Author: fartheroffthewall

“There’s a Bulldozer on Home Plate:
A 50-Year Journey in Minor League Baseball”

The author:
Miles Wolff

The publishing info:
McFarland
185 pages; $29.95
Released February 10, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

“One Season in Rocket City:
How the 1985 Huntsville Stars Brought
Minor League Baseball Fever to Alabama”

The author:
Dale Tafoya

The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press
224 pages; $29.95
Released April 1, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

“Bush League, Big City:
The Brooklyn Cyclones, Staten Island Yankees
and the New York-Penn League”

The author:
Michael Sokolow

The publishing info:
State University of New York Press
316 pages; $29.95
Released April 1, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

“Tales from the Dugout:
1,001 Humorous, Inspirational and
Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball”

The author:
Tim Hagerty

The publishing info:
Cider Mill Press
368 pages, $16.95
Released March 28, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
The authors website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The reviews in 90 feet or less

We’ve been on the lookout for the fourth edition of “The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: A Complete Record of Teams, Leagues and Seasons, 1876-2019” by Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff. It was set to come out last November. But that didn’t happen.

At last check, it was forecast for an arrival in October with a $99 sticker price and a new publisher.

The book’s online synopsis: “When the pandemic hit in early 2020, baseball’s minor leagues cancelled their seasons. A few independent leagues tried abbreviated schedules, but all Major League affiliates shut down — for the first time in more than 120 years. Since then, Major League Baseball has taken over governance of the minors, and leagues and teams have been eliminated. In its fourth and final edition, this book gives a complete accounting of the minor leagues as they were known from the late 19th century through 2019.”

That smells like a multi-layer obituary.

When Johnson and Wolff got the inspiration and gumption to produce the book in 1993 – 24 years after the landmark “The Baseball Encyclopedia” reference book gave us the “complete and official record of Major League Baseball” — it was 420 pages strong, weighing in at three pounds, and published by Baseball America. Wolff was the company’s publisher.

It was given the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award, and worthy of updates in 1997 (672 pages) and 2007 (767 pages), by then, each of them exceeding the initial six-pound delivery of that first edition of “The Baseball Encyclopedia.”

McFarland, the publisher set to release this fourth edition, says on its website that The Sporting News once called the project  “wonderful” and “indespendible,” the later of which we will dispense and take it to mean “indispensable.”

The project came from two legendary figures in the baseball media business.

Johnson, a Syracuse grad who became the Society of American Baseball Research’s president and executive director, also put in time as a researcher for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He then became the founder and first director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. He became the author/editor of the 1994 “The Minor League Register,” which is still available, published by Baseball America. He also edited “The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History,” in 2001. Twenty years after that, in 2021, he also wrote an LGBT contemporary novel, “The Freed Church Boy.”

As for Miles Wolff …

He’s in the leadoff spot for this roundup of new works related to the life and times of minor-league baseball:

“Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and
the Culture of Consumption”

The author:
Michael T. Friedman

The publishing info:
Cornell University Press
324 pages, $49.95
Released July 15, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

“Game of Edges: The Analytics Revolution
and the Future of Professional Sports”

The author:
Bruce Schoenfeld

The publishing info:
W.W. Norton & Co.
272 pages, $30
Released June 6, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
The authors website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At DieselBookstore.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The reviews in 90 feet or less

In June of 2020, right as the pandemic lock-down made everyone somewhat delirious, Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno announced intentions to do a deal that not only would include the purchase of the original Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium) and the land that surrounds it (mostly parking lots) from the city, but go forth with its long-rumored development of restaurants, shops, hotels and office space. Maybe a park or two. The plan could even knock down the park and edge it closer to the 57 Freeway and a large train station.

For the Angels, it’s all about their potential.

It would expand its footprint with a real estate pivot to enhance the value of a facility built primarily for them, aka The Big A, in 1966, which originally cost the city of Anaheim about $24 million.

For what it’s also worth, those plans are all on hold.

A city council corruption case blew up in their faces. Maybe for the better.

Moreno, who sniffed around about selling of the team last year, may now want to take a deep breath and figure out if a multi-year contract investment in Shohei Ohtani has more shorter-term value that could lead to this long-term expansion plan. Sure, it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. Both seem to have some bankable overlap.

The Angels’ news came a year after the Dodgers broke open a $100 million renovation plan, in June of 2019, that essentially connected all the levels of the stadium for better fan flow, as well as create a center field plaza that had more food, beer gardens, sports bars and musical platforms. No more separation of access. Now, the place had a “front-door” entry point that wasn’t part of the $18 million construction back in 1962.

