* Remembering the Mick

Came across this item from the People magazine on Mickey Mantle archives and thought I’d pass it along.

Although I fancy myself as a very low-end collector, I’m surprised I don;t have this among my souvenirs/ I have several newspapers from when Joe DiMaggio died, as well as Cal Ripken’s end-of-streak game, but not much else in newsprint.

It’s like Stephen Wright says, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?“

* “…but somebody has to do it.”

How will the Mets (and history) treat Jerry Manuel> The “interim” manager took over for the beleaguered Willie Randolph early this season, when the team was hovering under the .500 mark. Yes, Randolph was the leader of a bunch of underachievers, but almost everyone agrees that the way in which his dismissal was handled was, to put it plainly, not nice.

Baseball managers are not monarchs; they don’t ascend to the throne and hold onto their jobs forever (although some do abdicate).

So just how important is the job? See what Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein and Christina Kahrl have to say in this video:

The Amazon report on baseball managers:

Man in the Dugout, by Leonard Koppett

Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager

Red Sox Rule: Terry Francona and Boston’s Rise to Dominance

Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball

Stengel: His Life and Times

They Call Me Sparky

The Man in the Dugout: Fifteen Big League Managers Speak Their Minds, by Donald Honig

* Now if we had instant replay back then…

Every now and again we have someone who brings up the question: Did Babe Ruth actually “call” his home run in the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs?

Many say no, some, like this gentleman, swear he did. Who’s to say? Grainy film of the event make it difficult to tell with absolute certainty. But I can say one thing: if this was happening in the current climate, you’d have 13 cameras fixed on his every twitch.

Did he or didn't he?

* Going to the tape

Is it just me, or has there been a surprisingly small amount of outcry from baseball traditionalists (aka, old folks like me), objecting to the use of instant replay in baseball?

MLB instituted the practice this week, using it primarily for home runs. Seems someone high up on the food chain was tired of too many blown calls.

Bruce Weber, in this Sunday Times “Week in Review” column, lays the blame on — who else — television. After all, it gives them a chance to show off their technology.

[...] the use of technology in officiating is about television and money. Television, after all, is responsible for sports’ having become such a mammoth industry, bringing the games relentlessly into peoples’ homes, not to mention paying for domed stadiums and artificial surfaces, things that can be said to have damaged the integrity of sports, especially baseball, a lot more than officials’ miscalls.

Watch any Mets game and you’ll see, after practically every pitch, at least one replay of the swing or ball taken by the batter. If there’s a play in the field, you can bet there will be at least two replays from different angles. And if there’s a close play, you can see it up to half a dozen times at different angles, magnificantions, and speeds.

Weber, by the way, makes sure to mention  his upcoming project:

And because last week was baseball’s week to go high-tech, as someone who has just completed a book about umpires and umpiring, I’ll ask: Does baseball deserve this? Aren’t umpires the officials that most deserve a pass?

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I wonder Weber would have published this column if he didn’t have a book in the background.

Anyway, what are your pet peeves about “innovations” to the game? For me, topping the list is the omnipresent “body armor” worn by the batters, allowing them to stand closer to the plate with less fear of injury and thereby changing the way pitchers go about their job. Why are they allowed to wear this stuff. It’s one thing if it’s to protect an injury, but you can’t tell me all these athletes have bad ankles, elbows, hands, etc. Show me a doctor’s note.

This phenomenon is followed closely by the way starting pitchers are used, earning kudos if they manage to go all the way to the seventh inning.

* Giving back through books

According to this piece in on Thisweeklive.com,

A new children’s book about sharing what you have with those in need is paying real-life dividends for the Eagan-based nonprofit Cheerful Givers.

When readers purchase the book through the publisher’s Web site (www.agloveoftheirown.com ), a pull-down menu allows them to select from a list of charity groups, among them Cheerful Givers, that will receive a portion of the purchase price.

If you’re going to buy a kid a baseball book anyway, why not double the pleasure by putting some charity behind the gesture?

* Announcement: author appearance

Kerry Yo Nakagawa will discuss his  book, Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball on Friday September 19, 7 pm Community Roomat the Altadena, Calif. library, located at 600 E. Mariposa. 

Following his talk will be a screening of American Pastime, the award-winning film  he produced. This powerful film tells the story of the dramatic impact WWII had on the home-front as Japanese American families were uprooted from their everyday lives and placed into internment camps in the Western US in the early 1940’s. Faced with a country that now doubted their loyalty and struggling with their new situation, they turned to baseball as a way to handle their plight and find the strength to stand up for themselves becoming a true symbol of honor and pride.  Copies of this award winning film on DVD will be available for sale the evening of the program.

* “What a day this has been…”

Aug. 30 is a red letter day for the game, so I’m combining several elements:

Happy birthday: Ted Williams, aka, The Splendid Splinter (Nickname of the Day), was born this date in 1918.

Welcome to the Big Leagues: Ty Cobb (1905) and Keith Hernandez (1974) began their storied careers on Aug. 30.

Fare thee well: Tris Speaker made his last appearance in 1928.

The Amazon Report on Ted Williams (abridged):

Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero, by Leigh Montville

What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now? : A Remembrance, by Richard Ben Cramer

The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship, by David Halberstam

My Turn at Bat: The Story of My Life (Fireside Sports Classics), by Ted Williams

Hear Leigh Montville on Williams:

The Amazon Report on Ty Cobb: (abridged)

Cobb: A Biography, by Al Stump

Ty Cobb (Sport in American Life), by Charles Alexander

Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours

The Amazon Report on Keith Hernandez:

Pure Baseball, by Keith Hernandez

If at First: A Season With the Mets, by Keith Hernandez

The Amazon Report on Tris Speaker: (abridged)

Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend

Spoke: A Biography of Tris Speaker (Sport in American Life), by Charles Alexander

* Review: Yankee for Life

From the Bronx Banter column of the always entertaining Basbeall Toaster, this review of the late Bobby Murcer’s autobiography.

* Happy birthday, Sweet Lou

(Not to be confused with “Sweet Lou” Johnson of the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1960s)

Lou Pinella, now in the midst of guiding the Cubs to the promised land of the post-season, was born this date in 1943. Younger fans don’t realize what a good player he was “in the day: a .291 average in 18 seasons, primarily with for the New York Yankees in their resurrection of the 1970s. He was also a two-time AL manager of the year (1995, 2001).

The Amazon Report on Lou Pinella:
Sweet Lou

Pinella then...

and now (note the similarity in stance to the video above)

* Review: Red Sox reveries

From Wicked Locale Orleans, a Cape Cod-based outfit, this review of Nick Cafardo’s 100 Things Red Sox Fans Should Know & Do before They Die and Faithful To Fenway, by Michael Ian Borer.

Upshots:

There is little in Cafardo’s retelling of Red Sox history that the diehards don’t already know, but it is not Cafardo’s intention to write a detailed history of the Red Sox. His goal is to entertain longtime fans and to whet the appetites of those who want to delve deeper into all things Red Sox. In this he succeeds.

…

Borer’s book is scholarly, with enough popular culture in it to interest the serious fan, but probably not the casual fan or the beginner.

These two books fall in at opposite ends of the spectrum of what’s available to Red Sox fans, and each is worthy, in its own way, of a place in the Red Sox Nation library.