Baseball Books

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friend of a friend is putting out a graphic novel about satchel paige and jim crow...

http://www.cartoonstudies.org/books/paige/sample.html

j.q higgins, Thursday, 13 December 2007 18:56 (eighteen years ago)

the new Connie Mack bio by Norman Macht is sposed to be definitive.

Dr Morbius, Thursday, 13 December 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

three months pass...

I am enjoying that Neyer/James Book of Pitchers.

Got randyrolled yesterday.

Instead of the copy of Christy Mathewson's Pitching in a Pinch that I ordered, I got this.

felicity, Thursday, 3 April 2008 20:28 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.amazon.com/You-Gotta-Have-Robert-Whiting/dp/067972947X

Belisarius, Friday, 4 April 2008 07:30 (eighteen years ago)

Oh! I just read about that book and "wa" in the Cubs spring program.

It said that cultural differences between Japan and America were responsible for the Giants' inability to retain Manasori Murikami after 1965. Apparently the MLB negotiators were more strict in their reading of the reserve clause, whereas the Japanese expected the "spririt" of the deal to prevail. The article was pretty brief but I gather that the "spirit" referred to was that NPB used to send "non-prospects" to the U.S. for seasoning, and when Murikami turned into an actual MLB prspect, they felt that he should go back to Japan, despite the literal meaning of the contract language. It sounds like Murikami (semi-) voluntarily returned to NLP, even though he technically could have stayed in the U.S. under his contract.

I guess it was only because Nomo found some sort of legal loophole in the standard NLP contract that allowed him to sign with the Dodgers in the 1980s. Perhaps that represented some historical cultural shift in Japan's attitude to contract. More recently they seem to have stood on the letter of contract (much to their profit).

It didn't explain the "posting" process that well. Apparently Fukudome didn't have to be posted like other recent Japanese players.

"Wa" (group harmony) is neat. Let us bury our tomahawks and have wa on ILBB.

felicity, Friday, 4 April 2008 15:30 (eighteen years ago)

two months pass...

Just read Summer of '49 -- was kinda hoping for a 50/50 split regarding Sox / Yankees nostalgia-tinted schmooze, & not back-in-the-day when-men-were-men Yankeeography action clumsily intercut w/ "these are fans!" anecdotes. (Unrelated: every time DH leaned on Triple Crown stats or W-L records, I rolled my eyes.) Some cool stories & quotes & stuff, but doesn't really seem to congeal as a book so much, and "the great DiMaggio" can go fart in a hat.

Also read excerpts of that O'Nan / King 2004 Red Sox diary thing a while back. Whatever interest I had in pro-RSN propoganda was totally squelched by that piece of shit.

NB: I hate everything. :p

David R., Friday, 13 June 2008 17:39 (seventeen years ago)

the o'nan/king book was interesting early because that team did take a dip that looked like it would be their annual august swoon and o'nan totally starts ripping the team. but when they hold on and the playoffs it was too much even for me.

chicago kevin, Friday, 13 June 2008 17:47 (seventeen years ago)

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14260000/14268611.JPG

mookieproof, Saturday, 14 June 2008 03:14 (seventeen years ago)

I read "Summer of '49" when I was fifteen or so. I found it a bit long-winded and boring. No need to revisit it, I guess? :)

NoTimeBeforeTime, Sunday, 15 June 2008 15:33 (seventeen years ago)

apparently it's full of errors.

Dr Morbius, Monday, 16 June 2008 14:56 (seventeen years ago)

eight months pass...

We're pleased to make two major announcements to the SABR membership and the baseball community at large:

1) SABR is now the publisher of The Emerald Guide to Baseball, and
2) SABR is making the PDF version of The Emerald Guide to Baseball 2009 available as a FREE download from the members-only section of the website (and be sure to direct friends and family to sabr.org so they can get a copy too).

Edited by acclaimed baseball historians (and SABR members) Gary Gillette and Pete Palmer, The Emerald Guide distills the 2008 season down to 586 fact-filled pages that contain the pitching, fielding, and hitting statistics for every player active in the major and minor leagues in 2008. The Emerald Guide fills the hole in the baseball record left by the 2006 demise of the Sporting News Baseball Guide and contains all of the same features and then some, such as team-by-team daily results, a directory of important contacts, and a synopsis of the just-completed season. A bound version of The Emerald Guide is available via print on demand at Lulu.com for $23.94.

