* I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but…

Joe Mauer on the June 29 cover of SI? He was batting .407 when the story was published, which according to Baseball-Reference.com, must have been June 21. Since then? Five hits in 25 at bats, dropping his average 21 points to .386. Zack Greinke had a similar drop off shortly after he appeared.

I wonder if any one has ever declined the honor of being the cover story?  If I were an athlete on a hot streak and I saw an SI rep coming my way, I’d run screaming in the opposite direction.

* New York, New York: A “Freaky” assessment

From Stephen J. Dubner on The New York Times‘ Freakonomics blog (It’s okay; the original Freakonomics still sits on my bookshelf), this assessment of the decline of Western civilization, as evidenced by the boorish behavior of fans at last night’s interleague game between the Mets and Yankees.

* Review: Heart of the Game

Tuls World published this review/profile of S.L. Price’s consideration Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America, the story of Mike Coolbaugh, who was killed by a line drive foul while coaching first abse for the Tulsa Drillers.

* Review: Satchel and The Baltimore Elite Giants

Paul Dickson, editor of the popular Dickson Baseball Dictionary, published this double review of Negro L:eague baseball in The Washington Times.

* Author Q&A: Bill Reynolds

Dugout Central conducted this interview with Reynolds, author of ‘78: The Boston Red Sox, A Historic Game, and a Divided City

* Review: Satchel

The Christian Science Monitor published this review of Larry Tye’s well-received biography of the Negro League legend.

Upshot:

It’s about time somebody wrote a good biography of Satchel Paige, the great baseball pitcher, personality, showman, and entrepreneur. In Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, journalist Larry Tye has done just that.

Likewise, the Boston Globe:

Tye’s writing is a pleasure, relaxed but economical, providing a more vivid sense of life in black baseball than any of the several other books on Paige and the Negro Leagues.

By the way, congratulations to Tye for having his book break into The New York Times‘ best-seller list this week. It debuted at number 15 last week and is at number 13 this week. Joe Torre’s The Yankee Years is in the ninth spot, having spent 14 weeks on the list.

* Review: Pull Up a Chair

The American Spectator published this review of Curt Smith’s new book, emblematic of an increasing sentiment.

Upshot:

Unfortunately, Smith gives us a wealth of good information in a pedestrian writing style, clipped and choppy and occasionally incoherent. He sometimes changes subject in the middle of a paragraph. There are quotes where it’s hard to tell who is being quoted. Smith often uses a quirky kind of shorthand, full of words followed by colons, so that the book sometimes has the feel of a Power Point presentation rather than a coherent, flowing narrative. The reader has to work harder than he should have to in order to get the sense of Smith’s presentation. Just the opposite of listening to Scully.

* Lest we forget: Thurman Munson

The collaborator and biographer work at different ends of the life story spectrum. The former writes an as-told-to memoir controlled (but not always read) by the star.

The biographer broadens the story in ways that may upset the star or his family.

Formers Yankees PR director Marty Appel, who worked with the late Yankees catcher on his “autobiography” in the 1970s, comes out with a book all his own, generating this thoughtful piece by Richard Sandomir in today’s New York Times.

Munson passed away 30 years ago, this Aug. 2.

* Chafets opines on steroids and the Hall of Fame

Zev Chafets, author of Cooperstown Confidential, published this Op-Ed piece in the June 19 edition of The New York Times (“Let steroids into the Hall of Fame“). will Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, et al now become loyal Times readers?

[T]oday’s superstars have lawyers and a union. They know how to use the news media. And they have plenty of money. The only way to punish them is to deny them a place in Cooperstown. The punishment has already been visited on Mark McGwire, and many more are on deck.

This makes no sense. On any given day, the stands are packed with youngsters on Adderall and Ritalin (stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and college students who use Provigil (an anti-narcolepsy drug) as a study aid. The guy who sings the national anthem has probably taken a beta blocker to calm his stage fright. Like it or not, chemical enhancement is here to stay. And it is as much a part of the national game as $5.50 hot dogs, free agency and Tommy John elbow surgery.

Purists say that steroids alter the game. But since the Hall opened its doors, baseball has never stopped changing. Batters now wear body padding and helmets. The pitcher’s mound has risen and fallen. Bats have more pop. Night games affect visibility. Players stay in shape in the off-season. Expansion has altered the game’s geography. And its demography has changed beyond recognition. Babe Ruth never faced a black pitcher. As Chris Rock put it, Ruth’s record consisted of “714 affirmative-action home runs.” This doesn’t diminish Ruth’s accomplishment, but it puts it into context.

Needless to say, the piece generated a fair amount of comment, most con.

* Moneyball and the big screen…or not

I must admit, I agree with the SF Chronicle’s Gwen Knapp in her column where she avers that the book was not meant to be a feature film.

In fact, the fate of the movie might have been more dramatic than any material “Moneyball” could have provided. What would have constituted the big moments in the film? Billy Beane in a confrontation with old-time scouts, holding up a laptop and saying: “Gentlemen, this is the future?”

You certainly weren’t going to see the players sitting around the clubhouse pondering their disadvantages of small-market status and getting a “Win one for the Gipper” speech from Art Howe.

And here’s another county heard from, TV comedy writer Ted Levine (M*A*SH, Cheers, The Simpsons, etc.):

What puzzles me is how this project got on the fast track in the first place. First off, it’s a baseball movie. They usually tank overseas (as my international readers who are probably thinking of bailing just reading the word baseball can attest). And it’s from a non-fiction book. Here’s what I imagine was the pitch. You tell me if you’d buy this.

One more piece, slightly more favorable, which includes a link to a draft of the actual script.