Coming down the pike, part two

2018 Title

A couple of months ago, I posted about some of the new books being published in 2018. Since then, Amazon has put up a few more titles. You’re welcome. In order of release, and sticking to the same restrictions as I have often stated… The Science of Baseball: Modeling Bat-Ball Collisions and the Flight of […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, January 5, 2018

2016 title

A new year, a new look for the BBS list. I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, December 29, 2017

"Annuals"

By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions of books; calendars (even though Amazon includes them on their lists), no audiobooks (as much as I enjoy them), and no kindle (because I’m old school). Second, since the rankings are updated every […]

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Lest we forget: Mamie “Peanut” Johnson

Lest We Forget

If African-American ballplayers had a terrible go of it, can you imagine what female African-American ballplayers had to deal with? From the New York Times‘ obituary by Daniel E. Slotnick Mamie Johnson, one of a handful of women to play in baseball’s Negro leagues in the early 1950s — and the only one known to […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, December 15, 2017

"Annuals"

By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions of books; calendars (even though Amazon includes them on their lists), no audiobooks (as much as I enjoy them), and no kindle (because I’m old school). Second, since the rankings are updated every […]

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Lest we forget: Tracy Stallard

Lest We Forget

If not for the late pitcher, we wouldn’t have any books about 61, Roger Maris, or asterisks. Stallard passed away Dec. 7 at the age of 80. Here’s the NY Times obituary from Richard Goldstein. After making his debut with the Boston Red Sox in 1960, Stallard — a 6’5 righty — also played for […]

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Detective Story

Guest column

No, not the 1951 feature film starring Kirk Douglas, William Bendix, and Eleanor Parker… Recently I posted about a scene from The FBI Story, a 1959 flick starring that thespian baseball standout Jimmy Stewart, which depicted a banner headline from the Washington Post announcing a Babe Ruth Home run. Jim Meier, the retired librarian for The […]

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What am I bid…?

Uncategorized

For a collection of books about baseball in the 1930s? Here’s your chance at this on-line auction. However, there’s no list of the exact titles and if this picture — which accompanies the bidding — is any indication, the books are not just about that era. And here’s the caveat from the site: ” This […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, December 2, 2017

"Annuals"

By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions of books; calendars (even though Amazon includes them on their lists), no audiobooks (as much as I enjoy them), and no kindle (because I’m old school). Second, since the rankings are updated every […]

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Pop Quiz!

2016 title

Take a look at this book, which my wife is currently reading, and tell me its connection to baseball pop culture.

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Bookshelf Review: The Jewish Baseball Card Book

2017 Title

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the Jewish sports fan, you can’t do much better than The Jewish Baseball Card Book, by Bob Wechsler. Based on the popular Jewish card sets produced by Martin Abramowitz (who helped on the project along with Peter McDonald), this coffee table edition features photos and brief stories […]

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Verification, please: WaPo banner headline announces Ruth’s 15th home run?

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

So I was watching yet another Jimmy Stewart movie, The FBI Story (1959), and my “baseballadar” picked up on this in a scene: Note the headline, ostensibly from the Washington Post: “Babe Ruth Hits 15th Home Run.” Now I can’t enlarge it enough to catch the date, but it seems a bit far-fetched that the […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, November 24, 2017

2017 Title

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all. By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions of books; calendars (even though Amazon includes them on their lists), no audiobooks (as much as I enjoy them), and no kindle (because I’m old school). Second, since the rankings […]

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Breakfast: The most important meal of the day

Baseball Cards

Brought to you by Kellogg’s 3-D Super Star’s card set, as told by Scott Ferkovich on The National Pastime Museum site. I have a set of these in a footlocker up in the attic. Funny how “modern” they seemed at the time. There were a number of companies that put out their own sets of […]

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The Baseball Bio-Pic

Baseball in movies

I was at work the other day and the conversation turned to movies. I talked about a recent bio-pic and one of my younger colleagues did not know what that was. I was kind of surprised but then realized, a) not everyone is a movie buff; b) a movie buff might not like bio-pics; c) […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, November 17, 2017

"Annuals"

Back on schedule… By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions of books; calendars (even though Amazon includes them on their lists), no audiobooks (as much as I enjoy them), and no kindle (because I’m old school). Second, since the rankings […]

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Spitball Magazine announces CASEY Award finalists

2017 Title

Mike Shannon, editor of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine, recently sent along a notice about the finalists for the prestigious 2017 CASEY Award, celebrating its 35 year in recogniing some of the best books on the game. Where applicable, I have included a link to either my review of the book or a “Bookshelf Conversation” […]

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Lest we forget: Ray Robinson (UPDATE)

Lest We Forget

I recently posted about the passing of the venerable author/editor. At the time, I was still waiting for The New York Times to weigh in. That came on Nov. 9 in this obituary by Daniel E. Slotnik.

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Lest we forget: Bobby Doerr (Updated)

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

The last member of The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship — David Halberstam’s excellent project on  baseball and life published in 2011 — passed away yesterday at the age of 99. A Hall of Fame second baseman who batted .288 with  288 home runs, and 1,247 RBIs, Doerr played his entire career (1937-51) with […]

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Coming down the pike: New baseball books for 2018

19th century baseball

These are my favorite posts, taking a look at what new baseball books are on the horizon. A few notes: Traditional print rules the land here here. There may be a Kindle edition involved, but no Kindle-only titles are included herein. Second, Amazon does not want top make my life easier. I practically never include […]

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