The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread which is focused on the history of baseball.

Go Cubs!!!!!

(Gotta get that in first.)

So much baseball history out there. I will start things off.

A great early history on Cobb:
by Charles C. Alexander

And McGraw:
by Charles C. Alexander

The author wrote a first-rate history:
by Charles C. Alexander

Library Journal:
This coherent narrative history captures the glory, the excitement, and the occasional scandal (from the Chicago "Black Sox" of 1919 to Pete Rose in the 1980s) that characterize the country's favorite sport. Entertaining and informative without flogging readers with a plethora of numbing statistics, Alexander's style should appeal to fans and students of baseball lore. A book that should readily lend itself as a tool in teaching modern American social and cultural history.

Here are some others:

Harold Seymour

Focusing on the years 1903 to 1930, Dr. Seymour discusses the emergence of the two major leagues and the World Series, the bitter trade struggles and pennant rivalries, and such legendary figures as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.

by Geoffrey C. Ward

George Vecsey
Publisher's Weekly:
New York Times sports columnist Vecsey (Year in the Sun) devotes himself to this sprightly history of the national pastime. His survey unfolds much like a highlights tape, with a breezy background narrative of the game from its pre–Civil War roots to its current drug scandals, structured around set pieces spotlighting the outsized deeds of luminaries like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey and George Steinbrenner. He finds plenty of time for color commentary, like an appreciation of radio announcers' whimsical homerun catch-phrases (" 'Get up Aunt Minnie and raise the window!' " Pirates voice Rosey Roswell was wont to yell), cantankerous opinionating ("Trying to be fair and neutral about it, I can only say that the designated hitter rule is a travesty and ought to be tossed out") and ruminations on the ultimate metaphysical question of "why the Yankees exist." Throughout, the author stresses the game's continuities: modern-day anxieties about free agentry, labor strife and the bereavement of cities abandoned by their teams for greener pastures have plagued baseball from the beginning. Vivid, affectionate and clear-eyed, Vecsey's account makes for an engaging sports history.

(no image)Baseball's Greatest ExperimentJules Tygiel

In this gripping account of one of the most important steps in the history of American desegregation, Jules Tygiel tells the story of Jackie Robinson's crossing of baseball's color line. Examining the social and historical context of Robinson's introduction into white organized baseball, both on and off the field, Tygiel also tells the often neglected stories of other African-American players--such as Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron--who helped transform our national pastime into an integrated game. Drawing on dozens of interviews with players and front office executives, contemporary newspaper accounts, and personal papers, Tygiel provides the most telling and insightful account of Jackie Robinson's influence on American baseball and society. The anniversary issue features a new foreword by the author.

Robert W. Peterson

Product info:
Early in the 1920s, the New York Giants sent a scout to watch a young Cuban play for Foster's American Giants, a baseball club in the Negro Leagues. During one at-bat this talented slugger lined a ball so hard that the rightfielder was able to play it off the top of the fence and throw Christobel Torrienti out at first base. The scout liked what he saw, but was disappointed in the player's appearance. "He was a light brown," recalled one of Torrienti's teammates, "and would have gone up to the major leagues, but he had real rough hair." Such was life behind the color line, the unofficial boundary that prevented hundreds of star-quality athletes from playing big-league baseball.
When Only the Ball Was White was first published in 1970, Satchel Paige had not yet been inducted into the Hall of Fame and there was a general ignorance even among sports enthusiasts of the rich tradition of the Negro Leagues. Few knew that during the 1930s and '40s outstanding black teams were playing regularly in Yankee Stadium and Brooklyn's Ebbets Field. And names like Cool Papa Bell, Rube Foster, Judy Johnson, Biz Mackey, and Buck Leonard would bring no flash of smiling recognition to the fan's face, even though many of these men could easily have played alongside Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Hack Wilson, Lou Gehrig--and shattered their records in the process. Many baseball pundits now believe, for example, that had Josh Gibson played in the major leagues, he would have surpassed Babe Ruth's 714 home runs before Hank Aaron had even hit his first. And the great Dizzy Dean acknowledged that the best pitcher he had ever seen was not Lefty Grove or Carl Hubbell, but rather "old Satchel Paige, that big lanky colored boy."
In Only the Ball Was White, Robert Peterson tells the forgotten story of these excluded ballplayers, and gives them the recognition they were so long denied. Reconstructing the old Negro Leagues from contemporary sports publications, accounts of games in the black press, and through interviews with the men who actually played the game, Peterson brings to life the fascinating period that stretched from shortly after the Civil War to the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1947. We watch as the New York Black Yankees and the Philadelphia Crawfords take the field, look on as the East-West All-Star lineups are announced, and listen as the players themselves tell of the struggle and glory that was black baseball. In addition to these vivid accounts, Peterson includes yearly Negro League standings and an all-time register of players and officials, making the book a treasure trove of baseball information and lore. A monumental and poignant book, Only the Ball Was White reminds us that what was often considered the "Golden Age" of baseball was also the era of Jim Crow. It is a book that must be read by anyone hoping not only to understand the story of baseball, but the story of America.

