Author: fartheroffthewall

“Future Value: The Battle for Baseball’s Soul
and How Teams Will Find the Next Superstar”

The authors:
Eric Longenhagen
and
Kiley McDaniel

The publishing info:
Triumph Books
$28
384 pages
Released April 14

The links:
At the publisher’s website
At Amazon.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Powells.com
At Indiebound.org

The review in 90 feet or less

Look closer at the cover: Unless this is two photos superimposed into one, it’s Clayton Kershaw trying to react to a ball coming back at him, one he just hurled at Mookie Betts.

The future value of that photo could be ironic if the 2020 season, with them as Dodgers teammates, doesn’t happen. It does seem to do well to frame the main title of the book and keep the ball in play.

Talent evaluation in the age of analytics pushes information into all sorts of directions, and can make things even more absurd when you’re trying to create an accurate assessment of an 18-year-old high school kid who may not have even had time to take a drivers’ training class or wash his own laundry. We’ve talked to enough scouts to know how this works, what they believe their strengths are and how much/little they feel their voices heard these days.

The complicated process surrounding the evaluation of talent is full of further analysis, and that’s where this 13-chapter book begins as a collection portal.

Longenhagen, the lead prospect analyst at FanGraphs and a former contributor to ESPN’s MLB prospect coverage five years ago, marries up with McDaniel, who very recently was at FanGraphs but is now an ESPN Atlanta-based writer. McDaniel has done work in the front office for the Yankees (2005-’07), Orioles (2009-’10), Pirates (2010-’11) and Braves (2015-’17), as well time at Fox Sports’ Scout.com (2013-’14) and the Baseball Prospectus (2009).

But then having Keith Law hit leadoff with the forward also certifies this is coming from a “smart” perspective (coming soon: a review of Law’s new book, “The Inside Game,” that launches Tuesday, April 21).

Writes Law: “Eric and Kiley give you the grand tour of scouting without asking you to leave your couch. They’ll walk you through the draft, the most important three days in the entire year for amateur scouting; the Wild West of international free agency (where players can sign at age 16, and often strike verbal deals with teams before they’re teenagers); and professional scouting, where scouts evaluate players already in the minor leagues…. You couldn’t ask for a better pair of tour guides.” Continue reading “Day 19 of (at least) 30 baseball book reviews for spring/summer 2020: Everything you might want to know about current talent evaluation but were afraid to ask” →

“The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson:
The Baseball Legend’s Battle for Civil Rights
during World War II”

The author:
Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning

The publishing info:
Stackpole Books
$29.95
296 pages
Released Feb. 21

The links:
At the publisher’s website
At Amazon.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Powells.com
At Indiebound.org
At the author’s website

The review in 90 feet or less

On what would have been the 73rd anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first MLB game with the Dodgers, and the 16th revival of the MLB-wide wearing of No. 42 on the official “Jackie Robinson Day” — the Dodgers had a 7:10 p.m. game scheduled at home against the Cardinals — we keep alive our tradition of finding a Robinson-related book to review on this day, amidst this series.

This one may be among the most important, a unique in-depth look at a single incident three years earlier, in July 1944,  that would establish a defining moment in his life’s journey.

Then, he was 2nd Lt. Jack R. Robinson — pre “Jackie” — age 25, a couple years removed from leaving UCLA early so he could pursue work to help his family. Navigating the Jim Crow laws of Texas while stationed in the Army as a cavalry-trained officer reassigned to Camp Hood,  about 40 miles southwest of Waco. He was attached to the 761st Tank Battalion, a tank unit later in the European theater’s Battle of the Bulge.

Eleven years before Rosa Parks became a person of historical importance for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, Robinson effectively did the same thing, on a public street, in a public bus, his fame already known in the region based on his athletic career at UCLA.

We won’t retell a lot of what happened, but focus here more on who is telling the story this time, and why that matters.

First, the author: Michael Lee Lanning, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, served more than 20 years, as an infantry platoon leader, reconnaissance platoon leader, and rifle company commander in the 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam and was one of the one of the youngest company commanders in the Vietnam War.

Upon his return, he wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen non-fiction books about military history starting in 1987 with “The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader’s Journal of Vietnam” for Ballantine Books/Random House: “In my year in Vietnam, I walked the booby-trapped rice paddies of the Delta, searching for the elusive Viet Cong, and later macheted my way through the triple-canopy jungle, fighting the North Vietnamese Regulars. . . . I sweated, thirsted, hunted, killed. Somewhere in all my experiences, I overlapped the situations of nearly every infantryman and many others who served.”

His only previous sports title: “Double T – Double Cross – Double Take: The Firing of Coach Mike Leach by Texas Tech University,” in 2011 by Scottsdale Books (updated in 2017 by self publishing).

But if you were to pick an author with the best background to look into this … Continue reading “Day 18 of (at least) 30 baseball book reviews for spring/summer 2020: On JRDay, the jury shouldn’t be out on how a court-martial experience shaped his path to MLB history” →

“Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player”

The author:
Jeremy Beer

The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press
$29.95
472 pages
Published in November, 2019

The links:
At the publisher’s website
At Amazon.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Powells.com
At Indiebound.org
At the Oscar Charleston official website

The review in 90 feet or less

With the April 15 arrival of Jackie Robinson Day near, did you know that an African-American baseball legend named Oscar McKinley Charleston was employed by the team and wore a Dodgers’ uniform two years before Robinson broke into the MLB color line in 1947?

Read on …

There’s not a lot of documentation to gather about Charleston by fellow Indiana native Beer, a non-profit business warrior whose writing focused on sports, society and culture have been in the Washington Post, National Review and Baseball Research Journal. But if not Beer, then who else is best suited for this task?

