From the category archives:

History

Josh Levin of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast posted this educational piece on “The Worst Baseball Card of All Time.” Spoiler alert: It’s Bob Hamlin in the 1996 Pinnacle Foil set (card no. 289). Levin’s essay makes some very good arguments and offers a mini-history lesson on the industry, full of links to examples […]

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As per Mangin’s Facebook post of Aug. 20: DROP EVERYTHING! Hey South Bay Giants Fans! Brian Murphy and I will be at San Jose Municipal Stadium (former home of Giants #1 draft pick Adam Hyzdu, shot by me in 1992) signing copies of Never. Say. Die.: The San Francisco Giants – 2012 World Series Champions […]

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I’m getting to the point where I really don’t need any more T-shirts (or baseball caps), but if I did, I would probably pick from this series of Negro League-inspired attire, currently a Kickstarter project by Charlie Hustle: The Negro League Collection (not sure how that name will affect sales). There are a limited amount […]

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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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Ah yes, I remember it well

August 13, 2013

The New York Times ran this marvelous story about the annual Complete Book of Baseball (and lesser sports) edited by Zander Hollander. A nice history lesson. I still have all of these, along with their predecessor, The xxxx Major League Baseball Handbook. These paperbacks sold for, like 50 cents, maybe a buck towards the end […]

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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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Feast or famine. I can go for weeks without posting any new material but in the past week I’ve had the very good fortunate to speak with three extremely talented artists: Eric Rolfe Greenberg, author of The Celebrant, which is considered one of the best baseball novels by just about every outlet who decides these […]

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Baseball artist Graig Kreindler reminds us that today is the anniversary of Hank Greenberg‘s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Had these for awhile and still working on the “documentary” about some of there many memorabilia shops in Cooperstown, where I attended the 25th Annual Symposium on Baseball & American Culture last month. (Click on the number to advance the slideshow; click on each photo to enlarge in a new window.) [SlideDeck id=’15803′ width=’100%’ height=’300px’]

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All-Star reading

July 10, 2013

The problem with books about the All-Star Game is that unless it concentrates on one specific contest or the origins of the Midsummer Classic, it will be out-of-date as soon as the next one rolls along. The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball’s All-Star Game Baseball’s All-Star Game: A Game-by-Game Guide Baseball’s All-Star Game […]

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All I know about Yankton, South Dakota, was that it was an element in one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Deadwood. Al Swearengen: Bloodletting on my premises that I ain’t approved I take as a f***ing affront. It puts me off my feed. Hearst:How do we know when you are off your feed? Al […]

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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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I read it in the Times

June 28, 2013

Unusual in that one of the pieces appeared in the main section, not on the sports pages: Dan Barry, author of Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game, does a follow-up of sorts in this profile of Doc Edwards, one of those “baseball lifers.” Edwards, 76, was manager of the Rochester Red […]

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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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Review roundup, June 10

June 10, 2013

John Sexton’s Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game picked up a couple of review recently including this one from the New York Law Journal and this one from Philly.com. The San Diego Union Tribune ran this about Inside the Baseball Hall of Fame. Believe it or not (and I’m guessing my […]

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