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“Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with
a Major League Dad”

The author:
Mark Braff

The publishing info:
Rowman & Littlefield
240 pages; $24.95
To be released May 10, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The review in 90 feet or less

A recent story in the San Diego Union-Tribune recently made us feel a bit older. And wiser.

David Newhan, who managed to get eight solid years in as a Major League Baseball infielder and outfielder with San Diego, Philadelphia, Baltimore, the New York Mets and Houston, between 1999 and 2008, deviated from a recent career path as a big-league coach so he could jump in as the head coach at Maranatha Christian High School in San Diego. He’s been there since mid-season 2022 after the team got off to a 1-9 start.

The impetus for the change: His son, Nico, plays there now as a senior, and will be a shortstop heading to the University of Arizona on a baseball scholarship soon.

David could see the writing on the wall. Perhaps, because his father, Ross, is in the writers’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, recognition for his career as a journalist with the Long Beach Press-Telegram and Los Angeles Times covering the Dodgers, Angels and then the game in general.

“The fact is I spent every spring training and summer at the ballpark,” Ross says in the story. “So naturally, baseball was a way for me to be closer to my son … The players were great to (David). He worked in the clubhouse, he got to be the bat boy. I never pushed David into baseball. He just gravitated to the game.”

Same story with David and his son.

“He was running around the clubhouse when I was with the Mets and Astros,” said David. “I could see he was driven. I’m not surprised by his success.”

Adds Nico: “Not many kids are blessed with a dad who played and coached in the big leagues. For my dad to take time away from his coaching career to be with me and this team is a blessing.”

Back hand diving play at SS. Thank you @TimArakawa7 and @FiveToolCA for the video pic.twitter.com/ioJIo2GO9F

— Nico Newhan (@NicoNewhan) April 14, 2023

The baseball thread that can connect grandfather to father to son isn’t one seen all that often on the big-league level, so appreciate it when it happens – or could. In any scenario.

Mark Braff, a retired media PR professional from New Jersey looking for a project to work on, came up with this idea even though he says in the acknowledgements that, before this book began in January 2021, “I did not know a single ‘son of baseball’ … so, challenge number one was to figure out how – or even if – I could connect with the people whose stories are collected in this book.”

He explains more how one contact led to another. Dodgers’ assistant PR director Jon Chapper thought he might have more than something with Jerry Hairston, Jr., the current Dodgers’ SportsNet LA studio analyst.

As Braff tracked down and interviewed 18 sons of former MLB players, Hairston and his 16-year MLB career with Baltimore, the Chicago Cubs, Texas, Cincinnati, the New York Yankees, San Diego, Washington, Milwaukee and the last two with the Dodgers in 2012 and ’13, warranted inclusion. He’s the only one of a three-generation baseball family mentioned.

Continue reading “Day 9 of 2023 baseball books: Son of a gun, these stories still grow roots” →

“Strength for the Fight:
The Life and Faith of Jackie Robinson”

The author:
Gary Scott Smith

The publishing info:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
315 pages; $24.99
Released September, 2022

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

“Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson,
Black Freedom Fighter”

The authors:
Michael G. Long
and Yohuru Williams

The publishing info:
Farrar, Straus and
Giroux/MacMillian
240 pages; $19.99
Released in September, 2022

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The reviews in 90 feet or less

Fight on, Jackie Robinson.

Or, Jack, if that’s the best way to reclaim the real man in the 21st Century.

And why wouldn’t it be?

That’s how his name appears on his Baseball Hall of Fame plaque. The nickname is singled out because, well …

That’s just the fact, Jack.

Every year, we wonder what is also left to fight for in trying to find anything — anything — new about the man honored again on this day by Major League Baseball, 76 years after making headlines for walking onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn with a Dodgers’ uniform on, and now honored with everyone in the game sporting No. 42 on their backs?

Maybe we look at this all through the eyes a faith journey.

Or, how a young reader might want to discover his authentic story.

