Having attended one in Long Beach in 2011, and also traveling for San Diego’s SABR 49 to chronicle the 50th anniversary of The Baseball Encyclopedia, we can vouch they are well worth the time and expense to track them down, a delightful gatherings of men and women who love to share their research with other like-minded folks, a group appreciation of the thrill of the search as well as finding that nugget you didn’t know was out there. And then discussing it all.
This year, they’ve scheduled excursions to an Orioles’ game, touring Babe Ruth’s birth place museum, and tracking down historic ballpark sites in the area (like Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium). They’ve been having trivia contests, handing out awards, having authors talk about their books, and planting panel discussion on things such as: “Longer Game Lengths … How Much Are Foul Balls to Blame?” or “Meta Pitch Tracking: How The Changes in Pitch Tracking Technologies Should Change How We Look at the Data They Collect.”
Maybe we missed it on the schedule, but we were hoping there would be some recognition of this latest SABR-generated project about our neighbors to the north, and how the game played out in their history.
Call it: “Oh, Canada, Thank You For Thinking of Us”
Canada was the country during COVID that forced its lone MLB team, the Toronto Blue Jays, to shuffle off to Buffalo — if it was to have a season at all in 2020. You can’t do it here. Go there, whey they don’t seem to care about public health as much.
Canada also won’t allow U.S. teams to bring in players who aren’t vaccinated – leaving some squads to shamefully arrive without some of their top stars, and no real explanation for their freedom of personal choice over the safety of those who may come to watch them perform.
Video: Superstar MLB Catcher Doubles Down On Vaccination Stance, Refuses To Play In Canada
This isn’t necessary, considering how the U.S. may have had baseball first – or claim to it – but our foreign trade policy to our neighbors to the north with the game’s professional existence is rather embarrassing.
They once had two Major League Baseball teams, then forced one to legally immigrate and be housed in our nation’s capital. With no apologies. We wish we had the words to explain our appreciation. Is this workable?
Because of that mess, the MLB no longer has in circulation one of, it not the, coolest baseball caps in the sport’s history. Especially when you learn all the nuances of it:
In honor of this book – broken up into two sections, covering the 19th and 20th Centuries, with 37 contributors – and of the SABR convention coming back, and finding out new and cool things to have on file, we’ve decided to make our Top 10 things learned from this oversized research project, if ordered, will land on your porch like a Spiegel catalogue:
Congratulations to Andrew North on this superb book on influential figures and milestones from Canadian baseball history from @sabrpic.twitter.com/VMQV05hcTN
— Journal of Canadian Baseball (@JofCBaseball) May 29, 2022
== The point person, Andrew North, is a retired developer of statistical software, director of the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Canadian Baseball.
William Shuttleworth: 1834-1903
== In 1793, there is a record of “a game of base ball” in Saint John, New Bruinswick. The first teams were formed in Hamilton, Ontario in 1854. William Shuttleworth formed the country’s first formal team that year called the Young Canadians. The first international game happened between the Burlingtons of Hamilton C.W. (Canada West, now called Ontario) and the Queen Citys of Buffalo in 1860 in a place called Clifton that no longer exists.
== More than 250 Canadian-born players have appeared in the major leagues. More than 130 of them are pitchers. Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (born in Fountain Valley) has Canadian citizenship from his parents. Former Dodgers All Stars Eric Gagne and Russell Martin are among the most local notables born in Canada.
== Did the first official MLB game in Montreal happen with the Expos’ arrival on April 14, 1969 – with a team that needed a win in L.A. over the Dodgers on June 8 of that first year to end a 20-game losing streak? As SABR researcher David Matchett includes in his book-ending chapter about odds and ends he has found over the years, a July 24, 1918 story in the Boston Globe includes a piece about how the Boston Braves were going to play “the Chicago National League team” in Montreal on a Sunday coming up, and “net proceeds will be devoted to patriotic purposes (as this was during World War I) … and if the attendances warrants it, practically every team in the National and American Leagues, it is expected, will play in Montreal on Sundays.”
Blue laws kept Sunday baseball in Boston until 1929. Teams were trying to circumvent it. Then the Globe reported the next day saying the story was in error: “The game in Montreal will be an exhibition game, although both clubs will use their regular players.”
It was played at Delorimier Park, a horse race track that would be the future site of Delorimier Stadium (where Jackie Robinson played with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ top minor-league affiliate in 1946, the Montreal Royals). Boston won with two bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the ninth, 3-2. Only 2,500 attended.
So the Expos still kept the historical date of having a real game first.
== Springfield, Ontario-born James E. “Tip” O’Neill, dubbed “Canada’s Babe Ruth,” has an award named after him given to the best Canadian baseball player. In 10 seasons considered to be MLB-quality from the New York Gothams, St. Louis Browns, Chicago Pirates and Cincinnati Reds between 1883 and 1892, he won the American Association’s Triple Crown in 1887 with a .435 batting average. That mark, adjusted from .492, is second-best in the game’s history now, so says the Special Baseball Records Committee in 1968. O’Neill is one of seven MLB players in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary (home of the 1988 Winter Olympics). Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Larry Walker and Ferguson Jenkins are there, along with Phil Marchildon, Ron Taylor, John Hiller and Claude Ramond.
= Alfred H. Spink, who with his brother founded The Sporting News, that would become “The Baseball Bible,” was born in the 1852-range in Quebec City, Canada and moved to Chicago, and then St. Louis, as a journalist. The first edition of The Sporting News arrived on March 17, 1886, for 5 cents.