This looks interesting:

George B. Kirsch

One review:
Although baseball shares the public stage with other sports nowadays, it is still the professional sport most prominent in American historical consciousness. George B. Kirsch's book offers an intriguing look at the very early years of baseball, which were intertwined with the crucible of the Civil War...Overall, this is a solid examination of the subject and will be of interest to sports and baseball historians, in particular, but also those scholars and general readers interested in the social history of the Civil War. -- John Sickels, Civil War History

Mike Vaccaro

Reviews:
“A truly compelling read.”
—New York Daily News

“Whether the 1912 World Series was the best of all time is debatable, though, as Vaccaro writes, a case can surely be made that it is. But its importance and excitement cannot be denied. The personalities and style of the game may have changed, but few events can rivet the sporting world like a back-and-forth World Series.”
—MLB.com

“Highly recommended. . . . As always, Vaccaro has exhaustively researched his subjects. . . . The book is the third for [him], and it meets the high standards of his first two excellent books.”
—Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)

“Informative yet entertaining, Vaccaro’s extraordinary baseball chronicle renders the early days of our national pastime in all its grit and glory.”
—Publishers Weekly

Some players. These are books I heard good things about but they certainly not the last word:

Jane Leavy

David Maraniss

James S. Hirsch

Jonathan Eig

Leigh Montville

Leigh Montville

Richard Ben Cramer

Larry Tye

Ty Cobb

Arnold Rampersad

Go Twins!!
I really liked Joe Posnanski.

Buck O'Neil was great, the baseball world lost much when he passed away.

Glad you three are having fun (smile)

Read this recently and loved it (actually won it in a goodreads giveaway) but never heard of this story until reading the book. It is about the longest game in history, and for baseball fans in particular it is a great story. It talks about the game, the players, the time period, everyone involved in the game and with the teams, quite a story. Two AAA teams whose young players included Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs. They are not the central figures in the book but they are included in the story, as each of them played in this historic game.

Dan Barry

“Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax

“What a book—an exquisite exercise in story-telling, democracy and myth-making.” —Colum McCann, winner of the National Book Award for Let The Great World Spin

From Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues. In the tradition of Moneyball, The Last Hero, and Wicked Good Year, Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd is a reaffirming story of the American Dream finding its greatest expression in timeless contests of the Great American Pastime.

And I have to add . . . Go Mariners!

by Buck O'neil
From Babe Ruth to Bo Jackson, from Cool Papa Bell to Lou Brock, Buck O'Neil has seen it all. As a first baseman and then manager of the legendary Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil witnessed the heyday of the Negro leagues and their ultimate demise.

In I Was Right on Time, he charmingly recalls his days as a ballplayer and as an African-American in a racially divided country. Whether he's telling of his barnstorming days with the likes of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson or the day in 1962 when he became the first African-American coach in the major leagues, O'Neil takes us on a trip not only through baseball's past but through America's as well.

I add this to my "to read" list, Alisa; it looks very good.

