Author: fartheroffthewall

The book:

“The Game of Eating Smart: Nourishing Recipes for Peak Performance Inspired by MLB Superstars”

The author: Julia Loria and Allen Campbell

The publishing info: Rodale Books,/Crown Publishing $25.99, 240 pages, released March 26

The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com. Also at MLB.com

The review in 90 feet or less

Breaking bread these days with a big-leaguer comes with a warning label. Is it gluten-free? Can I put avocado and egg on it after it’s toasted? Can it be made with oat flour, almond flour and garbanzo flour?
“Big League Bread,” serving six and requiring 45 minutes of cooking time, is right there on page 34. The key is using coconut nectar, a “low-glycemic natural sweetener and an excellent alternative to the sugary sweeteners found in many store-bought breads.”
No matter how you slice it, MLB players are as health conscious as any athlete who has endure at least a seventh-month season of late-game endings, arrivals at the park by 2 p.m. without thinking about breakfast yet, and trying to figure out what kind of fuel makes the most efficient. Continue reading “Day 17 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: What’s eating you? How to reach the celery cap without a bad taste in your mouth” →

The book:

“The Untold Story: Fidel Castro and Baseball”

The author: Peter C. Bjarkman

The publishing info: Rowman & Littlefield, $38, 400 pages, released December, 2018

The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com

The book:

“Last Seasons in Havana: The Castro Revolution and the End of Professional Baseball in Cuba”

The author: Cesar Brioso

The publishing info: University of Nebraska Press, $29.95, 304 pages, released March 1

The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com

The review in 90 feet or less

Or, in 90 miles or less, considering the country we can see right off the Florida Keys.
So are we still talking about Yasiel Puig back in town? Wearing red?
Cuba baseball and the MLB seem to come in and out of the news cycles, with politics of course having a role. It’s an important story to stay current on.
But this is an entry, to be perfectly clear, that is meant more as a tribute to Bjarkman, who died last October at 77. In a memorial piece done on him appearing in the Lafayette Journal & Courier called him the Indiana city’s unlikely expert in Cuban baseball, a retired Purdue University linguistics professor who was on another tour of baseball stadiums in Cuba, perhaps his 50^th trip over the last two decades, when he collapsed and died at the Havana airport. Continue reading “Day 16 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Calling on Cuba, Castro and last call for Bjarkman covering the Big Red Machine” →

The book:

“Reclaiming 42: Public Memory and the Reframing of Jackie Robinson’s Radical Legacy”

The author: David Naze

The publishing info: University of Nebraska Press, $45, 234 pages, to be released June 1

The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com

The review in 90 feet or less

There’s an advertisement/three minute “documentary” called “Impact,” distributed by a well-known beer company that came out recently. The obvious attempt is it is pinning its company to a recognition of the career of Jackie Robinson.
Spike Lee was involved in producing it. Sharon Robinson, Jackie’s daughter, does the narration. So that seemed to make it OK.
Even with the tagline #ThisBudsForJackie. With a reminder that the company is the official beer sponsor of Major League Baseball.
If you haven’t seen it:

It’s very likely we’ll never have that brand of beer in our home cooler, poured in any of our pint glasses and use to toast any historical moment. This “film” clinches it.
It also plays right into the premise that Naze is getting at here with his book that can seem a little too academic for the masses, but will nonetheless state its intended point clear enough.

Continue reading “Day 15 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: On Jackie Robinson Day, do we really remember him the way we should?” →

The book:

“Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, the Life of Ernie Banks”

The author:
Ron Rapoport

The publishing info:
Hachette Books, 464 pages, $28, released March 26.

The links:
At the publishers’ website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com. Also at the writers’ website

Also:

The book: “Let’s Play Two: The Life and Times of Ernie Banks”
The author: Doug Wilson
The publishing info: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 272 pages,  $24.95, released Feb. 15.
The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com. Also at the writers’ website.

The reviews in 90 feet or less

On the 14th day of this book review series, we must note that Ernie Banks, whose No. 14 was retired with a Wrigley Field banner upon his retirement in the early 1970s, has banked plenty of earnest good will when his legacy is in question.
In the Baseball Hall of Fame for 42 years, the lone inductee of the Class of ’77 in his first year of eligibility, he also has seen a statue put up of him on Clark Street outside of Wrigley Field in 2008. It was spending the winter of 2015 in Kalamazoo, Mich., foundary to have some restoration work when fans looked for it in January of that year, seeking a place to gather upon hearing the news of Banks’ death at the age of 83.
Those writing the obituaries had plenty of material to go with about his unwavering kindness and joy.

So why now is there this — two books about him, all this time later?
Just an odd coincidence, says Rapoport, the former Chicago Sun-Times columnist living in Santa Monica, who had runs at the L.A. Times and L.A. Daily News.

Before Rapoport’s book came out, his publisher, Hatchette, promised “the definitive and revealing biography” of “one of America’s most iconic, beloved, and misunderstood baseball players.” It is based “on numerous conversations with Banks and on interviews with more than a hundred of his family members, teammates, friends, and associates as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources. Together, they explain how Banks was so different from the caricature he created for the public.”
Publisher Weekly then called it “marvelous” and “essential reading for baseball fans.”

Wilson’s book, 100 pages smaller than Rapoport’s came out a month earlier. Rowman & Littlefield called Wilson’s project a portrait “of the baseball player not just as an athlete, but also as a complex man with ambitious goals and hidden pains.” It also offers “details that have never before been printed.”
Publisher’s Weekly calls it an “exuberant biography” and “insightful look at the truth and the legend.”
Rapoport’s book, 100 pages longer than Wilson’s, came out a month after.
If Wilson whet the appetite, Rapoport gives us a full satisfying helping with far more meat on the bone. (That’s also a reference to a joke that Rapoport reveals on the very last page of his book, one that Banks liked to tell).

Then again, if there’s any question on fact checking, it’s a shame that Wilson’s book includes this note: Continue reading “Day 14 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Let’s read two (really, just one) about the too sad ending of No. 14, Ernie Banks” →