Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Reviews Appearing in
APRIL 1998
Baseball books in a league of their own
REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
Those who aren't up on their game needn't feel embarrassed. Baseball For Dummies can bring even the most horsehide-impaired up to speed. (But there's plenty to entertain veteran fans as well.) Joe Morgan, a Hall of Fame They say that in spring second baseman, now an analyst for ESPN games, teams a young person's up with Richard Lally for this volume of everything you thoughts turn to love, would want to know about baseball (but were too but for many it means chagrined to ask). Want detailed instructions on how to play the game something else. yourself? It's here. So is a study of each major league stadium, with suggestions on where to sit to maximize your chances of catching a foul ball. Baseball's back! And as the players are For many aficionados, statistics are the lifeblood of their enjoyment, so the gearing up for the new authors have included a section on how to calculate those batting percentages season, fans can get and earned run averages. back into the groove with any number of the And lest anyone forget that the pro game is not just played in the U.S. and new lineup of books Canada, Baseball For Dummies reminds us that there's a great big baseball on the national world out there, and includes discussion on the sport as it's played in Asia, pastime. Australia, and South America. Morgan and Lally aren't shy about offering expert opinion as they select their ten greatest players, past, present, and future; they also choose the records they believe are least likely to be broken and the events that transformed the game. Readers may find these lists subjective, but such arguments are part of the fun, part of what being a fan is all about. The appendix offers a glossary of baseball terms, a plethora of records (always welcome by trivia buffs), and a list of contacts for information on just about every aspect of the game, from T-ball to senior leagues, from professional leagues to team Web sites.
Baseball for Dummies
By Joe Morgan and Richard Lally, IDG, $19.95 ISBN 0764550853 At the other end of fandom, there's Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans: Understanding and Interpreting the Game So You Can Watch It Like a Pro. McCarver, who appears on New York Mets and FOX telecasts, is another former star who has become one of the game's foremost commentators and analysts. Where Dummies spends more time on the rudiments of the game, McCarver and Peary delve deeper into strategy and nuance. This is perhaps the best book I've ever encountered to understand how a pitcher decides what
to throw; what goes through a hitter's mind as he steps into the batter's box with the game on the line; how an outfielder positions himself; or how a speedy runner uses his savvy to know when not to steal a base. Readers will be nodding their heads and saying "Ahhh. So that's how (and why) they do that." McCarver offers plenty of examples and anecdotes drawn from nearly 40 years of experience. Those who prefer watching the game from the comfort of their living rooms will find a new appreciation for television broadcasts as McCarver explains how the director puts the action together, what he looks for, and what is not seen on the screen.
Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans By Tim McCarver with Danny Peary, Villard, $23, ISBN 0375500855
Once you're done dealing with the present, it's time to take a look at the game's glorious past. It has often been said that, more than any other sport, the history and tradition of baseball lends itself to the written word. And perhaps no one exemplifies those attributes more than Babe Ruth. Lawrence Ritter, author of the classic oral history The Glory of Their Times, and Mark Rucker, considered one of the games' greatest pictorial archivists, have assembled The Babe: The Game That Ruth Built. Through prose and pictures, this handsome volume marks the 50th anniversary of the Babe's passing. It's a sentimental look at the man who some say saved baseball in the wake of the 1919 world series gambling scandal and the dark days of the Depression. The photographs -some rare, others familiar -- offer a glimpse of the Babe not only as the most legendary figure in sports, but also as a father, husband, and friend. Beloved by millions all over the world, the snapshots of Ruth in Japan, surrounded by adoring children, are evidence of this global homage.
The Babe: The Game That Ruth Built
By Lawrence Ritter and Mark Rucker, Total Sports, $40 ISBN 0965694909 For a fun look at the more recent past, there's Phil Pepe's Talkin' Baseball: An Oral History of Baseball in the 1970s. Through interviews with more than 60 former players, managers, and others associated with the game, Pepe recounts the events of a decade which saw some of the most enormous changes in the history of the game, including the advent of free agency and the designated hitter, a new home run king, and George Steinbrenner.
Talkin' Baseball: An Oral History of Baseball in the 1970s By Phil Pepe, Ballantine, $25.95, ISBN 0345414977
In the words of that great philosopher Yogi Berra, "It ain't over 'til it's over." So this article can't conclude without mentioning The Yogi Book. He wants to make one thing perfectly clear. Well, perhaps not perfectly, but he does want to address the misconceptions regarding many of the quotes attributed to him throughout his long and colorful career. Known as "Yogi-isms," many of these aphorisms have woven themselves into folklore stature. Yogi freely admits that some were simply syntactical errors, but if you look under the surface they make a lot of sense. Take his signature phrase. Viewed in a strictly baseball context, it's absolutely true. How often has a team been behind late in a game, only to come back from the brink of defeat? From a technical standpoint, it's accurate as well: a thing is not over until it is over. It's a phrase worthy of Candide. Surely there are other ballplayers, as well as us regular folk, who have made similar verbal gaffes, but somehow the amiable Mr. Berra is the leader of the pack. So whether you're a "dummy" or a "brain surgeon" when it comes to baseball, there's a book out there for whatever your special interest. Step up to the plate, dig in, and enjoy.
The Yogi Book
By Yogi Berra, Workman, $7.95, ISBN 0761110909
JUNE 1998
REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
George Will, the political pundit, freely admits that he was the kid who played right field on his team. And indeed he looks the part -- a slight, bespectacled bookworm, too much an egghead for the rest of the gang. Instead of building up his athletic prowess, he developed a knowledge and love for the game which he displays in Bunts, a collection of his writings on the national pastime. This is Will's second foray into baseball. His Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball was a bestseller.
