From the category archives:

History

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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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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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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National Pastime Radio

August 23, 2010 · 2 comments

The Brian Lehrer Show ran this segment on Aug. 20 following the news of Roger Clemens’ indictment. The two guests on the show were Michael O’Keeffe of the New York Daily News, who collaborated on American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime, and William C. Rhoden of […]

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Birthday greetings

August 22, 2010 · 1 comment

Celebrating today are Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski (71), Paul Molitor (54), and Ned Hanlon. “Yaz” has several titles associated with his name, including Yastrzemski (Icons of Major League Baseball); Yaz: Baseball, the Wall, and Me; and Batting (1972, with Al Hirshberg). He’s also an integral piece of any book written about the 1967 “Impossible […]

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Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had, by Edward Achorn (Smithsonian, 2010). If contemporary fans can’t relate when their baseball-loving parents tell them about Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays or, going back farther, when the grandfolks talk about DiMaggio or Jackie Robinson, how do you think they’d react when […]

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Since AMC’s new original series Rubicon has received such accolades, I feel a bit stupid for not liking it as much as I “should,” according to critics, but at least it has some baseball in it. Very briefly, it’s a spy show without — for me, at least — the “thriller” part. Will is the […]

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Birthday Greetings

August 18, 2010

Roberto Clemente, born this date in 1934. Clemente!, by Kal Wagenheim Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, by David Maraniss And Buck Weaver, born this date in 1890. The Ginger Kid: The Buck Weaver Story, by Irving M. Stein.

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Received the latest (Summer 2010) issue of the BSJ. To be honest, a lot of the statistical stuff therein is a bit over my head/interest level, but there are several book reviews, so it balances out. Among them: Phil Birnbaum on The Bill James Gold Mine 2010 Lee Lowenfish on Satchel: The Life and Times […]

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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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by Joseph Wallace. Touchstone, 2010. Wallace, who’s known more for his coffee table books (The Baseball Anthology: 125 Years of Stories, Poems, Articles, Photographs, Drawings, Interviews, Cartoons, and Other Memorabilia; Grand Old Game: 365 Days of Baseball; World Series: An Opinionated Chronicle; and The Autobiography of Baseball: The Inside Story from the Stars Who Played […]

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Have We Seen the Last of Baseball’s 300-Game Winners? by Dan Schlossberg. Ascend Books, 2010. Pitcher Jamie Moyer, at age 47, is the active leader in wins with 267. Next on the list is 38-year-old Andy Pettitte with 240. After that…well, no one can even claim 200 victories; knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (43) is next in […]

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Bits and pieces

July 31, 2010

Haven’t done one of these in a long time, but a glance at my Google alerts shows more than 500 notices, so here goes. Bruce Markusen at Hardball Times, conducted this interview with Dan Epstein, author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass. HT also ran this review of The Eastern Stars (upshot: “The Eastern Stars […]

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This from the Associated Press: Dorothy Seymour Mills has been added by Oxford University Press as co-author of an acclaimed three-volume history of baseball originally attributed solely to her husband. Harold Seymour was long credited as author of Baseball: The Early Years, Baseball: The Golden Age, and Baseball: The People’s Game. The books were published […]

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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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Brian Lehrer featured segments on both Yankee legends on recent shows. Bob Sheppard George Steinbrenner

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Thanks, but no thanks

July 12, 2010 · 1 comment

Believe it or not, I wouldn’t want this book, even if someone made me a present of it. According to the NY Times‘ piece by sports media writer Richard Sandomir, “the leather-bound book, “The Official Major League Baseball Opus,” will come out in a limited edition (1,000 copies), packaged in a silk-covered clamshell case. The […]

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Well, perhaps not everybody… With apologies to Sly and the Family Stone. In honor of the annual contest — held this year on July 13 in Anaheim — I run this little Q&A with Lew Freedman, author of The Day All the Stars Came Out: Major League Baseball’s First All-star Game, 1933, (McFarland). * * […]

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Ran this on my other blog on Jews and Sports: Bob Sheppard, the voice of the New York Yankees for some 60 years, passed away yesterday at the age of 99. Sheppard, who was known in certain circles as “the voice of God” for his diction, timber, and dulcet tone was not Jewish, but thanks […]

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Earlier today I challenged Mark Juddery to back up the claim in his new book that baseball is the most overrated sport. Tonight, he offers his answer, via email, presented without editorial comment: Here are a few words written just for the Baseball Bookshelf site. (Well OK, it’s basically a reworked version of the book […]

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