Making the PDF of The Emerald Guide available fre to anyone with accesss to a computer is a direct way for SABR to fulfill its mission of disseminating the history and record of baseball. And you, our members, help the organization fulfill this mission each and every day. One of our objectives is for sabr.org to be bookmarked by everyone with a serious interest in baseball. The Emerald Guide offers a step in that direction.

SABR plans to publish The Emerald Guide annually. Gillette and Palmer also authored 2007 and 2008 editions of The Emerald Guide (co-published with Sports-Reference). Free PDF versions of these editions are also available from the SABR website.

Thank you for your commitment to SABR and its mission. We hope you enjoy The Emerald Guide to Baseball 2009.

Sincerely,

John Zajc, Executive Director

http://sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,2766,36,0

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 20:28 (seventeen years ago)

fwiw, i third (?) bellisarius and felicity's recommendation of you gotta have wa. it provides a lot of interesting history of japanese baseball even if it's bit dated at this point. it would be interesting to see a new edition taking into account ichiro, matsui et al on one hand and bobby valentine on the other.

anybody have an opinion on that somewhat recent dimaggio bio? i think the author was richard cramer?

j.q higgins, Thursday, 12 March 2009 11:56 (seventeen years ago)

huh. how about that...

http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Way-Baseball-Impact-Ichiro/dp/0446694037/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236859004&sr=1-4

j.q higgins, Thursday, 12 March 2009 11:59 (seventeen years ago)

has anone bought the Fielding Bible II? Froma BP interview with author John Dewan:

The one thing I'd bring up that was kind of fun, was the analysis of Nate McLouth and Carlos Gomez; McLouth won a Gold Glove, and Gomez didn't. Carlos Gomez had the most defensive misplays in center field, which is a characteristic of young players that we've found; other young players up there are Delmon Young, B.J. Upton, and his brother, Justin Upton. All of these players have more defensive misplays. But Carlos Gomez covers so much more ground, that it just shows through on the number of runs saved. The difference that we found between Nate McLouth and Carlos Gomez was amazingly straightforward. Simply, Gomez is covering ground in deep center field, where fielding a ball is much more valuable, than Nate McLouth, who covers more ground in shallow center field, where making a catch means that you're saving a single. Gomez, meanwhile, is saving doubles and triples. It looks to be that the biggest problem for Nate McLouth is that he should play deeper. He has good skills and a lot of good fielding plays in our system, but when we break it down between shallow, medium, and deep, which is something we did in the book this year, he's plus on shallow balls, and minus on medium and deep.

also measures Varitek as worst recent Boston catcher, lol

Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 March 2009 21:16 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah that was weird though cuz it sort of seemed like the return of CERA which seems very suspect.

Alex in SF, Friday, 20 March 2009 21:28 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 SABR-Sporting News Awards: Ron Selter for Ballparks of the Deadball Era; Andy Strasberg, Bob Thompson and Tim Wiles for Baseball's Greatest Hit; and Jim Walker and Rob Bellamy for Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television. The winners will receive their awards on Saturday, August 1, 2009, in Washington, DC, at the JW Marriott, Pennsylvania Avenue during SABR's annual convention.

The Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award recognizes outstanding baseball research published in the previous calendar year in areas other than history and biography. The Award is designed to honor projects that do not fit the criteria for The Seymour Medal or the McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award. The Sporting News sponsors the $200 cash awards that accompany the honor.

Ballparks of the Deadball Era is Ronald Selter's comprehensive study of Deadball Era-ballparks and park effects, in which he shows the extent to which ballparks determined the style of play. Organized by major league city, this fact-filled, data-heavy commentary includes all 34 ballparks used by the American and National Leagues from 1901 through 1919.

In Baseball's Greatest Hit, Strasberg, Thompson, and Wiles present the complete story of the third-most frequently sung song in America: “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The book features countless photos and illustrations, providing a pictorial history of the song’s influence on the game and American culture. A bonus CD is also included, which features many rare and classic recordings of the song from artists such as Dr. John, the Ray Brown Trio, Carly Simon, and George Winston.