Bunts Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball By George F. Will Scribner, $25 ISBN 0684838206 Simon & Schuster Audio, $18 ISBN 0671582224
Most of the pieces in Bunts, which span some 25 years, are gleaned from his Newsweek and Washington Post columns, with a few other musings tossed in for good measure. In his earlier writings he strives to prove that rooting for his childhood idols, the Chicago Cubs (the poster team for baseball mediocrity), and being a baseball fan were not mutually exclusive. On the flip side, a few of the stories deal with the Baltimore Orioles, one of the more successful franchises. Will is a Member of the Board for the O's, which is the closest thing Washington, D.C., has to a team since the Senators left town in 1972. In Bunts Will reports on such luminaries as Pete Rose, whose passion for gambling ultimately conflicted with his passion for baseball; Curt Flood, whose sacrifice made today's free agency possible; Cal Ripken, Jr., the new "Iron Man" of baseball; Steve Palermo, an umpire who was shot and paralyzed while trying to prevent an armed robbery; perennial batting champion Tony Gwynn; and Jon Miller, the stylish broadcaster for ESPN and the San Francisco Giants. But Will also writes about lesser lights in the horsehide firmament, including Andy Van Slyke, a colorful and outspoken outfielder; Jamie Quirk, a journeyman catcher; and Brett Butler, "The Human Bunt." Will addresses issues as well, offering his insights on the designated hitter, voting for players for the annual all-star game, and even tackling the questionable origins of baseball. He writes with great nostalgia as he contrasts the sport between his favorite era, the 1950s, and the neon nineties. His columns on baseball's various labor unrests show little patience for either side, blaming both players and owners for imperiling the great game that has bridged generations and seen America through good times and bad. It might be hard to conceive that Will, an icon of the conservative movement, can wax so poetically about something as "trivial" as baseball. But Bunts proves his ardor for the game, with all its
triumphs, heartbreaks, and shortcomings.
APRIL 1999
Out of the ballpark: bats and stats Perhaps no baseball season has been as closely monitored and analyzed as 1998. Balls were rocketing out of the parks at an amazing rate, and the Yankees were leaving the competition in the dust. There were formidable pitching performances and the usual smattering of high-profile players changing addresses. Cal Ripken ended his streak, and the Florida Marlins ended their short-lived chance at dominance. These are some of the subjects captured in the new roster of baseball books.
REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
In his excellent Summer of '98: When Homers Fell, Records Flew and Baseball Reclaimed America, esteemed sports columnist Mike Lupica eloquently reminds us what last season meant, not just to a nation of fans, but to a nation. The sensational race for the home run crown between the Cardinals' Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, of the perennial rival Chicago Cubs (as Lupica says, you can't make this stuff up), deservedly takes center stage here, but he reminds us of the other highlights and personalities that helped make the Summer of '98 so special. To a large extent, the book also revolves around the relationship with his sons as they have come to the age when baseball takes its unrelenting grip on them. The fact that Lupica's enthusiasm is so unguarded just makes the reading more enjoyable.
Summer of '98: When Homers Fell, Records Flew and Baseball Reclaimed America By Mike Lupica, Putnam, $23.95, ISBN 0399145141
No sooner had the dust settled from McGwire v. Sosa than the publishers got busy. Perhaps the best of the lot on the subject is Celebrating 70: Mark McGwire's Historic Season, a joint effort by the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Sporting News. This painstaking chronicle captures all the drama and excitement of each homer with photos, quotes, and historical context. Surely "Big Mac" can now be considered among the all-time greats. In fact, he's already included in the next selections, not one but two new books which designate the top hundred players in the history of the game. It's a "David and Goliath" author's competition between the "Bible of Baseball" and a professor of philosophy.
Celebrating 70: Mark McGwire's Historic Season
St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Sporting News, $29.95 ISBN 089204621X
The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best by Ron Smith has tradition going for it, calling on its vast archives for photos and narrative. Baseball's Greatest Players does an even-
handed job incorporating players from the Negro Leagues but exhibits some bias in picking players primarily from the pre-expansion era (prior to the 1960s).
The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best
By Ron Smith, The Sporting News, $29.95, ISBN 0892046082
On the other hand, Ken Shouler's The Real 100 Best Baseball Players of All Time . . . and Why! claims to be devoid of sentiment, relying solely on the numbers as qualifications for membership into such an elite group. While Shouler excludes members of the Negro Leagues, he does include more players from the '60s and later, perhaps to attract a younger readership. Sure, there are differences of opinions between the two books, and you might question the methodology used in the selection process, but part of the fun of being a fan derives from the kind of arguments that these volumes will undoubtedly generate.
The Real 100 Best Baseball Players of All Time . . . and Why! By Ken Shouler, Addax Publishing Group, $22.95, ISBN 1886110468
The Autobiography of Baseball by Joseph Wallace is a different sort of "best" book and takes the concept of oral history to a new level. Previously all the players in such books would share a common bond, like a team or a time frame. But Wallace wonders how it might be to sit down old-timers with contemporary players for a discussion of their craft. Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds . . . Bob Feller and Greg Maddux . ..others of the diamond shooting the breeze. Using excerpts from old interviews, Wallace seamlessly blends the generations as they regale us in tales about the pressures a rookie faces, the joy of the cheers, and the heartbreak of realizing it's time to hang 'em up. The choice of illustrations works extremely well in enhancing the stories.
Autobiography of Baseball
By Joseph Wallace, Abrams, $35, ISBN 0810919257
The game's visual beauty is also well represented in coffee-table books by two of the most recognizable sports photojournalists. Mickey Mantle, the Yankee Years: The Photographs of Ozzie Sweet is an ode to the baseball hero of the boomer generation. The cameraman's distinctive style, shooting at an upward angle against a solid background, emphasizes the slugger's mythic strength and grace. Sweet's yarns about the photo sessions offer a candid look at Mantle and his teammates.
Mickey Mantle, the Yankee Years: The Photographs of Ozzie Sweet By Larry Canale, Tuff Stuff Books, $39.95, ISBN 0930625218
Reflections of the Game -- Lives in Baseball: The Photographs of Ronald C. Modra represents some of the best of this veteran lensman. The anecdotal "reflections" come from the artist and his subjects. Pat Jordan, ballplayer-cum-writer, provides a running essay on how he was instilled with a love for the game, from his days as a little leaguer through his abbreviated professional career.
Reflections of the Game -- Lives in Baseball: The Photographs of Ronald C. Modra Willow Creek Press, $29.50, ISBN 1572231807
For those of us who can never get enough of a good thing, there's a new heavyweight (literally) for the reference section. It's the All-Time Baseball Sourcebook. What sets this massive volume (over 2,600 pages) apart from other such tomes is the breadth and breakdown of data previously unavailable to the average fan. Rather than listing the individual records of every player, which can be found elsewhere, the Sourcebook offers batting and pitching averages listed by decade, age, and time-span (as in best five-year stretch, seven-year, etc.), just to mention a few of the many sections. There is also an extensive "franchise" section where you can find out all manner of statistical information about your favorite team, along with almanac-like "capsules" presenting interesting factoids. The Sourcebook also contains box scores from every All-Star and postseason game, along with summaries and registers of all the participants. The editors also give you their takes on 90 of the "greatest games" ever played and a fresh look at the history of baseball's amateur draft.
