Author appearance: Doug Glanville

2010 title

Since Glanville posted this on Facebook, so I don’t think he’d mind the re-post: Anyone going to be at tonight’s Phillies game? I know I’m going to be there and I will be signing copies of my book The Game From Where I Stand and chatting it up with fans all night long. Let me […]

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Because you can put a tiny stadium on your Bookshelf

"Oddballs"

if not a tiny scoreboard. Mental Floss, a bright and funny publication in which a couple of my articles have appeared (and one day again, I hope. Hint, hint, Mental Floss; I have no shame) published this brief history on the evolution of the scoreboard. The piece also links to some other cool baseball items, […]

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Happy birthday, Carl Hubbell

Biography

“King Carl” was born this date in 1903. The Hall of Famer was the subject Carl Hubbell: A Biography of the Screwball King, by Lowell L. Blaisdell, and A Pitcher’s Moment: Carl Hubbell and the Quest for Baseball Immortality, by Fritz A. Buckallew. he also ostensibly contributed a chapter on pitching for Joe DiMaggio’s 1949 […]

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National Pastime Radio: Vuvuzelas

"Oddballs"

From this week’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: Carl Kasell: “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” Peter Sagal: That was Carl imitating a sound everybody, or at least World Cup soccer fans, know all too well. What is it? (Correct answer by the call-in contestant) Sagal: …Just last week on this show we had to explain to you all what […]

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So what’s your favourite sports book?

"Oddballs"

Hannah Sung of the CBC wants to know. In the meantime, we have this Top 10 to put together. I myself have just discovered The Global Game website, which I’m finding fascinating, and I’m reading through their book of the same name, which we will look at this month. Some of you on Twitter have […]

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Who’s afraid of the new Stephen King baseball story?

2010 title

The New York Times‘ sports media guy, Richard Sandomir, published this piece on Stephen King’s newest. Read the novella last week, and, frankly, I wonder if it would have received all this attention had it been written by a different (read: not as famous) author. While it’s a sufficient story, we keep waiting — knowing […]

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Birthday greetings, “Steady Eddie”

Birthday greetings

Eddie Lopat, born this date in 1918. From 1948 through a partial season in 1955, The lefty from NYC won 113 and lost 59 and was 4-1 in seven World Series starts. He was one of the subjects of Sol Gittleman’s Reynolds, Raschi and Lopat: New York’s Big Three and Great Yankee Dynasty of 1949-1953, […]

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Happy birthday, Lou Brock

Business of baseball

The Hall of Fame speedster turns 71 today. Although there are no books about Brock, per se, you can’t pick up any volume that analyzes baseball wheeling and dealing without a major mention of the 1965 transaction that switched Brock for St. Louis pitcher Ernie Broglio. Such titles include Trade Him!: 100 Years of Baseball’s […]

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TWIBB: June 18, 2010

2009 title

The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, June 18. Title Rank General Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca 2 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James […]

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Paint ball (?) at the Norman Rockwell Museum

Annoucements

On Saturday July 3 from 12 – 4:00 p.m., come celebrate America’s favorite pastime and the art of Norman Rockwell. Meet Linda Ruth Tosetti, Babe Ruth’s granddaughter; learn about the Major Leagues from Brian Daubach, former Red Sox first baseman; explore the art of baseball with illustrator Graig Kreindler; take a lively look at the […]

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This week (June 21) in Sports Illustrated

Magazines

Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg is the latest to contend with the dreaded SI cover curse. Albert Chen does the editorial honors with this profile and a sidebar, which I’m guessing looks much better in the magazine than on the website. The other baseball feature, written by Pablo Torre, considers Ian Snell and others who suffer […]

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It was 50 years ago today

"Oddballs"

Yesterday, actually (close enough for jazz), that Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho changed how the movie industry dealt with sex and violence, for better or worse. There are several interesting analyses, including David Thomson’s The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder, which I’m reading at the moment, as well as this from […]

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Author appearance: Bill Madden & Doug Glanville

2010 title

Should have posted this earlier, but if you’re in Ridgewood, NJ today at 4:30, stop by the Bookends Bookstore, 232 East Ridgewood Avenue for a “Father’s Day” special. Bill Madden (Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball) and Doug Glanville (The Game From Where I Stand) will both be on hand to sign their books. Both […]

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Literary Birthday greetings: The Shuffler and Super Joe” Charboneau

Autobiography/memoirs

Happy birthday to Shufflin’ Phil Douglas, born this date in 1890. Douglas, who was expelled from baseball for “gambling issue,” pitched for nine years, primarily for the Cubs and Giants and was the subject of the 1978 bio One Last Round for the Shuffler, by Tom Clark. Also celebrating, “Super Joe” Charboneau, 55, one of […]

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The Sultan of Stats

Annoucements

Allan Roth did not invent baseball statistics. Henry Chadwick introduced those in the late 1800s, mostly for the benefit of the fans. What Roth did — first for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and later for network television broadcasts — was show how they could be used proactively, rather than as an afterthought published by newspapers […]

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Happy birthday, Ron LeFlore

Autobiography/memoirs

Ron LeFlore turns 62 today. The speedy Tiger presented an interesting story of getting that “one in a million” chance while in prison to try out for the Detroit team, which he turned into a book with Jim Hawkins with One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story. The two collaborated on Breakout: From Prison […]

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Birthday greetings

Autobiography/memoirs

Several former Major Leaguers share a birthday today, including: Wade Boggs Boggs!The Techniques of Modern Hitting Billy Williams Billy Williams: My Sweet-Swinging Lifetime With the Cubs Babe Dahlgren Rumor in Town: A Grandson’s Promise to Right a Wrong

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Bookshelf review: The Man With Two Arms

2010 title

by Billy Lombardo (Overlook, 2010) The last couple of titles I’ve blogged about have father and son issues (Steinbrenner and Home, Away). So, with Father’s Day coming up, I figured I complete the trifecta. The great love of Henry Granville’s life is baseball. It is a time-honored tradition he knows he will pass on to […]

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And now for something completely different: Part 1

2010 title

Welcome to Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf, the podcast! Bear with us; this is a work in progress. We’ll get it right as time goes by. In the first installment, we chat with Bill Madden, veteran NY Daily News sportswriter and columnist, about his NY Times‘ bestseller, Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. You can read […]

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Happy birthday, Ernie Whitt

Autobiography/memoirs

The former catcher who played 15 years — mostly for the Toronto Blue Jays — turns 58 today. He published Catch: A Major League Life, co-written with Greg Cable, in 1989.

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