* Announcement: PBS to air Roberto Clemente documentary

Annoucements

An entry on the BaseballZealot blog notes that PBS will air a documentary on the late Latino star on April 21 as part of its American Experience series. As of this posting, no information as available at the show’s Web site, but keep trying.

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* Announcement: In the Big Inning

New title

Former pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles Jon Burnham was transformed from an egotistical, foul-mouthed baseball player headed for hell into an obedient servant of God. The author of The Winning Pitch chronicles his story of what God did in his life and the lives of many people who came to him for Biblical counsel. Read […]

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* On this date

History

In 1969, the Seattle Pilots score all of their runs in the first inning to win their major league debut over the Angels, 4-3. See the table of contents here. More about the book.

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* Happy Birthday, Gary Carter

2008 title

The Hall of Fame catcher turns 54 today. Carter was a “like him, hate him” kind of guy. There are those who said he was too eager to smile for the camera. For me, as a fan of the Mets, he was a savior, one of the tools helping propel them to some quality years […]

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* Catching up, Part 1

Baseball movies

There’s a lot of material that’s fallen by the wayside as I try to keep this blog fresh with the latest in baseball book publishing information. But in the words of the revered philosopher, Regis Philbin, “I’m only one man!” So I’m using this space to try to catch up. Some of the items might […]

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* Adjusting to the game

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

You can look it up. Whenever the game gets a little out of whack, the powers that be try to level the playing field. For example, after the pitchers dominated in 1968, the mound was lowered the next year. So laugh if you will, but this idea, from the pen of cartoonist John McPherson, seems […]

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*Video: Mike Wallace and Bob Feller

Television

From Feller to Clemens, the ageless newsman has bridged the generations of great pitchers. This segment appeared on Wallace’s interview program, originally broadcast on CBS August 4, 1957. The observant viewer will note the (now) hilarious (and anachronistic) introduction at the top of the program: “I’m Mike Wallace. The cigarette is Phillip Morris.” Courtesy of […]

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* On this date

History

in 1969, Ted Williams makes his managerial debut in front of President Nixon and a crowd of 45,000 at Washington’s RFK Stadium. ‘Tricky Dick’s’ Senators are defeated by the Yankees, 8-4. (Thanks nationalpastime.com) Williams was the subject of a 1970 book, What a Baseball Manager Does, by Roy Hoopes.

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* Happy birthday, John McGraw

Birthday greetings

Born this date in 1873. Talk about “old school.” The Amazon Report on John McGraw: My Thirty Years in Baseball, by John McGraw and Charles Alexander Casey and Mr. McGraw, by Joe Durso How to play baseball, by John McGraw Science of baseball, by John McGraw The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, […]

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* A "how-to" guide for buying baseball books

Commentary

Came across this piece on one of my Google searches. It’s dated (2003), but there still valuable information to be gleaned.

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* Review: But Didn't We Have Fun?

2008 title

You know you’ve made it when your book appears in a Sunday Times review. In fact, I wonder if there have been studies that have quantified in cold numbers what such an “endorsement” means for sales. One quibble: Olney, a sports writer for the Times and an ESPN commentator, spends too much time talking about […]

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* Review: Baseball's Great Experiment

Classic title

I always get a kick out of seeing an old book “discovered” by a new generation of fans/readers. Case in point, Jules Tygiel’s examination of Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. His remains one of the best on the subject, a notion with which Blackathlete.net seems to agree.

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* Review: Asterisk

2008 title

One of the few books that dares to have an open mind about the steroid scandals. From Sports of Boston.com. Uphsot: If you are convinced Barry Bonds used steroids, read this book. It is going where other books have not gone before and that alone makes it worth picking up. Bonds is a horrible human […]

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* Review: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

2007 title

An enthusiastic critique of this graphic novel by Comicstory-arc.com. And another from Publisher’s Weekly. Here are some samples from the book.

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* Review: The Stark Truth

2007 title

If the reviewer had trouble with this, wait ’til he gets a hold of Derek Gentile’sBaseball’s Best 1,000. Imagine being that final player who made the cut. He can still say he was considered better than the other 19,000 or so players who qualified under Gentile’s guidelines. I’ll be doing a review of this one […]

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* Women and baseball

2008 title

This article from the Brockton, MA Enterprise, features It Takes More Than Balls — The Savvy Girls Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Baseball. It might not have been so if one of the authors wasn’t a local product.

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* Review: Baseball's Greatest Hit

2008 title

The Sacramento Bee’s Bruce Dancis elaborates a bit on the book marking the 100th anniversary of the game’s unofficial anthem, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” The Houston Chronicle also takes an in-depth look at the iconic ditty.

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* Baseball book roundup: Sacramento Bee

2008 title

This overview of lots of new titles by Bruce Dancis leads off with books about the scandals of the game, new and old, and includes: Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball’s Most Intimidating Pitcher Asterisk: Home Runs, Steroids, and the Rush to Judgment Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle To Save Baseball (surprisingly […]

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* Baseball book roundup: The Boston Globe

2008 title

A simple list of five titles, (and no commentary) with a couple of Red Sox-centric choices, as determined by Barnes and Noble.com for New England regional sales.

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* Baseball book roundup: The Houston Chronicle

2008 title

Allan Barra wrote a similar piece for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. In this one, he adds Keeping Score, by Linda Sue Park, and Ty Cobb, Safe at Home, by Don Rhodes, while “contracting” Change Up.

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