and PED to get a little bump thanks to the McGwire “revelations.”
• Edward Achorn, author of Fifty-nine in ’84, new biography on Hoss Radbourn, recently launched a website to promote the book.
• Ben Platt of Yankees.com ran this profile on Ira Berkow, author of Summers in the Bronx: Attila the Hun and other Yankee Stories.
• The Raleigh News Observer (NC) published this odd review about older books, including Leigh Montville’s The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth; National Pastime: Sports, Politics, and the Return of Baseball to Washington, D.C.; and Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball. Time warp?

Tagged as: baseball books