From the category archives:

Non-fiction

SABR’s Deadball Era Committee gives the Larry Ritter Award to the best new book related to the Deadball Era. Ritter was the author/editor of The Glory of Their Times, a seminal book of baseball oral history. The 2009 winner is Ron Selter for Ballparks of the Deadball Era (McFarland). The three other Finalists for the […]

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* Review: As They See 'Em

March 15, 2009

Scott Simon reviews Bruce Weber’s new book on umpires. You can read an excerpt here.

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What is it with all these confessions? First Jane Heller’s Confessions of a She-Fan, now this? Forgive my cynicism, but was this book really penned by the actor herself? So it would seem, since there’s no collaborative reference on the cover. Milano supposedly writes a blog on MLB.com (she also sells a line of baseball-themed […]

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From the Bleeding Cubbie Blue blog (say that three times fast). Upshot: One of the best things about this book is the large number of photos and drawings showing knuckleball grips — you’ll be surprised at how many different ones there are, and most of them don’t use knuckles at all, but grips with fingernails. […]

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From our friend Greg Spira comes this link to LibraryJournal.com’s annual baseball feature. Among the usual share of biographies and memoirs, histories, and social commentaries are such themes as: Yet another biography about Yogi Berra, this one by homonymic author Allen Barra, and one on Walter O’Malley by Michael D’Antonio Ira Berkow’s bio of Lou […]

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In an item on The New Yorker website, Ben McGrath reminds us that Jose Canseco, the author of Juiced and Vindicated reported on A-Rod’s juice use years ago, but no one wanted to believe him. Does that make Canseco a Cassandra? In other book news of special interest to New York fans: Don’t look for […]

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* Spring is in the air

February 2, 2009

This is the time of year when home gardeners (of which I am one) look forward to receiving their seed catalogs. I also enjoy getting the latest from the publishing world. Today I received the Ivan R. Dee catalog, which includes the following baseball titles: Catcher, by Peter Morris — The author of such neo-classics […]

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In light of Joe Torre’s new book, the Yankees are considering a non-disparagement clause in their employee contracts. According to a Newsday article by Wallace Mathews, “The Yankees are said to feel betrayed by Torre’s book, which has been interpreted as critical of some players, most notably Alex Rodriguez, and inaccurate in its recounting of […]

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* Say it ain't so, Joe.

January 25, 2009

I have not read Joe Torre’s new book, written with SI’s Tom Verducci and published by , but judging by the buzz from several sources, it’s a tell-all in which he “blasts” Alex Rodriguez, Brian Cashman and George Steinbrenner, among others. The New York Post, in its typical tabloid headline-screaming fashion, yells “Joe Blows: Rips, […]

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* Holy Baseball!

January 22, 2009

This article appeared in the Jan. 22 edition of the New Jersey Jewish News: *** In 2003, Martin Abramowitz created JewishMajorLeaguers.org with the “mission” to create a set of cards that included every “member of the tribe” to play big-league baseball. To mix sports metaphors, Howard Megdal has taken this idea and run with it. […]

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* Review: A Well-Paid Slave

January 22, 2009

From Beyond the Box Score, this review of Brad Snyder’s book of the baseball rebel.

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* The wages of sin?

January 20, 2009

Kirk Radomski, one of the leading figures in the Mitchell hearings on PED and baseball, will publish a book on his role in the whole mess. Bases Loaded (Hudson Street Press, an imprint of Penguin Books) is due to hit the stores next week. According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times: The 256-page […]

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Authors appearance

January 9, 2009

Baseball authors Talmage Boston and Milton Jamail are among confirmed guests for the third annual Central Texas Mid-winter meeting organized by the Rogers Hornsby Chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17 in Room 320 of Old Main on the campus of Texas State University. Boston […]

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Seeking to make the most from the opportunity, Columbia University Press posted this little update after Charles A. Alexander, author of Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era (published by CUP in 2002), was interviewed the other day in The New York Times. I inadvertently omitted his book from a brief listing of others […]

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* W2W4: Upcoming titles

January 1, 2009

Been receiving some publisher’s catalogs recently. Here are a few 2009 titles to look forward to: >> As mentioned previously, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci have collaborated on the manager’s autobio, coming next month from Random House. >> Bloomsbury will release a behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of baseball’s Valhalla in Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, […]

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From the Baseball in Great Britain blog, this review of the latest Neyer edition. Upshot: Neyer may state that this book “isn’t for everybody”, so who is it for? Well, any baseball fan with an inquisitive mind and/or an interest in history will be constantly dipping into it to read another chapter. And anyone who […]

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As per the Philadelphia Inquirer, this combo review/author profile of Mark Stang and his new collection of snapshots about the Phillies, published by Orange Frazier. I’m guessing the book was planned before the Phillies won their championship, but the timing can only help sales. Key point: “According to Stang, the majority of baseball photos through […]

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* Baseball has no politics

December 15, 2008

So if a Republican, conservative, and libertarian blog posts an entry about a baseball book, “it fits here.” And so they have with this brief item about Gary Moore’s Playing with the Enemy.

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* Lest we forget: Sal Yvars

December 12, 2008

Sal Yvars, the catcher for the New York Giants who spilled the beans about sign stealing during the famous playoff game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951, died Dec. 10 at the age of 84. Richard Goldstein does his usual excellent job in the NY Times‘ obituary. Yvars, the Giants’ back-up receiver from 1957-53 (with […]

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An Unofficial Journal of Baseball’s Best Fans, Volume #1 By Will Byington It takes a special person to be a Cubs fan. With such a rich history of failure and disappointment, some would call them masochists, but looking at the photos and reading the stories in Byington’s new book, they seem happy enough. (Of course, […]

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