* Sport of the Times … in books

April 25, 2010

Before The New York Times went through all its cutbacks, the paper featured an occasional column called “The Sport of the Times.” Just so you know where the blog title comes from.

In today’s paper, two books are selected for special attention.

  • Following the brouhaha over Alex Rodriguez’s broken GPS against the As in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss on Thursday,  Benjamin Hoffman conducted this Q&S with Jason Turbow, coauthor of The Baseball Codes.
  • Frankly, I’m surprised at the attention Dirk Hayhurt’s new book, The Bullpen Gospels, has received. Tyler Kepner compares it with the classic baseball autobio, Ball Four. I have not yet received the review copy (Hey, BG publicists! Hope you’re reading this.), so I can’t say yea or nay, but many have tried to channel Jim Bouton, and none have succeeded. You have to take his book in context to when it came out, the end of the 60s, when youth was in full rebellion and baseball iconoclasts were ostracized. (I’m especially leery because of the aftereffects of Matt McCarthy’s 2009 memoir Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit, in which, after receiving glowing accolades,  the author was accused of fabricated some events. Is that why the model depicted in the book art has his fingers crossed?)


 

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Tagged as: Bullpen Gospels, mamoir, rules, superstitions, The Baseball Code, tradition

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