All-Time Baseball Sourcebook
STATS, Inc., $79.95, ISBN 1884064531
Well, I don't know about you, but all this baseball talk has made me hungry. Let's see what's in the Home Plate Cookbook: Recipes from Baseball Greats -- Just Great for Your Home Plate by Gary Saunders, a collection of recipes from players and others connected with the game. Hmmm, there's Bob Feller's fruitcake, Mickey Mantle's "Yankee Garlic Bread," and Willie Mays's "Say Hey Bran Muffins," among dozens of other delectables. There are also food-facts about the links and lore of ball park food. But be warned: Most of the dishes are definitely not politically correct in this era of healthy eating. Still, this fun book provides a heaping helping of lighthearted glimpses into the players which we seldom see.
Home Plate Cookbook: Recipes from Baseball Greats -- Just Great for Your Home Plate
By Gary Saunders, Crane Hill Publishers, $14.95, ISBN 157587072X
APRIL 2000
Primers on the nation's pastime
REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
As the new millennium approached, we saw a seemingly exponential increase in arguments over "who's baseball's best fill-in-the-blank." Rob Neyer, a columnist for ESPN.com, and Eddie Baseball: It's not just a Epstein, a former member of two major league game; it's an organizations, seek to answer some of those education. questions in Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time. As we embark on a new season of The authors do a marvelous job of putting the evidence together, baseball, it's a good reminiscent of the works of Bill James, the analytic guru who time to consider how revolutionized baseball statistics. How do the 1999 Yankees compare all-encompassing the with other all-time great clubs like the St. Louis Cardinals of the sport has become. 1940s, or the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s? You want quantitative History, sociology, proof? Dynasties supplies the numbers. Historical context? Got that, geography, math, too. Amusing anecdotal information? It's here. science, and literature are all linked to the Neyer and Epstein liven up their reports with accompanying essays game, and this and offer their opinions on the worst teams of all time, as well as the season's assortment of best of the Negro League clubs. They sum up with their definitive baseball books answer, which is . . . come on now, did you really think I was going touches all these to tell you? bases. Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time By Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein W.W. Norton, paperback $17.95, ISBN 0393320081 Hardback $29.95 ISBN 0393048942 Another gem in the quest to pick the best is Baseball: 100 Classic Moments in the History of the Game by Joseph Wallace, Neil Hamilton, and Marty Appel. Narrowing down the top 100 out of over 150,000 major league games played is a Herculean task, and the authors acquit themselves well. Rather than ranking the events, Moments moves through the years like newsreels played in old movie theaters. See Babe Ruth slam his 60th home run, a record they said would never be broken. See Roger Maris hit 61 homers, a mark they said would surely never be surpassed. See Mark McGwire vaporize the old standard. Now what are they saying?
Other landmarks include Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world," Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color line, the first night game, and Cal Ripken's ascension as baseball's new "Iron Man," as well as more poignant moments such as Lou Gehrig's farewell. Generously illustrated, Moments is written with the proper respect due such milestones without being overly saccharine.
Baseball:
100 Classic Moments in the History of the Game By Joseph Wallace, Neil Hamilton, and Marty Appel Dorling Kindersley, $30, ISBN 0789451212
Jules Tygiel, a professor at San Francisco State University, takes a more scholarly approach in Past Time: Baseball as History. The author of the acclaimed Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy takes the unusual perspective of examining how America puts its stamp on the game, rather than vice versa. What effect did the growth of radio and later television have on baseball? How did the post-World War II exodus to the suburbs, combined with innovations in travel, change the geographic nature and economics of the national pastime? One of the more interesting chapters deals with the immeasurable contribution of Henry Chadwick, a 19th century newspaperman, without whose keen mind and foresight we might not have the myriad statistics that are, as he put it, the "mortar of which baseball is held together."
Past Time:
Baseball as History By Jules Tygiel Oxford University Press, $25, ISBN 0195089588 Now get your calculators and slide rules handy. Baseball isn't brain surgery, it's physics, according to Keep Your Eye on the Ball: Curveballs, Knuckleballs, and Fallacies of Baseball, Revised and Updated by Robert G. Watts and A. Terry Bahill. These two engineering professors painstakingly discuss the effects of air and rotation as the ball leaves the pitcher's hand and what happens when it meets the bat. They also tell you why it's virtually impossible for a hitter to, in fact, keep his eye on the ball. It would be interesting to hear what the legendary Ted Williams, one of the most ardent
ballplayer/students of the game, would have to say about this one.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball:
Curveballs, Knuckleballs, and Fallacies of Baseball, Revised and Updated By Robert G. Watts and A. Terry Bahill W.H. Freeman and Company, $14.95, ISBN 0716737175 For creative writing we have Garret Mathews' Baseball Days: Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime, which reminds us that the game is instilled in us as children. Bill Bradley, Patrick Buchanan, Robert Goulet, Eli Wallach, Monty Hall, Kreskin the Mentalist, Charles Schultz, Edwin Newman, Mickey Spillane, W.P. Kinsella, and Dave Barry are among the dozens of celebrities who share their special memories of growing up with baseball. Not all of the anecdotes are heroic; in fact, many of them reveal a decided lack of talent, making Days more realistic. One of the more amusing tales is told by former major leaguer Rick Dempsey who recalled that his little league coach, unbeknownst to the players and their parents, just happened to be an accomplished bank robber.
Baseball Days:
Recollections of America's Favorite Pastime By Garret Mathews Contemporary Books, $16.95, ISBN 0809225611 In the literature department we have The Quotable Baseball Fanatic, edited by Louis D. Rubin Jr. It's not Bartlett's Quotations, but many of the aphorisms will be familiar to fans. Athletes and writers share their wisdom about such meaningful topics as the good old days, umpiring, the business of baseball, and retirement, proving that ballplayers say the darnedest things.
The Quotable Baseball Fanatic
Edited by Louis D. Rubin Jr. Lyons Press, $20, ISBN 1585740128 Batter Up! The Ultimate Baseball Scorekeeper by Benjamin Eli Smith is truly an educational tool, a workbook designed to teach neophytes of any age how to enjoy the game through the joys of scorekeeping. Kids in particular will enjoy this book which also serves as a journal to keep track of all the fun. There are features
about post-season play, pages for collecting autographs, and suggestions for further reading and on-line sources. So visit your local bookstore and start boning up. This will be on the quiz.