For the Dodgers, it’s all about being more provincial.

It has done several sorts of retrofits on the retro-‘60s style facility that has managed to keep its “Wonder Years” vibe but still move forward with the needs and wants of modern-day fans.

The Guggenheim ownership team called this run-up to the 2020 MLB All Star Game as a “modernizing” and “upgrading” project, exceeding $350 million in costs. COVID canceled that event (the Dodgers got the 2022 game instead to show off its work) and it made for the reopening a bit of a thing unto itself when fans were welcome back.

This was really taking the idea forward that former owner Frank McCourt couldn’t complete. He had his own $400 million facelift project that was supposed to include restaurants and shopping, but that imploded when McCourt went bankrupt, sold the team off at auction, and somehow sneaked in a deal to keep the parking lots – the prime real estate for that kind of commercial expansion.

The Dodgers are amidst a new business mindset to “rip up the blueprint,” as described in a 2019 USA Today piece by Bob Nightengale. It means more than just an entertainment district, with night clubs and sports bars, but a place people can come year around to blow their paychecks.

“It’s not so much people interested in the statistics of baseball, but Fortnite, League of Legends, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, the immediacy of the environment, the gamification, fantasy, gambling and the social aspects of the narrative,” said one of the owners, Hollywood movie producer Peter Guber.

“If you don’t grow new tomatoes, you’re not going to have much marinara sauce in the future.’’

Now we can ask: Who’ll end up first with eggplant parmigiana on their faces?

The evolution of Angel Stadium and Dodger Stadium – both are somehow without a corporate naming rights deal to tarnish their purity – could be charted on a graph that looks like dueling roller coasters trying to out-dazzle the other. Neither appear to be finished with the ups and downs.

Both have their eye on a similar prize that has been sweeping MLB ballparks the last few years: Giving fans a reason to come more often to the general area, spend money, do more than just watch a baseball game from their seat, and then tell their friends about what a lovely experience it all was.

Because, in the 21^st Century, that’s how we roll. Ballparks have morphed into shopping malls — which, as a stand-along concept, may be waning. But in the thought process of how to attract the next wave of consumers, seeds have been planted for a cutting-edge halo effect of supporting gambling parlors.

Hence, the titles of these books we have read with parallel interest.

“The New York Mets: Celebrating Six Decades
of Amazin’ Baseball”

The editors: Sports Illustrated
The publishing info: Triumph Books, 232 pages, $35, released April 11, 2023
The links: At the publishers website; at Bookshop.org; at Amazon.com; at BarnesAndNoble.com

“The Last Miracle: My 18-Year Journey
with the Amazin’ New York Mets”

The author:
Ed Kranepool
With Gary Kashak

The publishing info:
Triumph Books
256 pages, $30
To be released Aug. 1, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The reviews in 90 feet or less

We curbed our enthusiasm in hopes of checking out tonight’s opener of the Dodgers-Mets weekend series from Citi Field in New York as baseball comes back from the All-Star break.

It happened shortly after mom called this morning to ask what channel it might be on. The team’s website confused her.

She didn’t see it listed on the Dodgers’ SportsNet L.A. Nor was it on Fox, ESPN, FS1, Channel 9 (a place she still thinks it could be), Channel 13 (a place where sports often land when they have no cable home), Bally Sports West (home of the Angels, for now) or even MLB Network (the place she tried to follow the Dodgers during their contract dispute with Time Warner back in the day).

The answer: None of the above.

It’s on Apple TV+ (cost: $6.99 a month), as she finally figured out after the Dodgers’ website interrupted her search with a popup graphic generated by the MLB’s BetMGM showing her that 8.5 was the over-under for total runs if she wanted to put down a sawbuck.

That also could have been the over-under on her searching for the right channel. It was under. Due to lack of endurance and imagination.

She’d likely find more enjoyment burning an apple pie in the toaster oven than trying to order anything, even Ted Lasso, on Apple TV+ with her non-smart television, let alone her not-so-smart phone. Her Earthlink internet service has also been faulty. So she’s without a Dodgers broadcast now almost a full week, since they took the Sunday off before the All-Star break (who does that?) and now pick things up with a nine-game road trip by alienating whatever fans they have over the age of 70.

And, as they say when they have no answer to the solution, it is what it is.

