Long Overdue Biography of Babe Ruth Rang True You Know Me Al This Great Game Pete Palmer NYT Best-sellers, 2012 edition, for Vintage Books SCD Commy Bucky Harris Bean and the Cod Bill Shannon McGraw\/ 30 Years Milton Gross\/ Yankee Doodles Bready Breslin Mel Allen Big Mac Rosenthal Jimmy Piersall Daguerreotypes The Ultimate Baseball Book SF Giants Oral History Red & Green Books The Phillies Hank Greenberg Saluted with Cooperstown Ceremony Farewell Yankee & Shea Douglass Wallop The Red Sox Jerome Holtzman Charles Alexander Connie Mack The Mitchell Report Phil Rizzuto Who’s Who In Baseball Israel Bronx Sol White Pepe False Spring Ross Newhan Bowie Kuhn Hornsby Book of Baseball Sporting News Baseball Guides Books on Commissioners World of Baseball Meany Lee Allen Bronx Zoo Branch Rickey Fireside Books of Baseball Saddest of Possible Words: Tinker to Evers to Chance Joe Garagiola: Baseball is a Funny Game Robert Smith & Jack Rosenberg Bob Feller & Stan Musial Evolution of Baseball Encyclopedias Don Honig & David Voigt Collective Works of Babe, Lou, Joe & Mickey Harold Seymour Ray Robinson’s Baseball Stars Series Putnam Team Histories Glory of Their Times Gene Schoor Who’s Who in ML Baseball Eight Men Out Great Players, Great Games Only The Ball Was White Growing Up on Babe, Ty & Lou Ken Smith Bob Creamer\/Babe Ruth A Day in the Bleachers John Durant Maury Allen Dick Young Marc Okkonen Bklyn Dodgers Jim Brosnan NY Times Best Sellers <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long Overdue Biography of Babe Ruth Rang True In this centennial year of Babe Ruth\u2019s professional and Major League debut, it is interesting to note that the first book about him was not published until 1930, by which time he… Continue Reading
\n<\/strong><\/a>In this centennial year of Babe Ruth\u2019s professional and Major League debut, it is interesting to note that the first book about him was not published until 1930, by which time he was already one of the most recognized people in America. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It’s been nearly a century since Ring Lardner introduced America to a smart-ass ballplayer named Jack Keefe, and readers were able to get inside Keefe’s head with letters he wrote to his pal Al Blanchard back in their hometown of Bedford, Indiana. This was all before Babe Ruth, the lively ball, the Black Sox and radio. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It was 1971, the start of Major League baseball’s 11th decade, and MLB published what was essentially its’ first “coffee table” book, a handsome volume called This Great Game. This was a major feat for baseball, which had never been particularly astute in marketing itself. \u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>From 1951 until its 10th and final edition in 1979, the Official Encyclopedia of Baseball by Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson was the standard of baseball research in encyclopedic form, even it the stats were limited to games and either batting average or won-lost record. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Twenty-eight baseball books made the New York Times best-seller list in the decade of the 2000s (great than the total from 1935-1999). There have been nine so far in the 2010s. Fans are buying baseball books like never before.\u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>\u201cThis year, 1919, is the greatest season of them all.\u201d So said Charles A. Comiskey, owner of the White Sox, in his biography, \u201cCommy,\u201d published just months before the Black Sox lost the World Series and nearly destroyed the public trust in baseball when eight of its players conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Harris is a somewhat forgotten figure in baseball history, but half a century ago, he was one of the best-known in the game, and at the time, fourth among all managers in career victories. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>As Fenway Park approaches its 100th anniversary in 2012, I turned recently to a long forgotten book from 1947, which glorified the Red Sox franchise long before it became the darling of literary society and the focal point of a \u201cRed Sox Nation\u201d concept. The book was called The Red Sox: The Bean and the Cod, and if you grew up in the \u201840s and \u201850s as a Red Sox fan, it was \u201cmust reading,\u201d because there wasn\u2019t much else. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The New York sports scene was rocked in late October by the death of Bill Shannon, 69, at a fire in his New Jersey home. Shannon was one of those fellows you thought would go forever, and in fact, never even considered what his age might be. He was best known to New Yorkers as the lead official scorer at both Yankee and Met games \u2013 he\u2019d been doing it since 1979 \u2013 and so occasionally, if a controversial call came up, the broadcasters might mention his name. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The Giants world championship last fall, their first in San Francisco, had people recalling how few World Series this storied franchise had actually won over its long history. Even the great John McGraw, the team\u2019s legendary manager, won only three World Series in his ten appearances in the post-season, which would surprise most people. \u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>In preparing a forthcoming volume on the history of the Yankees, I recently stumbled on a fairly obscure book published in 1948, which, it turns out, was a little gem of a book! The reason for it\u2019s high rating is that the author, Milton Gross, was a top rate journalist, part of a hustling team of New York Post sportswriters who would come into their own in the late \u201850s and \u201860s, but by 1948 was already taking shape. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Before they slipped into their current funk, the Baltimore Orioles were considered one of the classiest, best-run organizations in baseball by those who worked in the game. And as if often the case with such reputations, published material, either by the team or by outsiders reflected that.