== Allan Roth, credited with pushing baseball analytics to a new level and became Vin Scully’s personal stat man in Brooklyn and L.A., was born in Montreal in 1917. Roth convinced Dodgers president Branch Rickey to hire him as not just a statistician, but someone who could provide proprietary data to the team’s benefits. Roth’s first day on the job with his expanded 17×14 scoresheets: April 15, 1947. He recorded every pitch of the team’s games for the next 18 years and Walter O’Malley moved him into the team’s broadcasting booth in 1954 to join Scully. “If you had some question that came to you in the middle of a game, he would reach down into the bag, and the next thing you knew you’d have your answer – it was marvelous,” Scully told Alan Schwarz, author of “The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics” for St. Martin’s Press in 2004. Roth went on to work for NBC’s Game of the Week. The SABR chapter of L.A. is named for him. More on his background here.
== Between 1941 and 1953, the Montreal Royals were the gold standard for minor league teams in North America. But it played its final game before 1,016 fans on Sept. 7, 1960, in their antiquated park, by passed for MLB status by five Triple-A franchises in Milwaukee, Baltimore, Kansas City, San Francisco and Minneapolis-St. Paul. By that point, Tommy Lasorda, “the longest-tenured and most recognizable Royal,” left the team after almost coming to blows with manager Clay Bryant, as noted in William Brown’s book, “Baseball’s Fabulous Montreal Royals” in 1996.
== Joseph Lannin, who owned the Boston Red Sox for less than four full years, was a native of Quebec, from Lac-Beauport, was orphaned and, according to legend, walked all the way to Boston. He brought Babe Ruth to the Red Sox as the team won two championships in 1915 and ’16. He then sold the franchise, tired of commissioner Ban Johnson’s “constant interference,” to Harry Frazee and Hugh Ward for $675,000, which included Fenway Park. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.
And two more for those in Baltimore might get a kick out of these:
== Brother Matthias, credited with finding and shaping the incorrigible George Herman Ruth into a ballplayer while sent off to be at the St. Mary’s Industrial Training School in Baltimore, was born as Martin Leo Boutilier on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia in 1872.
Ruth bought Brother Matthias a new Cadillac, but his vow of poverty resulted him in registering it to the St. Mary’s school. One night coming back from an event, the Caddy was stalled on a train track and demolished by a train. Brother Matthias and the boys in the car escaped unharmed. Ruth bought them another Cadillac. The story by Brian Martin is excerpted from his book, “The Man Who Made Babe Ruth” for McFarland in 2020).
How it goes in the scorebook
In celebration of Canada Day, here is a progressive timeline of the All-Time Position Player WAR Leaders who were born in Canada! 🇨🇦
It translates well, even if the exchange rate can be oppressive — $34.95 in the U.S. and $45.99 in Canada. The book is also listed on Canada’s version of Amazon.com (if you didn’t know that existed).
Here’s the deal: First Canadian resident who sees this and requests it, we’ll mail it to them for free.
== In January, 2022, a book landed called “Canadian Minor League Baseball: A History Since World War II,” by Jon T. Stott (McFarland, 242 pages), which details how from 1946 through 2020, 71 teams in 21 minor leagues represented 35 Canadian cities. Sixteen of those teams were only around for one season, including eight in the Canadian Baseball League of 2003. The Winnipeg Goldeyes have been around in the independent Northern League and American Association since 1994.
== Another book called, “Our Game, Too,” in 2017 by Billy and Jennifer Simpson, gets into the Asian Pacific Americans who played in the MLB.
== Josh Suchon’s podcast “Life Around The Seams” includes a recent episode with Tom Drees, who, as a member of the Triple-A Vancouver affiliate in 1989, threw three no-hitters, including back-to-back starts. He also threw three no-hit innings in the Triple-A All Star Game. But the Chicago White Sox never called him up the majors? Why? On July 6 of that year, when their paychecks had not arrived, the Vancouver Canadians players staged a walkout and refused to play a game, citing it wasn’t the first time checks were late. The story became national news, the White Sox were livid, and the organization took it out on the players the rest of the season.
Before we allow for a deeper dive into what has become a deepening divide, let that weed germinate for awhile, and we’ll circle back to spray some Roundup on it soon enough.
In this noble pursuit of cultivating tiers of baseball books over the decades, our library has lovingly added two well-researched projects that continue to put some guide rails on this otherwise winding road of collecting for the purposes of maintaining reference, history and reading entertainment.
Landing two decades later in 2013, Ron Kaplan’s “501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die” (University of Nebraska Press, 420 pages) takes a giant leap further in hard-bound history, as offered in the introduction: “I make no claim that the five hundred (or so) titles you will find herein are necessarily the best baseball books; that’s too subjective. But I hope they will provide an entry into the fascinating world of baseball literature, with its connections to other areas one might not normally associate with the game: Fiction, history, science, the arts, music and many more.” Kaplan then divides them into categories that include all that above, plus pop culture, analysis, statistics, international, and young readers.
When we talked to New Jersey-based Kaplan about this Ruthian project, as the launch to our 2013 book reviews, we wondered how titles such as W.P. Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe,” Lawrence S. Ritter’s “The Glory of their Times” or even Roger Kahn’s “The Boys Of Summer” didn’t make his Top 501. Those omissions, Kaplan can now admit, were more as a result of him being too deep into the jungle of his own collection and easily assuming they were already included as he worked feverishly to produce it over the fall and winter. But that’ll happen, right?
All have merit, based on their intent, and what they were able accomplish.
But when one narrows the focus as sharp as Paul Aron, a former executive book editor at Doubleday and Simon & Schuster who was part of the process to acquire baseball titles, there is gravitas in a list that seeks depth and gravity.
Sorry, we are now legally obligated to include this clip:
Aron decided to filter this through his experiences and readily sticks to his game plan – this are most mover-and-shaker pieces of work, pivotal and potent, not so much raised and praised for their popularity, writing excellence or continued circulation on “best of” listings sustainability. As he says in his modest preface:
“Here are ten books that changed America. That’s a pretty grandiose claim, I realize. After all, they’re just books. And no matter how many times one might cite the influence of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ or works by Darwin or Marx or Freud, a strong case can be made that there have never been enough serious readers in America for any book to have changed the course of our history. Moreover, these are baseball books … I make no claim that there are the best baseball books ever written. … This is a book about the influence rather than the quality of these books.”
