Author: fartheroffthewall

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” →

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” →