(Swing and a) Missed

2023 title

Don’t know how I missed this one. Randy Hundley certainly didn’t miss too many pitches during his career (only 54 passed balls in over 8,400 innings). This past July, he released Ironman with John St. Augustine. Here’s the blurb from lulu.com, where the book is available (surprisingly it’s not on Amazon): Hailed by Leo Durocher […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, November 24, 2023

2022 title

Hope you all had a festive Thanksgiving. As you recover from all that overindulging, here’s some books for thought. Maybe you can pick up some of these at Black Friday sales prices! A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read […]

Read the full article →

Lest We Forget: Jim Caple

Lest We Forget

Rough day to report on writers, although this one happened more than a month ago. Jim Caple, long-time ESPN baseball scribe, died October 1 at the age of 61 after battling ALS and dementia. Caple covered 20 World Series for ESPN, the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I particularly enjoyed his work on […]

Read the full article →

Lest We Forget: Michael Bishop

Fiction

The author of one of my favorite baseball novels, Brittle Innings, passed away on Nov. 13 at the age of 78. Here’s his obit from locusmag.com and his entry from the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Normally I don’t rely on Wikipedia, but in this case, the synopsis for the 1994 publication is pretty accurate: […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, November 10, 2023

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

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 […]

Read the full article →

‘Tis the season (aka, Coming Down the Pike)

2024 title

I don’t know about you, but where I live, Christmas items started appearing in store before Halloween. And now that the 2024 season is in the books, here’s a preview off baseball books coming in 2024, as per Amazon. Note that there’s always something that could happen to throw a monkey wrench into the works […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, November 3, 2023

2023 title

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 […]

Read the full article →

Maybe SI should have waited.

2023 title

The iconic publication released The World Series: A History of the Fall Classic from the Pages of Sports Illustrated on October 17, right in the middle of the playoffs. If they had just waited a couple of weeks, they could have included the Texas Rangers’ first world championship. (Actually, they could have included any of […]

Read the full article →

Lest We Forget: Frank Howard

Biography

The bespectacled slugger passed away yesterday at the age of 87. Known for his gargantuan home runs as well as his size, the “Capital Punisher” lost 382 balls over a 17 year career that included the LA Dodgers, with whom he won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1960; the Washington Senator/Texas Rangers, where […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, October 27, 2023

"Bookshelf Conversations"

Back from vay-cay. Reading an interesting book, The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I, by Jim Leeke. Also finished a novel — a rarity for me — The Fireballer, by Mark Stevens, on the basis of its inclusion as a finalist for Spitball Magazine‘s CASEY Award. Started […]

Read the full article →

Where’s Ron-o?

"Oddballs"

Taking some time off in Pittsfield, MA, to celebrate 35th anniversary with the missus. Right across the street from our lodgings is a Stop and Shop. Was hoping visit Wacunah Park but these days it’s used by one of the pre-pre college leagues/teams. And t’isnt the season. But there is a great store in Pittsfield — […]

Read the full article →

The CASEY Award Finalists

"Annuals"

(Note: Links in the list below are mine.) The Editors of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine are pleased to announce that the following books have been nominated as finalists for the 2023 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year: Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole Baseball […]

Read the full article →

The Bookshelf Conversation #172: Joe Posnanski

"Bookshelf Conversations"

It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since I last posted a Conversation with Joe Posnanski. Perhaps that’s because the book that was the impetus for that one — The Baseball 100 — has been a constant on the weekly Baseball-Best Sellers list. In addition, his new book — and the subject of this […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, October 13, 2023

2023 title

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 […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, October 6, 2023

2023 title

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 […]

Read the full article →

The Bookshelf Conversation #171: Philip Lee

2023 title

One of the main concerns when MLB announced it would incorporate Negro League statistics into the official canon was “How?” It seemed there were a bunch of problems with that noble effort to recognize Black baseball on a more equal level with the Majors, but the lack of coverage made that difficult. The Black media […]

Read the full article →

Lest We Forget: Tim Wakefield

2011 title

The news that Tim Wakefield had died at the age of 57 from brain cancer was a shocker (the leaked info from Curt Schilling notwithstanding). I heard the sad tidings during the Mets game on Sunday. It never ceases to amaze me how “life goes on” after a few minutes of eulogizing. Back to the […]

Read the full article →

Baseball Best-Sellers, September 29, 2023

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

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 […]

Read the full article →

Bits and Pieces, September 27, 2023

2023 title

♦   Roy Hobbs leads off this New York Times quiz about characters from iconic novels. If you don’t get the answer, you’re dead to me. ♦   This “Behind the Best-Seller List” piece from the Times about Joe Posnanski’s Why We Love Baseball  is already online but will appear in the Oct. 1 book review section. […]

Read the full article →

Lest We Forget: Brooks Robinson

History

And another legend bites the dust. “Brooksie” passed away today at the age of 86. Here’s his obit from The Baltimore Sun by Mike Klingaman and The New York Times by Richard Goldstein. There was no “Mt. Rushmore” of third basemen; Robinson was ne plus ultra. There have been other great defensemen at his position, […]

Read the full article →
script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();