* Shocker of the day

From Editor and Publisher’s Web site:

“Study: Newspaper Sports Departments Mostly Male, White“

Newspaper sports departments remain nearly all white and male — and progress towards diversity is painfully slow, concludes a “report card” on sports staffing released Thursday at the annual meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).

I’ll post a link to the report if/when it becomes available.

* Halberstam’s legacy

The Columbus Dispatch ran this review of Everything They Had: Sportswriting from David Halberstam. The LA Times published one, too.

Regardless of their politics, I’ve always had great admiration for authors like Halberstam, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and George F. Will, among others, who have the ability to write about “serious” issues and those of lesser (relative) import, like baseball.

More on the book here.

* State of the “art”?

Michael Rowe wrote this analysis of modern sportswriting on the Utne Reader Web site. He laments the art of the craft, as was evidenced by such wordsmiths as Ring Lardner, Huey Fullerton, and, more recently, the likes of Roger Angell.

“Does sportswriting suck,” he asks, bemoaning the lack of reporting “that tackles an actual ethical or social issue. Or just tell a good story.” The same could be said of general writing as well. Baseball readers have complained about “dinosaurs” like The New York Times’s Murray Chass (who may or may not still be on the payroll as of this post thanks to buyout-mania), who still can’t accept having to share virtual space with the blogosphere, pissants who do nothing but crow about their guys and slam yours. And I believe Chass and his brethren have a point. Any noodle with a computer can start firing away, God bless democracy, regardless of whether they have something worth saying. And the loudest, flashiest voices always seem to garner the attention, deserved or not.

Sportswriting has fallen into two categories: gossip/entertainment and numbers. The former with stories of which athlete has been seen squiring around which starlet or looing like he swallowed a drug store; the latter a quick reportage of the game.

To be fair, older writers didn’t have to compete with 24/7 sports channels and the Internet, making their words obsolete before they arrive in the morning. (Heck, even older writers didn’t have to contend with television at all, setting themselves up as pretty much the only game in town when it came to disseminating sports news). And forget about the weekly print publications such as Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News for today’s fan with little patience and attention spans.

* Catching up, Part 1

There’s a lot of material that’s fallen by the wayside as I try to keep this blog fresh with the latest in baseball book publishing information. But in the words of the revered philosopher, Regis Philbin, “I’m only one man!” So I’m using this space to try to catch up. Some of the items might be a wee bit moldy, but they’re pertinent nonetheless.

I had a little loose change, so in a pique of boredom, I bought a Mike Piazza bobblehead doll on eBay. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was much sturdier than I remembered these things.

So, as I usually do, I got all het-up about these things and did a lot of reading and viewing. Some are pretty accurate (as mucha s they can be); others, such as this one of Kaz Matsui, are a little scary. Some of these are cute mementos, but looking in guides such as Warman’s Bobbing Head Field Guide (makes it sound like bird watching), one sees some are damned expensive.

* * *

On the Media produced this program in August, 2006 about baseball announcers. PBS produced Stealing Home, a documentary about Cuban baseball . The site features a transcript for the program, sources for further research, and a screensaver, which I haven’t seen.

* * *

Stephen C. Wood and J. David Pincus, co-authors of Reel Baseball, have a companion Web site that features movies from 1989-2002. Another place to discover more about “classic” baseball feature films is ClassicMovies.org.

* * *

In 2006, the Business of Baseball Web site feature an exhaustive forum with “32 voices” — writers, commentators and others in the know — about the State of the Game. Some of the more recognizable names (at least to me) include:

• Alex Belth, author of Stepping Up: The Story of All-Star Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players’ Rights
• Will Carroll, The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball’s Drug Problem and Saving the Pitcher
  
• Jerry Crasnick, License to Deal
• Gary Gillette, ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, and The Ultimate Yankees Companion
• Jonah Keri, Baseball Between the Numbers
• Ron Neyer, The Big Book of Baseball Blunders, The Big Book of Baseball Lineups, and, most recently, The Big Book of Baseball Legends
• Joe Sheehan, Baseball Prospectus
• John Thorn, Total Baseball, The Hidden Game of Baseball, The Complete Armchair Book of Baseball (add “complete” to “greatest” for words in book titles that rarely live up to their promise. If the book is “complete,” why is a second volume often published?)
• Andrew Zimbalist, Baseball and Billions, May the Best Team Win, In the Best Interests of Baseball?

* * *

Speaking of exhaustive, kudos to Bill Burgess and the folks at Baseball-Fever.com, for this list of key sportswriters in baseball history. The scores of writers mentioned include the publications for whom they wrote as well as other biographical information and pictures. This list is too copious to reproduce here, but it’s well worth the visit to see this historic “who’s who” of baseball writing, expecial in the days predating broadcast coverage, when the written word was the only means available to spread the gospel of the game to the American public.

* * *

This year marks the 45th anniversary of Eliot Asinof’s iconic Eight Men Out. Who knew that the 1919 Black Sox scandal would still generate so much interest 90 years later, with a feature film and dozens of books about the event? In fact, gambling is still considered the worst thing that could happen to the upright game of baseball in particular and sports in general. That’s why Pete Rose is still persona non grata despite his statistical accomplishments.

You can hear an audio excerpt here: [audiohttp://audible.edgeboss.net/download/audible/content/bk/blak/000069/bk_blak_000069_sample.mp3]

* * *

From Keyman Collectibles, this piece on classic baseball paperbacks of the 1940s-50s.

So you wanna be a sportswriter?

Received this e-mail from Dugoutcentral.com:

DugoutCentral is pleased to announce that the winners of its Spring Training Writing Contest will receive free, one-on-one consulting with esteemed writing coach Susan White for the first half of the 2008 MLB season. For those fan writers who are serious about improving their skills, this is a unique opportunity.Susan White has spent 40 years as a writing coach, editor and writer for newspapers and magazines, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Lexington (Ky) Herald-Leader and Indianapolis magazine. Reporters she has coached have won numerous national awards, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She is especially drawn to smart, strong-willed people who are open to new ideas and determined to do their best work. Susan served as a nominating juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in 2003 and 2004.

Two winners will be selected – one by reader voting and the other by a jury of Mike Pagliarulo, Adam White and Steve Caimano – based on writer performance from February 15 to March 30, 2008.

Susan will work with each winner to develop and write a weekly feature article from March 31st to July 15th, 2008.

In addition, the writers’ weekly articles will then be featured on www.DugoutCentral.com as a featured columns.