* New titles from Bloomsbury

Their official spring-summer 2010 catalog isn’t online yet, but Bloomsbury is printing one new title and a 2009 title with a new afterword.

The new title is Charlie Finley: The Life of Baseball’s Super Showman, a joint effort by G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius, slated for a July release.

From the catalog:

Before the “Bronx Zoo” of George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin, there were the Oakland Athletics of the early 1970s, one of the most successful, most colorful — and most chaotic — baseball teams of all time. They were all of those things because of Charlie Finley. Not only the A’s owner, he was also the general manager, personally assembling his team, deciding his pl;ayers’ salaries, and making player moves during the season — a level of involvement no other owner, not even Steinbrenner, engaged in.

From modest circumstances in Gary, Indiana, Finley saw his semipro career cut short by the tuberculosis that nearly killed him in 1946. Yet fourteen years later, his success in the insurance business allowed him to buy the downtrodden Kansas City Athletics. Despite promising never to move, he relocated the A’s to Oakland in 1968, and soon reaped the benefit of his talented minor leagues. With the emergence of players such as Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue — as skillful on the field as they were eccentric off it — the A’s won five straight division titles and three straight World Series (1972-1974) — the latter feat equaled by only one other team in history. However, Finley could be an insufferable bully and impetuously self-destructive. His battles with Commissioner Bowie Kuhn were monumental; and following the 1975 season, he tore his team apart in one of baseball’s most controversial moments.

Drawing on interviews with dozens of Finley’s players, family members, and colleagues, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius presents “Baseball’s Super Showman” (Time magazine’s description of Finley on the cover of an August 1975 issue) in all his contradictions: generous yet vengeful, inventive, yet destructive. The stories surrounding him are as colorful as the life he led, the chronicle of which fills an important gap in baseball’s literature.

Knowing how hyperbolic some of these catalgos and pressreleases can get, I’ll just add a couple of comments.

While Steinbrenner might not have had the title of general manager, I’m sure he was quite involved in players’ salaries, especially in the early years.  The entry also alludes to Finley’s attempted “fire sale,” he he tried to peddle his stars Blue, Rudi, and Fingers for beaucoup bucks. Kuhn put the kibosh on that, invoking “the best interests of the game” clause. I gues it still qualifies as one of the biggest controversies.

* * *

The second Bloomsbury title is a re-release of Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame, by Zev Chafets, due out in June. This one features “a new afterword by the author,” which according to an email from Chafets, is as yet unwritten, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it includes revelations about high-profile players’ drug use that came out after the book’s original run.

Don’t neglect your franchise

Voting franchise, that is.

From the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Frick Award Ballot Voting Begins Online Tomorrow

– Fan Vote Will Place Three Names on Final Ballot –

Thousands of baseball fans have already used Facebook to stay connected to their heroes at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Now, they can nominate their favorite broadcaster for the Hall’s Ford C. Frick Award through the Museum’s Facebook presence, beginning tomorrow, Dec. 1, through Dec. 31.

Online voting for fan selections for the 2010 Frick Award will begin Dec. 1 at 10 a.m. EST, at the Hall’s Facebook page, and will conclude at 5 p.m. EST on Dec. 31. The top three fan selections from votes tallied at the site will appear on the final 10-name ballot for the award. The 2010 Frick Award winner will be selected by a 20-member electorate, with the winner to be announced in early February.

Presented annually since 1978 for excellence in baseball broadcasting, the Frick Award is given to an active or retired broadcaster with a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two. Fans will have the opportunity to select from more than 200 broadcasters eligible for consideration for the 2010 Ford C. Frick Award. Bios of each candidate will appear at www.baseballhall.org.

The Frick electorate includes all living Award-winners and five historians/veteran media members appointed by the Hall of Fame. The voting electorate consists of 20 members, featuring 2009 Ford C. Frick Award winner Tony Kubek and the other 14 living Frick Award winners: Marty Brennaman, Jerry Coleman, Gene Elston, Joe Garagiola, Ernie Harwell, Jaime Jarrin, Milo Hamilton, Denny Matthews, Dave Niehaus, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker and Bob Wolff. The five historians and veteran media members also part of the electorate include: Bob Costas (NBC), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Stan Isaacs (formerly of New York Newsday), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).

This marks the seventh year the Hall of Fame will include three fan selections on its final Frick Award ballot. In 2009, a record 145,138 votes were cast online, with former Cincinnati Reds announcer Joe Nuxhall leading all vote-getters with 19,547 votes. Former Expos announcer Jacques Doucet (10,282) and former Toronto announcer Tom Cheek (8,992) also earned spots on the 2009 final ballot.

 

* I assume the Astros will be involved…

Or at least Bill Lee.

From the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Hall of Fame Teams Up with NASAto Help Students Bring Baseball to Mars

COOPERSTOWN, NY – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has its sights set on Mars. And its plans just might include bats, gloves and balls – if some Central New York students have anything to say about it.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in conjunction with NASA, will host an Imagine Mars workshop Sept. 19-20 in Cooperstown. Students in fourth through seventh grade in area schools will work over two days to create a Baseball Stadium experience on Mars, including uniforms, stadium concepts, concessions and rules of the game. Taking information they learn about the Martian environment and the facts they learn about baseball, students will work together to devise a way baseball can be played on Mars.

