As the saying goes, I don’t know art, but I know what I like, and I like Mark Ulriksen‘s work. The California-based artist has a unique style which has earned him a number of covers for publications like The New Yorker. His approach is entertaining and humorous while being reverential at the same time. Ulriksen’s […]
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baseball art,
Mark Ulriksen,
The New Yorker
I used to think it was unfair that a sports media giant like Sports Illustrated can make even more money by dipping into their archives and publishing the compilations or photos or writing. But you have to give them credit; they do come out with some mighty good products. The latest from the SI library […]
Tagged as:
Bill Syken,
Sports Illustrated
How different would the literary world be if Tom Wolfe had grown up to be a baseball player? So where’s his baseball novel? John Rosengren, author of Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes, will put in an appearance at his alma mater — Saint John’s University — on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. to […]
Tagged as:
Donald Honig,
Hank Greenberg,
John Rosengren,
Kadir Nelson,
Negro Leagues,
Pete Peterson,
Tom Wolfe,
Willie Stargell
If you’ve been following baseball for the past couple of decades, you probably have seen Brad Mangin‘s work. His shots have been a staple of Major League Baseball and Sports Illustrated, as well as other websites and publications. As such a veteran, I thought it somewhat counterintuitive for him to publish Instant Baseball: The Baseball […]
Tagged as:
Brad Mangin,
Photogtrapy
As part of the continuing process to make 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die a multimedia experience, I have resumed the author interviews that was put on hold while I was on jury duty. First up, Howard Megdal, author of The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players, which […]
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Baseball Talmud,
Howard Megdal
I haven’t done one of these in awhile. Part of it has been working on my own book (I’m almost done with the indexing), part of it was being without the computer (kind of surprised it’s lasted this long). So as a way to compensate, this episode is something of a Mets doubleheader. We have […]
Tagged as:
Davud Ferry,
Greg Prince,
New York Mets
Those who are regular readers of the Bookshelf know I rarely deal with fiction. It’s not that I don’t like it (although in many cases I feel the ability to self-publish so easily and inexpensively leads to an overload of stimulation — just too much stuff); it’s simply that I feel inadequately educated to comment […]
Tagged as:
Joseph Schuster,
Might Have Been
One of the things I’ve come across during my research is that so many readers and writers take this stuff so seriously. As Crash Davis said in Bull Durham, “This game is fun, okay?” But who says you can both have fun and pay proper respect to those who have made the national pastime so enjoyable? […]
Tagged as:
Baseball Reliquary,
Jon Leonoudakis
Before there was film, before there was even television, photography was the only means by which fans could see the players. The medium was still developing (pardon the pun), so the men (almost exclusively), who snapped their shutters were still learning about such things as angles, speed, placement, composition, etc. One of the early pioneers […]
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Charles M. Conlon,
Neal McCabe
As mentioned in a previous post, Arnold Hano wrote one of the must-read books for any serious student of the national pastime. A Day in the Bleachers was the first, and in many ways the best, of the single-game analyses genre. His deconstruction of the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New […]
Tagged as:
Arion Press,
Arnold Hano,
Baseball Reliquary,
Fans,
Mark Ulriksen,
New York Giants,
Willie Mays,
World Series
A while back I bought a Flip camera. Figured it would come in handy at some point. I took it to the Hofstra University Mets 50th Anniversary conference where I taped MLB historian John Thorn delivering the keynote address. Unfortunately that was all I was able to record because of battery issues. Have to figure […]
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Hofstra University,
John Thorn,
New York Mets
I have to admit, when I first heard that R.A. Dickey’s memoir, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, contained information about his sexual abuse as a child, I thought, “Here we go again. Another celebrity who has to come up with an angle to sell his otherwise average […]
Tagged as:
RA Dickey,
Wayne Coffey
With Father’s Day quickly approaching I thought I’d concentrate on a couple of books that would be great for dad. Perhaps mores o if he’s a fan of the Bronx Bombers, but these would be just as appropriate if he’s a student of baseball history as well as baseball cards, respectively. I’m speaking of The […]
Tagged as:
Baseball card,
Dave Anderson,
New York Times,
New York Yankee
With Fathers Day upon us, and a few prominent author appearances on the horizon, I’ve been scrambling to put up some relevant podcasts. So rather than putting up one this week, there will be a few including: Wayne Coffey, co-author of R.A. Dickey’s notable memoir, Wherever I Wind Up Marty Appel, Pinstripe Empire, which is […]
Tagged as:
Dave Anderson,
Marty Appel,
New York Times,
Pinstripe Empire,
Topps,
Wayne Coffey,
Yogi Berra Museum
There are numerous staples of baseball fiction: Kinsella and Lardner immediately come to kind, with contributions from writers that might surprise, such as Garrison Keillor and George Plimpton, both known for their work in other genres. Then there are the newcomers, putting more contemporary spins on a game that’s been around fore more than 150 […]
The first celebrity interview I ever did was with Sparky Anderson. I got my freelance start doing book reviews (surprise, surprise), which led to author interviews, which led me to Anderson, who had just come out with They Call Me Sparky (1998). As one might expect in the presence of greatness, I was a bit […]
Tagged as:
Dan Ewald,
Sparky Anderson
Any middle-aged, self-respecting New York baseball fan knows the name Phil Pepe. He was the Yankees beat writer for the World Telegram & Sun from 1961-64, and for the Daily News from 1971-84. He’s enjoyed a long run on radio, too, serving as the sports voice for WCBS-FM when it was still an oldies station, […]
Tagged as:
Bob Gibson,
Bud Harrelson,
Hofstra University,
New York Mets,
Phil Pepe
History is not supposed to be something I’ve lived through. History is supposed to be something that happened well before I was born. It was therefore with a mix of nostalgia and dread that I read Tim Wendell‘s Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball–and America–Forever. 1968 was the first year I really started […]
Tagged as:
1968,
David Halberstam,
Detroit Tigers,
St. Louis Cardinals,
Tim Wendel,
World Series
Some of the contributions for the new collaboration Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World’s Most Loved (and Hated) Team are dewy-eyed tributes, either about the team in general, or a player in particular, or a personal moment with a family member, bonding over a shared love. On the other end of the […]
Tagged as:
Charlie Pierce,
Damn Yankees,
Daniel Okrent,
Jane Leavy,
Rob Fleder,
Roy Blount Jr.,
Sports Illustrated
This week’s podcast is a little different. Ari Alexenberg is no author (although as a pitcher I’m sure his “authored” some great games over his long amateur career). Rather he is the subject of Coming Home, a documentary currently under production. The film tells the story of his participation in the only season of the […]
Tagged as:
Ari Alexenberg,
Israel Baseball League,
Orthodox Judaism
is available on Amazon.com,