\u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The original Mets, the 1962 reincarnation of National League baseball in New York, the team that lost 120 games and played in the Polo Grounds, is a team now glorified in New York folklore and sports history. No expansion team since has managed to win over so many fans with such horrendous play. \u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I wonder sometimes if Mel Allen would get hired today to broadcast baseball. I mean, today\u2019s top broadcasters come loaded with situational stats and the benefit of well spoken colormen, and the ability to brush up on opponents by easily following other teams on the Internet in the days before the games begin. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>And now, a word about Big Mac. I\u2019ve been spending a lot of time at Baseball-Reference.com lately, finding new twists and turns, and admiring all that it includes. What a fabulous site it is. \u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It\u2019s been ten years since Harold Rosenthal passed away at 85, and those of us who attended his memorial service (quite a literary affair), still miss the rascal and still grouse about the New York Times not deeming him worthy of an obituary. He was a giant on the New York sports scene for decades, and was even an impact player in retirement, with his letters and occasional columns always stirring up good conversation. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Jimmy Piersall was in the news recently, with some memories stirred over a loony event from 1963 when he hit his 100th home run \u2013 and ran the bases backwards. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Daguerreotypes. Funny name, yes? Da-GUR-e-o-types. Daguerreotypes of Great Stars of Baseball. It was a terrific book in its day, and an argument could be made that it would still be, if updated. But it\u2019s been nearly 20 years since the last edition. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>This year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of \u201cThe Ultimate Baseball Book\u201d, and after 30 years, it still does a good job at holding onto that title.It\u2019s not a statistical wonder, and there have been other fine coffee table books published since, but using the word \u201cultimate\u201d was a great marketing tool, and no one who has bought this book has ever felt shortchanged. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>With the publishing industry entering rough seas during our nation\u2019s recession, (let me know when we can start calling it Great Depression II), many authors of marginally mainstream books are finding happiness in the world of self-publishing. \u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Baseball America\u2019s Almanac stands alone as the hard copy annual Guide, and who knows how long that will last. More and more publications are abandoning hard copies in favor of online only versions. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>While baseball celebrates the success of the Philadelphia Phillies and their 2008 world championship, it is interesting to recall \u2013 especially for younger fans \u2013 how sad this franchise\u2019s history has generally been. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The 75th anniversary of Hank Greenberg\u2019s rookie season was celebrated with a day-long symposium and film screening at the Baseball Hall of Fame on June 29, which also featured the introduction of two Greenberg-related collectibles. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Doesn\u2019t it seem like to earth should shake a little when the last out is recorded in Yankee Stadium next fall? Or when the (I can hardly say it) wrecking ball hits. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I noticed recently that a new version of Damn Yankees was back on the stage in New York. It\u2019s a terrific play that never seems to grow tired, and it gets revived every 15 years or so and finds new audiences. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>We always hear that the Red Sox attract the most literary attention and bring out the finest in writers whether from the world of sports, or outside of it. Think Stephen King, David Halberstam or John Updike. That is part of what we now know as Red Sox Nation \u2013 a gathering place in sports for the nation\u2019s literati. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Growing up with The Sporting News as a bible (it was, after all, the \u201cBible of Baseball\u201d), those of us of the right age were exposed on a weekly basis to the baseball columns of Dick Young, Joe Falls, Jim Murray, Bob Addie, Shirley Povich, Melvin Durslag, Leonard Koppett, Jerome Holtzman, Furman Bisher and others. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>When you think about it, I guess we don\u2019t really need biographies written for every member of the Hall of Fame. The story of Joe Kelley, for instance, who played 1891-1908 and went into the Hall of Fame in 1971, is one we seem to have managed without just fine. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I was recently researching some facts about the 1950 season, which was Connie Mack\u2019s last as a manager. It has always struck me as fascinating that rookie Whitey Ford actually pitched in the major leagues with Connie Mack in the opposing dugout. In Mack\u2019s first year as a manager, 1894, he managed against King Kelly. Talk about spanning the generations. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I needed several days to digest all of the Mitchell Report material and decide how I felt about it, and how it will affect baseball. And now, several days later, there is still too much information to process. I feel somewhat overwhelmed by it all. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The recent passing of Phil Rizzuto, at 89 the oldest living Hall of Famer, brought back so many wonderful memories for me. It was hard to think of Scooter \u2013 even in the week he passed away \u2013 without a smile. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It being the week before Opening Day, I stopped at my local magazine store and purchased the 2008 edition of \u201cWho\u2019s Who in Baseball.\u201d I\u2019ve been doing this now for 47 years, but this is the 93rd edition, as it says on the cover, so I am sure there are others with a longer streak going. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I had the pleasure of being part of two rather extraordinary events within days of each other recently, with both getting a lot of interest from baseball fans. First, I was on a public relations assignment to Israel for the launch of the first pro baseball league in the Middle East – the Israel Baseball League. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>So King Solomon White is in the Baseball Hall of Fame! What do you know! I was thinking of doing a column on Sol White’s “History of Colored Baseball” one of these days, and bang, he becomes one of the 17 with Negro League roots to go into the Hall of Fame! more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Phil Pepe has averaged almost a book a year wrapped around a journalism and broadcasting career that goes back to 1954 when he began working part-time for the New York World Telegram & Sun. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>We lovers of baseball books grew up clinging to every word in Jim Brosnan’s two diaries and to Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four,” but in 1975 came a different sort of first person account, one that might have been titled, “Portrait of a Baseball Failure.” more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Imagine being a pitcher and having a year so dominating, that they move the mound back ten feet the following season. Not just for you, but for everyone, and you\u2019re the reason. You\u2019re just too good for the game, and it can\u2019t continue under existing standards without too many people striking out. Moving the mound changes the course of baseball forever, and it\u2019s all your doing. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Memoirs by baseball\u2019s handful of commissioners are important volumes for students of baseball history, but they have generally been a mixed bag in terms of satisfying our curiosities. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Who was grumpy about baseball way back in 1962? The answer is Rogers Hornsby, that ol’ .358 lifetime hitter, 7-time batting champion, two-time MVP, and probably the best second baseman in the game’s history, who by then had put 48 years in as a player, manager, coach and scout. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It’s been 96 years since baseball had its first “coffee table” book, a term that didn’t even exist during the Taft administration. Today, coffee table books about baseball are turned out all the time, but it was a breakthrough then and it was called “The Book of Baseball: From the Earliest Day to the Present Season.” more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Quietly, like the passing of Oldsmobiles, Hydrox cookies and sports cartoonists, the Sporting News Official Baseball Guides passed from the scene this year. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Memoirs by baseball\u2019s handful of commissioners are important volumes for students of baseball history, but they have generally been a mixed bag in terms of satisfying our curiosities. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Almost 15 years ago, a beautiful set of baseball books was introduced, intended to be sold as a continuing series, to number 20 volumes when complete, and to take its place among the more handsomely designed books on the game ever issued. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Tom Meany was one of the gentleman writers of baseball in the mid-section of the 20th century, whose books and magazine articles were a staple of what the nation\u2019s fans of the time seemed to demand: good reporting, nothing too controversial, writing designed to harbor baseball as the National Pastime.\u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>If you haven\u2019t noticed, the classic pitching windup is a goner. With the exception of Hideo Nomo, there really aren\u2019t any pitchers who bring their hands over their head prior to delivery, an act that managed to survive for more than a century but has quietly all but vanished from the baseball landscape. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The Yankees\u2019 Sparky Lyle was the first relief pitcher to ever win the American League Cy Young Award. A few days after the award was announced, the Yanks went out and signed Goose Gossage to take his job. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Branch Rickey, one of the most influential figures in baseball history, never wrote his autobiography. We have autobiographies from Joe Charboneau, Bo Belinsky, and Eldon Auker, but nothing from the man who integrated baseball, created the farm system, and allowed 13 runners to steal while catching for the New York Highlanders in 1907 (still an American League record). more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The recent publication of \u201cBaseball: A Literary Anthology\u201d by the Library of America (edited by Nicholas Dawidoff) has been hailed as one of the best new baseball books of the year, but to many, it really recalls those wonderful \u201cFireside Books\u201d edited by Charles Einstein beginning almost half a century ago. What fun they were! more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>This year marks the 100th anniversary of the appearance in a Cubs box score of a double play marked 6-4-3, \u201cTinker to Evers to Chance.\u201d It would be six years before Franklin P. Adams immortalized the three by writing a poem about them in the New York World under the title \u201cBaseball\u2019s Sad Lexicon.\u201d more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>As best as I can determine, the first baseball book to ever hit the New York Times best seller list was \u201cBaseball is a Funny Game\u201d by Joe Garagiola, published in 1960. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>This is a little column about two baseball pictorial history books I always liked. There is a lot of repetition between them, but you can only tell the story in so many ways. The best part for me, certainly, were the wonderful photos \u2013 hundreds of them, all black and white \u2013 that defined early baseball for me. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The sad passing of Ted Williams reduces to just two, the last of the \u2018immortals of baseball\u2019, players who were already stars before Jackie Robinson integrated pro baseball and took us into the post-war, modern era. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Long before lovers of baseball stats fell in love with Total Baseball and before that, The Baseball Encyclopedia (\u201cBig Mac,\u201d after MacMillan, the publisher), there were three important works that preceded it. And although they are long out of date and as such, not especially important anymore, they were the roots from which Big Mac and Total Baseball emerged. It is worth remembering them. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>We recently caught up with the man who may be the most prolific of all baseball authors, Donald Honig. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It sounds like a joke, right?\u201c The Collective Works of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.\u201d more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>A few months ago we did a column on the late Gene Schoor, the prolific author of sports biographies. In the article, we cited a similar author of the times, Milton Shapiro, and made note of a lawsuit involving his biography of Warren Spahn, which seemed to bring an end to the Messner biographies many of us enjoyed in the \u201850s and \u201860s. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>One of the best series of baseball paperbacks was the long-running \u201cBaseball Stars\u201d books, which began in 1950 and ended in 1975. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Shortly after Lou Gehrig\u2019s tragic death in 1941, sportswriter Frank Graham approached G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons, a New York-based publisher, with an idea for a Gehrig biography. The result, \u201cA Quiet Hero,\u201d was one of their major successes for the next two decades, went to more than 20 printings, and was practically required reading for schoolboys. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Two score and two hernias ago, Lawrence Ritter, a professor of economics and finance at NYU, set forth on a 75,000-mile journey that would lead to the publication of what is arguably the finest baseball book ever written. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It was in fourth grade that I did a book report on Mickey Mantle of the Yankees by Gene Schoor. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Of all the \u201cclassic\u201d early baseball books still to be found at pricey used book stores and through antiquarian dealers, an 8 \u00bd x 11, hardcover volume from 1933 remains one of the most handsome and informative reference works ever associated with the game. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>One of the amazing things about the wonderful book \u201cEight Men Out\u201d is that it was the first book written about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, and it took 44 years to get the story told. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>When Willie McCovey broke into the big leagues on July 30, 1959, he smacked two singles and two triples in his debut game, and by the next day, the whole nation was talking about Willie McCovey. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>In the history of baseball literature, few books were able to break new ground as did \u201cOnly the Ball Was White,\u201d written by Robert Peterson and published by Prentice-Hall in 1970. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I meet a lot of fans today who tell me the first baseball book they remember falling in love with was Jim Bouton\u2019s Ball Four. Those would be fans who are in their 40s now or just about getting there. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>When we watch the sensational fielding in Major League Baseball today, perhaps all the more remarkable because of the risk players throw themselves into despite their guaranteed contracts and enormous wages, we have to wonder, \u201cCan it get any better?\u201d more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The best baseball biography ever written, for my money, was BABE: The Legend Comes to Life, by Robert W. Creamer. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The Willie Mays catch. No further explanation is really needed, is it? Any baseball fan who can talk about the great plays in history knows about that over-the-shoulder, back-to-the-plate catch Willie made in Game One of the 1954 World Series (not to mention the throw that followed), and knows it was one for the ages. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>I have a feeling we are going to see baggy baseball uniforms again in my lifetime. Or maybe in yours. Call it the \u201cwhatever goes around\u201d syndrome, but they can only be tight or baggy, and it just seems to me that the black culture or the Latin culture are going to bring this to baseball just as Chris Webber and his teammates at Michigan changed the look of basketball uniforms in the early \u201890s. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Maury Allen\u2019s 36th book, Brooklyn Remembered, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers\u2019 only world championship in Brooklyn. Maury has been so closely identified with the Mets over the years, that we found it necessary to ask which was his favorite franchise \u2013 the \u201cBums\u201d or the \u201cAmazins.\u201d more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>More than a half century ago, A.S. Barnes and Company, a champion in the publication of baseball books, created an annual series with biographies of the winners of the MVP Awards. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The recent World Series pairing of the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox found a lot of columnists and commentators recalling the strange history of the uniforms worn by the two teams. From the Astros \u201cColt 45 revolver\u201d uniforms at their inception, to the rainbow Cesar Cedeno era jerseys, there was plenty to smile about. As for the Sox, they were the first team to wear \u201cthrowback\u201d uniforms \u2013 and fulltime at that \u2013 when the 1976 team took on the look of the 1902 team. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers only world championship (The Marlins have already won two!) also creates an opportunity to look back at some of the literature surrounding this colorful franchise. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>It\u2019s been 60 years since he signed his first pro contract (at age 16!), and 46 years since the publication of \u201cThe Long Season\u201d, but Jim Brosnan\u2019s place in the hearts of admirers of baseball literature remains secure. more<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong>Here\u2019s something for book collectors to ponder: would it make an interesting collection to have a copy of every baseball book to ever make The New York Times best seller list? more<\/a><\/p>\n