He tracked down key relatives, including Charleston’s sister. Found photo albums, scrapbooks and person letters. All helped fill in many blanks that were not so well chronicled by sportswriters, on top of some already sketchy record keeping.

The quick afoot outfielder and worthy slugger is someone Bill James was convinced by the data he collected to be deemed the fourth-best player of all time, behind Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner and Willie Mays.

Yet when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976 specifically recognized for his career in the Negro Leagues, there were seven before him: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Monty Irvin, Cool Papa Bell and Judy Johnson.

Charleston’s time as a player in the professional game spans from 1915 to 1941, with such teams as the Indianapolis ABCs, Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords. Then came managing, scouting, and whatever else the game needed him for.

Beer calls him Tris Speaker but with more home run power. Or Ken Griffey Jr., with more speed. Or:

In terms of today’s game, think of a left-handed, considerably more cantankerous Mike Trout

********

With Jackie Robinson Day near, there are two dots to connect for Charleston and Robinson. Continue reading “Day 17 of (at least) 30 baseball book reviews for spring/summer 2020: Jackie Robinson Day is near — dance the Charleston” →

“Hall of Name: Baseball’s Most Magnificent Monikers from ‘The Only Nolan’ to
‘Van Lingle Mungo’ and More”

The author:
D.B. Firstman

The publishing info:
Self-published by D.B. Books
$18
326 pages
Released March 17

The links:
At Amazon.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Powells.com
At IndieBound.org

More about the author:
SABR.org/author/db-firstman

The review in 90 feet or less

Luscious “Luke” Easter wasn’t born on an Easter Sunday, but he should have been.

He was a good egg.

The 491 games he logged with the Cleveland Indians, coming up as a 34-year-old rookie in 1949 shortly after they integrated their roster with Larry Doby, followed a run in the Negro Leagues, plus time with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League.

“Easter is the only player I ever saw who can hit a baseball as far as Babe Ruth,” said then-Padres and future Angels coach Jimmie Reese. As his homers were known as “Easter Eggs,” he is said to have been the first to hit a ball into the center-field bleachers at the New York oblong Polo Grounds while with the Negro League’s Homestead Grays, a shot that was recorded at 477 feet.

In “The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract“, Bill James rated Easter as the second-best first baseman in the history of the Negro Leagues behind Buck Leonard.

Easter’s tragic ending in 1979 came on March 29 – he was killed leaving a bank during a robbery – just two weeks before Easter fell that year.

The fact Easter didn’t make the cut of the Top 100 Hall of Fame names as picked first by Firstman is not blasphemy at all. But with that spirit, it shows the depth one can take with this sort of fascinating project.

Only a few can get here. Like …

Forget his 0.4 lifetime WAR. And the merits of his own Wikipedia page. For those who need to know now before purchasing this book: Continue reading “Day 16 of (at least) 30 baseball book reviews for spring/summer 2020: Happy (Luke) Easter, all you wonderful name droppers” →

“Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir”

The author/editor:
Alan D. Gaff

The publishing info:
Simon & Schuster
$24.99
240 pages
Due for release May 12

The links:
At the publisher’s website
At Amazon.com
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At IndieBound.org
A the author’s website

The review in 90 feet or less

When we covered “The Babe” in Day 14’s review and the SABR project that brought that all to light: In as search of the dozens of books done about Babe Ruth, one pops up called: “Playing The Game: My Early Years in Baseball,” which Dover Publications released as a paperback in 2011.

Just 102 pages, it is essentially a 12-part newspaper serial, ghost written for him in 1920, before Christy Walsh became his official agent in 1921. It’s Ruth talking and likely sportswriter (and future commissioner) Ford Frick doing the transcription, and it ended up in The Atlanta Constitution archives. The publishers call it a “breezy account of his early life that’s rich with recollections of his childhood, his transition from pitcher to outfielder, and the blockbuster trade that sent him from the Red Sox to the Yankees.” Paul Dickson provides the intro.

Eventually, Gehrig got to do his own story telling.

The Christy Walsh Syndicate saw the upside of pulling out from Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson. So as Gehrig was this 24-year-old coming off the Yankees’ historic 1927 season, he may not have been this gregarious story teller, but that’s the beauty of what made it feel more honest and sincere when you read now what.

From the very first sentence:

I guess every youngster who ever tossed a ball or swung a bat has dreams of some day breaking into big league baseball. I know I did…

Yet, who knew this stuff even existed?

Gaff, a scholar in Indiana and president of Historical Investigations company that specializes in historical research, has done books on the American Civil War and both World Wars. He briefly says in the introduction: “When I discovered these columns while researching another topic, there was no doubt they needed to be brought to the public’s attention. This sensational discovery is a unique opportunity for the world to be reintroduced to one of its most famous sportsmen.”

We wanted more info, so we emailed the 71-year-old Gaff:

How did this book happen? What were you doing when you stumbled across it as you mention in the introduction?

In 2005, my book “Blood in the Argonne” was published by the University of Oklahoma Press.  This was a history of the famous Lost Battalion of World War I.  In researching the officers and men of this unique unit, I found that after the war Captain Leo Stromee (from San Bernardino) had been appointed a revenue officer in California during Prohibition.  During his tenure, Stromee became involved in some nefarious smuggling ring but avoided prosecution when an important witness turned up dead.  I thought that an article about this war hero turned potential “gangster” might make an interesting article. 

After about 16 years, I pulled my initial notes out of a file cabinet filled with literally hundreds of ideas and began to do some additional research in California newspapers from the 1920s.

This was when I happened upon the Lou Gehrig memoir in the Oakland Tribune. At this point, I lost interest in a Stromee article. Continue reading “Day 15 of (at least) 30 baseball book reviews for spring/summer 2020: Again, Gehrig is following the Babe” →