From the category archives:

Business of baseball

The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat […]

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The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat […]

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The top-ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat 3: […]

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A chance to look over the overlooked. * Not exactly “Throwback Thursday,” but this piece on the Peoria Journal Star website is an appreciation for The Bronx Zoo, published by relief pitcher Sparky Lyle (then with the NY Yankees) and Peter Golenbock. * And another one from PJS about Double Play, a memoir written by […]

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Nate Silver recently began his 538.com site under the aegis of ESPN. One would hope that he and his minions will produce a lot of smart sports (i.e., baseball) stuff. Obviously a site dedicated to projections and predictions has a lot of math to it. Ugh.But you have to take the “bad” with the good. […]

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Seems most of the buzz lately is about Kostya Kennedy’s Pete Rose: An American Dilemma, John Rosengrens’s Marichal-Roseboro book, The Fight of Their Lives, and Jonah Keri’s Up, Up, and Away, the new history about  the Montreal Expos. Rosengren From Mike Bauman/MLB.com: “Book tells of redemption for Marichal, Roseboro“ This one from Allen Barra will […]

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Bienvenue, Mets

March 25, 2014

Because I have such an affinity for Montreal, the ancestral home of my mother’s side of the family, I enjoy anything that has to do with the Expos. I don’t care what anyone says, I loved Jarry Park, which, not unlike Ebbets Field was to some Brooklyn Dodger fans, was walking distance from my aunt’s […]

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From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: Jon Leonoudakis is at the Nine Conference in Tempe, Arizona. I’ve never been to one of these but hope to go some day. In the meantime, according to this picture he posted in Facebook, I’m represented. A reminder: If you’d like an autographed bookplate and/or checklist for your copy […]

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It’s a hard-knock life for many of the young men in the Dominican Republic aspiring to become major leaguers. Baseball fans have long known about the economic and social discrepancies between American-born athletes and their Latin American counterparts, especially when it comes to signing bonuses. Sometimes it’s even more nefarious. Look it’s a business, we […]

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Baseball book ‘prospects’

February 27, 2014

This it the time of year when the baseball media offer their considered opinions on their favorite prospects. Sometimes they’re spot on, other times, not so much. So I thought, why not apply this to the upcoming “rookie crop” of baseball books? That is, titles that are making their debuts in 2014 — no reprints/reissues […]

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Bits and pieces, Feb 26

February 26, 2014

Yes, another book about Pete Rose. This one is by Kostya Kennedy, author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, so I expect good things. One line that particularly caught my eye in the piece: “Kennedy told me his publicists don’t want him to talk about the book before its release […]

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There was a self-help book that came out awhile back called Eat the Frog. Don’t know where it came from since I never read this type of literature (not that there’s anything wrong with it). The premise is, you get the tough stuff out of the way first and the rest is easy-peasy. I guess […]

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The baseball economist will discuss his new book, The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball, co-authored with Benjamin Baumer, at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, 67 East 11th Street in Manhattan, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. For more information about the clubhouse, see here. You can read more about the book […]

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Steve Rushin was a guest on Milwaukee’s WUWM to discuss his new book,  The 34-Ton Bat: The Story of Baseball as Told Through Bobble Heads, Cracker Jacks, Jock Straps, Eye Black, and 375 Other Strange and Unforgettable Objects. You can read about and listen to his appearance here. Missed this one from Nov. 29: On […]

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From ESPN.com: Reginald St. Fleur, 20, a tanning salon employee, was charged Wednesday by Boca Raton police with armed burglary. The charge stems from the March 24 break-in of a car rented by Porter Fischer, a former Biogenesis client and investor. Documents that Fischer had previously taken from the clinic were stolen and would later […]

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Bits and pieces, Nov. 27

November 27, 2013 · 4 comments

Another in an attempt to look over the over-looked news in baseball books. I’ve only just begun listening to the unabridged audio book of Bill Bryson’s newest, One Summer: America, 1927, but if Richard “Pete” Peterson says it’s “a good read for Cards, Cubs fans,” that’s good enough for me. Kevin Baker, who worked with […]

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Regardless of your opinion of Tim McCarver, endings are almost always sad. Last night’s World Series finale was the swan song of his broadcasting career. I especially appreciate McCarver’s comment that his goals as a broadcaster included “teaching you something you may not have known about this great game.” He’s done that on the air […]

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XX Because this is an ongoing concern and I can’t be bothered to remember how many of these I’ve done before. You know how many baseball “experts” picked a World Series in which the Boston Red Sox faced the St. Louis Cardinals? According to PunditTracker, zero. Where do I apply for a job in the […]

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Jerome M. Mileur will sign copies of his new book, The Stars Are Back: The St. Louis Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox, and Player Unrest in 1946, on Saturday, Oct 26, at 1 p.m. in the Bookworm bookstore, 618 E. Walnut St., Carbondale, IL. SIU Press published the book about the 1946 World Champion St. […]

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Dan Gilbert, author of Expanding the Strike Zone: Baseball in the Age of Free Agency, will be the featured speaker at the next Varsity Letters event hosted by Gelf Magazine on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at The Gallery at LPR,  158 Bleecker St. Gilbert, will be joined by Michael O’Keeffe, Teri Thompson, and […]

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