These Metropolitans of New York start the second half of the season – or, really the last 45 percent of it – fourth in the NL East, a minus-3 in run differential that matches up with their 42-48 record, 18 ½ games behind Atlanta, but certainly not as bad off as the Washington Nationals. So that is what it is.

Except, in New York, it isn’t.

Sham billionaire Steve Cohen, who bought the franchise for $2.4 billion in 2020, spent about a half-billion on free agents last winter to win the off season and also rack up a bill for the most expensive team in the sport’s history — a record $353 million payroll on Opening Day, 2023. That’s almost $100 million more than the runner-up New York Yankees ($277 million), and there’s a distance now between them and the Dodgers ($223 million) and Angels ($212 million), who sit fifth and sixth in the rankings, right after the Padres ($249 million) and Phillies ($243 million).

In the New York Times, right after the Fourth of July, political columnist David Brooks wrote a piece under the headline “Why I Still Love the New York Mets” that included a photo of former pitcher Bartolo Colon following the flight of his one and only home run at age 42 in 2016.

Ah, nostalgia.

“Bonus Baby: A Long Walk Off The Mound”

The author:
Josh Wilson

The publishing info:
Self published
112 pages, $13.99
Released December 3, 2022

The links:
At Alibris.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The review in 90 feet or less

Just one more story about draft picks, scouts and players who don’t necessarily pan out.

The 2005 MLB Draft. Second Round. No. 70 overall choice.

The St. Louis Cardinals take Josh Wilson. The right-handed pitcher out of Whitehouse High School in Whitehouse, Texas, just south of Tyler and between Dallas and Shreveport, had this write up on MLB.com:

On the Wikipedia.com post about what happened in that draft, it notes eight of the first 12 picks became MLB All Stars — No. 1 Justin Upton, and including Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, Ricky Romero, Troy Tulowitzki, Andrew McCutchen and Jay Bruce. There’s even two NL MVPs in that list. The first round also included Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and Jed Lowrie.

Among the “other notable players,” there was Tim Lincecum, a 42^nd round pick by Cleveland (No. 1,261 overall) and Buster Posey, a 50^th round pick by the Angels (No. 1,496 overall). Neither signed, obviously, as they became All-Star teammates with the San Francisco Giants not long after. Those who signed and advanced: Chase Headley, Micah Owings, Brett Gardner, Jeremy Hellickson, Lance Lynn, Will Venable, Peter Bourjos, Matt Joyce, Sergio Romo and Jaime Garcia.

Josh Wilson isn’t mentioned in any more of the “notable players” from that draft.

The majority of Wilson’s career as a pro lasted from 2005 to 2009 in Rookie, high-A or low-A ball, with the Johnson City Cardinals, the Batavia Muckdogs and the Quad Cities Bandits, between the ages of 18 to 22.

He had shoulder issues, maturity issues, and cash-flow issues.

“Smart, Wrong and Lucky: The Origin Stories
of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars”

The author:
Jonathan Mayo

The publishing info:
Triumph Books
256 pages; $28
Released July 11, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

“Baseball’s Endangered Species:
Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It”

The author:
Lee Lowenfish

The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press
344 pages; $34.95
Released April 1, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
The authors website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The reviews in 90 feet or less

A headline in the June 21, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times: “Scouts sue MLB for age discrimination, claiming the league had a ‘blacklist’“

Heavy sigh. The news shouldn’t have been a surprise at this point in baseball’s wobbly course of history.

More than 17 plaintiffs seek about $100 million. More scouts will likely join this class action suit. Especially those who believe they were wrongfully released from various MLB teams because of their age – not to mention perceived usefulness.

Analytics and technology have been gaining momentum as important amateur player assessment tools. The eyes don’t always have it any more from the physical scouts who do all the legwork, travel, take notes, cross check and then make their case. Budgets are tightened (even if more data shows teams are back to basically printing money) and the size of the draft has also reduced – it used to go as long as teams kept wanting to pick players.

As columnist Jim Alexander of the Southern California News Group recently asked about this situation: So what happens when you give your life to something and then find out it has no more use for you?

Coming from a newspaperman, that carries plenty of weight. And baggage. In a sense, scouts seem to be seen as essential to MLB teams as box scores are to newspapers. They take up too much space. There are other ways to get information. They have a use, but just not here.

The timing of these two books can help us better understand the history scouts have created for a game that seems to be trying to push the pendulum too far the wrong way … to correct an error? Or exacerbate flawed logic?