Batter Up!
The Ultimate Baseball Scorekeeper By Benjamin Eli Smith Chronicle Books, $14.95, ISBN 0811826112 Other good new books for those interested in the study of baseball include Management:
The Man in the Dugout:
Baseball's Top Managers and How They Got That Way By Leonard Koppett Temple University Press, $29.50, ISBN 1566397456 Classics:
Shakespeare on Baseball:
Such Time-Beguiling Sport By William Shakespeare and David Goodnough Barricade Books, $10, ISBN 1569801398 Economics:
The Money Pitch:
Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration By Roger I. Abrams Temple University Press, $27.95, ISBN 156639774X Literature:
Off Season
(Writing Baseball) By Eliot Asinof Southern Illinois University Press, $22.50, ISBN 0809322978 Phys Ed:
52-Week Baseball Training
By Gene Coleman Human Kinetics, $19.95, ISBN 0736003223 History:
Baseball Chronology
By David Nemec New American Library, $6.99, ISBN 0785339604
APRIL 2001
In the grip of baseball Baseball is an emotional game. For every thrill of victory there is an agony of defeat. Yet the fans still have faith, still think their team, though mired in the basement for a decade, has a good a chance to win the championship. Come September, if not earlier, they're right back where they started, still spouting the optimistic rallying cry, "Wait 'til next year!"
REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
Then there's the male-bonding factor, as fathers pass their love of the game to the next generation. And for many, the memories of playing the sport as a child linger for a lifetime. Jim Bouton, author of the watershed (and recently re-released) Ball Four: The Final Pitch, condensed these sentiments into one sentence: "You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." There are several new books which embrace the emotional grip of the national pastime.
Ball Four: The Final Pitch By Jim Bouton Sports Publishing, $24.95 ISBN 1582613109
If you're old enough to have been a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, no game was more emblematic of that queasy feeling of having the floor pulled out from under you than the 1951 playoff game with the hated cross-town rival New York Giants. It was the contest in which Bobby Thomson hit his "shot heard 'round the world." One only has to look at the photo of Ralph Branca, the poster boy for bad sports karma, crying on the clubhouse steps, to understand the tremendous ups and downs athletes and fans face on a regular basis. John Kuenster deftly captures this attitude in Heartbreakers: Baseball's Most Agonizing Defeats. He cites many examples of victory cruelly denied by a poorly timed home run, an error or some other mishap. A more recent example was Red Sox Bill Buckner's fielding gaffe against the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series. Boston was two strikes away from its first world championship since the days of Babe Ruth, only to see victory slip away.
Heartbreakers: Baseball's Most Agonizing Defeats By John Kuenster Ivan R. Dee, $24.95, ISBN 1566633664
The home run is the most dramatic way to send fans into fits of agony or ecstasy. One swing of the bat can spell doom for the opposition. Rich Westcott chronicles the most famous of these shots in Great Home Runs of the 20th Century. The aforementioned Thomson blast is included, of course, as well as Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's record breakers, Carlton Fisk's extra-inning thriller against the Reds in 1972, Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series walk-off home run against the mighty Yankees, and a hobbling Kirk Gibson's last-gasp blast in the '88 Fall Classic, all fodder for the highlight reels.
Great Home Runs of the 20th Century By Rich Westcott Temple University Press, $29.50 ISBN 1566398584
One of the more heartwarming stories in recent years is told in The Oldest Rookie: Big-League Dreams From a Small-Town Guy, by Jim Morris with Joel Engel. Morris was one of thousands of prospects who, despite their talent, fail to make it to the major leagues. After puttering around in the minors for several years, fighting injury and the pressure to get on with his life, Morris retired, struggling to make a living and provide for his family. Almost 15 years after he threw his last professional pitch, Morris, by now a high school baseball coach who still had a 95 mph fastball, accepted a challenge from his team: if they made the playoffs, he would try out for a major league team. When the high school team scored a come-from-behind victory in the playoffs, Morris was forced to keep his promise. At the tryouts, he threw faster than he ever had, earning a place with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. No, this book is not a retelling of The Natural; Morris did not become a latter-day Roy Hobbs. He just lived his dream, and he relates his amazing story with humility and charm.
The Oldest Rookie: Big-League Dreams From a Small-Town Guy By Jim Morris with Joel Engel Little, Brown, $22.95, ISBN 0316591564
Although the headlines usually focus on the stratospheric salaries of today's top stars, George Gmelch's Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball shows another side of the sport. Gmelch gives readers an overview of the whole process of becoming a professional ballplayer, from the time a player emerges from the womb of his amateur days
and signs his first professional contract until he leaves the game, either on his own or on orders from a higher authority. This fascinating book calls on the insights of scouts, managers, coaches, front office personnel and the players themselves. Gmelch shows fans the day-to-day, humdrum, insecure toil of the minor leaguer who is often ill-prepared for life away from home, unfamiliar with the most rudimentary tasks such as doing laundry and handling finances and such. The author calls upon his own background as a minor leaguer, giving Inside Pitch a unique air of authenticity.
Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball By George Gmelch Smithsonian Institution Press, $21.95 ISBN 1560989882
Baseball Extra, edited by Eric C. Caren, is one of the more unusual compilations available to baseball fans. Reprints from more than a century of newspapers not only highlight the national pastime, but help put it in historical perspective. Baseball reports share the pages with non-sports news, both regional and national. The huge format of the book gives the reader that "being there" feeling and makes for hours of fascinating reading.
Baseball Extra
Edited by Eric C. Caren Castle Books, $29.95, ISBN 0785811885
Extra innings for baseball fans More promising baseball books are scheduled to hit the bookstore shelves as the season progresses: A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone by Roger Angell. One of our best baseball writers takes a candid look at the craft of pitching.
A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone By Roger Angell May, Warner, $24.95, ISBN 0446527688
Home Run edited by George Plimpton. A collection of first-rate fiction and nonfiction writing about a winning topic: home runs. Contributors include John Updike, Garrison Keillor and Don DeLillo.
