From the category archives:

Biography

The grandson of the controversial Hall of Famer will speak at at the Grant Brimhall Library, 1401 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 19 , at 2 p.m. Cobb is the author of Heart of a Tiger: Growing up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb. I have not read the book yet — […]

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I just love those radio commercials that implore listeners to either call within the next few minutes to take advantage of an extra special promotion (even though the spots run all day), or to be caller number xx. Like they won’t take your money if you’re late. Actually, I always thought of these things as […]

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Multiple Cy-Young winner Pedro Martinez will release his eponymous memoir, Pedro, next spring. The book, co-written by the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The family of Roberto Clemente has collaborated on Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero, was released last month. The book was the Hall of Famer’s […]

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To steal a line from a regular segment of Pardon the Interruption. Baseball Nation reminds us (okay, reminded me) that today is the 105th anniversary of Merkle’s Boner. Hopefully, this is drumming up some renewed interest in Mike Cameron’s empathetic biography, Public Bonehead, Private Hero: The Real Legacy of Baseball’s Fred Merkle, which is included […]

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Bits and pieces, Sept. 17

September 17, 2013

How different would the literary world be if Tom Wolfe had grown up to be a baseball player? So where’s his baseball novel? John Rosengren, author of Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes, will put in an appearance at his alma mater — Saint John’s University — on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. to […]

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I did a post about self-published books awhile back, specifically Mike Gallagher’s The Diamond Deception and how I would pass on it. Kudos to Doug Smith at the Towanda News for devoting the time to reading the novel and writing a review. For me, he sums up my thoughts about such projects thusly: Deception’s” devil […]

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Bits and pieces, Aug. 30

August 30, 2013

* Lindsey Berra, Yogi’s granddaughter, posted this piece on Allen Barra‘s Mays/Mantle bio on MLB.com. * Speaking of Yogi, this hyper-local site in the Seattle area wants to recommend his book (co-authored with Dave Kaplan), When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It. * The Thousand Oaks Library (Calif.) will feature Chad […]

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To paraphrase a Groucho Marx line (and with all due respect to the PETA faction), you can’t swing a dead cat (if that’s your idea of a good time) at the annual SABR conference without hitting a baseball writer. While in Philadelphia, I caught up with a few of them (writers, not cats) to see […]

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Jackie Robinson on Life After Baseball, edited by Michael G. Long. Syracuse University Press, 2013. Some former athletes botch attempts to remain relevant after their playing days are over. They offer opinions that, while certainly their right to have and express, do little to offer insight (or interest) as to what kind of people they […]

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Bits and pieces, Aug. 9

August 9, 2013

Author appearance: David King, author of Ross Youngs: In Search of a San Antonio Baseball Legend (TX) (Sports History), will sign copies of his book tomorrow (Aug. 10) from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes and Noble at The Shops at La Cantera, San Antonio. The book traces the career of the Hall of Famer, who […]

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Born this date: 1916 – Bob Prince, announcer (d. 1985) We Had ‘Em All the Way: Bob Prince & His Pittsburgh Pirates Lest we forget: 2008 – Jules Tygiel, author (b. 1949) Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy Past Time: Baseball As History\ Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, and Baseball History […]

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(Note: My review of Allen Barra’s latest appears on Bookreporter.com, and reprinted for your convenience below, with a few additional comments.) Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris may have been “the M&M boys” for a summer or two in the early 1960s, but Mantle, aka the “Commerce Comet,” and the “Say Hey Kid” (Willie Mays) were […]

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Bits and pieces, June 26

June 26, 2013

* That’s nice: Members of the Wareham College baseball team in the Cap Code area will read to local kids at a July 2 event. Details here. * The All Alabama site published this profile of Birmingham native Allen Barra, author of the new book, Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of […]

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Review roundup, June 20

June 20, 2013

Overlooked this one: Former NY Mets favorite RonSwoboda contributed a review of Allen Barra’s Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball’s Golden Age to the New York Times Sunday Book section on June 2. (One reader wrote to complain that Swoboda didn’t mention Duke Snider in his article. Perhaps, but the […]

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In yesterday’s review roundup I wrote: Not exactly sure why there are two new bios about this Pirates’ Hall of Famer at this particular time (no anniversary of his birth or death), but Pete Peterson’s Pops: The Willie Stargell Story is reviewed on Lancaster Online. The other one is Willie Stargell: A Life in Baseball, […]

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Review roundup, June 19

June 19, 2013

Nuckolball posted a review of Robert Creamer’s classic bio, Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. These are kind of like mini-reviews, so I’m including Baseball Nation’s piece on “Your favorite baseball books,” which includes, among others, Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel, The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball […]

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Bits and pieces, June 12

June 12, 2013

John  Rosengren was recently interviewed in Prime Time Radio to discuss his new bio on Hank Greenberg (audio). BlueJaysBanter, a “subsidiary” of Baseball Nation, posted this review of Jeff Blair’s Full Count: Four Decades of Blue Jays Baseball. David King will sign copies of his new book, Ross Youngs: In Search of a San Antonio Baseball […]

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Born this date: * 1868 – Sol White, Negro League infielder and manager; Hall of Fame (d. 1955)  Sol White’s History of Colored Baseball with Other Documents on the Early Black Game, 1886-1936 * 1950 – Richard Ben Cramer, author (d. 2013) Joe DiMaggio : The Hero’s Life What Do You Think of Ted Williams […]

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The “ammo” in this case being Mariano Rivera’s fame cutter. New York magazine ran this profile on the NY Yankees retiring closer by Lisa Miller.  

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Thinking about renaming this segment of the blog “This or That.” Waddya think? Anyway… Author Tom Clavin put in an appearance recently to discuss his latest, The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, and Their Pursuit of the American Dream. Here’s an “op-ed”/review of Joseph Sutton’s The Years The Giants Won The Series: A […]

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