In Center Field Shot, Walker and Bellamy trace the sometimes contentious but mutually beneficial relationship between baseball and television, from the first televised game in 1939 to the contemporary era of Internet broadcasts, satellite radio, and high-definition TV. Ultimately, the association of baseball with television emerges as a reflection American culture at large.

Dr Morbius, Friday, 22 May 2009 01:19 (seventeen years ago)

seven months pass...

Baseball America's top ten of '09:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/book-guide/2009/269330.html

Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 January 2010 08:55 (sixteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Hair-Plastic-Grass-Baseball/dp/0312607547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266884385&sr=8-1

Thanks, Matos WK.

Andy K, Tuesday, 23 February 2010 00:33 (sixteen years ago)

dude's got a blog too!

http://www.bighairplasticgrass.com/

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 00:26 (sixteen years ago)

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/baseball-historians-get-their-own-hall/

Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 18:21 (sixteen years ago)

four weeks pass...

Anyone read this?

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Strikes-Out-Baseball-Promoted/dp/1595581952/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269999008&sr=8-3

Daleks in NYC (Leee), Wednesday, 31 March 2010 01:31 (sixteen years ago)

Started Fifty-Nine in '84 last night. It's pretty decent so far. A little too fond of sounding like a 19th c. newsman at times.

a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Wednesday, 31 March 2010 04:45 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ebooks/free_ebook.html

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 April 2010 11:49 (sixteen years ago)

Anyone have this coffee table book?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0711/neil.leifer.baseball.book/content.1.html

no turkey unless it's a club sandwich (polyphonic), Thursday, 8 April 2010 16:34 (sixteen years ago)

Fifty-nine in '84 was weirdly obsessed with the existence of hookers and the possibility that Hoss Radbourn's true love had been one

The Bullpen Gospels is basically a feel-good Ball Four. You get mentions of baseball groupies and drinking, but none of the gory details. Damn, I need to read Ball Four again.

a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Thursday, 15 April 2010 20:16 (sixteen years ago)

one month passes...

Haven't read it but I'm guessing it's solid.

Beyond Batting Average
Over the past few decades, a multitude of advanced hitting, pitching, fielding and base running measures have been introduced to the baseball world. This comprehensive sabermetrics primer will introduce you to these new statistics with easy to understand explanations and examples. It will illustrate the evolution of statistics from simple traditional measures to the more complex metrics of today. You will learn how all the statistics are connected to winning and losing games, how to interpret them, and how to apply them to performance on the field. By the end of this book, you will be able to evaluate players and teams through statistics more thoroughly and accurately than you could before.

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fStoreID=873874

Andy K, Monday, 17 May 2010 12:42 (sixteen years ago)

RFI: a basic baseball book for my GF. I feel like I need to introduce slash stats before I can get all wonky. Also, she watched a little of SNBB w/ me last night and, say what you will abt J morgan, having super slo-mo shots of swings is v v educational.

Astronaut Mike Dexter (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 17 May 2010 14:05 (sixteen years ago)

three months pass...

basic as far as analysis or history goes?

Allen Barra, a Birmingham native, has a history of Rickwood Field out:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/book-guide/2010/2610530.html

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:05 (fifteen years ago)

just finished The Bullpen Gospels last week. not a bad read. i preferred the lighthearted stuff over the more serious bits.

oreo speed wiggum (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:20 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2010/09/ball-four-more.html

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 24 September 2010 17:21 (fifteen years ago)

Haven't read the piece yet, but thanks for the link. Along with James's and Kael's books, and (its influence long since dissapated) The Catcher in the Rye, no book ever influenced me more. Read it at just the perfect time, when I was the 12th guy on my high-school basketball team, cracking wise about the despotic coach and some of the lunks ahead of me. I was booted off the team within a year or two of reading Ball Four; not sure if that would have happened without a nudge from Bouton.

clemenza, Friday, 24 September 2010 23:32 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

has anyone read "'78" by bill reynolds?

867-5309 (abdul) (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 23 November 2010 04:05 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

no.