Let’s read two:

Continue reading “Day 8 of 2023 baseball books: On the MLB annual JR Day, more examples that, perhaps, we don’t really know Jack” →

“The Voices of Baseball: The Game’s Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America’s Pastime”

The author:
Kirk McKnight

The publishing info:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
360 pages; $36
Released April 12, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The review in 90 feet or less

Back in March, 2015, the first version of this 34-chapter book came out. Jon Miller shared the cover with Vin Scully.

For this revision, it’s just Scully filling the cover, in full color.

You got our attention.

Kirk McKnight used the first edition to collect and process quotes and anecdotes from 50 broadcasters, specifically for their memories, perspectives and moments from the 30 MLB ballparks they called their home base.

Vin Scully and Charley Steiner were handpicked to talk about Dodger Stadium; Dick Enberg, Terry Smith and Rex Hudler were on the clock for Angels Stadium. Enberg is also used on the chapter about the Padres; The Hudman comes back for the chapter on the Royals.

For the revamp, McKnight moves a few things around, but makes Chapter 32 the last one, titled “And That’s A Life: A Tribute to Vin Scully.” It is more about Scully stepping back into retirement than reacting to his passing in August of 2022, but the timing works well.

First, rewind to the Scully-Steiner quotes filling Chapter 3.

As for Dodger Stadium, Scully sets the stage: “They spent a lot of money to make sure it remains the edifice that it is. It’s a great tribute to the game, it’s a great tribute to baseball, and it’s a great tribute to Walter O’Malley, so, all in all, it’s a rather sacred place for me.”

Steiner, unfortunately, takes up a brunt of the seven-page chapter, perhaps because in the update, Scully isn’t available. That means Steiner is left to pompously class things up on page 31, going over how he was there for the Dodgers’ COVID-induced 2020 title:

“I remember at the moment when Urias struck out the final out of the World Series. I’m saying, ‘Finally, the wait is over. The Dodgers are the champions of 2020,’ and in that moment, when I am making that call, I am just drowning in a flood of emotions. From the little kid who was screaming his fool head off in my little house on Long Island and, 65 years later, I’m calling the World Series championship for the Dodgers. I am an out-of-body experience to myself. I thought, ‘Oh shit! It doesn’t get any cooler.’ What made it much more satisfying was it came at a time when everything was rotten on earth. The early stages of COVID, playing in front of cutouts and yet, finally, they somehow won the World Series and I had the last call and didn’t butcher it all too bad.”

He is correct. He could have butchered it much worse. Surprisingly, he didn’t.

But we, as he often does, digress.

Continue reading “Day 7 of 2023 baseball books: They’re talking the talk, and Scully is the language that ties it together” →

“Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess”

The author:
Evan Drellich

The publishing info:
Harper
368 pages; $32
Released Feb. 14, 2023

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At Diesel Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The review in 90 feet or less

Another fine mess the Houston Astros put themselves in after winning the 2022 World Series.

Expecting some sort of redemption and adoration of how it all happened with manager Dusty Baker tasting the fruits of victory – especially after all the baggage attached to that 2017 World Series title over the Dodgers may have helped the city heal from a horrible flood situation of Hurricane Harvey – the Astros’ six-game series win over the Phillies (yes, the Phillies), a year after they came up short in the finale to the Atlanta Braves, couldn’t even fully enjoyed during the first full week of November, 2022 without more controversy.

They let go of general manager James Click for declining a one-year contract, along with assistant GM Scott Powers.

So now the question on the table: Would owner Jim Crane be brave enough to hire back Jeff Luhnow as the GM?

You know, that guy who had so much fun as a fantasy baseball owner he somehow put his MBA to use and created the rosters of ’17 and ’22, after several years of tanking games to get draft picks, and was then cut loose in early 2020 in the froth of the franchise cheating scandal?

Maybe the stink is gone from him and people have short memories. But, hey, his MLB suspension is over. He’s cleared through TSA.

But he did sue the team for breach of contract.

A a Sports Illustrated feature explains: “Luhnow seems to see the sign-stealing scandal as a black swan event: shocking, earth-shaking and impossible to have foreseen because he wasn’t involved in it.Does he believe the scandal tarnishes the 2017 title? “I think that the Astros built a powerhouse,” he says. “And it’s unfortunate for our fans that going through ’17 and winning that World Series and then two years later having to have people question that—it’s unfortunate, and I wish that had never happened.”

