* Happy birthday, Syd Cohen

Because I can...

No Hall of Famer, he. In fact, Cohen won three of his ten decisions for the Washington Senators in the 1930s. Although he had only 33 at bats, he struck out just three times, not bad for a pitcher. Syd was the brother of Andy Cohen, an infielder for the NY Giants in the ’20s.

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* Field of Dreams? No, "Field of Life"

Artist profile

In the movie Field of Dreams, the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson appears on a Midwest baseball field constructed specifically for him by farmer Ray Kinsella. “Is this heaven,” asks the bemused ballplayer, who had been banned from the game for his role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal? “No,” replies his host, “It’s Iowa.” […]

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* Review: Now Batting, Number…"

Older title

The Mystique, Superstition, and Lore of Baseball’s Uniform Numbers by Jack Looney. An assessment by Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated as he seeks to determine who the best player was for each uniform number. An error in the on-line article: Deitsch writes, “For research we culled through dozens and dozens of media guides, some terrific […]

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* Another Lost baseball "fact"

Television

From the Lost and Gone Forever blog: (Spoiler alert: if you haven’t seen the episode in question “Something Nice Back Home”, avert thine eyes). By virtue of the Yankees/Red Sox and Indians/Mariners scores in the newspaper article, only one date is viable for the publication of the paper: August 31, 2007. Article states Yankees finish […]

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* "Pop" goes the Toaster

Lists

Alex Belth appends his theme of essential baseball books, with lists from Richard Sandomir, The New York Times‘ sports media columnist and Roger Kahn, along with a slew of comments.

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* Happy birthday, Willie Mays

Birthday greetings

The Hall of Famer from Mobile turns 77 (!) today. No need to go into his exploits here. Suffice it to say that he is one of the most legendary players ever to don flannels, a fact that is born out by the number of books written about him, especially for kids; you know a […]

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* Another list, from Baseball-Reference

Lists

The Bullpen section of Baseball-Reference.com (“Baseball’s collaborative encyclopedia”) published this list of 130 books (with links) that deal with baseball. Not sure of the criteria or why that specific number, but it’s there for the browsing.

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* Eddie Ciccotte, reincarnate

History

Andrea Weaver hosts a tribute site for David Strathairn, the actor who portrayed the knuckle-balling White Sox pitcher in Eight Men Out. She devotes an entire page to his accomplishments as an actor and surprisingly convincing athlete. Factoid: Strathairn’s sone, Tery, played the role of Bucky, one of the little kids who idolized the Sox […]

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* "Boo" to our neighbors to the North

Reviews from other sources

The Toronto Globe and Mail published what I assume is a roundup of baseball books that includes Vindicated. It’s hard to tell because YOU CAN’T READ IT UNLESS YOU BUY IT. What kind of nonsense is that? Shame, shame. G&M.

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* For the younger fans

Mini-reviews

ReadingRockets.org, “a national multimedia project offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help,” offered these suggestions for kids.

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* Baseball review roundup: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

2008 title

This collection of mini-reviews includes: Anatomy of Baseball The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Pittsburgh Pirates Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies Ty Cobb: Safe at Home Keeping Score Change Up: An Oral History of 8 Key Events That Shaped Baseball

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* A visit with Bill Werber

Author Profile / interview

Eric Seidman takes a break from his statistical analysis to interview Bill Werber, the 99-year-old former New York Yankee and author Reading the piece, I couldn’t help but wonder as to the accuracy of the tales told by the ex-ballplayer. Thanks a lot, Rob Neyer. Nevertheless, Seidman does a sensitive job. The Amazon Report on […]

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* The "return" of Bobby V.

Movies

To the consciousness of New York fans, that is. Former Mets’ manager Bobby Valentine was the subject of the May 4 “Questions for…” section of the New York Times‘ Sunday Magazine. Q; One American tradition you’ve imported to Japan is patting the players on the tush, as the film demonstrates. A: That has really been […]

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* Twilight time

Television

In the previous entry on Jose Canseco, I included a story from the original Twilight Zone series. Since there are no new stories, the familiar theme of a man thrust back into an alternate universe was repeated for the umpteenth time. Here, in Extra Innings, from one of the program’s later incarnations, Marc Singer plays […]

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* Vindicated once more

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

After a lull, Jose Canseco is back in the news after he defaulted on his mortgage and his home was foreclosed. Poor Jose, but look on the bright side. This can be fodder for his next book. a paranoic, conspiracy theory about how the baseball establishment ruined him for daring to speak “the truth.” Anyway, […]

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* The Anatomy lesson

2008 title

The Anatomy of Baseball anthology is getting a good deal of press these days. Here’s a critique from the National Sports Review. It’s also included in this Boston Globe roundup, which includes an interewsting and unusual collection of titles, such as Sort of Gone: Poems by Sarah Freligh ; The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally […]

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* Bits and pieces

2008 title

Time to play catch-up again. From Great Britain’s Guardian, this article about Billy Beane and the Moneyball phenomenon. Why on earth would it appear in a British paper? Because Beane is “Tottenham Hotspur fanatic, as well as a fan of the team’s coach, Sir Alex Ferguson. A list of recommended baseball novels from the Campaign […]

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* More on Neyer

2008 title

A few more links to interviews with/features on Rob Neyer, author of the eponymous Big Book of Baseball Legends. From Viva ElBirdos, a Q&A And another from one of my favorites, The Baseball Analysts

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* Continuing the "essential" theme

Lists

Several bloggers have weighed in on the Bronx Banter’s theme of essential (not greatest or best) baseball books, including: Brew Crew Ball Steve Rubio’s Online Life Baseball Mud Nothing earth-shattering here, just some more lists, FYI.

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* Speaking of deconstruction: Lost and baseball

Uncategorized

Two of my favorite things are baseball and Lost. Last night’s episode puts the two together: Jack’s annoyance that the Yankees had swept his beloved Red Sox in a series: This was part of the latest column on the show on the Entertainment Weekly Web site, and is sort of apropos to my review of […]

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