John Thorn has an early-days history coming in March:

https://baseballeden.com/Home.html

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 29 January 2011 18:27 (fifteen years ago)

im reading '78 right now. BF got me eight men out for xmas, that's next.

dark link (roxymuzak), Saturday, 29 January 2011 18:45 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

David Ulin of the LA Times picks his all-time favorites:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/books/la-et-0331-baseball-books-20110331,0,7729658.story

your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 9 April 2011 14:34 (fifteen years ago)

"The Long Season" by Jim Brosnan (1960). Ten years before "Ball Four," Brosnan published the first (and still best) baseball diary

I've never heard of this book!

Was there nothing good written after 1983?

NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 9 April 2011 15:15 (fifteen years ago)

I liked the Bronsan book when I read it years ago, but I find it surprising that anyone would list it rather than--or at least alongside--Ball Four, unless you object to Bouton's book for the same reasons Bowie Kuhn and Mickey Mantle did.

clemenza, Saturday, 9 April 2011 15:20 (fifteen years ago)

This is perfect -- I was just hunting for a good baseball book list (and couldn't really find one anywhere).

Mordy, Saturday, 9 April 2011 23:04 (fifteen years ago)

Ball Four is a tough read - the narrator is so, I don't know, unlikeable (and not a good writer, though why should he be). Have read about a third and have put it into the "not right now" pile.

Mark C, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 17:34 (fifteen years ago)

I didn't read B4 til a couple years ago and found it immensely readable.

I've only read two of the books on that list in their entirety.

your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 17:37 (fifteen years ago)

ie, Malamud and Angell.

tho I miiiight have read the Breslin book on the Mets a very long time ago.

your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 17:38 (fifteen years ago)

the coover book is great but not really about baseball

congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 17:56 (fifteen years ago)

Ball Four is a tough read - the narrator is so, I don't know, unlikeable (and not a good writer, though why should he be).

Majorly, majorly disagree. Unlikeable, maybe--I find Bouton very likeable, more in love with the quirks and absurdities of baseball than an underpaid, aging reliever barely hanging on with a doomed franchise ought to be, but I can see where someone might find him to be a self-obsessed wiseass. But as to the other point, I think he's a better writer than most writers. (How much credit belongs with Leonard Shecter, his editor, I don't know.)

clemenza, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 18:49 (fifteen years ago)

Clemenza and I totally agree! Bouton is immensely likeable and a great writer. A lousy actor though. Laughable in the Long Goodbye.

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 20:12 (fifteen years ago)

No Eight Men Out? That's a very good book imo.

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 20:14 (fifteen years ago)

I couldn't make the adjustment to us agreeing, Alex...I think Bouton's fine in The Long Goodbye. Not an actor, agreed, but the guy he's playing is a superficial operator whose slickness is supposed to contrast with Gould's dogged, somewhat clumsy virtuousness, and by that yardstick I think he does okay. When he tells Marlowe at the end that that's the way it is, guys like him are chumps who are there to be taken advantage of, I find Bouton credibly slimy.

clemenza, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 21:38 (fifteen years ago)

I can't stand the movie so I don't really like anything about it.

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:04 (fifteen years ago)

Surprising...Just the movie itself, or '70s Altman in general? Mark Rydell delivers a line that's on my short-list of funniest ever.

clemenza, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:21 (fifteen years ago)

The movie. Although there are other 70s Altman flicks I can't stand there is plenty I love.

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:52 (fifteen years ago)

1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York, written by SABR members Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg, is the winner of the 2011 Seymour Medal, which honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.

http://sabr.org/latest/spatz-and-steinbergs-1921-awarded-2011-seymour-medal

your generation appalls me (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 April 2011 06:07 (fifteen years ago)

I think he means the story about him getting a blowjob.

Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Saturday, 11 May 2024 14:25 (two years ago)

That's in the book? I've either forgotten...or somehow managed to miss that altogether.

clemenza, Saturday, 11 May 2024 14:27 (two years ago)

i'm sayin that mantle shouldn't have been too mad at bouton for blowing him up in the book. because mantle did enough to blow himself up! https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mantle-piece/

, Saturday, 11 May 2024 14:29 (two years ago)

Ah, got it. I even tried searching "blow job"--lots of "job" results, a few "blow"s, but never together.

https://i.postimg.cc/bNL5D6bH/bouton.jpg

clemenza, Saturday, 11 May 2024 14:37 (two years ago)

two weeks pass...

