Lists: Roger Kahn’s favorites

From Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art, and Writing About It a Game, the famed baseball writer offers his favorite dozen reads, including:

• Nice Guys Finish Last by Leo Durocher with Ed Linn (Simon and Schuster, 1975).
• (Co-winner) Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris (Alfred A. Knopf, 1956).
•  The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter (Macmillan, 1966).
•  Baseball America by Donald Honig (Macmillan, 1985).
• A False Spring by Pat Jordan (Dodd, Mead, 1975).
• Lords of the Realm by John Helyar (Ballantine Books, 1995).
• Cobb, a Biography by Al Stump (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1996).
• A Whole Different Ball Game (Simon and Schuster, 1991).
• Any collection of pieces by John Lardner or Red Smith.
• Fathers Playing Catch with Sons by Donald Hall (Farrar, Straus, 1984).
• Man on Spikes by Eliot Asinof (McGraw Hill, 1955).

For a deeper explanation by Kahn, read this piece that appeared in the New York Times in April, 1997. Kahn appeared on the MacNeil-Lerner NewsHour that month to discuss his latest work.

Announcement: New Gil Hodges biography

Mort Zachter, author of the surprise hit Dough, is working on a biography of former Dodger All-Star first baseman Gil Hodges.

Hodges, who later managed the Washington Senators and the Miracle Mets of 1969, died in April 1973 of a heart attack during spring training. He was 48 years old.

Zachter posted this essay on some of his research on his Web site. The book, Gil Hodges: The Man Behind the Miracle, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2009.

A standout player, and respected as a man of strength and principle, Hodges was one of those unfortunate “lifers” who, despite impressive (if not top-notch) statistics, was never deemed worthy of inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

Lists: Milwaukee’s Finest

From time to time, various writers, editors, publications, etc., will offer their list of “best” or “essential” baseball titles. So from time to time I’ll pass them on, FYI, with or without comment.

First up, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  two members of the Brewers front office and a local college professor weigh in on the favorites. The nice part about these pieces, especially from people who work in the industry in some way, is that there’s a wide range of choices, not just books published in the last couple of years or so.

Review: Baseball Books: A Collector’s Guide

by Mike Shannon (McFarland, 2007)

As one who collects baseball books, I was happy to come across Mike Shannon’s latest offering. After reading it, however, I find myself depressed, contrary to the author’s philosophy.

I — along with everyone else, according to the author — will never be a “completist,” that is one who acquires every baseball book ever published. I have neither the time, money or space to do so, nor I would want to even if all the planets were properly aligned. As he writes, “there are a lot of ‘bad’ baseball books (books which are erroneous, poorly written, or graphically dull).”

Now that I’m off the hook on that aspect, I learned I do not treating my books properly. I keep them in my attic and my basement, contrary to Shannon’s advice. I know he’s right about atmospheric conditions; the heat of the attic and the humidity of the basement cannot be good for my library. Unfortunately, there’s no place else to put them. Unless my family moves out.

Shannon, editor of the acclaimed Spitball magazine and author of Diamond Classics (McFarland, 2004), splits his new book into two main sections: the hows and whys of collecting, and a substantial price guide of what one should expect to pay for titles he has included for their collectibility.

Of particular interest is his section “Which Baseball Books to Collect,” which includes a number of publications that include “best of” or “essential” lists when it comes to building a library of ones own. One outstanding source is The Whole Baseball Catalogue (edited by John Thorn and Bob Carroll), which features a particularly interesting — if somewhat dated — section on baseball books.

The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated & Underrated Players in History

By Jayson Stark
Triumph Books

“Let the debate begin,” challenges the cover of the book. Stark, senior baseball writer for ESPN, adds his opinions in the latest volume in the genre of books whose sole purpose seems to invite an argument.

Going position by position, Stark picks his “mosts” along with four “runner-ups.” It’s not easy choosing the most overrated players; there are so many to choose from, thanks to publications like Stark’s, who hump the “flavor of the month.” (Can you say Super Joe Charbonneau? I knew you could.) You can’t get too choked up over the fact that Bobby Thigpen was more overrated than Armando Benitez. Readers will note a decided “generational bias” in that most of the players’ careers began after 1960.

Looking back on his record, the beginning of Sandy Koufax’s career was mediocre at best. It was those last five seasons in which he crafted his legend. Should that mark him as the most overrated left-handed starting pitcher of all time?

The difficulty I had was in the underrateds. It’s hard to consider Frank Robinson in that category. The right-fielder was a two-league MVP and Hall of Famer.

Other “unders” include:

• Bob Feller, RH starter
• Babe Ruth, LH starter (brilliant selection)
• Goose Gossage, reliever
• Edgar Martinez, DH
• Yogi Berra, C
• Hank Greenberg, 1B
• Craig Biggio, 2B
• Ron Santo, 3B (sorry, but there’s been too much made of him over the years for me to consider him thus)
• Barry Larkin, SS
• Stan Musial, LF (Again, he’s constantly being named in all-time great lists, so I disagree)
• Duke Snider, CF (He constantly comes in third after Mantle and Mays, but deservedly so)

Stark also lists the top three over- and under- players for each franchise, to wrap things up nicely.

All in all, The Stark Truth is a perfect book for the Hot Stove league, to keep those discussions going until spring training rolls around.

This week (Oct. 1, 2007) in Sports Illustrated

Finally, baseball is the cover story as the teams head into the final week of the season.

Red Sox reliever Johnathan Papelbon is the cover boy and the lead in Tom Verducii’s “Late and Great.”