Home Run
Edited by George Plimpton June, Harcourt, $13, ISBN 0156011549 The Final Season: Fathers, Sons and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark by Tom Stanton. A moving memoir about the loss of a beloved ballpark -- Tiger Stadium in Detroit -- and the way in which one parent comes to terms with his mortality.
The Final Season: Fathers, Sons and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark By Tom Stanton June, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, $23.95, ISBN 031227288X
JULY 2001
REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
There are several schools of baseball. One follows numbers, the statistics that drive the game and rivet baseball fans. Another dwells on nostalgia, a sense that things were better, purer in the "old days." Then there are those like Robert Benson, who take an almost spiritual approach, honoring the game as a precious legacy to be passed from one generation to the next. In The Game: One Man, Nine Innings: A Love Affair With Baseball, Benson combines several perspectives: those of a writer, a father and, of course, a baseball fan. One can imagine accompanying the author The Game: to his game of choice, a rather ordinary minor league affair between One Man, Nine Innings: A Love Affair the Iowa Cubs and the Nashville Sounds, as he sits back during the course of nine innings to ruminate on myriad topics. With writing With Baseball that is both spare and reverential, Benson compares the plays of a game with the joys and sorrows of day-to-day living. He notes that By Robert Benson "baseball is a game of routine things." In the minor league game he Tarcher/Putnam, chronicles, "Of the fifty-one outs, only three or four of them came on $23.95 great plays, or even above average plays." ISBN 1585421014 The Game will be categorized as a sports book, but like baseball itself, it's a metaphor for life. Sometimes you hit a home run; sometimes you make an error. As the game winds down, the author hopes his children will one day recall the important life lessons it offers: "I wish for them that they will remember that there will be days when the best that can be done is to move the runner . . . that even the best of us . . . strike out a fair amount."
AUGUST 2001
REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
The Baseball Timeline By Burt Solomon DK Publishing, $50 ISBN 0789471329
Four years ago, Burt Solomon came out with The Baseball Timeline, a commendable effort to record the highlights of the national pastime since 1845. The book was nothing fancy, but it served as a useful reference for the baseball researcher or casual fan. This year, thanks to DK Publishing, which produces handsome and informative books on a variety of subjects from architecture to mythology, The Baseball Timeline has been transformed from an ugly duckling to a swan. The revised version, made with the imprimatur of Major League Baseball, is everything the advertising community conceived of when it invented the phrase "new and improved." Although the text is practically identical to the original edition, save for additions to bring it up-to-date, the presentation is stunning. This massive volume (over 1,200 pages) now includes photos and illustrations of the players and events. Solomon does a superb job, citing birthdays, trades, special games and "the best of each season" including league leaders and major award winners. Timeline is more than just a sports book, however. The author recognizes that baseball is part of the American fabric and reminds you of that fact with major headlines from each year ("Truman Defeats Dewey," in 1948, for example) for cultural context. Extra information is sprinkled throughout -- drop boxes containing trivia; league, rule and equipment changes; historical notes, and quotes. If you know some special baseball fan deserving of a gift (maybe even yourself), The Baseball Timeline is one that is guaranteed to please.
March 2002
Taking kids straight to the plate REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
Baseball fans might think it a bit strange to make Joseph Jefferson Jackson the hero of a children's book. After all, "Shoeless Joe" was one of eight Chicago White Sox players banned for life for allegedly throwing the World Series in 1919.
Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy By Phil Bildner Simon & Schuster, $17
But in Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy, Phil Bildner looks beyond this transgression and concentrates on Jackson's metamorphosis into one of the greatest players of all time. Even the mighty Babe Ruth once expressed his awe, remarking how he patterned his swing after Jackson's.
ISBN 0689829132
As legend has it, Joe earned the moniker "Shoeless" by doffing his brand-new, too-tight spikes to play in his stockinged feet. As with most lore of this type, there are several explanations, some of which might even be true.
Zachary's Ball
Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy is a tale of determination and success that kids can apply to everyday life: hard work will get you where you want to go. Bildner centers his story around Jackson's attempt to graduate from the minor leagues to the majors. Joe, despite his natural talent, has all sorts of trouble hitting the ball. He seeks the advice of his friend, Ol' Charlie, a master bat-maker, for help with his problem. Carefully following his counsel, the ballplayer has immediate success, but he falls back into a slump. He tries Charlie's various suggestions -- rubbing his bat with oil, rubbing it with a bone to help toughen the grain and make it stronger, even taking it to bed with him. The solution, however, finally comes down not to the piece of wood, but to Jackson's belief in his own abilities.
By Matt Tavares Candlewick, $5.99 ISBN 0763617687
Athletes are a quirky lot and full of superstitions. Joe treated his bats like some people treat their pets. He even took them home with him to South Carolina after the baseball season was over because, as he was fond of saying, "bats don't like to freeze no more than me." C. F. Payne's illustrations relay the sense of warmth and freshness that a day at the ballpark or in the country can hold. His lush greens give a sense of being on the field. Bildner includes an afterword with background information on Jackson and the ill-fated Black Sox. While this holds historical significance, it might be more than young readers will find interesting. There's also a page containing Jackson's
statistics, proving him to be one of baseball's true, if tragic, greats. Another inspiring sports story is told by Matt Tavares in Zachary's Ball. Originally published in 2000, this baseball classic, which won an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award, is now available in paperback. The story conveys the power a baseball can have through a foul ball that's caught and treasured by a young boy named Zachary. More than just a souvenir, the ball is a talisman which transports Zachary to heroic deeds on the diamond of his imagination. As sports fans grow older and other responsibilities take hold of their lives, the power of childhood joys can weaken. They get replaced or, in Zachary's case, misplaced. How he rediscovers his youthful enjoyment, and helps others discover theirs, is Tavares' message. His illustrations, done in pencil, evoke a simple world where the partnership of baseball and youth is a basic "black and white" fact. Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy and Zachary's Ball are, in a sense, opposite sides of the coin. On the one hand, Shoeless Joe extols the virtues of hard work and believing in yourself. On the flip side, Zachary's Ball still holds onto the childlike belief that anything is possible in the imagination. A team of winning books young readers will love.