One bright April afternoon in 1978, I attended a baseball game at Jingu Stadium, not far from where I lived and worked. It was the Central League season opener, first pitch at one o’clock, the Yakult Swallows against the Hiroshima Carp. I was already a Swallows fan in those days, so I sometimes popped in to catch a game—a substitute, as it were, for taking a walk.

Back then, the Swallows were a perennially weak team (you might guess as much from their name) with little money and no flashy big-name players. Naturally, they weren’t very popular. Season opener it may have been, but only a few fans were sitting beyond the outfield fence. I stretched out with a beer to watch the game. At the time there were no bleacher seats there, just a grassy slope. The sky was a sparkling blue, the draft beer as cold as could be, and the ball strikingly white against the green field, the first green I had seen in a long while. The Swallows’ first batter was Dave Hilton, a skinny newcomer from the States, and a complete unknown. He batted in the lead-off position. The cleanup hitter was Charlie Manuel, who later became famous as the manager of the Cleveland Indians and the Philadelphia Phillies. Then, though, he was a real stud, a slugger the Japanese fans had dubbed “the Red Demon.”

I think Hiroshima’s starting pitcher that day was Yoshiro Sotokoba. Yakult countered with Takeshi Yasuda. In the bottom of the first inning, Hilton slammed Sotokoba’s first pitch into left field for a clean double. The satisfying crack when the bat met the ball resounded throughout Jingu Stadium. Scattered applause rose around me. In that instant, for no reason and based on no grounds whatsoever, it suddenly struck me: I think I can write a novel.

I can still recall the exact sensation. It felt as if something had come fluttering down from the sky, and I had caught it cleanly in my hands. I had no idea why it had chanced to fall into my grasp. I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now. Whatever the reason, it had taken place. It was like a revelation. Or maybe “epiphany” is a better word. All I can say is that my life was drastically and permanently altered in that instant—when Dave Hilton belted that beautiful, ringing double at Jingu Stadium.

After the game (Yakult won, as I recall), I took the train to Shinjuku and bought a sheaf of writing paper and a fountain pen. Word processors and computers weren’t around back then, which meant we had to write everything by hand, one character at a time. The sensation of writing felt very fresh. I remember how thrilled I was. It had been such a long time since I had put fountain pen to paper.

Each night after that, when I got home late from work, I sat at my kitchen table and wrote. Those few hours before dawn were practically the only time I had free. Over the six or so months that followed, I wrote Hear the Wind Sing. I wrapped up the first draft right around the time the baseball season ended. Incidentally, that year the Yakult Swallows bucked the odds and almost everyone’s predictions to win the Central League pennant, then went on to defeat the Pacific League champions, the pitching-rich Hankyu Braves, in the Japan Series. It was truly a miraculous season that sent the hearts of all Yakult fans soaring.

-- Haruki Murakami, from the introduction to the 2015 edition of Wind/Pinball

mookieproof, Friday, 31 May 2024 02:03 (two years ago)

The whole intro is great:

https://lithub.com/haruki-murakami-the-moment-i-became-a-novelist/

It's kind of insane how he's insecure of his English as within a decade he would be living and teaching university level in the USA.

Supposedly he was teaching at Wellesley College as recently as last year?

Mrs. Ippei (Steve Shasta), Friday, 31 May 2024 03:08 (two years ago)

four weeks pass...

