From the category archives:

Player-written book

Literary birthday greetings

October 1, 2010

To Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who turns 65 today. Carew, by Carew with Ira Berkow Rod Carew’s Art and Science of Hitting Also marking the occasion, Mark McGwire, who perhaps could have been a Hall of Famer, turns 47. There were two “waves” of books about Big Mac. The first came in 1998 when […]

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Birthday greetings

September 30, 2010

To beloved Brooklyn Dodger Johnny Podres, born this date in 1932. Johnny Podres: Brooklyn’s Yankee Killer And to Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, born in 1926. Roberts, one of the last great complete game practitioners, died just this past May. He penned, My Life in Baseball,with the help of C. Paul Rogers III, in 2003.

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“Cro” was once considered a part of the best outfields in the game as a member of the Montreal Expos in the early 1980s. Then he made a name for himself — as well as a book — when he took his game to Japan. He turns 57 today. Slugging It Out in Japan: An […]

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Birthday greetings

September 27, 2010 · 4 comments

Happy birthday to Johnny Pesky, inventor of Fenway Park’s Pesky Pole, 91 years young today. Pesky was the author or subject of several books about the Red Sox, including Diary of a Red Sox Season Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story, by Bill Nowlin Few and Chosen: Defining Red Sox Greatness Across the Eras […]

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Apologies for being a bit tardy in putting up the latest podcasts. I recently switched to a knew computer and my audio technology is a bit different and I have to find a couple of work-arounds. I hope to have that rectified soon. In the meantime, here‘s a Doug Glanville, author of The Game from Where […]

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Celebrating Ball Four

September 20, 2010

From Terry Cannon, executive director of the Baseball Reliquary, which hosted the Sept. 18 event honoring the 40thn anniversary of the literary classic: Yesterday’s “Ball Four Turns Forty” program…was a marvelous and magical day.  An SRO crowd (approximately 175 attendees) witnessed two wonderful panel discussions and the world premiere screening of “The Seattle Pilots: Short […]

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TWIBB: Sept. 10, 2010

September 10, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Sept. 10. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville 3 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, […]

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I wonder if the writer of this piece about Doug Glanville’s new book, The Game From Where I Stand, was thinking of Leonard Koppett when she titled her article “A thinking man’s guide to a baseball life.” Koppett, wrote one of the earlier and better far-reaching analysis in The Thinking Man’s (later Thinking Fan’s) Guide […]

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My Life in the Game, by Dustin Pedroia wuth Edward J. Delaney. SSE, 2009. In past entries, I’ve written about “flavor of the month,” a memoir or autobio written by a player with limited Major League experience who tries to capitalize on a special event or a great season? Born to Play falls into this […]

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TWIBB: Sept. 2

September 3, 2010

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Sept. 2. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 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 The Natural, by Bernard Malamud 3 […]

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Since the nature of the blog is to print the most recent entry first, I’m presenting the three-part interview with Jim Bouton in reverse order.

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Since the nature of the blog is to present the most recent item first, I’m presenting the three-part interview in reverse order.

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As mentioned in previous entries, Ball Four celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The Baseball Reliquary will host a special program to mark the auspicious occasion at the Burbank Public Library on Sept. 18. Jim Bouton was kind enough to spend some time talking about his watershed contribution to American pop culture and his other […]

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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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Birthday Greetings

August 25, 2010

To Rollie Fingers, who turns 64 today. Rollie’s Follies: A Hall of Fame Revue of Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats from Baseball’s Most Famous Moustache The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible: Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats (The Rollie Baseball Follies) In addition, new author and ESPN BBTN analyst Doug Glanville has another reason to […]

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Birthday greetings

August 19, 2010

go to Bobby Richardson, who turns 75 today, and Ron Darling, who hits the half-century mark. The Bobby Richardson Story The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball and the Art of Pitching

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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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Ball Four at 40

August 16, 2010 · 1 comment

This announcement comes via The Baseball Reliquary: The Baseball Reliquary presents “Ball Four Turns Forty,” an exhibition celebrating one of the great books in American literature, Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its publication. The exhibition, which opened on Aug. 9, runs through Oct. 1, 2010 in the lobby […]

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The Bird would have turned 56 today. Taking advantage of his sudden popularity in 1976, when he was 19-9 and led the American League in ERA (2.34) and complete games (24), Fidrych published his autobio No Big Deal, co-written with Tom Clark, the following year. Fidrych died last year, the victim of a machine accident.

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