Special NASA guests, including Mars scientist Jim Bell from Cornell University, will be on hand throughout the workshop. During the final hour of the workshop, parents and family members will be invited to attend the final presentation in the Museum’s Bullpen Theater.

The workshop runs from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, and from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20. Cost is $5 per student, which covers materials, supplies and admission to the Museum for both days.

The workshop is limited to 50 participants. To register, visit http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/something_new/ or call 607-547-0362 to request a registration form.

Baseball and Science Fiction

* Author interview: Zev Chafets

With the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies coming up, look for Chafets to be even more in the limelight.  This Q&A comes from the current edition of The Jewish Week and this one comes from The Forward, another Jewish publication.

* Review: Bert Sugar’s Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game

From the Salt Lake Tribune.

Upshot:

Open and book anywhere and begin.

“The fun is to know what’s on the inside,” he said. “That was story I wanted to tell.”

Bert Sugar’s Hall of Fame is a tale well told.

* 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.

* Brought to you as a public service announcement…

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will host a blood drive, sponsored by the American Red Cross in conjunction with Bassett Healthcare, on Saturday, June 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Museum’s Education Gallery. Blood donors will receive free admission to the Museum on Saturday, and Museum members will receive a Hall of Fame gift.

Volunteer donors who have not donated within the last 56 days of June 27^th are eligible to donate blood on Saturday. For more information on blood donation, visit www.donatebloodnow.org.

Museum membership information is available at www.baseballhall.org or call 888-HALL-OF-FAME (888-425-5633) or 607-547-7200.

* Since you brought it up: Rocky Colavito

This item popped up in my Google alerts. Fifty years ago (June 10, to be precise), Colavito — who played primarily for the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians from the mid-1950s to late 1960s — became the sixth batter in the modern era to hit four homers in one game.  (By the way, this may be the pot calling the kettle black, but shame on WFMZTV for misspelling his name in the transcript.)

Only yesterday, I received an email from “Gloria,” who runs the Rocky Colavito fan site (and Yahoo group), which states on its home page:

Not many players, past or present, invoke the memories and positive feelings Rocky’s name continues to spark.  As though it was yesterday, details of Rocky’s accomplishments are embedded in the memory of his fans.  Rocky’s name continues to pop up on sports pages, particularly as a vehicle  of comparison in today’s baseball highlights.

The site includes a petition by which his fans seek to gain him consideration for the Hall of Fame. This leads to a question:

Given the current state of affairs re: HoF candidates, in which contemporary players such as McGuire, Sosa, Palmiero, Clemens, et al are under a cloud of suspicion, is it time to reconsider some of those older players who just missed the cut? A glance at Colavito’s record on Baseball-Reference.com indicates his HoF status considering his league-leading stats:

Black Ink	Batting – 15 (153), Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray Ink	Batting – 152 (85), Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame Monitor	Batting – 81 (216), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame Standards	Batting – 29 (280), Average HOFer ≈ 50

Objectively speaking, except for the “Gray Ink” category, they seem to fall short; Colavito is among those players who had several excellent years and is obviously a fan favorite (Gil Hodges comes immediately to mind), but has been found lacking by the voters.

It is not my intention to justify in either direction. Just wanted to put it out there. The timing of the email and the TV story compels it.

* Reviews (and then some): Cooperstown Confidential

From the MLB portion of Fanhouse.com, this piece on Zev Chafets‘ new and controversial book on the Hall of Fame.

And another from The Hardball Times.

Upshot:

Chafets doesn’t portray himself as a baseball expert, a la Bill James. He clearly is a fan of the game—and a passionate one—make no mistake about it, but his focus is different. This isn’t a book about if the Hall inducted the right players. (The one time Chafets delves heavily into those waters provides the weakest part of the book.) Instead, it’s more about how other items unrelated to on-field merits impact selection.

***

The book does have one annoying feature: I think Chafets gets a little carried away with his caustic attitude. Any time an issue is brought up, he shows how it creates a tension between the Hall’s official standards and stature and reality. By and large this works well, but seems reflexive.

***

It’s a book worth reading if you’re interested in Cooperstown’s contemporary controversies, but not if you’re looking for analysis on who belongs in/out based on his playing ability.

There’s cheating and then there’s cheating. Or is there? Is it like being “a little bit pregnant?” Some hate Chafets for letting some light in on the subject, wanting to believe their game is pure. But players have been taking cortisone shots — which contains a steroid, albeit not anabolic — for decades without public outrage. Then there are the other “performance enhanceers” such as amphetamines.  Hell, even caffeine can be considered a substance that can give a boost. Should that be banned, too?

On the other hand, I would hope Chafets isn’t just being an iconoclast for the publicity it has and will garner him.

* Review: Cooperstown Confidential and American Icon

By Allen Barra, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Upshot:

“Cooperstown Confidential” is bold, intelligent, gutsy. [Author Zev] Chafets is strongest on what is soon to be the next controversy of the Hall — steroids.

and

… if you don’t like Roger Clemens — and there are so many who don’t that one questions why the authors would call him an “icon” — the book is a treasure trove of unflattering innuendoes.

Beyond this kind of gossip-mongering, the reader will find little new about Clemens’ alleged drug use. The authors even admit that his only real accuser, his former trainer, Brian McNamee, is “not a perfect witness.”

There’s little evidence presented here that drugs actually boosted Clemens’ performance.

So anecdotes and urban legends are transformed into fact.