St. Marys' town book sale runs until tomorrow. I helped set up earlier in the week, so I get to see everything before it's put out. (Like one of those annoying people who shows up at garage sales an hour early.) I think the HOF donated some items this year. Nothing is priced, you pay by donation. I got a lot...Over three hauls I donated $65, partly out of guilt because I was getting an early look, partly because I know how good the good stuff is. "Just take it, you're a volunteer"--tempting, believe me, but I can't do that. The baseball stuff (also a few CDs and DVDs):

-- autographed 8x10"s of Fergie Jenkins, Larry Walker, and Ernie Whitt; those guys do visit the HOF here (Fergie often), so I'm 97% sure these are actual autographs and not facsimiles
-- a dozen or so Jays media guides, Who's Who in Baseballs, and Sporting News Dope Books going back to the '70s (including the '78 Jays Media Guide, now the earliest one I have)
-- The DiMaggio Albums, a pricey thing (over $100) that came out in '89; you can still get it for half that on Amazon, so I guess they didn't sell nearly as many as they expected
-- five issues of The National Pastime, the publication SABR put out, including the first one from 1982
-- SABR's Minor League Baseball Stars, Volume II
-- Patrick Harrigan's The Detroit Tigers: Club and Community, 1945-1995
-- George Vecsey's Joy in Mudville (history of the Mets)
-- Bill Libby's Baseball's Greatest Sluggers (chapters on Ruth, Foxx, Williams, Mays, and Aaron)
-- Peter Golenbock's Fenway
-- Craig Wright and Tom House's The Diamond Appraised (early sabermetric-leaning book)
-- Marshall Smelser's The Life That Ruth Built
-- Robert Ashe's Even the Babe Came to Play
-- Pat Jordan's A False Spring
-- Steve Jacobson's The Best Team Money Could Buy ('77 Yankees--will read this first)
-- Red Barber's 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball

clemenza, Friday, 28 June 2024 20:39 (one year ago)

A few more from the same sale (over at 5:00 today, saving me from myself):

Robert Creamer's Mickey Mantle: The Quality of Courage
Charles Alexander's John McGraw
Tom Gorman's Three and Two! (umpire, before my time I think)
Frank Graham's The New York Yankees: An Informal History
Zev Chafets' Cooperstown Confidential
Harvey Frommer's New York City Baseball
Peter Golenbock's Bums
Mac Davis's Baseball's Unforgettables (couldn't possibly be the same guy)
Arnold Hano's Willie Mays

...which I think I already have with a different cover; published when Mays was still active.

https://i.postimg.cc/vBhBzqpH/hano.jpg

clemenza, Saturday, 29 June 2024 16:41 (one year ago)

one month passes...

Ordered this yesterday (the author did a guest-post on Posnanski's Substack):

https://i.postimg.cc/L4PMWxct/locker.jpg

Ludtke was covering the WS for Sports Illustrated in 1977 and had a run-in with Bowie Kuhn about locker-room access.

clemenza, Friday, 16 August 2024 15:12 (one year ago)

two months pass...

a brief o. henry story. we really need to bring back 'daisy cutters' as slang for ground balls

A Personal Insult

A YOUNG LADY in Houston became engaged last summer to one of the famous short stops of the Texas base ball league.

Last week he broke the engagement, and this is the reason why:

He had a birthday last Tuesday, and she sent him a beautiful bound and illustrated edition of Coleridge’s famous poem, “The Ancient Mariner.”

The hero of the diamond opened the book with a puzzled look.

“What’s dis bloomin’ stuff about anyways?” he said.

He read the first two lines:

It is the Ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three—

The famous short stop threw the book out the window, stuck out his chin, and said:

“No Texas sis can gimme de umpire face like dat. I swipes nine daisy cutters outer ten dat comes in my garden, I do.”

mookieproof, Wednesday, 30 October 2024 02:31 (one year ago)

three months pass...

The Banty, Blustering Genius of Earl Weaver
The famous Baltimore Orioles manager gets a vivid new biography, the book equivalent of “a screaming triple into the left field corner.”

https://archive.is/k48r4#selection-703.0-707.136

mookieproof, Wednesday, 26 February 2025 23:58 (one year ago)

My favourite manager ever, second-favourite sabermetrician; will buy and read for sure.

clemenza, Thursday, 27 February 2025 04:48 (one year ago)

six months pass...

^^As I posted on another thread, that Weaver book turned out to be excellent.

Joe Posnanski's 10 greatest sports books ever--baseball at #4, 3, and 1.