Once the plow moves out of park and into drive, there is a joyous ride into discovering how these 10 (and many more) changed the game, the enjoyment of it, the criticism of it and why these still matter.
We can safely reveal, without a spoiler alert, how this Top 10 list covers, in chronological order and spanning about 100 years titles, a lot of brain storming (as well as provide our own snippets of our commentary or additional info we found):
= “America’s National Game,” by Albert G. Spaulding (1911): Published a few years before his death in 1915, one of the game’s first professional players, manager, team owner, and sporting goods magnate writes his own gospel passage for posterity’s sake.
= “You Know Me Al: A Busher’s Letters,” by Ring Lardner (1916): The stories that started in The Saturday Evening Post as letter correspondence telling the story “would change the way Americans viewed their heroes,” writes Aron, and adds: “They would also change the course of American literature.” Because Lardner influenced the likes of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, for starters.
= “Pitchin’ Man: Satchel Paige’s Own Story,” by Satchel Paige (1948): As Aron noted in a Q&A with the Pandemic Baseball Book Club: Both Paige and Jackie Robinson wrote books published that year (Robinson did “My Own Story” as told to Wendell Smith, which was later optioned as a movie in 1950 where Robinson played himself). But on the subject of baseball’s integration, Paige had a longer Negro League career (16 seasons, from age 20 in 1927 to age 40 in ’47) and “his book captured more of the flavor of an era when Blacks celebrated a culture that would fundamentally change American society. … Paige … forced white sportswriters, fans and, ultimately, officials to recognize that Blacks belonged in the majors.”
= “The Natural,” by Bernard Malamud (1952): It was published 70 years ago this week — Aug. 21, 1952 – so naturally, in marking the occasion, we’d like to offer up an exquisite Rich Cohen essay in the Summer 2022 issue of the Jewish Review of Books about why it mattered then and still does now. Remember, the movie with Robert Redford is only based on the book. Here is also a list of tips one may consider when purchasing this as a collectable.
= “Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues,” by Jim Bouton (1970): Anytime we get more critical analysis of this true classic, bring it in. Aron adds in his PBBC Q&A: “It was a counter-cultural strike against the baseball establishment. It was baseball’s Woodstock.” But Aron also admits: “The foreword warned the book should be rated X, and since it came out the year I turned 14, I readily sought out the sex scenes. Re-reading Ball Four, I was struck by the fact that the book isn’t titillating at all —and what sex there is makes one cringe in this post-Me Too era. To learn about sex, I would have been better off reading two other bestsellers from the same time period: David Reuben’s ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)’ or Terry Garrity’s ‘The Sensuous Woman‘.”
= “The Boys of Summer,” by Roger Kahn (1972): About why this made it, but not Roger Angell’s “The Summer Game,” again Aron tells PBCC: “I felt that The Boys of Summer was more influential because it so compellingly conjured up an era — Brooklyn in the’50s — that it very well may have drawn people back to Brooklyn after their families had fled to the suburbs.” Aron adds that there was no love lost between Kahn and Angell, and a story Alex Belth wrote for SBNation.com in 2012 confirmed it.
= “The Bill James Baseball Abstract,” by Bill James (1982): Aron has historical context: He was working at Doubleday in 1981 and “I was one of the editors interesting in publishing James,” who had been self-publishing since 1977 but caught the eye of Sports Illustrated for a story. Aron suggested the book be organized chronologically or thematically rather than going all over the place with its sidetrack thoughts. “What I didn’t grasp was that James’s digressions were not a structural flaw but part of his appeal,” Aron writes. “Sometimes James’s tangents were worth following just because they were funny.” Plus, James’ sabermetric-thinking has expanded to all other sports, as well as political analysts like Nate Silver. “It’s impossible to say to what kind of influence James had on this, but it’s worth nothing that at one point Morningstar, a global financial services firm, instructed its analysts to read James’s work and apply it when judging mutual funds,” Aron told PBCC.
You absolutely cannot be a good sabermetrician, a good stat analyst, if you believe too much in your stat conclusions. The whole point of sabermetrics is to find your way towards what you DON'T know. If you're certain that you already know it, then you're done. You're useless.
= “Rotisserie League Baseball,” by Glen Waggoner (1984): This Bill James-endorsed tome not only “fueled the growth of fantasy sports,” Aron tells PBCC, but “also of USA Today and even the Internet.” Seriously. On the SABR.com website: “In 1980 Dan Okrent and several of his friends invented a baseball league that allowed ‘owners’ to draft players and be scored based on how the players performed in the real world. Okrent wrote a 1981 Inside Sports article about it, and the game started to catch on. This 1984 book, edited by Waggoner, provided rules, a constitution, and several essays. From there, the entire industry of fantasy sports sprung up, creating a nation of fans who believed they could be a big-league general manager.” Are we better for it? Ask those who have NFL fantasy teams now and make a living at it.
= “Pete Rose: My Story,” by Pete Rose and Roger Kahn (1989) and “My Prison Without Bars,” by Pete Rose with Rick Hill (2004): A two-for-one entry. No lie. At first blush, these are two of the oddest choices to add to a list of this kind of impactful list. But Aron sells us:
“Here’s one theory to consider: What led to Donald Trump was Pete Rose. … Both are liars … Both appealed to blue-collar workers, especially whites, who overlooked the lies because they saw Rose and Trump fighting against systems rigged against them. … Rose’s supporters may have become so fed up with the baseball establishment that they were more likely to support Trump’s attacks on the political establishment … (And the irony is) both are most certainly not avid readers and both would be quick to dismiss anything that smacked of intellectualism.”
