* Review: The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball

Reviews from other sources

BaseballGB, a blog from “across the pond,” reviews this 2007 title by Tom Tango, et al. It reports on the nuts and bolts of the book, but doesn’t give an opinion as to its worth one way or the other. I always find it interest to see how countries in which baseball is not a […]

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* Baseball book roundup: Indianapolis Star

2008 title

This duet of mini-reviews includes: Benchclearing: Baseball’s Greatest Fights and Riots, by Spike Vrusho The Worst of Sports: Chumps, Cheats, and Chokers from the Games We Love, by Jesse Lamovsky, Matthew Rosetti and Charlie Demarco Detect a theme here?

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* Review: A Summer Game

Classic title

Speaking of oldies, here’s a blast from the past: Roger Angell’s collection of baseball writing, from the POV of Things Above, “Reflections on Christian spirituality and other of life’s important issues”…such as baseball.

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* Another oldie, but goodie

Author Profile / interview

Pat Jordan seems to be making a comeback. First his non-interview with Jose Canseco, then his non-interview with Josh Beckett. Now we have this Jordan profile, courtesy of Cardboardgods.com.

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* Review: The Bill James Gold Mine 2008

2008 title

from the very stats-oriented blog, Walk Like a Sabermetrician. It would seem that the reviewer did not like this one too much, resorting to key phrases such as “the downside is…”, “the problem is…”, etc. Sounds like heresy, coming from a blog named like this one. Now I’m not a hardcore stats guy, and maybe […]

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* New book celebrates the legend of Harry Caray

2008 title

As reported on Missourinet.com, the biography — Harry Caray: Voice of the Fans — features a CD of some of the legendary broadcaster’s greatest calls.

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* Review: The Greatest Game

2008 title

This blogger at Soxlinks does a better job than I at parsing the anti-Bradley review from the Boston Phoenix.

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* Authors take the field at Dodger Stadium

Bits and Pieces

When the Dodgers were away, the authors came out to play in this book event, as reported in the LA Times.

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* I read it in The New York Times

Magazines

Lots of baseball in today’s Times. In the Play supplement, a slide show offers tips from stars like George Brett on how hitters keep their weight back, identify pitches, hit the other way, go for the long ball (which chicks dig), adjust to right- and left-handed pitchers, adjust to the count, and prepare their swing […]

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* Review: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Takes a Swing at Baseball

Reviews from other sources

From Orlandosentinel.com. Sorry, but are the majority of baseball books “bathroom reading?” Certainly the sports page is, so by extension… Think about it: most baseball content is relatively short, full of numbers, and don’t require the deep thought that comes with more time to digest, so to speak.

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* Review: The Last Real Seaon

2008 title

As reviewed on Gaslamp.com, “San Diego Padres baseball in the form of a blog.”

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* Author profile: Don Gutteridge

2008 title

One of the first baseball cards I can remember is Don Gutterridge as manager of the Chicago White Sox. He seemed so old then (from the perspective of a ten-year-old), I was amazed to see his still around. His is profiled in the Pittsburgh Morning Sun’s on-line presence as coauthor of Getting Started In Baseball, […]

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* RK Review: Living on the Black

2008 title

Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember, by John Feinstein (Little, Brown and Company) John Feinstein’s latest tome considers two veteran major leaguers plying their craft during the 2007 season search of major milestones in the magnifying glass of the media frenzy that is New York. Tom Glavine won his 300th game with the […]

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* Review: Living on the Black

2008 title

From a more diverse post on Chapelhillnews.com: ‘Living on the Black’ ‘Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember”, $26.99 (Little Brown, 526 pp.), by John Feinstein Pitching is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet. So, pitching well is reserved for only an elite few athletes. John Feinstein’s “Living on the Black” […]

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* Review: Everything They Had

2008 title

The National Sports Review gave this posthumous collection of Halberstam’s sports pieces top marks. Upshot: The book is littered with really interesting stories, including a neat section on Michael Jordan. I love reading about Michael Jordan so I was glad to see he was included. The story about his interview with Ted Williams was really […]

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* Review: The End of Baseball

2008 title

City Pages, a Minneapolis/St. Paul based organization, ran this review of Peter Schilling Jr’s. new novel concerning the integration of baseball and Bill Veeck. Upshot: Skillfully drawn with all his flair (and all his faults), Schilling does a near-masterful job of constructing Veeck….And for what Schilling lacks at moments in his spare descriptions of zeitgeist […]

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* This week in Sports Illustrated

Magazines

The cover story (by Albert Chen) is the improbable tale of Josh Hamilton, now with the Texas Rangers. It wasn’t enough that he came back from the brink of oblivion; now he’s excelling in a way that wasn’t even predicted when he was originally drafted. So many low points to choose from. No, it wasn’t […]

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* Happy birthday, Eric Davis

Birthday greetings

The superstar for the Reds and several other teams turns 46 today. Davis, who played for published his autobiography after battling back from colon cancer (like his friend Darryl Strawberry), seemed destined for greatness, having some terrific years with Cincinnati. His injury during the World Series against the Oakland A’s in 1990 made headlines not […]

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* Announcemnt: New book celebrates Rockies' "almost" season

2008 title

Sports Publishing announces the release of Tony DeMarco’s new book, Tales From the Colorado Rockies. If this is anything like the other “Tales from” books from the publisher, it’s basically a collection of anecdotes. Seems to be almost one per team by now, some have earned two volumes. (Like “best” and “great/greatest” permutations, one of […]

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* More on The Wall Street Journal's sports section

Industry/Literary Analysis

From RotoNation.com, this piece on the plans for the financial stalwort’s newest “toy,” which was the brand old newspapers put on the sports department. Because it was fun. You play it, see? Sheesh.

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