The Bookshelf Review: The Little Book of Yankees Evil

2014 title

by Brook Zelcer and Jelena Aleksich. Self-published, $17. (thelittlebookofyankeesevil.com) A little book gets a little review. Zelcer, a New Jersey school teacher, compiles a list of almost 50 crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated by the hated (by some) franchise, either as an organization (when it “steals the design for the famous interlocking NY logo from a […]

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The Bookshelf Conversation: Andrew Zimbalist

2014 title

There was a self-help book that came out awhile back called Eat the Frog. Don’t know where it came from since I never read this type of literature (not that there’s anything wrong with it). The premise is, you get the tough stuff out of the way first and the rest is easy-peasy. I guess […]

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Sayonara, Kevin Youkilis

"Oddballs"

With Kevin Youkilis trading places with new Yankees acquisition Masahiro Tanaka of the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan, I was curious as to how he would adjust to the new culture. Sometimes it work, as in the case of Warren Cromartie; sometimes it doesn’t, as was the case for Jake Elliot (although he did, finally, […]

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Bits and pieces, Jan. 23

2014 title

Looking over the over-looked in baseball book (etc.) news… Now that the Yankees have once again spent a gagillion dollars restocking their pond, it’s time for another book examining how eeeeee-vil they are. And that’s the premise (and most of the title) of The Little Book of Yankees Evil by Brook Zelcer and Jelena Aleksich. The […]

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Is this a joke? Apparently so.

"Oddballs"

While tooling around Amazon, looking to see what interesting baseball titles are on the horizon, I found this: The Best Ever Book of Diamondbacks Jokes: Lots and Lots of Jokes Specially Repurposed for You-Know-Who, by Mark Geoffrey Young. A further look at the author’s other works shows that he’s got a book like this for […]

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“I’m in the front row.” Or not.

Baseball humor

Unlike the celebrities in this NY Times story, like Bob Uecker, famously does not sit in the front row. And to drive that point home, the Milwaukee Brewers will honor their long-time broadcaster with a statute in the last row at their home Miller Park. Uecker was the “star” of a number of Miller Lite […]

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A “commercial” success?

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

Hey, don’t blame me. I probably would have forgotten about these if it wasn’t a segment on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. Two excellent pieces on Alex Rodriguez in The New York Times over the past few days. One was this from William C. Rhoden, who asks the question, “When will baseball, which only belatedly […]

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New review of 501

2013 title

Andy Wolfenson over at the “Bloggin’ Baseball (from the bench)” blog (say that five times fast) posted this review of 501 recently. Grateful that it’s still in the air, so to speak.  

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Award news: Heart of a Tiger wins Spitball’s CASEY

2013 title

Heart of a Tiger: Growing Up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb by Herschel Cobb, has been chosen as winner of the 2013 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball Magazine. From the Spitball post: The searing, sometimes horrifying, story about how Ty Cobb rescued his grandson from Herschel’s abusive father becomes in […]

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National Pastime Radio: Doris Kearns Goodwin on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me

National Public Radio

There was a disproportionate amount of baseball on the latest episode of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. In “Who’s Carl This Time?”, we heard from Alex Rodriguez: CARL KASELL: I think that Major League Baseball has done me a big favor because I’ve been playing for 20 years without a timeout. PETER SAGAL: That was […]

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The Bookshelf Conversation: Mark Ulriksen

Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

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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What if…

Baseball humor

Saw this on Marty Appel‘s Facebook page: Ok, so I thought of this last night. It’s September 29, 2014. Yankees and Red Sox have tied for first in AL East and need to have a one-game playoff to see who wins the division. But wait, it is game #163…..A-Rod has served his 162 game suspension, […]

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s baseball connections

History

(A Baseball Bookshelf encore with revisions.) Small wonder in that they had a lot to do with Jackie Robinson. Robinson’s teammate, Don Newcombe, recalled a meeting between the two iconic figures for a piece in Time Magazine in 2007: Do you know what Jackie’s impact was? Well, let Martin Luther King tell you. In 1968, […]

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“Democratic” media guides

Team profile

Used to be you actually had to be a member of the media to get one of these. Made it seem a bit special. Now anyone with a few bucks can purchase them. The Orioles, in celebration of their 60th anniversary in Baltimore, have gone an additional step: You can view all of their media […]

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Author appearance: Andrew Zimbalist

2014 title

The baseball economist will discuss his new book, The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball, co-authored with Benjamin Baumer, at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, 67 East 11th Street in Manhattan, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. For more information about the clubhouse, see here. You can read more about the book […]

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Bits and pieces, Jan. 15

2013 title

Hey, if A-Rod can do it, why not Bud? Commissioner Selig has said he wants to write a book when he retires. For you Yankee and home run fans, this looks interesting: New York Yankees Home Runs: A Comprehensive Factbook, 1903-2012, by Mitchell S. Soivenski. It should not be surprising that this is a McFarland […]

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$75 would have bought a lot of Coke back then

Baseball art

The beverage, not the drug. Honestly, get your mind out of the gutter. From Mark Aubrey, my “proofreader,” comes this item on eBay: “1967 Coke Cap RARE PASSOVER variation Willie Stargell Pittsburgh Pirates HOFer” Asking price: $75. When I was a kid growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, there was a kosher […]

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Because you can probably find something there to put on a bookshelf

"Ripped from today's headlines..."
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How to make A-Rod sympathetic Update

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

Sorry, couldn’t think of a pithy headline, I’m that blasé. Say what you want about the guy — his arrogance, his ego, his need for attention, etc. — I think he nevertheless should be accorded the same due process as anyone else. Except DP doesn’t seem to apply to athletes. A lot of chatter on […]

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I’m biding my time (’til baseball season)

"Annuals"

Kids, ask your parents/grandparents.) Our good friend Howard Megdal posted these suggestions on”How to survive without baseball.” Among them: Simulated baseball games, such as Baseball Mogul, Diamond Mind Baseball, Out of the Park Baseball, and, of course, Strat-O-Matic. I would add What-If Sports to this list. They allow you to construct a roster of any […]

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