From the category archives:

History

“Olney make believe…” Sorry, I can never keep that name straight. The natural tendency is to dyslex it into “only.” ESPN baseball writer/broadcaster Buster Olney was the guest on the latest Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me‘s “Not My Job” segment. I felt kind of badly for him. There was zero response to Peter Sagal’s introduction. […]

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Before The New York Times went through all its cutbacks, the paper featured an occasional column called “The Sport of the Times.” Just so you know where the blog title comes from. In today’s paper, two books are selected for special attention. Following the brouhaha over Alex Rodriguez’s broken GPS against the As in the […]

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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, April 23. Title Rank General The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca 1 The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 2 Moneyball: The […]

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This article appeared in the April 15 edition of the New Jersey Jewish News. Tempered with the excitement of Opening Day, some baseball fans have to contend with the end of a tradition, even if it was only a few years old: 2010 marks the final release of the Jewish Major Leaguer card set. According […]

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Weathermen and sports pundits. I’ve always said these are the top two professions where you can be wrong in your predictions a good part of the time and still keep your job. Saw this piece on the “dwindlization” of milestones on The Wall Street Journal site by Matthew Futterman in which he writes: “…this venerable […]

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When I spoke with Danny Peary (that’s pronounced “PERRY,” as in Gaylord) recently about his new biography, Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero, I expressed surprise over the timing of his book, co-written with Tom Clavin. Then he made me feel ashamed I didn’t remember that 2010 is the 50th anniversary of Maris’ joining the Yankees. […]

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Maybe I’m just more sensitive to it, but there seem to be an awful lot of books this year catering to the boomers among is. There are plenty of biographies from higher-end publishers on all-time favorites such as Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Maris, Rizzuto, Kaline, and Musial, not to mention those that come from vanity presses […]

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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, April 16. Title Rank General The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 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 Willie Mays: […]

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GhostofMoonlightGraham conducted this Q&A with the author of the well-done novel The End of Baseball reviewed on The Bookshelf in September. Leave This Blank:Leave This Blank Too:Do Not Change This:Your email: 

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* An educated opinion

April 13, 2010

Doug Glanville is a busy guy these days. Not only does he have a new book out (From Where I Stand; quite good, look for a review soon), but he’s recently joined the staff on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. He still managed to find time to contribute this list of his favorite baseball books to The […]

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Which may just be where some of these guys do keep them. The Yankees are playing their home opener as I type this. Prior to the game, the 2009 World Champions received their booty in the form of Series rings. In his article in today’s New York Times, Harvey Araton writes about Andy Pettitte, for […]

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* Time for Times

April 11, 2010

A couple of book-related items in today’s New Yotk Times sports section: In the print edition, Tim Wendel wrote  “They Could Throw That Speedball,” as part of the “Spotlight” column, about the difficulties in coming up with the definitive answer to the question, “who was the fastest pitcher in history?” With all due respect to […]

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* TWIBB — April 9

April 9, 2010

This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, April 9. Title Rank General The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 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 Willie Mays: […]

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Baseball is once again a art of the NPR syllabus. Steven Goldman and Jay Jafee of Baseball Prospectus made an appearance of The Brian Lehrer Show on April 2. The same day on Soundcheck, Jonathan Schaefer discussed the connection between baseball and music with Jeff Campbell, whose record label Hungry for Music releases compilations of […]

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In addition to my mini-review on Timothy Gay’s latest baseball title in the baseball , here is a sampling of others: Steve Penn, Kansas City Star: “There’s nothing like a good baseball story. And the era of barnstorming, when black players competed against white players despite the color ban, is full of good baseball stories.” […]

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Not Chief Bender or Wahoo, but Commander-in-Chief. President Obama is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at the Nationals home opener today. This year marks the 100th anniversary since Pres. William Howard Taft made his “delivery” at the Senators-Philadelphia Athletics inaugural on April 14, with Walter Johnson on the receiving end. The Associated Press […]

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Paraphrasing a great line from a TV show from long ago (I know forget which one, might have been M*A*S*H), i I were stranded on a dessert island and could only have one book, it would be the dictionary, because it has all the other books in it. That’s kind of the way I feel […]

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* Now hear these

March 31, 2010

Several authors are making the rounds on radio shows and podcasts lately (I’ll be posting my interview with Danny Peary, co-author of Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero, shortly.) Among them: Danny Peary on New York Baseball Digest. Chris Donnelly, author of the book the Best Series Ever, the story of the 1995 ALCS between the […]

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* TWIBB — March 26

March 26, 2010

This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, March 26. Title Rank General Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 Baseball Prospectus 2010 3 Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, by Dave Jamieson […]

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* Bits and pieces

March 25, 2010

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY behind here, so in an attempt to catch up, and let you all know I’m still here, I submit, for starters, a list of recent items: Our old friend Zack Hample is busy with his own writings (note to self: get cracking on the manuscript), but he has had time to glance through a […]

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