April 2002
Baseball 2002: stronger than ever . . . at least on the bookshelf REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
Over the winter, "contraction" was the buzzword in baseball. Fueled by claims that a majority of the teams were operating in the red, the commissioner's office announced it was considering eliminating up to four clubs and drastically reconfiguring the game as we know it. But you wouldn't know there was any problem with the national pastime from looking at the book industry. From statistical analyses to literary homages, dozens of baseball titles are due out this year. The following are a few we feel merit consideration for M.V.B. (Most Valuable Book) 2002. "The man in the box office . . . will tell you that a baseball franchise in a large city is a 'mint'." These words weren't written to counter the commissioner's charges; they come from "Baseball as the Bleachers Like It," an essay by Charles E. Van Loan, written in 1909. His piece is one of many to be found in Baseball: A Literary Anthology, a classic volume of poetry, fiction and nonfiction edited by Nicholas Dawidoff. Author of the best-selling book The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, Dawidoff has assembled a wonderful collection that includes contributions from legendary baseball writers Roger Angell, Roger Kahn and Damon Runyon, as well as unexpected sources like Carl Sandburg, Jonathan Schwartz and Tallulah Bankhead. While there are some familiar pieces here, the book's charm lies in its variety of voices -- authors not known for sportswriting. Contributions from Thomas Wolfe, William Carlos Williams, Amiri Baraka and Stephen King (who would have expected a genial, non-morbid piece on Little League from the master of horror?) make this anthology special.
Baseball: A Literary Anthology
Edited by Nicholas Dawidoff Library of America, $35, ISBN 19310809X The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Baseball Desk Reference by Lawrence T. Lorimer is a perfect blend of history, statistics, illustrations and just plain fun that any fan, novice or expert will enjoy. Part encyclopedia, part primer, part pop culture history book, this volume covers all the bases (pardon the pun). Beginning with a timeline of the game's significant events, Baseball Desk Reference contains a year-by-year breakdown of the major leagues, team histories and profiles of hundreds of top players. There's also extensive coverage of baseball around the world, rules, techniques of play and instruction on how to score a game. Additionally, the book examines baseball's impact on other cultural forms, like cinema,
literature and music. This heavyweight book bears the name of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, so expect a high quality addition to your sports library.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Baseball Desk Reference By Lawrence T. Lorimer DK, $50, ISBN 0789483920
In Clearing the Bases: The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century, Allen Barra, popular sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Salon.com, presents discussions of the sport's most confounding questions. He examines weighty issues such as why pitchers can't throw complete games anymore, and who should wear the mantle of "Greatest Living Player" now that Joltin' Joe DiMaggio is gone. Among the more compelling and original debates are Barra's theories on the failure of the 1986 Mets to maintain National League dominance, and the "back story" about Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's home run record. Barra's clear-eyed analysis makes Clearing the Bases one of the most thought-provoking books on the game to appear in some time.
Clearing the Bases: The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century By Allen Barra Thomas Dunne, $24.95, ISBN 0312265565
What is so rare as a day in June? James Buckley Jr., author of The Visual Dictionary of Baseball, offers the answer in Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball's Sixteen Perfect Games. Yes, that's 16 games out of more than 170,000 major league contests. (You figure the odds; my head reels at the concept.) The first official "perfecto" was pitched in 1880. The most recent, in 1999, came from the hands of Yankee David Cone on "Yogi Berra Day," with Don Larsen -himself the pitcher of a perfect game in the 1956 World Series -- throwing out the ceremonial first ball. Again, the odds. . . . As Buckley reveals, the 16 pitchers who found their four-leaf clovers were by no means the best of their profession. Only five -- Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning (who wrote the foreword for Perfect), Sandy Koufax and Jim "Catfish" Hunter -- were good enough for consideration and eventual inclusion into the Hall of Fame; the others simply enjoyed their day in the spotlight. Buckley chronicles each game in fine detail, but perhaps his best work comes when discussing the heartbreak of those who had nearly -- but not quite -- flawless games, such as another Yankee, Mike Mussina. With two out and two strikes in the ninth inning of a game against the Yankee's arch-rival, the Boston Red Sox, Mussina lost his bid. Capturing the drama of such unforgettable contests, Perfect is a wonderful appreciation of the sport, a celebration of baseball history as it happened and as it might have been.
Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball's Sixteen Perfect Games
By James Buckley Jr. Triumph, $24.95, ISBN 1572434546
SEPTEMBER 2002
Baseball bio is a real home run REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
When baseball's All-Century Team was chosen in 1999, one of the pitchers picked was Sandy Koufax, a left-hander for the Brooklyn, and later, Los Angeles Dodgers—a remarkable selection that was largely based on the strength of a five-year stretch when Koufax dominated the game like no one had before. What is more remarkable, notes Jane Leavy, author of the new book Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, is that for a good portion of his By Jane Leavy career he pitched with an arm injury that kept him in constant pain, HarperCollins, $23.95 which he relieved with a mix of painkillers, ice baths and an 256 pages, ISBN analgesic balm that was so strong people cried when they were 0060195339 around him.
Sandy Koufax
As Leavy points out, Koufax had it all: movie star good looks, a nimble brain and tons of athletic ability. Like Hank Greenberg, a Jewish first baseman for the Detroit Tigers a generation before, Koufax was an icon for Jews across America. He helped belie the myth that Jews were incapable of excelling in physical endeavors. Success never went to his head. He maintained friendships with his childhood buddies from Brooklyn, and around his teammates he was known for treating everyone the same, regardless of their color or hierarchy as an athlete. Leavy, an award-winning sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post, does a sensitive job in portraying him as an outstanding athlete and a thoughtful, complex man. Baseball fan Ron Kaplan writes from Montclair, New Jersey.