We are tempted, but won’t indulge more into Aron’s exquisite presentation, or even try to condense it, because it would take away the reader’s mind-blowing enjoyment. There are plenty of other dots to connect here, and here, and here, and here.
And here we go into Rose’s latest newsworthiness:
After Pete Rose made his first appearance on the Phillies' field since his MLB ban, he was asked by a female reporter about allegations of having a relationship with a minor in the 1970s. His response? “It was 55 years ago, babe.”https://t.co/zbl7aO2L10
“I'm going to tell you one more time: I'm here for the Philly fans, I'm here for my teammates, OK. I'm here for the Philly organization and who cares what happened 50 years ago.” — Pete Rose | Video by @APgelstonpic.twitter.com/7MxrNrwhCo
Monumentally meaningful, necessary and relevant. A Top 10 list for the ages.
A compendium like this will never lose its charm, even 100 years from now when someone else exorcises this exercise and must admit – this original 10 has to be the foundation. So what have you got lately?
It is easy to be impressed as well with the chapter notes and bibliographic essay that gives this all so much of a foundation. The other treat is plowing more through Chapter 10, set aside for “Other Influential Books” – about 50 more that still carried a lot of weight and make for another great 60 extra pages to ponder.
Such as: = “The Chrysanthemum and the Bat: Baseball Samurai Style,” by Robert Whiting, 1977 = “A Day in the Bleachers” by Arnold Hano, 1955 = “Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origin of Ball Games” by Robert Henderson, 1947 = “The National Game” by A.H. Spink, 1910 = “Sol White’s Official Base Ball Guide,” by Sol White, 1907 = “Beadle’s Dime Base-Ball Player” by Henry Chadwick, 1860
We have more reading to do apparently…. Gotta run.
In a 2015 piece for Forbes.com, writer Steven Rosenbaum invites distressed readers to “embrace your Curated Life,” calling it a conscious shift from being controlled by “the speed of social connectedness to being in control.”
The suggested plan of attack: 1. Take a personal “rhythm” inventory: Introvert or extrovert? Morning person or night owl? Multi-tasker or “fierce focus”? 2. Right Size your tools to your life. Delete two thirds of your phone aps. Anything that causes distractions. 3. Filter your friends. Don’t unfriend, just dial them back. 4. Get offline – and explore Real World Experiences. 5. Realize you are what you Tweet and Eat.
The sideways look we have at this moment: If we had been offline, we’d likely never have discovered this story. Google the reference: Sword; double-edged.
Rosenbaum concludes: “We’re living in a time of digital abundance, which is wonderful. It promises to give us a new way to explore, connect, share, and learn. But it needs to be harnessed to make your life better, otherwise it threatens to turn is into hamsters in a wheel of information. So, embrace The Curated Life, and share with me the tools and techniques you’ve found that give you the ability to engage meaningfully in the world around you. I’d like to hear what works for you.”
Hand me the talking stick.
Our tools for occasional survival in a rough-and-tumble world first often us to silencing the phone, TV and desktop module, going through the stacks of books we’ve collected over the years, grabbing one for the moment, find a shaded spot outside or a spot on the nearby beachfront, a few hours of solitude, and simply disappearing.
During that recent process, the exercise pointing us toward the best way to a curated world of Yankees and Red Sox history was met with some resistance.
If the thought was it might make our lives better, worse or indifferent, the reality is it didn’t bring any more pleasure, disdain or lack of interest, but at least we added to our understanding. But really, our thought the whole time was wondering if that hamster does, at the end of the day, find some joy and fulfillment on an apparatus we have come to represent despair and being stuck.
The MLB master schedule calls for another three-game series between these two titans in Boston this weekend — first on the MLB Network, then over to, the Fox Network on Saturday, then capping it off with the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Fun Bunch, where Alex Rodriguez gets to hang out with Derek Jeter and cross promote all they can on the ESPN2 feed.
These are not the dates on the schedule where the Red Sox’s Marketing Department has to beg ticket-buyers with a Nathan Evaldi “Light Up” Gnome, a Xander Bogaerts Arm Sleeve or a Pedro Martinez Funko POP! promotion (those are actual giveaways that have or will take place this month and next at Fenway Park).
We don’t quite have BST-NYY Rival Fatigue. But we do honor history. The media tells us, for good reason, the Yankees-Red Sox will remain a very important and compelling part of this season, as they were in the beginning, are now and forever shall be. Amen.
Next year, there’s a step back to where a new CBA rule makes the MLB calender tilt to make sure every team plays every team at some point — a “balanced schedule,” with more inter-league contests. That means teams play five fewer games against division opponents, and that space goes to playing at least one series against every team in the other league. Teams will also continue to play their “rival” inter-league team four times, twice at each ballpark.
Does that mean, instead of 19 Red Sox-Yankees meetings, it’ll shrink to … gasp … only 14?
Vin Scully took the pen in his left hand and arched his wrist so that he could shepherd his cursive signature, careful not to smudge.
He paused to explain how he would purposefully sign the “sweet spot” of the baseball – that horizontal swatch of horsehide uninterrupted by the stitches. That is a prime piece of real estate, as much for its aesthetic beauty as it is providing space below to continue writing.
He did that because, below his signature, he could add a little something more and actually personalize a message — “TO TOM – GOD BLESS” in all capital letters.
A Union Oil souvenir. From 1961 – the year we were born.
That ball sits in an alcove on my home office shelf, in what over the years almost has become the Shrine of Scully, the Reliquary of the Bard, to house relics such as bobbleheads and bobble-microphones, a terracotta piece of stone from his original Hollywood Walk of Fame star, books and signs and and remembrances of special importance.