10. Levels of the Game, John McPhee
9. The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated, Michael MacCambridge
8. (tie): The City Game, Pete Axthelm; Heaven Is a Playground; Rick Telander.
7. When Pride Still Mattered, David Maraniss.
6. Season on the Brink, John Feinstein
5. Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
4. Ball Four, Jim Bouton
3. The New Bill James Historical Abstract, Bill James
2. Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby
1. The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn

My own picks for the three greatest baseball books would be the same Bouton and James, then the Big Mac encyclopedia (don't have the first edition--my first one went up to '73, I believe).

clemenza, Tuesday, 9 September 2025 17:18 (eight months ago)

With Joe's own The Baseball 100 not too far behind.

clemenza, Tuesday, 9 September 2025 17:20 (eight months ago)

St. Marys Library book sale (think they all came from the HOF here):

The Treasures of Major League Baseball - MLB coffee-table thing
Nineteenth Century Stars - SABR publication
The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History - Phil Dixon
Baseball Graphics '79 Sampler - John Warner Davenport: a 14-page pamphlet that goes for $50 online
My Favorite Summer 1956 - Mickey Mantle & Phil Pepe: uncorrected proof
The World Series: The Statistical Record - Harold R. Paretchan
Lost Summer: The '67 Red Sox and the Impossbile Dream - Bill Reynolds
The Scooter: The Phil Rizzuto Story - Gene Schoor
Roger Maris: A Man for All Seasons - Maury Allen
Run, Rabbit, Run: The Hilarious and Mostly True Tales of Rabbit Maranville - Rabbit Maranville
The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant - Robin Roberts & C. Paul Rogers III
The Perfect Game - collection of SABR writing, foreword by Bill James
The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together - Michael Shapiro
Newark Bears - Randolph Linthurst - SABR publication
The Record Makers of the American Association - 1945 edition
Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Perspectives - Vol. 1, No. 1, Fall '92
Saskatchewan Historical Baseball Review - 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, 1996, 1997 editions
Who's Who in Baseball - 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 editions

+ various media guides: '74 Padres, '75 Reds, '75 Red Sox, '75 Mets, '75 Indians, '76 Reds

+ autographed copy of The Game Is Easy - Life Is Hard, Dorothy Turcotte's biography of Fergie Jenkins (found the same last year, will give this one to a friend)

clemenza, Monday, 15 September 2025 17:28 (eight months ago)

https://i.postimg.cc/QMgHgPNp/review.jpg

clemenza, Monday, 15 September 2025 17:32 (eight months ago)

two months pass...

Didn't know about this till I found a used copy yesterday:

https://i.postimg.cc/wMGqR6gZ/pirates.jpg

Came out in 2007...I don't read too many baseball books pre-mid-'60s, so expect to learn a lot. That was the Series where the Yankees outscored (55-27!) and thoroughly outplayed the Pirates but lost anyway on Mazeroski's famous walk-off. So 1) may be too close for comfort, and 2) I'll be reading from the perspective of a Yankees fan? Yikes.

clemenza, Sunday, 7 December 2025 16:16 (six months ago)

five months pass...

Defector reads The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

https://defector.com/the-universal-baseball-association-inc-j-henry-waugh-prop-drab

mookieproof, Saturday, 30 May 2026 20:21 (one week ago)

Non paywalled:
https://archive.is/kJnP7

I love that book and think about it a lot. Less for what it says about baseball and more for what it says about how we constitute our own reality as we live it, as a narrative we weave around what are essentially dice rolls, and if there's anything more than that where we flex our will, what are those moments, and what do they say about us?

It's wild to realise that it was written before D&D existed

Tracer Hand, Saturday, 30 May 2026 22:29 (one week ago)

Like.. one of the yawning horrors at the heart of baseball is that much of it is essentially narrativeless, that teams are unable to meaningfully adjust their chances of executing in high or low leverage situations, that all they can do is just try to take care of the details and hope the outcomes take care of themselves, but we the fans see each game as a story, we experience each game as a story, it's hard-wired into us, it's impossible not to. And is that also perhaps not also one of the yawning horrors at the heart of human lives?

Tracer Hand, Saturday, 30 May 2026 22:31 (one week ago)

<3

mookieproof, Sunday, 31 May 2026 00:24 (one week ago)


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