From the category archives:

Writers

Mike Shannon and I go way back. One of the first book reviews I ever had published was with Spitball Magazine, where he serves as editor-in-chief. He is also one of the only Bookshelf Conversation guests I have ever broken bread with. A few years back, I had the opportunity to attend a CASEY Awards ceremony […]

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The author of such books as The As:  A Baseball History; The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack’s White Elephants, 1901-1954; A Tiger in His Time: Hal Newhouser and the Burden of Wartime Ball; and Pete Rose: A Biography, died January 24 at the age of 91. From his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer: [Jordan] was fanatical […]

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Remembering Roger Angell

August 24, 2025

It’s a daunting task, following in the footsteps of a legend. The players who came after Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams or Willie Mays didn’t have it easy. They were faulted for not being able to replicate the feats of their predecessors. How unfair. I was thinking about that when I came across this piece in […]

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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]

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A bit of a departure here. Ben Yagoda has not written a book about baseball (yet). Nor has he written a song or made a film about the game. But he is a super fan and has written reviews of others’ books about the game. Close enough for jazz. I wanted to speak with him […]

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We lost two major baseball writers with the passing of Rick Wolff, 71, on April 10 and St. Louis Post Dispatch veteran scribe Rick Hummel, 77, on May 20. Wolff published numerous books on coaching and sports psychology. He collaborated with his son on Harvard Boys: A Father and Son’s Adventures Playing Minor League Baseball […]

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They say you should never meet your heroes lest you be disappointed but I’d take that chance. There are just a handful of writers I would want to share a drink with: Leonard Koppett, the first scribe I ever wrote to asking advice; Shirley Povich, because he managed to have an outstanding career in the […]

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I posted this to my other blog, The Worried Journalist, this morning. If they can do crossovers on TV and in the comics, I don’t know why I can’t share the entry about Arnold Hano, Don Larsen, Ian Anderson, and serendipity.

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Historical Times

October 24, 2021

The New York Times Book Review section celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. As could be expected, they gathered some of the most influential books over the decades, including classics such as The Bell Jar, Ulysses, Roots, The Road, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. With the millions of books that have been […]

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Missed over the holiday weekend: the passing of the talented Mr. Wheeler, a writer who assisted on the autobiographies of superstars like Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, and Mike Piazza, as well as his own thought-provoking work. Here’s The New York Times‘ obituary, contributed by Richard Sandomir. I had the pleasure of talking with Wheeler for […]

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Going old school here as we return to an audio-only Conversations. A couple of years ago, I was engaged to work on the memoirs of a gentleman from the Middle East. He was in my town on an extended trip, staying at an Air BnB run by friends of ours. Just about every day after […]

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My review of Mitchell Nathanson’s new bio, Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original is now up on Bookreporter.com.

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M*A*S*H Notes

March 30, 2020

For whatever reason, M*A*S*H has long been one of my “comfort” TV programs. May seen kind of weird, latching on to an incongruous comedy about war. Oh, well. One of last night’s episodes on ME-TV — the cable station for aging baby boomers with shows like Perry Mason, Adam-12, The Flintstones, etc. —  was “War […]

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Lest we forget: Roger Kahn

February 7, 2020

The author of The Boys of Summer and almost 20 other books died yesterday at the age of 92. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Bruce Weber. You know he will be the topic of numerous tributes from sport and literary outlets in the days to come. Here are just a couple: […]

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No Place I Would Rather Be: Roger Angell and a Life in Baseball Writing, by Joe Bonomo (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) There are a handful of people I would love to have on as a guest for a Bookshelf Conversation, the podcast segment of this blog: James Earl Jones, Dennis Haysbert, John Thorn and, […]

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Can’t complain

March 1, 2019

Once in a while, I will get a communique from an author kindly suggesting his or her book be included in any update of 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. I get it. That’s how I felt when other tomes were selected for various honors the same year my baby was published. […]

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Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m […]

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Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m […]

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New year, new books

January 2, 2019

Welcome to 2019. I hope y’all had a great holiday season. “Pitchers and catchers” are still more than a month away, so I hope this list of forthcoming books will serve as a source of warmth and comfort until then. We seem to have the requisite number of material about former stars such as Jackie […]

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Posting this now in case anyone out there wants to attend… From the The Great Fenway Park Writers Series… At noon Tuesday, August 28, the Red Sox, Bank of America, Writers Series, BoSox, and Residence Inn Back Bay Boston/Fenway, will honor the life of Ted Williams on what would have been his 100th birthday, August 30 […]

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