A lit candle and the new black VIN player sleeve patch has been there since his passing on Aug. 2, and it continued through his funeral Mass said Monday at St. Jude The Apostle Catholic Church in Westlake Village.
Just as the Sunset Blvd. entrance to Dodger Stadium has had its own public shrine assembled with various religious artifacts — we captured some of them after our latest visit — we need a place to honor and remember:
So there we were on the steps outside our church following last Sunday’s Mass, and an innocent question came from a friend:
What would it take to get Vin Scully canonized by the Catholic Church?
Progress through the season to date, starting on April 15:
Day 40: “Grinders: Baseball’s Intrepid Infantry,” by Mike Capps and Chuck Harenstein for Stoney Creek Publishing. We get to re-remember the career of Brian Downing and his impact thanks to the 15 pages featuring him in this book pulled together by two grinders themselves. Because of its nature, baseball is a sport that needs grinders almost more than it needs its marque talent that make things look so easy. It’s a reflection on life, if you want to get metaphysical about all this. Those who grind stay in the game. Those who have the talent, face adversity and fall back, won’t survive. Thank you, grinders, for the inspiration. You intrepid bastards.
Day 39: “Our Game Too: Influential Figures and Milestones in Canadian Baseball” edited by Andrew North, with Len Levin, Bill Nowlin and Carl Riechers for the Society of American Baseball Research and The Centre for Canadian Baseball Research. As SABR 50 converges this weekend in Baltimore, note these famous Canadian connections: Brother Matthias, who found the incorrigible George Herman Ruth at the St. Mary’s Industrial Training School, was born as Martin Leo Boutilier on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia in 1872. And Joseph Lannin, who owned the Boston Red Sox and brought Ruth to the team, was a native of Quebec, also orphaned and, according to legend, walked all the way to Boston. Also mentioned: “Canadian Minor League Baseball: A History Since World War II,” by Jon T. Stott.
Day 38: “The Lineup: Ten Books That Changed Baseball” by Paul Aron for McFarland. Monumentally meaningful, necessary and relevant. A Top 10 list for the ages. A compendium like this will never lose its charm, even 100 years from now when someone else exorcises this exercise and must admit – this original 10 has to be the foundation. So what have you got lately? In a far deeper dive than most lists of “best” baseball books, this takes a much longer pause to ponder, absorb the research and appreciate all the dots connected. We’re grateful to have stumbled onto Paul Aron.
Day 37:“The Franchise: New York Yankees: A Curated History of the Bronx Bombers” by Mark Feinsand and “The Franchise: Boston Red Sox: A Curated History of the Sox” by Sean McAdam, both for Triumph Books.
The publisher has a new deep-fried method to find another way to sell another box of Cracker Jacks — present an historical summation in a tight and breezy format, picking an author – curator — who has some sort of tie/experience to the franchise, and maybe summarize it without the aid of photos, hyperlinks or other forms of distraction.This would be a challenge even to the likes of John Updike, David Halberstam or Larry “Bud” Mellman.The fanatics of those teams will have to decide if the writing and research carries out the mission. Because visually, it’s not likely going to win over younger fans.Also mentioned here: “Dodgers! An Informal History from Flatbush to Chavez Ravine,” by Jim Alexander.
Day 36: “Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century,” by Tom Alesia for Grissom Books. Plotline: A journalist discovers this guy’s plot at a local cemetery in northwestern Wisconsin. What’s the deal? A book fittingly about as quick a read as Bancroft’s fame. A tribute to whip-clean research and storytelling — and not all bios about Hall of Fame players need to be 400-plus pages, $40 and with dozens of footnotes, bibliographies, indexes and a bursting appendicitis. Also mentioned here: “Covey: A Stone’s Throw from a Coal Mine to the Hall of Fame,” by Harry J. Dietz Jr. on Stan Coveleski.
Day 35: “Lefty and Tim: How Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver Became Baseball’s Best Battery,” by William C. Kashatus for University of Nebraska Books. If, as the title suggests, this was ‘baseball’s best battery,’ it is probably with some noted context. But we’ll give them that. Even if there aren’t a lot of new revelations that one might anticipate — especially without Carlton submitting to interviews — it’s serves as a nice reminder, and a historic placeholder, as to what we’re seeing again with Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina closing in on the all-time record for a starting pitcher-catcher combo, and already have the record for wins together.
Day 34: “Coming Home: My Amazin’ Life with the New York Mets,” by Cleon Jones (with Gary Kaschak) and “Willie Horton 23: Detroit’s Own Willie The Wonder, The Tigers’ First Black Great,” by Willie Horton (with Kevin Allen), both for Triumph Books.
At a time we are mourning the loss of many great Black players from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, these two are not only very much alive, but have something more to say about their legacies in a sincere and sweet way that reminds us of their dignity, honor and professionalism, emerging from communities not of upper-middle-class travelings teams, but from the streets and schools of hard knocks. It’s fitting their latest bios come out from the same publisher as both men are about to turn 80 years old and could use an authentic refresh about what they accomplished.
Day 33:“Democracy at the Ballpark: Sport, Spectatorship, and Politics,” by Thomas David Bunting for SUNY Press. Today, democracy and baseball seem in some kind of peril, maybe unsure of where their compass points, not trusting whose making decisions that seem counterintuitive to the best interest of their constituents/fans. That seems like a ripe starting point for this renewed discussion, in a very academic yet accessible way. Bunting can swing away with his historical context and current angst and reach conclusions. The only book you may find with an index that lists French philosopher “Ranciere, Jacques” next to “Robinson, Jackie.”