I'm inspired, here is:

Jim Kaplan

It would have been enough just to see them pitch. Taking the mound at San Francisco s Candlestick Park that summer night in 1963 were 42-year-old Warren Spahn and 25-year-old Juan Marichal the embodiment of an ageless wonder headed for the Hall of Fame and a whirling wunderkind making his own case for immortality. But as one scoreless inning followed another en route to a 16th-inning climax, the 15,921 fans in attendance began to sense that they were watching a pitching duel for the ages. They remained, shivering and thrilled, to see it end after midnight. The sui generis event surpassed the world of statistics and entered into the realm of magic. The late Ron Fimrite of Sports Illustrated fame called it the greatest game he ever saw. Author Jim Kaplan, who covered baseball for SI in the seventies and eighties, initially planned to expand a magazine story he d written about the game into book form. The more he researched the principals in his travels from San Francisco to South Buffalo to Santo Domingo, however, the more fascinated he became with their biographies. Spahn was one of the most decorated ballplayers to fight in World War II. Marichal narrowly escaped death three times. Despite their obvious differences Spahn was white, American, and left-handed, Marichal is bronzed, Dominican, and right-handed Kaplan found extraordinary similarities between the friendly rivals. As a result, The Greatest Game Ever Pitched is a dual biography with an unforgettable game woven through it, and a baseball gem in its own right.

These gals have something of a following since writing this book and it is pretty handy in explaining some of the more off-beat things in a non-condescending and totally understandable way.
by Deidre Silva
A brilliant analysis of the game of baseball from two women who think everyone should be a baseball fan.

I feel badly for Mariners fans...I went to a few games while I was at school. It was rainy and miserable and they got destroyed.

I read Kent Hrbek at my mom's suggestion. It was funny, but I think I would have appreciated it a bit more if I had been older than 4 when he retired.

Hmm, well now I know how much older than you I am. I was a big Kent Hrbek fan. :)

Hahaha, I guess I just dated myself there, huh? At least I think I was somewhere around 4 maybe 5 when he retired. I like that he's legit and hunts and fishes. And is amusing. It's a good book :)

I have an entire shelf full of baseball books!

Here's one of my favorites recently:

The Gashouse Gang by John Heidenry

I'll add more when I get a chance.

A shelf of them?! You sir, must clearly be awesome. Who's your team?

Kirsten, thank you for your sympathy. For a Mariners fan the glory year was 1995 when they finally reached the playoffs in their most exciting season ever. There was 2001 when they won 116 games and didn't get past the first playoff series! Yeah, we might be waiting awhile. At least the retractable roof keeps the rain out and we don't have to play indoors anymore. It's painful.

Doug, great addition. Can't wait to see more of your recommendations.

The soggy part had to do the with fact my friends from Seattle couldn't remember where we parked. Seattle kids I went to school with never actually seemed to know Seattle itself that well, just the suburbs. And usually only their suburb.

The Twins were so promising to start this season...it's breaking my heart.

I've been eying Michael Lewis. It was recommended to me by a friend who is a statistician for MLB.

This looks interesting:

John Thorn

Some reviews:
“With elegance, wit and precision, John Thorn traces the lineage of baseball, a melting pot of cultures and diversions that became quintessentially American. Baseball in the Garden of Eden is a must read for anyone who claims to know the game.”

—Jane Leavy, Author of The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and The End of America’s Childhood and Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy

“Baseball’s creation myth—Abner Doubleday in a Cooperstown pasture in 1839—has the merit of being enchanting but the defect of being false in every particular. Now comes another of John Thorn’s many contributions to our understanding of baseball, proof that the game is even older and more interesting than most fans know.”

—George F. Will, Author of Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball

“What a garden of delight! John Thorn takes us through the tangled history of the game’s origins with great good humor and flair. He accepts nothing on face value, but gives all sides their due. A pleasure for fans, but also for anyone with an interest in history and myth.”

—Kevin Baker, Author of Strivers Row

“No one knows baseball history as well as John Thorn or writes about it more ably. And there is no one better suited to record—with affection, amusement and sometimes hilarity—the chicanery, misrepresentation and downright lies that have obfuscated the fascinating story of the origins and development of our national game.”

