Nicholas Dawidoff has pretty much done it all when it comes to non-fiction writing: memoir, biography, anthology. And done it all well. The Flyswatter, a sentimental recollection of his grandfather, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. His first book, The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, is considered the […]
Tagged as:
anthology,
Bergino Baseball Clubhouse,
Moe Berg,
Nicholas Dawidoff
Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]
Tagged as:
Baseball instruction,
Bernard Malamud,
Chicago Cubs,
George F. Will,
Jason Kendall,
Lee Judge,
Mariano Rivera,
Michael Feinstein,
minor leagues,
Moneyball,
New York Yankees,
Oakland As,
Ted Williams,
The Natural,
Wrigley Field
Lou Gehrig. Jackie Robinson. Two of the game’s most iconic players, celebrated for their courage under extreme conditions. Both the subjects of outstanding biographies by Jonathan Eig, and both of which appear in 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die Eig has worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Chicago magazine, […]
Tagged as:
ALS,
Jackie Robinson,
Jonathan Eig,
Lou Gehrig
John Feinstein is one of the more prolific sportswriters of this generation. He has published more than 25 books on college and pro basketball, college and pro football, tennis, golf, and, of course, baseball. His 2008 title, Living on the Black, a doubleheader of a biography on Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine, pitchers on the […]
Tagged as:
John Feinstein,
minor league baseball
Just discovered that my podcast last week with Jon Paley, co-director of Ballplayer: Pelotero‘ was damaged. Fixed now and also available on iTunes. Sorry for the inconvenience. Carry on.
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 […]
Tagged as:
Baseball Talmud,
Howard Megdal
Marty Appel, author of Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Reggie and George and Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss (as well as many other titles), will be the first guest on the 501 Discussions Podcast. I’ll be speaking with him next week […]
Tagged as:
501 Baseball Books,
Marty Appel
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
I often wonder why some of our most intellectual writers would want to do baseball. Perhaps, as Star Trek‘s Mr. Spock said in the episode “Shore Leave” (Geek alert!), “The more complex the mind, the greater the need for play.” So when a George Will or a Tom Olpihant or a Doris Kearns Goodwin starts […]
Tagged as:
Doris Kearns Goodwin,
George Will,
Thomas Oliphant
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
Marty Appel is no stranger to the Bookshelf. I’ve met him on several occasions and his work as an author and publicist has often appeared on the blog. Now I’m pleased to report on perhaps his most significant achievement to date: Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss […]
Tagged as:
Marty Appel,
New York Yankee,
Ron Blomberg
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
I discovered Summer Anne Burton’s site — Every Hall of Famer — through another new and equally engaging site, Bethany Heck’s Eephus League of Baseball Minutiae. This was about the time I started compiling the lists of books about inducted members of the Hall, so it was kismet. As I’ve said before, I don’t much […]
Tagged as:
baseball art,
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum,
Summer Anne Burton
Hal Richman didn’t waste any time when I asked him if he could have envisioned celebrating the 50th anniversary of his iconic baseball game, Strat-O-Matic. “Absolutely not,” he said, after some initial laughter over the absurdity of the situation. Hundreds of the game’s fans from across the country will participate in tomorrow’s “2011 Strat-O Opening […]
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Hal Richman,
Strat-O-Matic
I’d been hoping to post this a lot sooner, but due to a number of technical glitches, including a new computer and some lost software, yada yada yada… Anyway, submitted for your entertainment is an interview, in two parts, with Jane Leavy, author of the bestselling biography, The Last Boy, Mickey Mantle and the End […]
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Jane Leavy
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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baseball books
This charming young lady came out with Lady in the Locker Room: Madcap Memoirs of the Early LA Dodgers last year. It’s one of the best self-published books I’ve come across in a long time. Part family photo album — and as the first person put on the team payroll after they relocated from Brooklyn […]
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Los Angeles Dodgers
This fall there are three books that take a look at the American league Boston team in the World Series. One goes all the way back to 1912, the first “greatest” fall classic, as written by the NY Post‘s Mike Vacarro. The other two are slightly more contemporary: the 1975 meeting of the Red Sox […]
Tagged as:
Cincinnati Reds,
Joe Posnanski
is available on Amazon.com,
The Bookshelf Conversation: Jonathan Eig
April 21, 2014
Lou Gehrig. Jackie Robinson. Two of the game’s most iconic players, celebrated for their courage under extreme conditions. Both the subjects of outstanding biographies by Jonathan Eig, and both of which appear in 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die Eig has worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Chicago magazine, […]
Tagged as: ALS, Jackie Robinson, Jonathan Eig, Lou Gehrig
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