Day 32: “Good as Gold: My Eight Decades in Baseball” by Jim Kaat (with Douglas Lyons) for Triumph Books. A fitting calling card for “Kitty” Kaat to have with him in Cooperstown this weekend. He already had the credibility as an observer of the game decades ago. But since his last biography/essays in 2002, things have changed much — but not his approach of candor and honesty. Consider this an important and viable refresh with much more circumstances to examine. Another thing to consider: Why can’t he be the first to voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player and then win the Ford C. Frick Award for his broadcasting work? Who can make this happen?Also mentioned here: “Baseball’s Memories and Dreams: Reflections on the National Pastime from the Baseball Hall of Fame,” by the BBHOF.
Day 31:“Intentional Balk: Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating” by Dan Levitt and Mark Armour for Clyde Hill Publishing. These SABR stalwarts and unimpeachable historians aren’t demanding a call to action that pushes current commissioner Rob Manfred to do a better job cleaning up the sport from its cheating past, present and likely future. If you’re looking for a revolutionary chapter after chapter of essays damning the game and throwing intense shade on those who’ve failed to do something about it, that’s not the point. Instead, it’s something much more entertaining, educational and enlightening.
Day 30: “Feeling a Draft: Baseball Scouting And The first 50 Years of the Amateur Player Draft” by Fred Day and Ray McKenna for iUniverse. We dedicate this post to the memory of Mike Brito, the Dodgers’ Cuban superscout who perhaps single-handedy changed the landscape of the franchise’s ability to secure Mexican and Cuban players of high regard and higher fan attachment. This Bill Plaschke appreciation column reflects that. And to George Genevese, the Southern California superscout who saw the stars out of those others loverlooked.
Day 29: “Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs” by Jason Cannon for University of Nebraska Press. This gentleman with the bowler capon the cover has been labeled as, in no particular order: Impetuous, lucky, sharp, lovable and loathable. Full of brash, bluster and hustle with explosions of creativity. Act first, apologize later. In this bio, there’s nothing to apologize for. We’re sorry we didn’t know about Murph sooner. Now if this “small plump man, quick of wit, brilliant in repartee, quick of temper” has a movie made of him, who’s the the lead actor? We imagine Zach Galifianakis.
Day 28: “The Church of Baseball: The Making of ‘Bull Durham’: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings and a Hit” by Ron Shelton for Knopf. Shelton is preaching to the choir here. We are in full communion, no matter what higher being you might leave in the hands of your past, current and afterlife. Shelton manages to spare little on each page. There is more concentrated information about the film, the industry, and the foibles of human nature you’d expect. It will only enrich our experience the next 50 times we find it during channel surfing and can’t turn away.Also mentioned here: “The Baseball Film: A Cultural and Transmedia History,” by Aaron Baker; “Bush League Blues,” by Mike Floyd and “The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: A Complete Record of Teams, Leagues, and Seasons: 1876-2019,” by Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff.
Day 27: “Last Time Out: Big League Farewells of Baseball’s Greats” by John Nogowski for Lyons Press. This concept is a tricky one. It’s difficult to find a lot of “I did it my way” moments. The nature of the game is more moments of defeat and showing humility, if you can handle it. There’s not a whole lot either building suspense or giving away a sad parting-gifts account of the grand finale. “I think it was Bart Giamatti who said the game was designed to break your heart,” Nogowski says. “So to show the finest players the game has had, many of them being literally brought down to earth for the first time in their lives, to me was immersive, fascinating and compelling.”
Day 26: “Pee Wee Reese: The Life of a Brooklyn Dodger” by Glen Sparks for McFarland and “Baseball’s Greatest What If: The Story and Tragedy of Pistol Pete Reiser” by Dan Joseph for Sunbury Press.
So what’s the deal with Harold Peter Henry “Pee Wee” Reese and Harold Patrick “Pistol Pete” Reiser? Reese played for 16 years and made 10 All-Star teams. Reiser barely got through 10 years, won a batting title and was in three All Star games. Neither book is knock-your-blue-socks-off when it comes to prose. But of the two, Joseph seems to have much intriguing story narrative to sift through — and it earned him 2022 SABR recognition for best research work on the Brooklyn Dodgers.With time comes not just rapid technology but added context as well to see what players today might be relatable in their journey and bring the older ones back to some relevance.Also mentioned here: “Game Won: How the Greatest Home Run Ever Hit Sparked the 1988 Dodgers to Game 1 Victory and an Improbable World Series Title,” by Stephen K. Wagner; “100 Things Dodgers Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die: 2020 World Series Edition,” by Jon Weisman, and “Farewell to Flatbush: The 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers,” by Ronnie Joyner.
Day 25:“In Scoring Position: 40 Years of A Baseball Love Affair” by Bob Ryan and Bill Chuck for Triumph. IBB for the Impressive, Bigly Brainstorm. E for Execution. And a backward K, because you’re killing us here. We have SAC’d enough. Such a splendid idea. It speaks to how a baseball scorebook can also become like a personal diary. If you’re a fanatical Red Sox follower, or a fan of old-timey Ryan and can tolerate a lot of rambling (see “Horn, Around The”), you’ve got a chance to jog the memory and likely head to a Goggle search for more details.
Day 24:“The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position by Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players” an updated version by Howard Megdal for Triumph. Before we get into the frolic, it is poignant to note how Megdal writes in his introduction why this project remains important at a time when there is a rise in hate crimes, bomb threats and horrible verbiage still against Jews. ‘Celebrating Jewish excellence in baseball is not a difficult thing to do … It is a supremely Jewish thing to do, too: Finding joy in the argument, in the discussion of statistical evidence and sense memory and arcane topics, in cultural pride.’ Here’s a mensch who doesn’t mince words. Hear, hear.Also mentioned here: “Hebrew Hammer: A Biography of Al Rosen, All Star Third Baseman,” by Joseph Wancho.
