New year, new books

Welcome to 2019. I hope y’all had a great holiday season.

“Pitchers and catchers” are still more than a month away, so I hope this list of forthcoming books will serve as a source of warmth and comfort until then.

We seem to have the requisite number of material about former stars such as Jackie Robinson and Yogi Berra, as well as the new generation of baseball metrics and how they have changed the way fans perceive the game, some more willingly, others kicking and screaming. Bear in mind, these are just my first impressions based on the info listed on the Amazon pages and that I’m working blind here in my assessments and very early critiquing and I have been known to change my mind on occasion after actually, you know, having read the actual book.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, we’ll go in order of publication date as per Amazon and which might change. Also, only hardcover books are included, so you won’t have things like the annuals from Ron Shandler or Baseball Prospectus, etc. I may do a separate entry on those. Or not.

In addition, the book art might not be available now or might change by the time the books hit the stores. As in the past, I am omitting books written for non-adult audiences and most fiction:

* The honor of the first baseball book of the years goes to A Fine Team Man: Jackie Robinson and the Lives He Touched, by Joe Cox (Feb. 1, Lyons Press). Robinson would have been 100 this year, so it is fitting that we acknowledge the sports figure who perhaps has had more words written about him than anyone else, with the exception of Babe Ruth. Cox is also the author of Almost Perfect: The Heartbreaking Pursuit of Pitching’s Holy Grail and The Immaculate Inning and The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Stories Behind Baseball’s Rarest Feats.

* Next up, The Numbers Don’t Lie: Advanced Statistics and the True History of the Toronto Blue Jays by “sportswriter and contrarian” Andrew Stoeten (Dundurn, Feb. 9). The book’s page asks the question, “In the unforgiving light of modern baseball statistics, how do Toronto’s legends hold up?” “Modern baseball statistics?” We’re not talking about the 1939 Yankees here; the Jays are just over 40 years old. Can we expect a new sub-genre of books like this with an eye towards revisionist history for every team, player, or season?

* Continuing with that Canadian team, we have Hello, Friends!: Stories from My Life and Blue Jays Baseball by Jerry Howarth (Feb. 12, ECW Press). Howarth is the long-time radio announcer for the Jays.

* Back to the legends of the game, we have Let’s Play Two: The Life and Times of Ernie Banks, the latest from Doug Wilson (Feb. 15, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Wilson is the author of bios of such luminaries as Brooks Robinson, Carlton Fisk, Fred Hutchinson, and Mark Fydrich. I enjoyed a Bookshelf Conversation with him back in 2015.

* Bad Boys, Bad Times: The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Prewar Years, 1937–1941, by Scott H. Longert (Feb. 26, Ohio University Press). Longert is author of previous books about the Tribe, including Addie Joss: King of the Pitchers, The Best They Could Be: How the Cleveland Indians Became the Kings of Baseball, 1916–1920, and No Money, No Beer, No Pennants: The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Great Depression.

* Mrs. Morhard and the Boys: One mother’s vision. The first boys’ baseball league. A nation inspired., by Ruth Hanford Morhard (Feb. 26, Citadel). Again, first impression, but the cynic in me always wonders when a relative is the author of the book, which I am assuming is the case here based on the author’s surname. Can we trust that the story is accurate, free from excessive sentimentality and bias?

* Here’s the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising, by Roberta J. Newman (March 1, University of Nebraska Press). I first encountered Newman several years ago either at a SABR Convention or a Cooperstown Baseball Symposium where she gave a presentation on this topic, which has long been an interest of mine so this is probably my most anticipated title of the year. Newman was co-author along with Joel Rosen of the 2014 release, Black Baseball, Black Business: Race Enterprise and the Fate of the Segregated Dollar .

* Last Seasons in Havana: The Castro Revolution and the End of Professional Baseball in Cuba, by César Brioso (March 1, UNP). Brioso, a former baseball editor at USA Today Sports, is also author of Havana Hardball: Spring Training, Jackie Robinson, and the Cuban League.

* Major anniversaries can always be counted on for a few books. This year marks the big Five-Oh since Casey Stengel’s Amazins’ became Gil Hodges’ Miracle. To mark the occasion, we have The Miracle of 1969: How the New York Mets Went from Lovable Losers to World Series Champions by Coutinho Rich, a long-time NY-area sports reporter (March 5, Sports Publishing).

* Every couple of years, you get a book like Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball (March 8, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) which examines how the national pastime developed over the years. John Thorn, official historian for MLB, penned the foreword for this one.

* Another book reflecting on the Mets’ first championship is After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets, by Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman (March 19, Simon and Schuster). Both have previously written about the franchise; Sherman had worked with Davey Johnson and Mookie Wilson on their memoirs and three years ago published Kings of Queens: Life Beyond Baseball with the ’86 Mets , which was poignant and sad. Here’s our Bookshelf Conversation based on that release.

