From the category archives:

Team profile

On the horizon…

June 20, 2014

Made one of my occasional visits to Amazon for the purpose of seeing what new and exciting baseball titles or coming in the next several months. Here’s a sampling of some, excluding, as usual —  although with one major exception — books for younger readers. In nor particular order… * Baseball Explained. Phillip Mahoney, McFarland, […]

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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 […]

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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… The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com, […]

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Two Steve Travers titles — The 1969 Miracle Mets: The Improbable Story of the World’s Greatest Underdog Team and A Tale Of Three Cities: New York, L.A. and San Francisco in October of ‘62 — are currently available at no charge in various e-reader formats on Smashwords.  

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The “personal edition.” I had two reviews appear last week: The Closer, by Mariano Rivera with Wayne Coffey on Bookreporter.com The Cubs Quotient: How the Chicago Cubs Changed the World, by Scott Rowan in ForeWord Magazine.

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My review of Scott Rowan’s book on “How the Chicago Cubs Changed the World” was just published in ForeWord Magazine. Needless to say, this will be getting major press in the Chicago media. WGN Radio interview Daily Herald profile You can order it from ChicagoTeamStore.com And, again, apologies for the video that starts automatically. Kind […]

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(And no, we’re not talking about Superman here.) Congratulations to Teddie A. of Lutherville, MD, winner of last week’s book, Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76, by Dan Epstein. This week’s offering is Jonah Keri’s Up, Up, and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, […]

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The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat […]

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On this date in 2012, Bryce Harper made his debut for the Washington Nationals. Phenom: The Making of Bryce Harper The Last Natural: Bryce Harper’s Big Gamble in Sin City and the Greatest Amateur Season Ever Beltway Boys: Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, and the Rise of the Nationals So let’s see that’s three books in […]

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Bits and pieces, April 25

April 25, 2014

Politics aside, I’ve often wondering why such smart people such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Thomas Oliphant, and George Will (among others), have such an affinity for baseball. here, Will — author of A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred — tries to explain why the game is such a […]

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First of all, congratulations to John M. of Hillsborough, NJ, winner of last week’s book, Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time, by Tim Wendel. Thank you all for your comments. This week’s offering is the brand-spankin’ new copy of […]

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Bits and Pieces, April 18

April 18, 2014

The Passover holidays have played havoc with my schedule, so there’s a lot to catch up on. First off, can you remember those Bicentennial Minutes that CBS used to broadcast in the months leading up to the big celebration? Well, Dan Epstein, author of the new Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial […]

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First of all, congratulations to Linda P. of Lindenhurst, IL, winner of last week’s book, Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76, by Dan Epstein. Thank you all for your comments. This week’s offering is the brand-spankin’ new Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta […]

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The top-ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat 3: […]

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Nate Silver recently began his 538.com site under the aegis of ESPN. One would hope that he and his minions will produce a lot of smart sports (i.e., baseball) stuff. Obviously a site dedicated to projections and predictions has a lot of math to it. Ugh.But you have to take the “bad” with the good. […]

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Seems most of the buzz lately is about Kostya Kennedy’s Pete Rose: An American Dilemma, John Rosengrens’s Marichal-Roseboro book, The Fight of Their Lives, and Jonah Keri’s Up, Up, and Away, the new history about  the Montreal Expos. Rosengren From Mike Bauman/MLB.com: “Book tells of redemption for Marichal, Roseboro“ This one from Allen Barra will […]

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Bienvenue, Mets

March 25, 2014

Because I have such an affinity for Montreal, the ancestral home of my mother’s side of the family, I enjoy anything that has to do with the Expos. I don’t care what anyone says, I loved Jarry Park, which, not unlike Ebbets Field was to some Brooklyn Dodger fans, was walking distance from my aunt’s […]

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All of these came in this week from my “alma mater,” the University of Nebraska Press. So many books, so little time.    

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Last we I received a copy of New York Yankees Home Runs: A Comprehensive Factbook, 1903-2012, published by McFarland. At first glance, it looked daunting: page after page tables and lists about one single item: the four-bagger. But on further consideration, I realized this was an impressive undertaking. After all, the Yankees are one of […]

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Baseball book ‘prospects’

February 27, 2014

This it the time of year when the baseball media offer their considered opinions on their favorite prospects. Sometimes they’re spot on, other times, not so much. So I thought, why not apply this to the upcoming “rookie crop” of baseball books? That is, titles that are making their debuts in 2014 — no reprints/reissues […]

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