Day 23:“The Catch: A Novel,” by Alison Fairbrother for Random House. You had us at baseball. And for some reason, something called a “lucky baseball.” … Definitely best suited for a younger woman with all sorts of life and abandonment issues … We try to roll with it as far as need be to find out – why is this baseball so special? We didn’t. Explaining the book to my wife as I handed it to her to see if she was interested in reading it, she asked for a summary. I gave it to her. She asked further: So who ended up with the baseball? I admitted that half way through I found I had lost interest in that story line, flipped to the back, started skimming paragraphs backwards, saw how it ended, smiled, and was done.
Day 22: “Sho-Time: The Inside Story of Shohei Ohtani and the Greatest Baseball Season Ever Played” by Jeff Fletcher for Diversion. Fletcher had already started to write an Ohtani tome in 2018. But things derailed when Ohtani’s UCL issues flared up and his already brief MLB career could have been doomed. But after what Ohtani did a season ago, it was time to pick up the project, and not just as a rehash mashup.“My goal was to go beyond a surface-level description of what he did in that amazing season, providing the context that explained it,” Fletcher writes about why he pitched it all again. To everyone’s benefit, he does that and then some.
Day 21: “Mexican American Baseball in the South Bay” edited by Richard A. Santillan and Ron Gonzales. The latest edition of the Latino Baseball History Project at Cal State San Bernardino appears to be the most prolific, an oversized book that dwarfs the projects printed previously by the Arcadia Publishing Company/Image of Baseball over the last 10-plus years. The editors also call this book “a forward-looking game-changer” for the series, with a “wealthier narrative” that also incorporates the cultural and community roots. It has emerged from an hiatus during the COVID-19 shutdown with a renewed look on the commitment to documenting the game from its Mexican-American prism.
Day 20: “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original,” by Howard Bryant for Mariner Books/HarperCollins. On page 407 of the index, we come upon “Henderson, Rickey, character traits. There are topics logged: “charisma,” “ego,” “forgetting names,” “as hot dog,” “intelligence,” “love of gambling,” and ” ‘Rickey being Rickey’.” But we’ve been instructed not to get too absorbed with much of that, because Bryant is almost as much the headliner for this piece as Henderson. Bryant speaks from a depth of experience, research and a need to mythbust.
Day 19:“The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self,” by Dale Scott with Rob Neyer for University of Nebraska Press. “Scott’s appearance at the Dodgers’ upcoming Pride Night lines up nicely with the release of a gratifying autobiography about his life and career that is one of the more enjoyable and poignant reads of this baseball season. We much we appreciate the education and entertainment, context and comedy, and true human feelings spread out along the way.”Also mentioned here: “Unbelievable! The Life Journey of Art Williams, Baseball’s First Black National League Umpire,” by Dr. Audie Williams.
Day 18:“Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and The Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever” by Dan Good for Abrams. “Some books you can’t put down. They might be best finished cover-to-cover in one sitting. Then there are these. You need to nudge yourself into starting it, and remind yourself it’s OK to set aside for a moment. Re-read to make sure it’s clear. Give it another rest. And don’t do it before you go to bed. You’ll be too restless. You won’t sleep well. Take it from our experience. Good isn’t asking us to do what he hasn’t already done for the greater angst: Look at this player, this man, this husband and dad, for what he did, who he was, and what legacy he left the game. Honest to goodness. It is worth the journey. It isn’t easy, but it’s good for the soul. Thank you, Dan. We feel your pain.”
Day 17:“Swing And A Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me,” by Paul O’Neill with Jack Curry, for Grand Central Publishing. “We’re supposed to, what, buy this one, read it and ponder the wisdom it imparts? Because … ? Because, he’ll forever be known as a Yankee Great, with a capital ‘Why’ and an understated ‘Gee.’ … And you’re still in the media of NY spotlight, so you’re entitled to impart whatever you can be paid for.”Also mentioned here: “Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories,” by Jonathan Weeks; “The Ultimate New York Yankees Time Machine Book,” by Martin Gitlin.
Day 16:“The Real Hank Aaron: An Intimate Look at the Life and Legacy of the Home Run King,” by Terence Moore for Triumph Books. In a lineup of books already done by and about Aaron, documenting all that happened from various angles and perspectives, we embrace as well Moore’s Hall of Fame-worthy contribution adding another layer of introspection. It’s a personal touchstone we’re grateful he decided to share.Also mentioned here: “Athlete Activists: Sports Stars Who Changed the Game,” by Stephanie Ready and Morris Katz.
Day 15:“Grassroots Baseball: Route 66,” photos by Jean Fruth, with Jeff Idelson, Mike Veeck, Johnny Bench, Jim Thome, George Brett and more. A photo spread that executes and excites, having a narrative fleshed out by the photographer who experiences the trip and conveys it with visual artistry. It makes it personal, professional and prolific. Get your kicks with this picture-perfect portfolio that captures more than the essence of the game and its long and winding journey. Bring your best baseball friend, and don’t forget Winona.
Day 14: “Remarkable Ballparks” by Dan Mansfield for Pavilion Books. (With 67 ballparks included), there are only 24 of the 30 MLB parks … That leaves more stunning vistas of ballparks we often don’t get to see in Japan or South Korea (three each), Mexico and Cubs (two each) and one in Germany, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan and China. For those, the book serves a heartwarming and globally significant purpose.
Day 13: “Stumbling Around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the Expansion Eras” by Andy McCue for University of Nebraska Press, and “A Brand New Ballgame: Branch Rickey, Bill Veeck, Walter O’Malley and the Transformation of Baseball, 1945-1962” by G. Scott Thomas for McFarland.
If we adjust our compass for more encompassing MLB movement in the future, will it learn from its past? For those who love to reconstruct baseball history, wonder what would have happened if some things fell differently, and why franchises ended up here, there and everywhere except when logic came in play, here are two more viable entries to pour through and try to reconnect the dippin’ dots of days gone by.Bill Veeck, enjoyably, is all over it in both editions.
