* Resource: BaseballBooks.net

2007 title

Brought to you by the folks who produce the Sports-reference sites. The site basically consists of links to lists category. There’s no commentary here, but it’s still a fair source for basic publishers’ info. That said, the link to new releases is woefully inadequate, listing only 46 books and DVDs at this point, with a […]

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* New looks at old classics

Classic title

The Henry Wiggen Blog (“Sports, Journalism, Kansas City and everything in between”) features several review of classic baseball titles. Among them: Prophet of the Sandlots, one of the best books about the scouting system The Celebrant, Eric Rolfe Greenberg’s novel of the New York Giants of Mr. McGraw Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella, the basis […]

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* Review: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, And the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself

2009 title

AmericanChronicle.com features this review of Michael Shapiro’s new book.

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* Author appearance: Howard Megdal

2009 title

The author of The Baseball Talmud will be the guest speaker/signer at Boston University’s Hillel House tomorrow from 7-8:30 p.m.

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* Review: Worth The Wait

2009 title

From PhillyScout.com. And how nice is it that it;s reprinted on RaysScout.com, the “sister site” for the tampa bay (and World Series’ loser) Rays.

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* Separated at birth?

Because I can...

Jayson Bay, by the Boston Red Sox “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch

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* What's new, Pussycat?

History

Allan Barra, author of the new bio on Yogi berra, wrote this piece for The Wall Street Journal on how the game has changed over the last half-century.

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* Review: Sugar

International baseball

From TampaBay.com, the web presence of the St. Petersbuerg Times. Upshot: The movie needs some trimming, and it wouldn’t hurt for something conventional to happen along its ambling way. Regardless, this is one of 2009’s most interesting and original films, so far. A-

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* Review: Game of Shadows

Older title

Better late than never? From Fieldhouse of My Brain. Upshot: Fainaru-Wada and Williams really give the reader the ability to imagine how it was that Bonds became the all-time single-season home run champion around his 40th birthday, an age when ballplayers aren’t ballplayers anymore.

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* Review: Oh Johnny

2009 title

gets a non-glowing review in The Washington Times. Upshot: The veteran newsman thinks he has things to say, about baseball, puppy love and the greatest generation. But the way in which he says those things are so bland and so uninteresting and so hackneyed and so cartoonish that one begins to speed through the pages, […]

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* Author Interview: Q&A with Alan Gratz

Author Profile / interview

Author of Samurai Shortstop and The Brooklyn Nine, from the Guys LitWire blog.

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* Review: The Rocket That Fell to Earth

2009 title

From the Detroit Free Press. Upshot: The result is a tragic, all-encompassing look at the life of a man who captured the hearts of baseball fans with his 98-m.p.h. heater and renowned work ethic, only to lose it through deep-seeded character flaws and bad decisions. You want to root for Clemens in this book, but […]

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* Bit and Pieces

Author Profile / interview

Still trying to play catch-up: No one gives much thought to it (and by no one, I probably mean me), but some company has to provide the softeware for all those on-line baseball in-game representations. But here’s why MLB won’t be using a Microsoft program. The Taunton (CT) Daily Gazette ran a piece on homegirl […]

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* Bits and Pieces

2009 title

Fell way behind, so here’s catching up. The nice things about this overall topic is that you can be a little late and the information is still valid (for the most part). From the Deseert News, this review of ’78: The Boston Red Sox, a Historic Game, and a Divided City, by Bill Reynolds The […]

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* Maybe someone should have thought of this awhile ago

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

The Yankee game was on TV last night and I noticed from the centerfield shot that many of the seats behind the plate were vacant. At first I just chalked it up to the early hour; people probably hadn’ arrived yet. I subsequently switched to the Mets game and thought no more of it. Until […]

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* Review: As They See 'Em

2009 title

From George Will, syndicated in the Seattle Times. Upshot: Forests are felled to produce baseball books, about 600 a year, most of them not worth the paper they should never have been printed on. Weber’s, however, is a terrific introduction to, among much else, the rule book’s Talmudic subtleties…

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* Review: We Are The Ship

2008 title

From Book Nut.

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* Moneyball: You oughta be in pictures?

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

Sorry, I don’t get it. This is certainly not something I would expect to see as a feature film. A documentary, okay, but a major motion picture with Brad Pitt as Billy Beane and Demetri Martin as Paul DePodesta? What are they trying to do, channel Martin and Lewis? Abbot and Costello? Nor am I […]

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* Puff piece alert: Safe at Home

2009 title

This piece from the McClatchy-Tribune News Service on Alyssa Milano’s new book makes me wonder: what percentage of writers have actually read Safe at Home? Seems they’re more interested in promoting the star than the author. Her book even features a basic glossary of colloquial baseball terms (such as “five-tool player” and “frozen rope”) and […]

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* "Dogpile on the rabbit."

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

The line comes from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Go look it up. But I’ll tell you it refers to ganging up on someone unmercifully. Not that I have any sympathy for Roger Clemens, but jeez, guys, enough already. How many ways can you say “ham and eggs?” (Sorry, Rabbi.) Jeff Perlman’s book on Clemens […]

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