From the category archives:

Baseball and pop culture

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Now that the season is over, it’s time to look ahead to see what reading material will carry us over to “pitchers and catchers.” As with previous lists like this, I have omitted anything that falls into the general category of “romance novels.” Also, no books about trivia or designed for younger readers. In last […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

NOTE: By the time you read this, the World Series might be over. If that’s the case, I wonder how quickly a book about the winner will take to publish. I am willing to bet cash money that such a book will be on the BBS next week. ***** A reminder: The Amazon rankings are […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I don’t know when it started or ended but Topps used to reserve cards ending in double-00 for the superstars of the game. Mays, Mantle, Koufax, Carew, Seaver, and Reggie have all appeared multiple times. So I felt it only appropriate to follow their lead and save the 200th Bookshelf Conversation for one of my […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

These days, authors are called upon to take on more of their own publicity work that would normally go to the publisher, so I get a lot of requests to take a look at their books. Many of these are for self-published titles. I always advise them that I can’t guarantee a review or a […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

♦   Depending on when you read this, and where you live, your can still take advantage of this: On Monday, October 6, at 5 pm, the New York State Museum in Albany will present John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, for a special evening presentation on baseball’s deep connection with New York […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

My bad: I had originally written that Amazon had stopped offering links to purchase (a ridiculous concept). In fact, it was my fault; I didn’t realize I had signed out of the account. So the links have been added. A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Remembering Roger Angell

August 24, 2025

It’s a daunting task, following in the footsteps of a legend. The players who came after Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams or Willie Mays didn’t have it easy. They were faulted for not being able to replicate the feats of their predecessors. How unfair. I was thinking about that when I came across this piece in […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

♦  Congrats to Jan Powal, who was recognized for her breaking the gender line for Major League umpires and was the subject of a question in the latest weekly New York Times quiz. ♦  Greatly looking forward to Jane Leavy‘s forthcoming, Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It. […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

♦  Adding to the previous B&P item about gathering Hall of Fame induction speeches: you would expect writers to be more comfortable with the process than the players. Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell was the 2025 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. Here is his acceptance speech. Side note: According […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A thought occurred to me as I was posting about the passing of Ryne Sandberg. Although I still subscribe to the physical edition of The New York Times, I also have the app which sometimes will publish several days ahead of the print version. I have frequently found that an obituary not not appear for […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

0Shares

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();