APRIL 2003
Baseball and books: a marriage made in heaven REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
Baseball books are like weddings: they always seem to include something old (biographies and team histories), something new (lots of numbers For for statistics and fantasy leagues fanciers), baseball fans who admire fine writing as something borrowed (how many original books can you write about much as a home-run the mighty Yankees?) and something blue (anything about the Dodgers). True fans stick with their teams for richer or poorer, for swing, two new collections will be at better or worse, through sickness and health, till death do them part. the top of the spring Following in this time-honored tradition, we've assembled a few of roster. Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: this season's top baseball titles. My Lifelong Passion for Baseball (Norton, Something old $24.95, 320 pages, ISBN 0393057550) by Some pundits opine that baseball has lost its status as the national the late Stephen Jay pastime. This may be true, but there's no denying that when it comes Gould is a wonderful to inspiring writers and artists to demonstrate their affection for a collection of essays game, no other sport comes close. The Perfect Game: America Looks and book reviews the at Baseball by Elizabeth V. Warren, former curator for the American author contributed to Folk Art Museum in New York, provides ample proof. Based on a The New York Review recent exhibition at the museum, The Perfect Game looks at teams; of Books, Vanity Fair the women's game; bats and balls; signs; and other aspects of the and The New York sport. Warren's goal is to introduce baseball fans to the world of folk Times. Reminiscing art and show them that "there is another way, beyond the relics and about old players and collectibles of the past, to look at the history of their beloved sport." new theories, about the use of statistics Unlike other books that meld art and baseball, Warren's text and the blue concentrates on the artists and their methods rather than the melancholy of being a ballplayers and the game. The overall feel is that of a well-done artsRed Sox fan, the and-crafts show. Particularly engaging are the unusual figures made author writes about the from wood or metal depicting athletes in various stages of play. game with warmth and authority. The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball By Elizabeth V. Warren Abrams, $29.95, 152 pages, ISBN 0810945045
Something new
Why do they serve hot dogs at ballgames? How do those guys take care of the field and all that equipment? How did the stadium architects decide how many restrooms to build? Oh, the things we think of while watching a game at the ballpark! Vince Staten addresses these and other conundrums in Why is the Foul Pole Fair? (Or, Answers to the Baseball Questions Your Dad Hoped You Wouldn't Ask). Reading Staten, whose book is full of As baseball scribe for humorous and thoughtful observations, is like sitting next to Andy The New Yorker, Rooney at the ballgame. He explores topics like bubble gum cards, Roger Angell has been athletic supporters and team nicknames, and he isn't satisfied to writing about the game merely answer the surface questions. He delves into the social history for more than 40 of numerous components in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. years. Game Time: A He's certainly done his research, offering hard-to-find, fascinating Baseball Companion facts. (Harcourt, $25, 300 pages, ISBN Why is the Foul Pole Fair? 0151008248) spans By Vince Staten four decades and Simon & Schuster, $21, 304 pages, collects the best of his ISBN 0743233840 work. He has seen the game Something borrowed morph from a "plantation mentality," Bats are practically communal property when in which the owners kids gather at the ballfield. Baseball gloves, on called all the shots, to the other hand, are much more personal and today's sport where, it shared only with great reluctance. They are often the first piece of sports equipment a kid receives could be said, the and certainly one of the most prized possessions inmates are running of childhood. Noah Liberman chronicles this the asylum. With his special relationship with equal measures of ability to take the reverence and bemusement in Glove Affairs: The Romance, History, reader below the surface, Angell gains and Tradition of the Baseball Glove. access to old idols like Tom Seaver, as well In its nascent days, baseball was a manly sport. Using a glove was an open invitation for ridicule for anyone wimpy enough to wear one. as today's stars, Players accepted broken fingers and other injuries inherent in bareincluding Pedro handed play as badges of honor. But honor only went so far. The first Martinez and Barry Bonds. In his hands, use of a mitt was reported by the Cincinnati Commercial in 1870, and these players are more since then the glove has evolved from a leather accessory with the than just numbers in a fingers cut off to today's huge multi-hued aggregations of material box score; they're men seemingly capable of catching a small cow. with depth and soul. What's the best method to break in that new mitt? Ballplayers have Angell's thoughtful been debating this for generations. There are almost as many recipes prose will warm baseball fans even on for glove conditioning as for barbecue sauces, so Liberman's chapter the coldest days of the on the ever-important care and feeding of gloves is most welcome, as is his ode to those magicians who can take old and decaying mitts off-season.
and restore them to youthful vigor. This playful edition is a welcome change from baseball's more serious books.
Glove Affairs: The Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove
By Noah Liberman Triumph, $19.95, 160 pages, ISBN 1572434201
Something blue Dodger Blue is the topic of Michael Shapiro's nostalgic look at The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, The Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together. Believe it or not, there are still people in Brooklyn who count among their darkest moments the day their beloved "Bums" left for the West coast. More so than most teams, the Dodgers had a special connection with their city. By 1956, the team's nucleus—including Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges—were well past their prime. The city itself was changing as the post-war generation began its flight to the suburbs, leaving in its place a demographic (read African-American and Hispanic) that Walter O'Malley, the team's owner, felt could not adequately support the team, although he would maintain it was a question of economics, not race, on which the Dodgers based their departure. In The Last Good Season, Shapiro concentrates on the players, their families and Brooklyn as a whole. His narrative has, of necessity, a sense of doom. His ode to a simpler time makes for bittersweet but rewarding reading, and not only for baseball fans. After all, the Dodgers were about more than a game; they were about community.
The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, The Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together By Michael Shapiro Doubleday, $24.95, 368 pages, ISBN 0385501528
On deck More exciting baseball books are scheduled for publication in the coming months. Watch for these titles: • The Teammates by David Halberstam (May/ Hyperion). A portrait of four Boston Red Sox players from the famed 1949 team who remained friends for more than 60 years. • October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin,
and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978 by Roger Kahn (May/Harcourt). An account of the raucous season in which the Yankees won the World Series despite Martin's mid-season departure. • The Hidden Language of Baseball by Paul Dickson (May/Walker). A fascinating look at the intricate systems of signs used by players and coaches. • Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from Behind the Plate by Ken Kaiser (May/Thomas Dunne Books). The adventures and misadventures of a 20-year major league umpire. • Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (June/Norton). How the Oakland Athletics achieved major league success with a minor league payroll.
APRIL 2004
A roster of legends Portraits of baseball heroes past and present REVIEWS BY RON KAPLAN
Baseball literature has the ability to transcend time, to make the heroes of yesterday come alive for today's fans. Baby boomers invoke names like Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays in nostalgic reveries or when comparing their favorite players to current stars. Several new books will keep such illustrious players in the public conscience. Some of these biographies are of the cradle-to-grave variety while others focus on a single, watershed event. Be warned, however—these are not the Pollyanna-style profiles of past generations. Like many biographies of late, these titles mix the exultation of accomplishment with the more human and darker sides of their subjects.
