Bookshelf review: The 300 Club

2010 title

Have We Seen the Last of Baseball’s 300-Game Winners? by Dan Schlossberg. Ascend Books, 2010. Pitcher Jamie Moyer, at age 47, is the active leader in wins with 267. Next on the list is 38-year-old Andy Pettitte with 240. After that…well, no one can even claim 200 victories; knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (43) is next in […]

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More bits and pieces

Bits and Pieces

Had so much fun (and have so much left over), I thought I’d do some more. Notes for Bibliophiles found this (very) oldie but goodie. Really looking forward to reading The Four Fingers of Death, a novel by Rick Moody, which contains at least a tiny bit of storyline about baseball, as indicated by this […]

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“For all sad words of man and pen…”

"Oddballs"

(Because the new records books will carry this development.) Read a fascinating item just now: Seems that in the pre-Internet/computer days of record keeping, someone made a mistake in 1961 and credited Roger Maris with one extra run batted in than he deserved, according to this piece by Greg Couch on MLB.Fanhouse.com; other media outlets […]

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Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Annoucements

Congratulations to Keith Sherwood of Columbia, TN, July’s Facebook Fan winner of Will Leitch’s Are We Winning: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball. The August book will be Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball’s Most Enigmatic Slugger, by Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg (Scribner).

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Bits and pieces

2010 title

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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Dorothy Seymour Mills: Credit where credit is due

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

This from the Associated Press: Dorothy Seymour Mills has been added by Oxford University Press as co-author of an acclaimed three-volume history of baseball originally attributed solely to her husband. Harold Seymour was long credited as author of Baseball: The Early Years, Baseball: The Golden Age, and Baseball: The People’s Game. The books were published […]

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The Bookshelf Podcast: Will Leitch, Part Three

2010 title

http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/LeitchPodcastPart2073010.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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The Bookshelf Podcast: Will Leitch, Part Two

2010 title

http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/LeitchPart1aPodcast0730101.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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The Bookshelf Podcast: At long last Leitch

2010 title

The first few times I encountered Will Leitch’s work, I was less than impressed. I’m old-school enough to not want to know that my favorite players (not that I have any at this point) are hanging out at bars, doing drugs, treating women badly, etc., which is what Deadspin — which he founded — seemed […]

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Mays biographer to appear at HoF program

2010 title

From the Baseball Hall of Fame: The story of one of baseball’s greatest heroes has come to print, and the author is coming to Cooperstown. New York Times best-selling author James S. Hirsch will discuss his new book Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend on Friday, July 30, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame […]

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Strausburg to DL? OMG! OMG! OMG!

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

From the AP via SI.com: Rookie right-hander Stephen Strasburg has been placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Washington Nationals because of inflammation in his pitching shoulder. Thursday’s move is retroactive to July 22, a day after he made his last appearance. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 amateur draft was scratched […]

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Same time every year

Commentary by Ron Kaplan

“Omar Minaya may upgrade pitching, but middling New York Mets are better off waiting to make moves,” Filip Bondy, New York Daily News “Forget about Mets dealing for Lily and Myers,” Joel Sherman, New York Post “Time for Mets to make moves,” Larry Brooks, New York Post “Top 10 New York Mets busts since 2001,” […]

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These weeks in Sports Illustrated

Magazines

Yes! The double “Where are they now” issue! The mag includes pieces on Orel Hershiser, Stan Musial (by Joe Posnanski), and the print edition has a page comparing the managerial careers of Lou Pinella vs. Lou Brown, probably more well known by the actor who portrayed him, James Gannon. Gannon died July 16 at the […]

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Strausburg what? OMG! OMG! OMG!

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

“Strausburg listed as day to day.” Well, that didn’t take very long, did it? More here, via The Washington Post.

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National Pastime Radio: Sagal says “So long, Steinbrenner”

Baseball humor

Peter Sagal, staunch Red Sox fan and host of NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, paid “tribute” to the late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner on his July 17 program. Herewith, a transcript of the segment from the “Who’s Carl this time” portion of the program: Sagal: Your last quote is from a man who was […]

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Lest we forget: Billy Loes

Lest We Forget

The Brooklyn Dodger pitcher who famously lost a ground ball in the sun during the 1952 World Series died on July 15 at the age of 80. His obituary, written by Richard Goldstein, appeared in yesterday’s New York Times. Like many of his teammates, enjoyed a renewed popularity through books such as Roger Kahn’s The […]

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Blast from the past: The Winning Team

Baseball movies

Flipping through the dial last night when I cam across Ronald Reagan starring as Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in The Winning Team, a 1952 bio-pic. Alexander played from 1911-1930 and pitched in the 1915, ’26, and ’28 World Series, the last two as an elder member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s […]

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Lest we forget: Vic Ziegel

Lest We Forget

The veteran sportswriter died Friday at the age of 72. Ziegel wrote mostly for the New York Post and New York Daily News. Here’s the NY Times obit by Richard Goldstein. More tributes from the Daily News, (this one by Filip Bondy), and the Post (and another), as well as Greg Prince’s Faith and Fear […]

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Ouch.

"Oddballs"

So here’s a list of unusual injuries sustained by players this season, courtesy of SI.com’s Hot Clicks blog: — Feb. 12: Brad Bergesen, Orioles: Strained his shoulder filming a TV commercial for the team. — May 29: Kendry Morales, Angels: Broke his leg celebrating a walk-off home run at home plate. — June 30: Luke […]

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Quiz kids

"Oddballs"

The Mental Floss website offers these quizzes: Did he throw a no-hitter? The Simpsons softball quiz The baseball card brand quiz

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