Day 12: “Classic Baseball: Timeless Tales, Immortal Moments” by John Rosengren for Rowman & Littlefield. It’s logical to seek out Rosengren’s new collection of baseball-related pieces he has written over the years for a worthy Father’s Day gift this June … But may we also suggest it’s a nice thing for mom to settle in with on Mother’s Day and enjoy it all, too. So here’s to you, mom. And, yes, dad can read it too. But you first.
Day 11:“I Am Not A Baseball Bozo: Honoring Good Players who Played on Terrible Teams: 1920 to 1999,” by Chris Williams for Sunbury Press. Love the concept, appreciate the fun cover and all the research that was put into it, enjoy the random asides and comic relief from this member of the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research. … But at some point, this runs out of steam, and substance, and we can’t put our finger on just why. …
Day 10:“The Science of Baseball: The Math, Technology and Data Behind the Great America Pastime” by Will Carroll for Skyhorse Publishing. Carroll may not only know what a slide rule is for, but he’ll cut to the chase as to the benefits of the revised “Utley Slide Rule” when it comes to protecting the game’s stars from a change of further injuring themselves. Stay healthy, everyone.
Day 9: “Stolen Dreams: The 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars And Little League Baseball’s Civil War” by Chris Lamb for University of Nebraska Press. A big-league reminder about how the game reflects and can magnify a cultural wound.One of the few authors best positioned to do this book is Lamb.
Day 8:“Baseball Rebels: The Players, People and Social Movements That Shook up The Game and Changed America” and “Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles Over Workers’ Rights and American Empire,” both by Pete Dreier and Robert Elias, for University of Nebraska Press and Rowman & Littlefield.
Is there irony in how, rather than an act of rebellion, we see one of conformity and convenience to find two publishers willing to carry their material on overlapping topics and expecting someone to pay $80 for the complete set? Any way to get a coupon toward 50 percent off the purchase of the second one once you prove purchase of the first?
Day 7: “Is This Heaven? The Magic of the Field of Dreams” by Brett H. Mandel for Globe Pequot/Lyons Press/Rowman & Littlefield. Where else on the planet would you rather be this Earth Day? Does Dyersville, Iowa sound too cornball?Someone had to dig up some dirt about how this whole Field of Dreams thing went from Hollywood movie set to stand-alone tourist attraction.
Day 6:“The Saga of Sudden Sam: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Sam McDowell” by Sam McDowell with Martin Gitlin for Rowman & Littlefield. They call these things cautionary tales. They are better reads when you sense there will be a positive outcome. As this appears to be.
Day 5: “Whispers of the Gods: Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It” by Peter Golenbock for Rowman & Littlefield. Two chapters alone on Jim Bouton? We’re in. If only we could hear the audio instead of just read the stenography. And talk it up now with your dad to make sure he’s good for this as his upcoming Father’s Day gift, lest there be any doubts he fits the demographics of this.
Day 4:“Valentine’s Way: My Adventurous Life and Times” by Bobby Valentine with Peter Golenbock for Permuted Press. It not be an accident that a publishing company that touts itself as one that has pushed out “hundreds of works as an industry-leading independent publisher of sci-fi, fantasy, post-apocalyptic and horror fiction, as well as pop-culture and historical non-fiction” has taken this one on. The official list of genres on their website also include coloring books, military non-fiction, supernatural, paranormal romance, zombie, thriller, humor, reference books and dystopian. Valentine’s tome surely permeates many permutations as well as checks a lot of boxes for them.
Day 3:“Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of A Broadcasting Legend” by James Walker and Judith Hiltner for University of Nebraska Press. To someday tell the story of Vin Scully, we need first know Barber’s. Barber, like Scully, made his baseball listening audience more intelligent. So does this book. Forever we are thankful for both, as this monumental effort makes us feel even more enlightened. Still, Barber valued the concise nature of telling a story. It’s an awful huge ask to get a reader to commit to this dense, expansive documentation of his life, no matter how much information can be excavated by today’s modern methods.
Day 2: “How to Beat a Broken Game: The Rise of the Dodgers in a League on the Brink” by Pedro Moura for Public Affairs Publishing. You may not find a more important explanation about how the game got here and where it could be going next, based on how the Dodgers want to set an example. It can be something one will reference back to years from now when trying to explain why most have lost any sense of loyalty. A typical “three outcome” AB now a days ends up with either a walk, strike out or home run. Moura’s book adds that rare consequence when someone hits a pitch off the opposing team’s “opener” into the exaggerated shift and finds wild success simply by putting the ball truthfully into play and benefiting from the consequences.
Day 1:“True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson” by Kostya Kennedy for St. Martin’s Press. On Jackie Robinson Day, one can’t ignore this 75th anniversary, and another opportunity to open up the lens for scholarly interpretations, public reflection and, of course, some shared profits along the way. Thankfully, it is with a regal prose and elegance storytelling that Kennedy comes up with a new framework for interpreting Robinson’s impact and legacy.Also mentioned here:
“Not an Easy Tale to Tell: Jackie Robinson on the Page, Stage and Screen,” edited by Ralph Carhart for Society of American Baseball Research; “Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier,” by Ted Reinstein, and “Strength for the Fight: The Life and Faith of Jackie Robinson,” by Gary Scott Smith.
And, for openers: What got us through the winter pandemic of ’22: “The Baseball 100,”by Joe Posnanski. An 880-page volume released last September that took what he once posted on The Athletic. Longer than Homer’s “The Odyssey” but no where near JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” it made it into book form and Spitball Magazine, the literary baseball publication, gave this its CASEY Award for top baseball book of 2021. It has more than 900 five-star ratings on Amazon for good reason.
Tom Hoffarth's The Drill: More Farther Off the Wall 