* Not quite a Moneyball-type book, there are those that do a deep-dive story about an issue or team. Here’s Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff. Those who have been reading this blog for a while know the quickest way to annoy me is to claim, as does the blurb, that “There’s never been a baseball book quite like it.” Maybe that’s true, but given the number of volumes written about the game, that remains to be seen.

* Wait, another Ernie Banks bio? And with basically the same title? I could understand if it was a major birthday, like Jackie Robinson, but no. This one — Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, the Life of Ernie Banks by Ron Rappaport (March 26, Hachette) — purports to be “[T]he definitive and revealing biography,” and you know how that gets to me, too.

* See, now this I understand: Wayne Coffey’s They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: The ’69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History (March 26, Crown Archetype). I’ll even concede the title even though it includes a superlative, another bugaboo of mine. After all, at the time, it was astounding. Here’s my 2012 Bookshelf Conversation with Coffey regarding his work with R.A. Dickey on the pitcher’s memoir.

* As a cooking enthusiastic, I love books like The Game of Eating Smart: Nourishing Recipes for Peak Performance Inspired by MLB Superstars by Julie Loria and Allen Campbell. The players include Jose Altuve, Chris Archer, Clayton Kershaw, Noah Syndergaard, Mike Trout, and another dozen or so. We’re most likely not talking 4-star gourmet grub here, but it’s sounds like fun anyway.

* “An in-depth look at the intersection of judgment and statistics in baseball.” Sounds interesting: Scouting and Scoring: How We Know What We Know about Baseball by Christopher Phillips (March 26, Princeton University Press). It reminds me of the scene in film version of Moneyball where Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill confront the grizzled scouts with their computations. Fingers crossed that S&S doesn’t get too wonky.

* Play Ball!: Doughboys and Baseball during the Great War by Alexander F. Barnes, Peter L. Belmonte, and Samuel O. Barnes (March 28, Schiffer Military History) probably would have received more attention had it come out last year to mark the centennial of the conflict.

* I almost feel embarrassed to admit that the early history of baseball has never held much interest. Still, in the spirit of completeness, we have Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original, and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball by David Block (April 1, UNP).

* You don’t often find a book which intersects baseball with “the real world.” That’s what makes When the Crowd Didn’t Roar: How Baseball’s Strangest Game Ever Gave a Broken City Hope by Kevin Cowherd (April 1, UNP) so special as he tells the story of the April 29, 2015 game between the host Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox played in an empty Camden Yards following several days of rioting following the “death in police custody of twenty-five-year-old African American Freddie Gray.” Cowherd is an award-winning sportswriter for the Baltimore Sun who worked with Cal Ripken Jr. on several baseball novels for younger readers.

* We have another oral history featuring the recollections of former athletes in Norman Macht’s They Played the Game: Memories from 47 Major Leaguers. (April 1, UNP). Not to be confused with this book with the same title. Talk about definitive, Macht published a three-volume “set” on the life of Connie Mack.

* In addition to food, I enjoy reading the occasional philosophy book every now and then. (I think it was Steve Martin who said you can take years of math classes in college and forget everything right away, but take just one philosophy course and it can screw you up for the rest of your life.) So I will definitely be picking up Alva Noe’s Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark (April 1, Oxford University Press).

* More New York-centric stuff: Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl: How the 1985 Mets and Yankees Fought for New York’s Baseball Soul, by Chris Donnelly (April 1, UNP). At the time the Yankees were on the downswing and the Mets — thanks to their exciting young stars — were on the rise. Donnelly’s previous work includes How the Yankees Explain New York (our Bookshelf Conversation here). I guess their explanation is somehow different from the Mets? He also published Baseball’s Greatest Series: Yankees, Mariners, and the 1995 Matchup That Changed History. (Ugh, that phrase, “changed history.” How, precisely? And doesn’t everything, according to the Butterfly Effect, change history?)

* The Bronx Bombers are probably the subject of more books than any other sports franchise and rightly so, but one of their farm teams? Yet that’s the premise behind Almost Yankees: The Summer of ’81 and the Greatest Baseball Team You’ve Never Heard Of by J. David Herman (April 1, UNP).

* Going back a generation, we also have The New York Yankees of the 1950s: Mantle, Stengel, Berra, and a Decade of Dominance by David Fischer (April 1, Lyons Press).

* Haven’t finished Alex Irvine’s The Comic Book Story of Baseball: The Heroes, Hustlers, and History-Making Swings (and Misses) of America’s National Pastime yet, but here’s another cartoon look at the game in Jason Novak’s Baseball Epic: Famous and Forgotten Lives of the Dead Ball Era (Coffeehouse Press, April 2).

