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 that famous quote from Forrest Gump. If it’s a box of chocolate covered cherries, don’t you know exactly what you’re going to get?)
On the one hand, I’m happy to report that I’m catching up/running out of these old links. On the other hand, it’s been cool reminiscing.
I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket keeps the entire page and makes it relative easy for you to find stuff you “pocketed.” I have keepers going back six years — more than 5,000 links — and I’ve decided it’s time to start cleaning house so here are some submitted for your amusement, perusal, and education. Some are not current, but in a sense, they’re timeless.
- From 2012, Jeff Pearlman’s review of Mary Appel’s Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss
. Upshot: “Appel has written an important, memorable and riveting history of the world’s most dominant sports franchise. The book is, as one would expect, voluminous (620 pages, 47 chapters), but reads like a gripping, action-packed novel, one era more fascinating than the next.” Note that the updated paperback edition, released last year, is bigger and better.
- From 2012, a review I did for Bookreporter on Dan Ewald’s Sparky and Me: My Friendship with Sparky Anderson and the Lessons He Shared About Baseball and Life
- Apropos to the above entry, here’s a Bookshelf Conversation with Dan Ewald.
- And the interview mentioned in the Bookreporter review I did with Anderson for Nine in 1999.
- Dave Gershman did this fascinating assessment on “Who Gets the Scoop? Major League Reporters, Ranked. 2011-12 Edition” for SB Nation. Gershman posted again last year on the topic.
- Eephus Magazine, produced by Bethany Heck, was a wonderful online publication about the old game. It receive a lot of critical praise (such as this piece from Wired), but as far as I can tell, it was just a one-and-done deal. Pity.
- Diane Firstman, who runs the always entertaining Value Over Replacement Grit site featuring off-beat looks at the game and its quirks, posted this review/interview with Tim Hagerty, author of Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball’s Most Off-the-Wall Team Names and the Stories Behind Them
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- Jeff Polman is the author of historical baseball fiction including Mystery Ball ’58: A Season-Long Whodunit
. Here he writes for the Huffington Post on “Veeck — As in Maverick.”
- I wonder if kids ever think about race when they collected baseball cards? I know I never did. But Phil Birnbaum posted this piece about “Racial bias and baseball card values” on his Sabermetric Resrarch blog in 2012. Then again, when I was collecting them, baseball cards weren’t considered part of a kid’s financial portfolio.
- Political correctness is all the rage these days, so here’s a piece from The Classical on “Exactly What’s In A Name, MLB Edition: A very literal approach to assessing the effectiveness and logic of Major League Baseball’s team names.”
is available on Amazon.com,
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