—Robert W. Creamer, Author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life and Stengel: His Life and Times

“No sport clings to its myths like baseball, which means it takes a baseball historian of the first rank like John Thorn to turn those myths upside down and inside out. Baseball in the Garden of Eden offers enlightenment for every fan. It is also a joy to read.”

—Michael Shapiro, Author of Bottom of the Ninth and The Last Good Season

“An invaluable, enduring and unique history of the early game and how it swiftly changed, in some ways for the worse, and yet survived and thrived."
—David Nemec

Kirsten wrote: "A shelf of them?! You sir, must clearly be awesome. Who's your team?"

The Cardinals!!

I was born a few blocks from Busch Stadium.

Doug wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "A shelf of them?! You sir, must clearly be awesome. Who's your team?"

The Cardinals!!

I was born a few blocks from Busch Stadium."

That IS awesome!!

For you New York fans out there:

Lyle Spatz

Product info:
At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a Major League game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, two teams emerged to fight for the future of the game. They were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city rose in dramatic fashion to the pinnacle of the baseball world.

1921 captures this crucial moment in the history of baseball, telling the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw's Giants, in the first all New York Series and resulted in the first American League pennant for the now-storied Yankees franchise. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg recreate the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw s disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun. With more than fifty photographs, the book offers a remarkably vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances that made this season a classic.

Here's another one off the shelf. This book is fabulous if you're a fan of the Cardinals or even if you're a fan of the old school game...the way it used to be played. It's a short, easy read and I found it quite enlightening. He's a classy guy and very, very old school. He was still throwing at Spring Training as of a couple years ago. I heard he'd still throw at guys if they crowded the plate...at spring training! That's old school. I learned a lot reading this book.
From Ghetto to Gloryby Bob Gibson

Sorry, there weren't images available. I actually have two copies of this, but I'm saving one for a friend of mine when he retires. Bob Gibson is my favorite player of all time, and my wife bought it for a present. I have a Cooperstown Bob Gibson jersey that's just for games!

Doug, great contribution and background. I love it that you have a Cooperstown jersey and that you save it for games. That is the sign of a good fan!

There are a few books that don't have cover photos in goodreads. Thanks for noting that this is one of them and you did the right thing by using the links the way you did.

Thanks!

Awesome!! Bob Gibson reminds me of Bert Blyleven...he's now the Twins color commentator, and he frequently advises the pitchers to bean people.

I have not read any baseball books but can I just say that I loved that Kevin Costner movie; 'Field of Dreams'. "Build it and they will come". :-)

Aussie Rick, we might have to make a baseball fan out of you!

Would you believe I played baseball for a year here in Australia and my team won the college comp (many many years ago).

Kirsten wrote: "Awesome!! Bob Gibson reminds me of Bert Blyleven...he's now the Twins color commentator, and he frequently advises the pitchers to bean people."

Cool! I remember when Bert Blyleven played. I like it when color commentators are old players for a team. It adds the right... color.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Would you believe I played baseball for a year here in Australia and my team won the college comp (many many years ago)."

Ooooo, a real ballplayer! Yes, I would believe it. Is it true? Hee hee.

So is baseball any different in Australia? Do you use the DH?

I think it's all the same but I played it over 30 years ago :) What's the DH?

Ouch, that hurt. :) It has been a loooooonnnnngg 30 years, huh. (Actually, I'm guessing that means Australia doesn't use the DH, at least not 30 years ago.)

DH = Designated Hitter, which is the guy who bats in lieu of the pitcher. In the USA, the DH is used in the American League but not the National League. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designat...

Hi Elizabeth, I don't think we used a Designated Hitter back then, at least not in the school/college competitions but I dare say that we use all the same rules and stuff now in our baseball leagues dotted around Australia.

