From the category archives:

2016 title

NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]

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Feeling a Draft

November 30, 2016

Baseball America recently announced the release of their new release, their Ultimate Draft Book: The Most Comprehensive Book Ever Published on the Baseball Draft: 1965-2016. Don’t you love their modesty? Did you know that more than 70,000(!) players have been selected since the inception of the draft? Picture a full stadium, and then some. Impressive.

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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]

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Spitball — “The Literary baseball Magazine” — recently announced the slate of finalists for the 2016 CASEY Award: The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports by Jeff Passan The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams by Michael Tackett Bucky F*cking Dent (novel) by David Duchovny Game […]

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The warm feelings about the Chicago Cubs’ first world championship since 1908 has also had an impact on the world of baseball literature. To be fair, the Cubs have always been right up there when it comes to books about a team, comparable to the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox, but almost for the opposite […]

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The holiday season is upon us

November 18, 2016

As good as these baseball books are, they wouldn’t be my first choices for gift-giving — I lean more towards coffee-table volumes — but Will Leitch, writing for the Wall Street Journal, offers his considered opinion in this piece.

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The Great God, Baseball

November 18, 2016

As we head into the Sabbath for billions of people around the world, take note of a new book examining the role of religion in the game we all worship. The Preshistories of Baseball by Dr. Seelochan Beharry of the University of British Columbia looks at the connections. From the author’s website Baseball’s roots lie […]

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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]

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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]

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FWIW: A Baseball Carol

November 8, 2016

FWIW=For what it’s worth, BTW (by the way). Not a big fan of baseball fiction but I do like the notion of time travels so this one caught my eye. My eye was released when I read that the protagonist is a mild-mannered CPA (is there any other kind?), just like the author. I do […]

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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]

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Well that didn’t take long

November 4, 2016

What is it, two days after the Cubs won the series and while compiling the (usually) weekly list of baseball best-sellers, there are publications about the team that weren’t even listed when I did my search for items coming down the pike (although, to be strictly accurate, I was basically looking at 2017 items). So […]

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Because as soon as you write about it, it’s no longer untold, is it? Maybe it was before you told it, Sherman Jenkins, but now it’s not. So does that mean he has to change the title? “Aurora resident authors book about ‘untold’ baseball All Star, Globetrotter.” The book in question is Ted Strong Jr.: […]

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Shameless self-promotion

October 29, 2016

If my mother were still alive, she’d probably have this framed and place it on a bookshelf.

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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]

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The book(s) on David Ortiz

October 26, 2016

It almost seemed like David Ortiz had to retire this year, regardless of the impressive numbers — 38 home runs, a .315 batting average, and leading the league in five  categories, including RBIs (127), doubles (48), slugging (.620), OPS (1.021), and intentional walks (15) — at the age of 40 in his 20th and final […]

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An oldie but a goodie

October 25, 2016

Haven’t done one of these in a long time so here goes: From the New York Sportsday website, a review of A Baseball Guy: Former Kansas City Royals Farmhand, Scout, and Major League Coach Takes You Inside the Game He Loves, by Guy Hansen and Tom Gresham. From Lookout Landing, a Seattle Mariners-centric site, this […]

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Can’t make it to the World Series tonight? Why not visit the Hudson Library & Historical Society in Ohio where you can hear author Scott Longert talk about his new book, No Money, No Beer, No Pennants: The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Great Depression. For reservations, call 330-653-6658. By the way, the Indians […]

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I don’t like Manhattan very much for a variety of reasons. The noise, the crowds, the rush. But every once in awhile I venture in when the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse features an author event with a writer whose work I especially enjoy. Case in point, several weeks ago when Michael Leahy, author of the exceptional […]

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Back in 2005, Bill Simmons published Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN’s Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help From Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox. (He issued a revised edition when they won again a few years later). Now that the Chicago Cubs have battled their way to the […]

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