Author: fartheroffthewall

The book:

“Shohei Ohtani: The Amazing Story of Baseball’s Two-Way Japanese Superstar”

The author:
Jay Paris

The publishing info:
Sports Publishing/Skyhorse, 140 pages, $19.99, released Nov., 2018

The links:
At the publishers website, at Amazon.com; at BarnesAndNoble.com; at Powells.com. OK, we will add Target.com.

The review in 90 feet or less

We’ve reached the Angels’ home opener, six games into to already sputtering beginning.
What compels one to come out to the park or park in front of the TV?
Mike Trout? Sure.
Shohei Ohtani? Some may still not be up to speed on his current status.
A year and a day ago, he hit his first MLB home run. The 24-year-old ended up 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA in 10 starts as a pitcher and played 104 games, hitting .285 with 22 homers and 61 RBIs.
Today, he’s recovering from Tommy John surgery (undergone Oct. 1), unable to pitch at all this season, but hoping to get back into becoming a DH in May.
With that, a book about Ohtani’s heralded arrival in L.A. falls a bit flat if you’re trying to generate a narrative about a modern-day Babe Ruth with a background that could ignite a whole other form of Fernandomania in Southern California. Continue reading “Day 4 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Ah, Ohtani … we’ve heard of him” →

The book:

“Now Taking The Field: Baseball’s All Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises”

The author:
Tom Stone

The publishing info:
ACTA Sports Publications, 614 pages, $18.95, released in December, 2018 with a 2019 copyright.

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

The review in 90 feet or less

When he appeared on a February edition of “MLB Now” for the MLB Network, the mild-mannered Stone did a nice job explaining the process by which he came up with these 30 lists.
“I have the advantage of writing this in 2018 with all the modern sabermetrics – wins shares, wins above replacement. So I start there, but I don’t end there.”
It would be easy, of course, to just find everyone’s WAR and let it fall into place. Even their top three WAR seasons. Nope.
“I wanted to look at traditional stats – batting average, strike outs, wins, ERA. I looked at Hall of Fame credentials. I looked at honors and awards. All Star appearances and Gold Gloves. And it’s important to add post-season performance since WAR only covers the regular season. Continue reading “Day 3 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Check your lineup cards for some late substitutions” →

The book:

“Game Faces: Early Baseball Cards from The Library of Congress”
The author: Peter Devereaux
The publishing info: Smithsonian Books/Library of Congress, 168 pages, $24.95, released in Oct., 2018
The links: At the publisher’s website,  at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com

The book:

“Baseball Card Vandals: Over 200 Decent Jokes on Worthless Cards!”
The authors: Beau and Bryan Abbott
The publishing info: Chronicle Books, 224 pages, $18.95, released March 5, 2019.
The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com,  at BarnesAndNoble.com,
at Powells.com. And we’ll even throw in: At Target.com.

The review in 90 feet or less

It is the best of baseball cards. It is the worst of baseball cards.

“Game Faces” is in the history section of book stores and on the publisher’s austere website.

“Baseball Card Vandals” is in the humor section of book stores and the publisher’s whimsical website. Often, right across from the shelves of sports books. Laughing at them. It’s based off a website of the same name, making this book a “best of” collection.

“Games Faces” had almost little to no publicity when it came out. Those in the know knew about it. It’s almost as if it was kept a secret.

“Baseball Card Vandals” is listed as a No. 1 best seller on Amazon.com under Antique and Collectible Sports Cards.

“Game Faces” gets into the famous T206 series of cards, which gave Honus Wagner a whole new cultural definition  and Wikipedia status  based on how much collectors valued this particular artifact. It continues to make headlines every time someone else plunks down millions for one in the marketplace.
Most often, it’s just known as “The Card.”

“Baseball Card Vandals” includes its own version of the Wagner card. Don’t get up in arms about it. Continue reading “Day 2 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Face it, the cardboard cards still have game” →

The book:

“Great American Baseball Stories”
The author: Edited by Jeff Silverman
The publishing info: Lyons Press Classics/Rowman & Littlefield, 252 pages, $16. Re-released in Feb., 2019.
The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at Powells.com

The book:

“The Great American Sports Page: A Century of Classic Columns from Ring Lardner to Sally Jenkins”
The author: Edited by John Schulian
The publishing info: Library of America/Penguin Random House, 421  pages, $29.95. To be released April 9.
The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com

The book:

“No Place I Would Rather Be: Roger Angell and a Life in Baseball Writing”
The author: Joe Bonomo
The publishing info: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 232 pages, $27.95, to be released May 1.
The links: At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com.

The reviews in 90 feet or less

The most humanizing writers, in the sports department or otherwise, have found to give baseball a voice that it might never find on its own. In the process, they can serve as a warm blanket during a long winter as a way to wait for the frost to melt and spring to finally arrive. Continue reading “Day 1 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: How great thou art — and how how the wordsmiths got us through the murky offseason” →