I stumbled across this new release in my travels today; "The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter" by Ian O'Connor. I will have to confess of not knowning anything about this bloke but the book has received some good reviews.

by Ian O'Connor
Description:
Every spring, Little Leaguers across the country mimic his stance and squabble over the right to wear his number, 2, the next number to be retired by the world’s most famous ball team. Derek Jeter is their hero. He walks in the footsteps of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle, and someday his shadow will loom just as large. Yet he has never been the best player in baseball. In fact, he hasn’t always been the best player on his team. But his intangible grace and Jordanesque ability to play big in the biggest of postseason moments make him the face of the modern Yankee dynasty, and of America’s game.

In The Captain, best-selling author Ian O’Connor draws on extensive reporting and unique access to Jeter that has spanned some fifteen years to reveal how a biracial kid from Michigan became New York’s most beloved sports figure and the enduring symbol of the steroid-free athlete. O’Connor takes us behind the scenes of a legendary baseball life and career, from Jeter’s early struggles in the minor leagues, when homesickness and errors in the field threatened a stillborn career, to his heady days as a Yankee superstar and prince of the city who squired some of the world’s most beautiful women, to his tense battles with former best friend A-Rod.

We also witness Jeter struggling to come to terms with his declining skills and the declining favor of the only organization he ever wanted to play for, leading to a contentious contract negotiation with the Yankees that left people wondering if Jeter might end his career in a uniform without pinstripes.Derek Jeter’s march toward the Hall of Fame has been dignified and certain, but behind that leadership and hero’s grace there are hidden struggles and complexities that have never been explored, until now. As Jeter closes in on 3,000 hits, a number no Yankee has ever touched, The Captain offers an incisive, exhilarating, and revealing new look at one of the game’s greatest players in the gloaming of his career.

Reviews:
"Jeter is the prince, the good son, the tireless worker. O’Connor uses baseball lore and the tropes and rhythms of folktales to limn Jeter’s family life and early career...essential for Yankees fans." — Booklist

"O’Connor peppers the bio with enough hidden gems about the notoriously private ballplayer to make this the most thorough and intriguing work on Jeter so far. And O’Connor’s ability to reconcile Jeter the man with Jeter the ballplayer means that even Red Sox fans may enjoy this bio." - Publishers Weekly

"The most complete account yet of this signal player's life and career . . . Insightful about Jeter's minor league days and touching on his personal life, The Captain tantalizes with predictions about possible position changes and the length of Jeter's career. An excellent selection for those interested in baseball generally and in pinstripes particularly." — Library Journal

"Long after Derek Jeter is inducted into the Hall of Fame, Ian O’Connor’s work will be viewed as the definitive biography of the captain. Jeter has always managed to keep it simple, but as O’Connor shows, the shortstop is a complicated superstar." — Buster Olney, author of How Lucky You Can Be and The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty

"Ian O’Connor is an ideal biographer for Derek Jeter. Ian is the same kind of thorough pro." — Tom Callahan, best-selling author of Johnny U

"Derek Jeter is undoubtedly the most talked about, argued about, cheered, booed and ultimately respected baseball player of his generation. And as public a figure as he has been, he is in many ways the least known. That changes now as Ian O’Connor, one of the best sportswriters anywhere, goes deep and does what no one has quite been able to do: tell us a bit about who Derek Jeter really is." — Joe Posnanski, author of The Machine

"For years we’ve been telling young ballplayers to play and behave like Derek Jeter. Now we can tell them to read Ian O’Connor's The Captain. Finally, we have an inside look at the worthy successor to Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle." — Dan Shaughnessy, author of Fenway and Senior Year

One of the many reasons I enjoy the diverse membership of the HBC, we all have a different view.
Aussie Rick, yes indeed, many modern day fans of American baseball know the name Derek Jeter. There are generally two camps of baseball fans - those who are fans of the NY Yankees, and those who are not. Still, everyone knows the storied Yankee players, of which Jeter is one. Universal is the discussion over whose team's athletes are better than the others, and much is made of their personalities. I, for one, fall into the not-a-Yankees fan camp. The 'prince' description is apt yet simultaneously a little far fetched. Nonetheless, this book looks interesting and is bound to appeal. Thanks for the addition!