Ted Williams All due modesty aside, Ted Williams considered himself among the greatest hitters who ever lived, and he was not alone in that assessment. Leigh Montville takes a fresh look at the Red Sox slugger in Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero. Williams was a true hero, and not just in the hyperbolic lexicon of the sports world. He put in two stints as a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea and helped to establish several charities. Montville offers numerous accounts of Williams' friendship and generosity to the "little man" over the years. But for all his success, Williams' family life was a dismal disappointment: three failed marriages and a manipulative son who, even as Williams was dying, sought ways to cash in on his father's fame. These antics continued after Williams' death, when his son had his father's remains stored at a cryogenics lab, a sad coda to the life of this proud and vibrant personality. Montville's extraordinary insight and access into Williams' life outside the sports spotlight makes this a fascinating volume sure to pique the interest of fans.
Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero By Leigh Montville Doubleday, $26.95, 528 pages, ISBN 0385507488
Mickey Mantle
For years the debate raged: Mantle or Mays? They both debuted in 1951 and their careers mirrored each other for more than a decade—both even had songs written about them. Such memories are the basis of two books, one new and one a re-release of an old favorite. As a sportswriter, Maury Allen covered Mantle during his playing days; Bill Liederman was Mantle's partner in the popular New York restaurant that bears his name. Between them, they've collected a half-century of highand low-lights in Our Mickey: Cherished Memories of an American Icon. Allen contributes anecdotes from Mantle's teammates and opponents, citing celebrated feats of athletic ability in a lifetime diminished by injury and alcoholism. Liederman came into Mantle's life relatively late, but his stories still reflect the awe in which even the rich and famous held the Yankee slugger. Celebrities such as Henry Kissinger, Billy Crystal, Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton are among dozens who recount what Mantle meant to them and to the American psyche.
Our Mickey: Cherished Memories of an American Icon By Maury Allen and Bill Liederman Triumph, $22.95, 160 pages, ISBN 1572435984
Willie Mays If Mantle was brute force, Mays was style and grace. His ability to stay healthier than his Yankee counterpart allowed him to put up superior numbers. Charles Einstein chronicled his long-playing story in Willie's Time: Baseball's Golden Age, a book first published in 1979 that came to be regarded as a classic of baseball writing. This year, Southern Illinois University Press is releasing a 25th anniversary edition. Einstein combines the name-dropping witticisms of a gossip columnist with the keen analysis of a history professor, citing dozens of sources to illustrate his observations on Mays, whose time in the big leagues spanned five presidential administrations. The author discusses the parallel maturation of the ballplayer and America, but concentrates mostly on the pernicious racial inequities suffered by Mays and other African-American ballplayers. Rather than being heavy-handed with indignation, Einstein manages to infuse a gentle sense of humor into even these ugly situations.
Willie's Time: Baseball's Golden Age
By Charles Einstein Southern Illinois University Press, $19.95, 360 pages, ISBN 080932573X
Hank Aaron For more than 20 years, Hank Aaron quietly went about his work, doing all the things that
Mantle and Mays did, but with less media attention. That is, until he came within striking distance of the most prestigious record in baseball: Babe Ruth's 714 lifetime home runs. The two seasons (1973-74) Aaron spent closing in on Ruth's mark should have been a time of excitement and joyful anticipation. Instead, it was a horror. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the feat, Tom Stanton takes a look at the withering pressures the slugger faced in Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America. The increasing media focus and demands on his time as well as the daily grind of being an aging athlete were compounded by the small mindedness of those who believed that Aaron, as an African American, had no right to such acclaim. Instead of enjoying the ride, it reached the point where Aaron told reporters, "I want to get this nightmare over with." Stanton mixes sport with social commentary as he describes the racism Aaron faced, including death threats to himself and his family, hate mail and the inexplicable indifference of baseball's commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America By Tom Stanton Morrow, $23.95 256 pages, ISBN 0060579765
Tug McGraw While not on a par with the aforementioned legends on the baseball diamond, Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw (who died from brain cancer in January) was nevertheless a hero to his fans in New York and Philadelphia. Ya Gotta Believe, written with Don Yaeger, is more than a recap of McGraw's athletic glories. It is a frank description of family dysfunction, despair (he was diagnosed late in life with bipolar disorder) and redemption. McGraw tells of his life as a typical pampered athlete, to whom women were "tomatoes." It was during one of his liaisons that he fathered a son whose identity he denied for many years. That son grew up to be country music superstar Tim McGraw. The reconciliation between father and son makes Ya Gotta Believe (the title was McGraw's oft-repeated rallying cry for the 1973 pennant-winning Mets) one of the more honest sports books in many years. An epilogue describes McGraw's final days, spent in a Tennessee cabin with his son, Tim, by his side. While other books may focus on disparate aspects of the game, biographies of baseball greats provide an educational and entertaining look at the way we were, warts and all.
Ya Gotta Believe
By Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw and Don Yaeger New American Library, $23.95, 245 pages, ISBN 0451212584
May, 2005
REVIEW BY RON KAPLAN
The things we take for granted. To watch our children playing together nowadays, it's difficult to conceive of a time when it was taboo for blacks and whites to join in a game of baseball. Yet 50 years ago (and, sadly, even more recently) such was the case.
The Journal of Biddy Owens:
The Journal of Biddy Owens is a fictional story of a 17-year-old African American who serves as batboy for the Birmingham Black Barons, one of the legendary teams in the defunct Negro Leagues. These athletes, denied the chance to play in the Major Leagues (until Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947), included some of the greatest players of all time, regardless of color, like Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard and Willie Mays.
The Negro Leagues By Walter Dean Myers Owens keeps track of the excitement of the season, the fans, the Scholastic, $10.95 personalities. Although his team is bound for the championship, it's ISBN 0439095034 not all fun and games. For one thing, there is the pervasive racism he and his teammates must endure as they travel from town to town for the next game: separate drinking fountains, separate cars on trains. The humiliation and danger they faced on a regular basis is a shock to today's modern sensibilities. The Journal of Biddy Owens is also a story of the difficulties in the Owens' household. When World War II ended, blacks faced the brunt of layoffs at work as those who had been in the service returned to reclaim their former jobs. As a young man, Owens is caught between the end of childhood and the beginnings of being a man. The target age group for The Journal of Biddy Owens is 9 - 14, hopefully old enough to understand the degradations of racism, as it applies to any group. The book is part of the My Name Is America fiction series, which "journals" history from the perspective of a Japanese boy in an internment camp during World War II, a Chinese miner and a Native American, as well as immigrants from Ireland and Finland. As if to show the price of keeping America free, stories are also offered by soldiers in the Revolutionary, Civil and Second World Wars. All in all, the series proves that what makes this country great is its ability to recognize and work toward solving these difficulties.