* It’s not always the great teams that are noteworthy. The terrible ones are, too. Hence Ron Snyder’s A Season to Forget: The Story of the 1988 Baltimore Orioles (April 2, Sports Publishing). Considering that the 2018 version finished with a worse record — 47-115 versus 54-107 for the ’88 O’s — I wonder if there will be another book on last season’s accomplishments or lack thereof 30 years hence?

* Thorn has been a busy boy: He also wrote the foreword to Wrigley Field Year by Year: A Century at the Friendly Confines by Sam Pathy (April 2, Sports Publishing).

* Another Mets memoir, this one by Ron Darling: 108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game (April 2, St. Martin’s Press). As was the case with his 2016 book, Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life, this one was written with the assistance of Daniel Paisner.

* Is it just me, or is the cover of NY Times sportswriter Tyler Kepner’s K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches somewhat reminiscent of David James Duncan’s 1992 novel, The Brothers K? From the hyperbolic blurb: “Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart. Filled with priceless insights from many of the best pitchers in baseball history–from Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Nolan Ryan to Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw–K will be the definitive book on pitching and join such works as The Glory of Their Times and Moneyball as a classic of the genre.” (my emphasis). Will it now?

* Speaking of reminiscent, Unwritten: Bat Flips, the Fun Police, and Baseball’s New Future by Danny Knobler definitely brings to mind The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow. (Two Bookshelf Conversations with him, one for that book in 2010 and the other following the 2017 release of Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s.

* Biographies about non-players can be fun, too. Here’s one about The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball’s Greatest Salesman, by Don Zminda (April 12, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Zminda’s previous work includes another fun title: From Abba-Dabba to Zorro: The World of Baseball Nicknames.

* Then there’s the seemingly annual bio about the Commerce Comet with Tony Castro’s latest, Mantle: The Best There Ever Was (borrowing the phrase from Roy Hobbs in Bernard Malamud’s classic novel, The Natural?). Castro has written about Yankee greats before in Gehrig and the Babe: The Friendship and the Feud and DiMag & Mick: Sibling Rivalry, Yankee Blood Brothers.

* It might not be too late, but one person in the game with whom I would love to have a sit-down would be Roger Angel. The things he has seen over his long career. (Shirley Povich would be #1 for me all-time, living or dead, not coincidentally because he;’s a landsman). So No Place I Would Rather Be: Roger Angell and a Life in Baseball Writing by Joe Bonomo (May 1, UNP) is right up there for my must-reads of 2019. This is Bonomo’s first baseball book.

* What I said before about Thorn? Add to his forewording credits When Big Data Was Small: My Life in Baseball Analytics and Drug Design by Richard D. Cramer (May 1, UNP). Not sure about the drug part, but the sussing out of statistical theory strikes me as fascinating even though, you know, math.

* Tales from the Seattle Mariners Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Mariners Stories Ever Told, by Kirby Arnold (May 7, Triumph). That’s about all I’m inclined to say because this is one of those formulaic collection of anecdotes and it’s the Mariners, all due respect.

* I guess I’ll have to read it to find out why 1979 was a “season on the brink,” as per Kevin Cook’s Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink. Then there’s the “single-game analysis” concept which has been done several times and can be either thrilling or boring, depending on the amount and/or quality of detail. Cook also gave us Electric October: Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes of Fame That Lasted Forever (“forever” in the title being a another pet peeve of mine).

* Also a slight issue for me: book’s written by “ancillary” people about their famous friend or relative. This time it’s My Dad, Yogi: A Memoir of Family and Baseball, by son Dale, assisted by Mark Ribowsky (May 7, Hachette).

* Don’t expect this Mets fan to shed a tear for the relatively few years the Yankees didn’t appear in the post-season. Bill Pennington offers Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the 90’s Dynasty (May 7, Hachette). He also wrote the well-received Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius.

* Luis Tiant has always been an interesting character. Now we hear (read?) his story in Son of Havana: A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back, written with Saul Wisnia (May 14, Diversion Books). Cigar not included.

* Another pitcher heard from: Cy Young-winner David Cone with his Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher, written with Jack Curry (May 14, Grand Central Publishing).

* Not a pitcher but a Hall-of-Famer, Cal Ripken Jr. is out with what I assume is another one of his motivational treatises. But I’m sorry, the “Just Show Up” in the title Just Show Up: And Other Enduring Values from Baseball’s Iron Man (May 14, Harper), written with James Dale, does not strike me as great advice. It’s almost lethargic. That philosophy may work for a celebrity, but for the average person? The fact that Harper doesn’t have a picture of the art in its site seems to convey that feeling of nonchalance.