“Summer’s over, but the heat’s being turned up on some of the game’s biggest stars as they take the October stage. Jonathan Papelbon’s reply: Bring it.”

The article features photographs of an intense looking Papelbon as well as Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia; the Mets’ David Wright and Jose Reyes; Francisco Rodriguez of the Angels; Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks; and the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez. Taken by Walter Iooss Jr. they are reminiscent of a set of cards Fleer produced in the 1990s known as Studio.

Other baseball items this week:

• “Barry’s next move” after he finished the season with the Giants
• “The Cuddly Confines,” about mama and papa Fields who named their son Wrigley
• A brief profile of the Brewers’ Vinny Rottino, a home-grown product
• An update on Rick Ankiel, who received HGH while recuperating in the off season
• The SI Players MLB Poll: “Which individual hitting statistic is the most meaningful ?” Runs batted in received 41 percent of the vote, followed by OBP (19%), Batting average (13%), OBSP (on-base plus slugging, 11%) and runs scored (9%).

Because a small baby could fit on the “Bookshelf”…

A staunch fan of the Chicago Cubs from Michigan City, Ind., has named the couple’s new son Wrigley. Last name Fields.

Sounds like a Bart Simpson telephone gag.

An inside look at baseball book publishing

According to an article by Andrew Grabois on BeneaththeCover.com, a web site that deals with the book industry,

…[W]e find, not surprisingly, that baseball is still king. With its rich history, sacred pantheon of heroes and records, and endless statistics, baseball should remain the anchor of the category for the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, in the grand scale of things, baseball — and sports books in general — are way down in the pack. According to the most recent Business of Consumer Book Publishing, the sports and recreation genre ranks 18 out of 19 categories. There were 4,435 new sports titles released in 2006 (out of a total of more than 55,700 total books). Hardcover sports/rec titles making it to one of the major best seller lists tracked by a major industry resource totaled 22, six less than the previous year. Another telling figure about the importance of sports book in the eyes listing decision-makers: the number of books reviewed by major outlets declined from 450 to 311.

An accounting of baseball titles since 1985

1985	1995	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
116	310	436	474	506	555	459

Other items of interest:

• The average SRP for sports books were $27.09 for hardcover, $16.20 for adult trade paperbakcs, and $8.56 for mass-market paperbacks, all lower the general non-fiction titles.
• No sports titles appeared on the USA Today 150 best selling list; only two — Opening Day, by Jonathan Eig, and Big Papi, by David Ortiz, made the NYTimes‘ best-seler list that appeared on the publication’s Web site (not the print edition)
• Five of the top 12 bestselling sports books on Amazon.com and six of the top 10 on Barnes and Noble were baseball titles.
• Visit my previous entry on bestselling baseball titles, as deemed by The New York Times.
  

 

Bits and Pieces

From The Baseball Crank and Blogcritics, two more reviews about Ladies and Gentlemen: The Bronx is Burning.

From the Burlington Times News, an article about an appearance by George F. Will, author of Men at Work and Bunts.

According to a story about the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Sept. 23 issue of USA Today (“Ghosts of Flatbush alive 50 years after exit“):

The Library of Congress found more than 100 titles connected to the Brooklyn Dodgers in its collection. “With the exception of the Red Sox and Yankees, more books have been written about the Dodgers than any other team,” reference librarian Dave Kelly says, based on an informal survey of the collection.

• From MissLadybug, a review of the children’s book The Longest Season: The Story of the 1988 Orioles’ Losing Streak.
• From the East Brunswick (NJ) Home News Tribune, a piece on knuckleballs and faith by columnist Gene Racz, co-author of Bury My Heart at Cooperstown
• From Newreads, a preview of First Class Citizenship. “The scholar Michael G. Long has unearthed a remarkable trove of Robinson’s correspondence with — and personal replies from — such towering figures as Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, and Barry Goldwater. These extraordinary conversations reveal the scope and depth of Robinson’s effort during the 1950s and 1960s to rid America of racism.” Other baseball titles from NewReads include Playing America’s Game and Crazy ‘08.
• From the Baltimore Sun, an unenthusiastic review of Tom Adelman’s Black And Blue: The Golden Arm, the Robinson Boys, and the 1966 World Series That Stunned America , in which the reviewer, Childs Walker, opines:
  “I couldn’t figure out why Adelman wrote the book. He seems to see the season as emblematic of a nation in transition.He writes: ‘The astounding events that characterized baseball’s championship series that season … seem inextricably bound up with the race riots, NASA debacles, and Vietnam War deceptions that so aggrieved and altered the country at the time.’ But he never establishes the ‘inextricable’ link. This technique of weaving sport and culture has been done much better.

Announcement: Scribner to publish Willie Mays autobiography

From Publisher’s Weekly, Sept. 24, 2007:

After an auction that saw several publishers bid into the seven
figures, Scribner’s Nan Graham took world rights to the first authorized biography of baseball great Willie Mays. The book will be
written by bestselling author James S. Hirsch, and Todd Shuster at
Zachary Shuster Harmsworth sold the project, currently titled Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend. Random House was the underbidder.

Mays, 76, who has turned down a number of publishing opportunities
over the years, reportedly agreed to this book largely because it will
define his legacy on and off the field. His share of the proceeds will
support his Say Hey Foundation, which primarily advances
children’s causes. Mays, and the foundation….

Hirsch, a former reporter for The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, is the author of four books, including Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter.

No publication date has been announced.