I know most of you have more pressing things to do today, you procrastinators, you. But here’s something for when you take a break. ♦ Like the Bookshelf, DiamondHoggers has a podcast segment. This episode features Rob Miech, author of the 2012 release, The Last Natural: Bryce Harper’s Big Gamble in Sin City and the […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Bryce Harper,
Christy Walsh,
Johan Santana,
Lefty Gomez,
Maggie Lawrence,
New York Mets,
New York Yankees,
Ozzie Guillen
Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. Trying clear out the old new links box (as opposed to the old old links I post on Thursdays now). ‘Tis the season when reviews, excerpts, lists, and author appearance are sprouting like flowers. * From Men’s Journal, this list of “The 10 Baseball Books Every Fan Should Read.” (Hmm, […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Ball Four,
Jim Bouton,
Michael Lewis,
Moneyball,
Mookie Wilson,
New York Mets,
Pittsburgh Pirates,
Robert Coover,
Roger Kahn,
Sandy Alderson,
Steve Kettmann
You gotta give credit to some authors. All authors, actually, but some more. For a writer to take a subject like Boots Poffenberger, a pitcher who appeared in just 57 games over and three-year Major League career which ended before he was 25, and turn it into a full-blown biography is an accomplishment. Here’s a […]
Tagged as:
Al Clark,
Allen Barra,
baseball book industry,
Bill Madden,
Boots Poffenberger,
Grantland,
Josh Ostergaard,
Ted Williams
(Note: My review of Allen Barra’s latest appears on Bookreporter.com, and reprinted for your convenience below, with a few additional comments.) Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris may have been “the M&M boys” for a summer or two in the early 1960s, but Mantle, aka the “Commerce Comet,” and the “Say Hey Kid” (Willie Mays) were […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Jane Leavy,
Mickey Mantle,
Willie Mays
So much for the free access of information. You can read the opening of the Boston Globe‘s review of Allen Barra’s Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball’s Golden Age. Fortunately, there are other sources that are a bit moe “generous,” including the Chicago Tribune, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and New York […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Jeremy Affeldt,
Mickey Mantle,
Robert Weintraub,
To Stir a Movement,
Willie Mays
Besides my own book, there are some titles I’m really looking forward to this season. Among them: Keepers of the Game: When the Baseball Beat was the Best Job on the Paper by Dennis D’Agostino The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age by Robert Weintraub Mickey […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Baseball during World War II,
Doc Gooden,
Filip Bondy,
Ira Berkow,
Mickey Mantle,
Mike Piazza,
New York Mets,
Willard Mullin,
Willie Mays
Or “Coming soon to a bookstore near you.” As mentioned in the previous post about e-books, I occasionally scan Amazon to see what baseball titles are coming down the pike. Here is a list of those scheduled for release before the end of the year that seem particularly interesting. As usual, the literate baseball fan […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
McFarland & Company
♦ Bruce Spitzer, author of the sci-fi-ish novel about Ted Williams rising from the dead, was on Beyond the Game, a White Plains community access cable channel. ♦ ♦ Received a copy of Ronnie Joyner‘s new Hardball Legends and Journeymen and Short-Timers: 333 Illustrated Baseball Biographies yesterday. It’s a throwback to the days when newspapers […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Bruce Spitzer,
Cal Ripken,
Doug Glanville,
Ted Williams
Dave “No Relation” Kaplan is the executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, which has hosted some excellent author discussions over the years. (Allen Barra, author of Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee, and Neil Lanctot, author of Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, will explore the lives and legacies of baseball’s two […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
David Kaplan,
Neil Lanctot,
New York Yankees,
Roy Campanella,
Yogi Berra
Allen Barra, author of several notable baseball titles himself, offers this list of top five baseball fiction titles, including: Ring Around the Bases, by Ring Lardner Sometimes You See It Coming, by Kevin Baker The Brothers K, by David James Duncan Squeeze Play, by Jane Leavy (author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax: A […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Brothers K,
Jane Leavy,
Kevin Baker,
Robert Coover
Received this e-mail from author and frequent boo reviwer Allen Barra I wanted to share with you: Ron, I just read what you wrote about Jane Leavy’s Mickey Mantle bio and a quote her publicist used regarding my review of her 1990 baseball novel Squeeze Play. For the record, let me say that I do […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Jane Leavy,
Mickey Mantle
Jane Leavy’s new biography, The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, was officially released today, so look for lots of reviews in the days and weeks ahead. Here’s one from Henry D. Fetter in The Wall Street Journal. Upshot: What drives “The Last Boy” forward is the author’s quest to answer […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Jane Leavy,
Mickey Mantle
That’s Barra, not Berra, although the confusion would be easy to understand. Barra is the author, Berra is the subject of this new biography of the Yankees’ Hall of Fame catcher. The writer — whose work has appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and on-line on Salon.com, crafted this serious-yet-entertaining profile on […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Yogi Berra
King Kaufman conducted this Q&A with the new Berra Boswell. You can read it here or hear it here: http://media.salon.com/media/mp3/2009/03/conversations_barra.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
King Kaufman,
Salon.com,
Yogi Berra
By Jim Kaplan in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Upshot: Finally, a biography that does justice to the intelligence and might of baseball’s greatest catcher.
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Yogi Bera
The San Francisco Chronicle (are they still around? It’s hard to keep track.) published this review of the new Barra Berra book. Upshot: I was struck reading Allen Barra’s altogether sturdy and well-written biography at just how unusual a figure Yogi truly is. Barra (no relation, he thinks), an amiable, guys-talking-at-the-water-cooler type sportswriter best known […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Yogi Berra
The Washington Post‘s Steven V. Roberts wrote this review of Allen Barra’s new bio of the Yogster. I wonder how many that makes now. Of course, Berra was on a couple of other teams, but that went by the wayside. Barra is an interesting writer. One of his titles on my to-read list is the […]
Tagged as:
Allen Barra,
Yogi Berra
is available on Amazon.com,