* If Ballpark: Baseball in the American City (May 14, Knopf) by architect critic Paul Goldberger is as advertised — “[A]n exhilarating, splendidly illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic. — then one, please, as I appreciate the combination of photography and the science of infrastructure.

* Crash Davis, anyone? That’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw Left on Base in the Bush Leagues: Legends, Near Greats, and Unknowns in the Minors by sportswriter Gaylon H. White (May 15, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). How many were great in the minors and for one reason or another never quite got the chance in The Show? Sad.

Remember when Vince Coleman said he didn’t know anything about Jackie Robinson? That’s why books like Reclaiming 42: Public Memory and the Reframing of Jackie Robinson’s Radical Legacy by David Naze (June 1, UNP) are so important and necessary. Some think there have been too many tributes to Number 42. Wrong, as long as there are people like Coleman around.

* Another fun photo book: Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin by Jean Fruth (June 4, Sports Publishing). I was talking with someone the other day about how disappointed I was to move to my current town and find out there was nowhere one could find a pickup game. This book hearkens back to those times.

* Going back to Jason Turbow, he’s got a new one out which might just break my rule against superlatives in the title: They Bled Blue: Fernandomania, Strike-Season Mayhem, and the Weirdest Championship Baseball Had Ever Seen: The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers (June 4, Houghton Mifflin). It sure was weird, having that split season which cost the Montreal Expos a chance at the post-season even though they had the best record that year.

* There may be no end for the usefulness of books about Robinson, but do we really need another about Pete Rose by Pete Rose in Play Hungry: The Making of a Baseball Player? What is there left to say that he hasn’t before?

* Looking back in this piece, I think I’m developing a little “inside-baseball” fatigue, but I’m sure, based on their past work, that TThe MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players (June 4, Basic Books) by Travis Sawchik (Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak) and Ben Lindbergh (The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team) will do fine. Almost sounds like science fiction.

* Tales from the Minnesota Twins Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Twins Stories Ever Told (Tales from the Team) by Kent Hrbek and Dennis Brackin (June 4, Sports Publishing). See Seattle Mariners, above.

* And another Yankees success story. Guess I would have the opposite reaction — Yeah! another Yankees success story! — if I was a fan of that NY club instead of the Mets. But Mission 27: A New Boss, A New Ballpark, and One Last Ring for the Yankees’ Core Four was written by Mark Feinsand and my Yankees fantasy campmate, Bryan Hoch, so I’m down with it.

* Again, this may be an East coast bias, and all due respect, but I’m not all that interested in Edgar: An Autobiography (June 11, Triumph) by Hall of Famer Martinez and Larry Stone.

* Another history of the post-WWII era in Tumultuous Times in America’s Game: From Jackie Robinson’s Breakthrough to the War over Free Agency by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte Hardcover (June 12, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). The author also published The Golden Era of Major League Baseball: A Time of Transition and Integration (2015) and America’s Game: A History of Major League Baseball through World War II via Rowman & Littlefield, who seem to be competing with McFarland — which is stunningly absent from this listing — for most titles on relatively obscure topics.

* Kind of surprised we haven’t had a book by Ron Swoboda before. The popular ballplayer nicknamed “Rocky” had a look about him that didn’t scream “intellectual,” but he was nevertheless charming. So I’m looking forward to Here’s the Catch: A Memoir of the Miracle Mets and More (June 25, Thomas Dunne), latching onto that 1969 anniversary theme. Based on his amazing catch, he’s one of those players who leaped into national consciousness, however briefly, by being on the World Series national stage.

* Another topic I’m not necessarily that educated about (or interested in) is represented by Empire of Infields: Baseball in Taiwan and Cultural Identity, 1895-1968, by John J. Harney (July 1, UNP)

* Bud Selig was the commissioner of baseball during some of the most tumultuous times. Let’s give him a chance to explain himself in For the Good of the Game: The Inside Story of the Transformation of Major League Baseball (July 9, William Morrow), written with Phil Rogers with a foreword by — no, not John Thorn — Doris Kearns Goodwin.

* So I guess we can expect a Moneyball-esque treatise on how every team builds a World Championship, hence The Next Great Red Sox Team: The Seven-Year Process of Building the Greatest Team in Red Sox Franchise History, by Alex Speier (August 13, William Morrow) (Sorry, no book art yet).

* Barry Zito is an interesting fellow. The New York Times ran a piece on him in its Sunday Magazine section in 2008. He tells his own story in Curveball: How Failure on the Mound Taught Me Success in Life, (September 17, Thomas Nelson).

* And finally, another “definitive” biography, this one Yogi: A Life, by John Pessah, whose most recent offering was The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball’s Power Brokers.