Author: fartheroffthewall

The book:

“Unwritten: Bat Flips, the Fun Police and Baseball’s New Future”

The author:
Danny Knobler

The publishing info:
Triumph Books, $26.95, 352 pages, released April 2

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

The review in 90 feet or less

There’s a natural flow for us to go from the Day 12 “Strike Four” explanation about how and why rules are written, to now pivot to why other rules aren’t officially documented because they’re in constant flux and subject to human nature’s flaws.
Few better out there than Knobler, the UCLA grad, one-time L.A. Herald Examiner employ and the tireless lead baseball writer for Bleacher Report, to jump on this always topical subject.
As Knobler once reported that “Numbers Don’t Lie!” in documenting Detroit Tigers’ history in 2015, he’s interests lie in how things that are less than honest are handled, reported on, and even explained, in baseball’s system of checks and balances.
To set the table, we go to the end pages to find: Continue reading “Day 13 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: A very Knobler effort to get all this stuff in writing” →

The book:

“Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball”

The author:
Richard Hershberger

The publishing info:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, $37, 320 pages, released March 8

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

The review in 90 feet or less

In Richard Hershberger’s world of 19th Century baseball research as a SABR rattler, rules really do rule.
And here is about as nerdy a pursuit of their origins and forward falling as one could ruefully desire.
You say you want some evolution? It may take a post-Revolutionary War thinking to find the proper context of all this. But historically, this makes a lot of sense. You can’t know where you’re doing with an infield fly rule if you don’t know why it happened in the first place.

Continue reading “Day 12 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Pointing fingers at stuff that goes beyond just a rule of thumb” →

The book:

“Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball”

The author:
David Block

The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press, 320 pages, $29.95, to be released June 1

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

The review in 90 feet or less

First, some other history to review:
In 2005, when first-time author Block came out of the blocks with “Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game,”
one might have thought Einstein’s theory of special relativity had been compromised by some barista working at Einstein Bros. Bagels.
Block, described as “a retired systems analyst and amateur baseball historian,” had already been quoted in a 2004 New York Times piece about his research into baseball’s origins. Once his book landed, the New York Times circled back to laud it for the way Block “attacked baseball’s literary record with methodical zeal. The result is a joyfully discursive romp through the history of ball sports and a compelling new theory of the game’s origins.”
MLB.com included the research in a documentary called “Base Ball Discovered,” calling the “landmark book … generally recognized as the authoritative work on the subject of baseball’s origins.”
It was designated as an “Outstanding Academic Title of 2005” book by the American Library Association. And Tom Shieber, the senior curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame, said the book was “to me probably the single most important baseball research of the last 50 years, if not more.”
Recently, MLB historian John Thorn said Block’s “Baseball Before We Knew It” was one of five books on the game he’d whole-heartedly recommend for anyone who wants to know about the sport. In his endorsement, Thorn writes: “David is very systematic and careful in his elucidation of fact. … We haven’t heard the last of David.”
So, we waited. Continue reading “Day 11 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Block out everything you know about what we want to now call English baseball” →

The book:

“K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches”

The author:
Tyler Kepner

The publishing info:
Doubleday, $28.95, 320 pages, released April 2

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

The review in 90 feet or less

Fastball, curveball.
Changeup, cutter.
Splitter, sinker, slider and screwball.
Knuckleball.
And, of course, the spitter.
Just spit balling here, but all but the last remain legal tender, correct?
So what else does one need to know about how to strike out against the world with this arsenal?
Context, please.
Kepner, the pitch-perfect New York Times writer who once covered the Angels for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, has more than just anecdotal information about how each of these came into being, and Google-fied bios about who made millions off it with Hall of Fame careers.
“The pitches are the DNA of baseball,” he writes, “the fundamental coding of the game … the pitcher controls everything … (he) is part boxer and part magician; if he’s not punching you in the face he’s swiping a quarter from behind your ear.”
A book with a large “K” prescribing to clarify how each pitch came into being can’t ignore names such as Koufax or Kershaw, correct? Continue reading “Day 10 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: A new spin on the Ten Commandments of pitching” →

The book:

“108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game”

The author: Ron Darling, with Daniel Paisner

The publishing info: St. Martin’s Press, $29.99, 320 pages, released April 2

The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com (with signed copies available), at Powells.com

The review in 90 feet or less

Ron Darling can usually get away with saying the darnedest things,  and make it stick.
But then there are some who don’t find it so darling.
Like Lenny Dykstra, accused of shouting racists taunts in the 1986 World Series.
Today, that led to a lawsuit filed. Because Dykstra’s character has been so pristine of late.

Or those who don’t think the drinking problems of former broadcaster Bob Murphy need to be repeated. Others find their way into Darling’s radar — including former minor-league teammate Billy Beane — with remembrances of how they may have deceived some women during their “playing” days.

During the Mets’ home opener last Thursday, Darling issued a statement saying he stands by all the stories in this book. Why shouldn’t he?
One of our favorite media-types to interview, and just hold a baseball discussion with, has extended his personal library.
First was the deep-thinking/fun-reading books such as “The Complete Game” in 2009 followed by “Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life” in 2016.
He’s also recounted to us on several occasions how Game 7 of the 1988 NLCS continues to be one of his greatest nightmares – losing to Orel Hershiser in the contest that continued to allow the Dodgers’ team of oddballs somehow go to, and win, what still is their last World Series title.

“It was my total and utter disaster,” Darling recalled to us on its 20th anniversary. “You think that all athletes want to do is recount great moments in their careers, and the older we are the better we were. I’m haunted by that seventh game to this day. It’s like a golfer who just had to hit a three-foot putt to make it to the U.S Open. Every pitcher wants to pitch in the seventh game of a series. But since I’m a guy who has spent much more of my life thinking about my struggles and failures than any great moments, this one won’t go away.”
Dang…. Continue reading “Day 9 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Some Darling yarns will have you in stitches” →