* Author interview: John Feinstein

2008 title

From the Washington Post, this transcript from an on-line forum with the author of Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember, about Tim Glavine and Mike Mussina.

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* Happy birthday, Turk Wendell

Birthday greetings

The colorful reliever for the Cubs, Mets, Phillies, and Rockies turns 41 today. Wendell received the Pat Jordan treatment in cover story for the New York Times Sunday Magazine on April 8, 1993 (PDF file).

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* Announcement (reminder): Torre is still working on his book

Annoucements

This AP piece in the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald reminds us that Torre is still coming out with a book next year.

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* Review: Interview From Red Sox Nation

2008 title

From Fredericksburg.com/The Free Lance-Star, this piece opines that the recent success of the Red Sox has meant the death of those books that complain (whine?) about the decades of disappointment suffered by the franchise’s fans.Upshot: The book is composed of numerous interviews by columnist David Laurila with assorted players, former players, coaches and personalities associated […]

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* RK Review: Vindicated

Review by Ron Kaplan

Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball by Jose Canseco When his first book — JUICED: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big — was published in 2005, Jose Canseco received the same enmity as Jim Bouton a generation before. Bouton, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, […]

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* Announcement: Branch Rickey bio wins SABR Award

2007 title

Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman has been awarded the Seymour Medal as the best baseball history or biography of 2007. Also recognized as “finalists” were Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball by Norman Macht and Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line by Adrian Burgos, Jr. Author Lee Lowenfish will receive […]

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* Baseball history lessons you might not find in the books

History

From AskMen.com, five obscure facts (well, perhaps for those who visit such Web sites, rather than read about the game): Early MLB teams were not distinguished by their jerseys Jackie Robinson was not the MLB’s first black player The MLB has a long tradition of cheating The MLB’s rules used to allow one side of […]

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* Announcement: Lulu.com creator pens baseball book

Annoucements

The headline — “Lulu.com Creator Hits One Out of the Park With Dugout Wisdom” — would seem to imply that Migala created Lulu.com, which is erroneous, according to Lulu’s Web site. In Dugout Wisdom: Life Lessons From Baseball, author Dan Migala finds the heart in baseball, collecting and sharing words of wisdom from 55 greats […]

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* Free downloadable baseball books

Annoucements

Wowio.com, a great (albeit somewhat limited) source for free, downloadable books in PDF format offers a few surprisingly high-quality baseball titles in its inventory. All you need to do is register and you can download a maximum of three titles per day. As of this writing — and new books are added frequently — the […]

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* Happy birthday, George Brett

Birthday greetings

The Royals’ Hall of Famer turns 55 today. I have always been impressed with players like Brett, Carl Yazstremski, Tony Gwynn, et al, who managed to spend their entire careers with one team. It was more common earlier in the game’s history, but almost unheard of these days. You have to be a combination of […]

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* Announcement: New book celebrates Tigers' 68 season

2008 title

From an e-mail via SABR: Sock It to ‘Em Tigers: The Incredible Story of the 1968 Detroit Tigers, a joint effort of SABR and the Mayo Smith Society, is now available from Maple Street Press. Edited/project-managed by David Raglin and myself In the best tradition of Rounder Books’ tomes on the 1975 and 1967 Boston […]

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* Happy birthday, Big Ed Walsh

Birthday greetings

Born this date in 1881. The Hall of Famer spent most of his career pitching with pre-Black Sox White Sox for whom he won 195 games. Talk about records that will never be broken, what about this one: Walsh’s career ERA was 1.82! The Amazon Report on Ed Walsh: Big Ed Walsh: The Life and […]

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* Review: Living on the Black

Uncategorized

John Feinstein’s latest — an in-depth look at the 2007 season of Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina — gets the treatment from the Christian Science Monitor. Upshot: Feinstein achieves a double play fans should savor for its scrupulous look at what life is like for the 21st-century major leaguer.

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* How you can take a simple comment and turn it into something dirty…

Bits and Pieces

This was gleaned (i.e. shamelessly copied) from the always-entertaining Comics Curmudgeon blog: Gil Thorp, 5/6/08 That’s right, Andrew, it’s time to “unleash that slider”, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. But just in case you don’t, what I mean is that you should drop your pants and expose your genitals […]

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* Announcement: Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television

2008 title

Duquesne University “promotes from within” as it issues this press release about the book, published by the University of Nebraska Press, co-authored by Robert V. Bellamy Jr., an associate journalism professor at DU. You can visit the book’s Web site here.

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* Review: Baseball Field Guide

2008 title

From the interestingly-named blog about Baltimore sports, The Loss Column. Upshot: The end result is the kind of book I love to have around, one I can just pick up anytime, open to a random page, and enjoy for a few minutes.

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* Baseball book roundup: The New York Times

2007 title

But the story on these books — Anatomy of Baseball, Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman, and Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game — did not appear in the Sunday Book Review section, but rather these Big Apple-centric titles appeared in “Reading New York” on May 11.

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* Announcement: New baseball titles from University of Nebraska Press

Annoucements

For some, it’s Christmas catalogs. For others, it’s gardening. For me, it’s book catalgs from publishing houses. The Fall/Winter ’08 issue from University of Nebraska just arrived and, past being prelude, there are some interesting baseball titles sprinkled throughout. Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Change Japanese Baseball, by Robert K. Fitts: In an odd switch, […]

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* Review: The Code

2008 title

From the Johnstown, Pa. Tribune Democrat, this review of the aforementioned book by Bernstein. Upshot: The problem is, Ross Bernstein’s [book] has more holes in it than Mario Mendoza’s swing. Ouch.

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* Author interview: The Code's Ross Bernstein

2008 title

From Seamheads.com, this extensive Q&A with the author of The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and It’s Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct

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