Here's another one. This is a really funny book. It's another no images book by the way.
Kings of the Hill: An Irreverent Look at the Men on the Mound by Nolan Ryan

Nolan tells a lot of inside information in it. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and he's another old school player.

This sounds like a great book Doug. Thank you so much for adding a book actually written by one of baseball's truly great players. I think this was when the game was one where everyone could look up to many of the players and athletes like Nolan Ryan.

Nolan Ryan

I'm so angry at baseball right now (as a young Twins fan, I've been spoiled), but I just got a copy of Michael Lewis and I plan on reading it soon.

A few more offerings on the boys of summer ~

by Jimmy Breslin
Pulitzer Prize–winning Breslin offers this slim biography on baseball manager and executive Branch Rickey, a man Breslin refers to as a Great American. What results is a well-rounded look at a man who not only reformed competitive sports but also influenced the norms of society by helping Jackie Robinson break baseball's color barrier. Born to a tight-knit family in Ohio in the late 19th century, Rickey's career as a major league player didn't last long (as a catcher, he once allowed 13 stolen bases in a game), so he graduated from law school and became the manager of the St. Louis Browns. Yet his most far-reaching achievements happened decades later during his time in Brooklyn, when he shook baseball to its foundations by bringing Robinson to the Dodgers. Rickey as general manager knew there would be backlash and Robinson would be subject to rampant racism, but he was undeterred and never stooped to the level of those who attempted to sabotage his work. As he later told a group of students, racial extractions and color hues and forms of worship become secondary to what men can do. Breslin's gift for easy-to-read yet hard-hitting prose will touch even those who aren't baseball fans.

by Lee Lowenfish
Branch Rickey is mainly remembered for breaking baseball's long-standing segregationist position when he promoted Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, but his influence in the game extended far beyond that single act of courage and foresight. While running the St. Louis Cardinals from 1917 to 1942, Rickey also developed the concept of the "farm system": owning minor-league teams in order to develop prospects for the parent major-league team. Lowenfish, a historian and author of The Imperfect Diamond: A History of Baseball's Labor Wars (1991), meticulously researches Rickey's life and presents a three-dimensional portrait of a man who, in addition to his baseball acumen, was a highly religious, socially conscious visionary. As much as he was revered, particularly in hindsight, Rickey was often in conflict with his peers, who viewed him as arrogant and abrasive, especially toward those who didn't share his values. Though much has been written about Rickey, the depth and thoroughness of Lowenfish's research make this the definitive biography of baseball's most influential executive.

Roy Campanella! One of the things I love about baseball history is the many unique personalities of the men who played the game.

by Neil Lanctot
Dodger catching great Roy Campanella was born to an Italian American father and an African American mother in Philadelphia in 1921. The round, affable boy fell in love with baseball and was playing in the Negro Leagues at 15. Lanctot spins out Campy's story in exhaustive (occasionally exhausting) detail. Nearly every game he played is covered, and his tangled relationship with Jackie Robinson--friends, enemies, wary supporters--is treated with nuance. Campy's extraordinary abilities as a catcher are not only described but illustrated with anecdotes from specific games and seasons. Although Lanctot writes with a novelist's energy, sometimes the narrative veers into sentimentality, and he tends to soften such negatives as Campy's relations with his wives and neglect of some of his children. On the other hand, the man's courage in living fully a wheelchair-bound life after the car crash that ended his career makes a compelling tale (Campy's experience led to much-improved treatment for quadriplegics). Despite the extensive detail, Campy remains a bit elusive, beyond the captivating smile, the chirpy voice, and the great baseball instincts.

Speaking of big names in the game . . . I'm not a Yankee fan, but I make an exception for Joltin' Joe.

by Kostya Kennedy
Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to leftfield. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Starting that day, the vaunted Yankee centerfielder kept on hitting-at least one hit in game after game after game.

In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces moved relentlessly across Europe and young American men were drafted by the millions, it seemed only a matter of time before the U.S. went to war. The nation was apprehensive. Yet for two months in that tense summer, America was captivated by DiMaggio's astonishing hitting streak. In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how the streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets of North Beach; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe's first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. In this crisp, evocative narrative Joe DiMaggio emerges in a previously unseen light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive-a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband-as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day.

