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TWIBB: Sept. 10, 2010

September 10, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Sept. 10. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville 3 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, […]

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TWIBB: Sept. 2

September 3, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Sept. 2. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca 2 The Natural, by Bernard Malamud 3 […]

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Playing a little catch-up here: Aug. 30 Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s […]

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In the recent entry on the Jim Bouton interview, I wrote about the book’s inclusion in a list of the New York Public Library’s Books of the Century. I mistakenly referred to it as a list of the top 100 books. In fact, the total is closer to 175. Bouton’s contribution to literature is included […]

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Since the nature of the blog is to print the most recent entry first, I’m presenting the three-part interview with Jim Bouton in reverse order. http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/JimBoutonPart2.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Since the nature of the blog is to present the most recent item first, I’m presenting the three-part interview in reverse order. http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/JimBoutonPart3.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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As mentioned in previous entries, Ball Four celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The Baseball Reliquary will host a special program to mark the auspicious occasion at the Burbank Public Library on Sept. 18. Jim Bouton was kind enough to spend some time talking about his watershed contribution to American pop culture and his other […]

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TWIBB: Aug. 27, 2010

August 27, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Aug. 27. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 2 The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville […]

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Bloosmbury will re-release the classic Take Time for Paradise, originally published by the late A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989. From the Bloomsbury catalog: A philosophical musing on sports and play, this wholly inspiring and utterly charming reissue of Bart Giamatti’s long-out-of-print final book….puts baseball in the context of American life and leisure. Giamatti begins with […]

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I can still picture it in my mind: Reading Ball Four during summer camp days back in 1970. In fact I still have that original volume in my library. So it’s shocking to me that it’s been 40 years since Jim Bouton’s watershed memoir was published. Bouton was quite generous with his time in speaking […]

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The man who hit “the shot heard ’round the world” died yesterday at the age of 86. Here’s the Richard Goldstein obituary in The New York Times. There have been several books about Thomson’s heroics. His home run is a staple of baseball lore in both fact and fictional versions. The Giants Win the Pennant! […]

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Baseball’s darkest day

August 16, 2010

Was checking Facebook and saw an entry from Edward Achorn, author of Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had, on the 90th anniversary of the day Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch. Chapman succumbed to his injuries the following day. […]

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Ball Four at 40

August 16, 2010 · 1 comment

This announcement comes via The Baseball Reliquary: The Baseball Reliquary presents “Ball Four Turns Forty,” an exhibition celebrating one of the great books in American literature, Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its publication. The exhibition, which opened on Aug. 9, runs through Oct. 1, 2010 in the lobby […]

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TWIBB: Aug. 6, 2010

August 6, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Aug. 6. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 Chicago Cubs Cookbook: All-star Recipes from Your Favorite Players 3 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing […]

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TWIBB: July 16, 2010

July 16, 2010 · 3 comments

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, July 16. Title Rank General Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Scott Turbow […]

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The exact date of birth of the American icon has been in dispute for many years. Books on Paige include: Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever, by Paige with David Lipman Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, by Larry Tye (read my Q&A with Tye here) Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James […]

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TWIBB: July 2, 2010

July 2, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, July 2. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Scott Turbow […]

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TWIBB: June 25, 2010

June 25, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, June 25. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville 3 The Bullpen Gospels: Major […]

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TWIBB: June 18, 2010

June 18, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, June 18. Title Rank General Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca 2 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James […]

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To Van Lingle Mungo, made famous in a song by Dave Frishberg: And to Eddie Gaedel, because he could probably fit on a bookshelf.

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