The story continues:

Continue reading “Day 6 of 2023 baseball books: The fix is still in the minds of … who again?” →

“Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry”

The author:
David Vaught

The publishing info:
Texas A&M University Press
456 pages; $38
Released November, 2022

The links:
The publishers website
At Bookshop.org
At Indiebound.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com

The review in 90 feet or less

When Gaylord Perry passed away from the lingering effects of COVID last Dec. 1 — just about a week after this book’s release – the cursory and bland Associated Press obituary started this way:

GAFFNEY, S.C. — Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday. He was 84.

The book reference wasn’t to this biography.

It was the 1974 as-told-to autobiography, “Me and the Spitter,” with noted Cleveland sportswriter and columnist Bob Sudyk (Saturday Press Review, 222 pages). It had the subtitle: “An Autobiographical Confession.” A book that this book, if truth be told, has swallowed whole, chewed up and is ready to spit out.

But also note: When the paperback version that book from almost 50 years ago came out by Signet, the subtitle was enhanced to read: “The Candid Confessions of Baseball’s Greatest Spitball Artist (or How I Got Away with It).” It was also brightened up with a different, more casual typeface font for the cover title, versus the block letters from the hardback version.

The media-created legend of Gaylord Perry was set in motion, and labels had to continue to be adjusted.

The AP obituary, lacking much depth or context, rambled on about how, in that old autobiography, Perry said he was the “11^th man in an 11-man pitching staff” for the Giants. He needed an edge. He learned the spitter from teammate Bob Shaw. Perry said he first threw it in May 1964 against the New York Mets, and ended up going 10 innings without giving up a run. Soon enough, he won a spot in the Giants’ starting rotation.

The new book explains as much just from the intro:

That first time was May 31, 1964, before 57,037 at Shea Stadium, in the second game of what was the longest double header in major league history.

(Could the AP obit be any less compelling?)

In the bottom of the 13^th, the game still tied at 6-6, Giants manager Alvin Dark called in Perry, only because it was his last available arm (aside from Bob Hendley, who was supposed to start the next day). The 25-year-old Perry had just seven appearances that season, a 2-1 record and a 4.77 ERA. He got through “two shaky innings” when catcher Tom Haller came to the mound and said, “Gaylord, it’s time to try it out.”

Perry then pitched until the 23^rd, giving up seven hits and walking one, but striking out nine of the 36 batters he faced. When the Giants scored twice in the top of the 23^rd, Dark brought in Hendley to get the save – he fanned two of the three he faced. The game lasted nearly seven and a half hours and Willie Mays (who went 1-for-10) actually played shortstop during some defensive finagling between the 10^th and 13^th inning, but then went back to center field when Perry came in. Duke Snider even entered the game as a pinch hitter for the Giants in the top of the ninth and grounded out.

Perry ended up getting three at bats during the game. He was actually the go-ahead run in the top of the 22^nd when he reached on an error, went to second as Orlando Cepeda was hit by a pitch, but both were stranded. Perry could have a fourth at bat – he came out for a pinch hitter in the top of the 23^rd with runners on first and third. Del Crandel, who hit for him, doubled to right to push across the tie-breaking run.

(All this happened after Juan Marichal threw a complete-game 5-3 win in the doubleheader opener that lasted just two hours and 29 minutes).

Thanks for the excuse to go back and find out about that day in baseball history. It’s an example of the kind of things the Internet will happily spit out if the right keystrokes are hit.

Perry also wrote in that book that he chewed slippery elm bark to build up his saliva, and eventually stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after MLB ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball.

So he looked for other substances, like petroleum jelly, to doctor the baseball. He used various motions and routines to touch different parts of his jersey and body to get hitters thinking he was applying a foreign substance.

Fortunately, more complete obits came from the New York Times and Washington Post. And the Baseball Hall of Fame, for which Perry was a treasured member (and his plaque has more lines dedicated to the teams he played for versus the description of his career below).

Continue reading “Day 5 of 2023 baseball books: An extended spit take on Gaylord Perry” →