DiMaggio's achievement lives on as the greatest of sports records. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

Nice additions!

I pointed a friend to this recently and so wondered if people here may find it of interest too
POW Baseball in World War II: The National Pastime Behind Barbed Wire by Tim Wolter.

The description reads:
Nearly 130,000 American soldiers and 19,000 American civilians were captured by the enemy during the Second World War. The conditions under which they were held varied enormously but baseball, in various forms, was a common activity among these prisoners of war.
Not just Americans, but Canadians, British, Australians and New Zealanders took the field, as well as the Japanese and even a few Germans. In the best of the German Stalags (permanent German camps where these prisoners were held, shortened from Stamm Lagers) there were often several leagues active at a time, with dozens of teams playing games continuously during the warm weather months. In the harsher Stalags, and in some Japanese camps, there was only makeshift ball playing.
In places like Camp O'Donnell, the worst of the camps, there was no energy left for anything but the struggle to survive. This work is the story of POW baseball, complete with guard versus prisoner ball games, radio parts hidden in baseballs, and future major leaguers. The book is divided into the various prison camps and describes the types of prisoners held there and the degree to which baseball was played.

Dare I say it.....Go Pirates!!! They haven't done much in years but I still love them.

This book:
by Eliot Asinof(no photo)

tells the tale of the great baseball scandal of 1919 when gamblers fixed the series with eight players of the Chicago White Sox (although it is questionable whether one of the eight was actually involved). All the great names of early baseball are present from Charles Cominsky to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Even if one is not a baseball fan, this book will enthrall. The famous quote "Say it 'aint so, Joe" came out of this dark episode in baseball history.

And if you are like me and love the Pittsburgh Pirates, here is a little book about our hero...the man that stole the 1960 World Series from the Yankees in the seventh game with his thundering home run.

by Jim O'Brien(no photo)

I read Matt McCarthy a few weeks ago. It was certainly interesting. He chronicled a year in minor league baseball. Some of it I can believe, some of it seems a little far-fetched. However much of it was true, it was certainly entertaining. I would caution readers with easily offended sensibilities that this may not be for them.

No study of baseball is complete without covering this legend of the sport:
by Howard Bryant
As the steroid controversy has increasingly tarnished baseball’s image, Hank Aaron’s achievements have come to seem all the more remarkable: the first player to pass Babe Ruth in home runs, Aaron held that record for thirty-three years while shattering other records (RBIs, total bases, extra-base hits) and setting new ones (hitting at least thirty home runs per season fifteen times). But his achievements run much deeper than his stats. Chronicling the social up­heavals of the years during which Aaron played (1954 to 1976), Howard Bryant shows us how the dignity and determination with which he stood against racism—on and off the field, and as one of the first blacks in baseball’s upper management—helped transform the role and significance of the pro­fessional black athlete and turn Aaron into an national icon.

Eloquently written, detailed, and penetrating, this is a revelatory portrait of both the great ballplayer and the complicated private man.

The movie is getting great reviews. Here is the book:

Michael Lewis

Booklist:
Unlike professional football and basketball, Major League Baseball has no cap on the amount of money a team can spend on its players, which makes it nearly impossible for "small market" clubs to compete with the behemoths in Gotham and L.A. On the other hand, as Lewis shows us in his engaging saga of the Oakland Athletics, there are always ways to win on the cheap. The hero of Lewis' tale is Oakland General Manager Billy Beane, a bust as a player but a deft judge of talent. Lewis was granted what appears to be unlimited access--he often found himself in the Oakland executive offices when a big trade was going down--and his book reads like it. He also does a wonderful job of picking the brains and explaining the motives of the baseball statistics geeks who are helping redefine the way the game will be played in the twenty-first century. With so many baseball books to choose from, it is difficult to single out a few as must-haves, but this one comes pretty close. Kevin Canfield
Copyright © American Library Association.