From the category archives:

Baseball rules

When the baseball purists start calling for the heads of those who would buck tradition in finding ways to speed up the game, they might start with author Paul Auster. Auster came up with brilliant idea of two strikes and you’re out and three balls, take your base. The former is strictly two strikes, by […]

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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. So without further ado, here are the top ten baseball books as […]

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  Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. So without further ado, here are the top ten baseball books […]

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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]

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Got to step it up and go

October 3, 2014

Because you can put a stopwatch on your bookshelf. The regular season was over but the post-season hadn’t started yet. What to do? I know! Let’s talk about how to speed up the games. That’s appropriate right before you air even longer games, thanks to team introductions (including the trainers) and more elaborate “honoring America” […]

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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]

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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]

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Can I get a ruling?

November 20, 2013 · 2 comments

Don’t know if it’s the recent attention paid to poor umpiring or the call for expanded use of video replays, but several books published over the past year or so take up the topic of rules interpretation. These books point out that the official rule book is kind of dry; the “fun” part comes in […]

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Excellent piece in the NY Times by my neighbor Harvey Araton on the lost art of keeping score. My daughter, Rachel, was manager for her high school baseball team for three seasons, winning the job for her ability to keep score (and take pictures and bake cupcakes). We don’t go to a lot of games, […]

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Bits and pieces

November 7, 2012

♦  I’m including this piece just because I find it amusing. I hope the Brits don’t get all their baseball info like this. ♦  Who says fiction about the national pastime has to be confined to literature? Here’s a case of fictitious baseball merchandise. ♦  Dan Epstein, author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A […]

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The New York Times ran a couple of interesting pieces in the July 8 issue. (Yeah, I know I’m late, so sue me.) * Tyler Kepner wrote, “The 83F project: Sign here, please,” about one man’s attempt to have his entire 1983 Fleer card set signed by the subjects, all 660 of them. he’s 99 […]

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Bits and pieces

March 14, 2012

The baseball book news is coming in fast and furious, so rather than wait (and forget) to do longer items, here are some highlights: Phil Haddad is about to release his new book High Flies, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania. You can learn more at the author’s website. Bill Jordan at Baseball Reflections posted this review […]

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Combining two themes here to bring you some recent podcasts. * Craig Robinson, author of the new Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure (See all Humor Books), was on the July 19 edition of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen. There are several excellent questions about Robinson’s though processes as he comes up with […]

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Do the math

June 23, 2011

Found this quiz created Prof. Stephen R. Shalom from the William Paterson University via a link on the Mental Floss blog. Enjoy. There was a question about football, but I removed it as per my “mission statement.” * * * These are not your standard sports trivia questions. To answer these you’ll need to know […]

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The Year in Baseball Books

December 31, 2010 · 1 comment

(and other media, of course.) With the close of 2010, I thought I take a few moments to review the highlights of the past 12 months as pertains to our favorite topic. It’s been a banner year for baseball biographies. We’ve enjoyed munch-anticipated titles from major publishers on Hall of Famers such as Hank Aaron, […]

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Lest we forget: Bill Shannon

October 27, 2010

I was shocked this morning to hear the news of the passing of Bill Shannon, the long-time and popular official scorer and baseball historian, who died yesterday in a house fire in West Caldwell, a few miles over from my residence in Jersey. Shannon, 69, lived with his 92-year-old mother, who, fortunately, was rescued from […]

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If it pleases the court…

September 24, 2010

Here’s a review of the Hammurabi The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by the legal writing team of Turbow and Duca, as handed down by Personal Injury Oakland.

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Another opening, another show

September 6, 2010

I wonder if Jason Turbow has a bounty out. First it was Dallas Braden going after Alex Rodriguez for inappropriately traversing “his” mound during a game that generated a bump in interest for his book, The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime. Then it was the Florida […]

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Here’s a sneak preview of The New York Times Sunday Book Review: (Grateful for the opportunity to reproduce the cool graphic that ran with the piece.) Bruce Weber, author of As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires, gives his take on The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: […]

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The Baseball Timeline, by Burt Solomon (Dorling Kindersley Publishing). The Chronicle of Baseball: A Century of Major League Action, by John Mehno (Carlton Books). A Stitch in Time: A Baseball Chronology, 1845-2000. by Gene Elston (Halcyon Press). Day-by-Day in Baseball History, by Carl R. Moesche (McFarland). Baseball Extra: A Newspaper History of the Glorious Game […]

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