Category: Uncategorized

The book:

“Scouting And Scoring: How We Know What We Know About Baseball”

The author:
Christopher J. Phillips

The publishing info: Princeton University Press, $27.95, 320 pages, released March 26

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

The review in 90 feet or less

Sometimes, things just don’t add up.
How, again, did Harold Baines get elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame just a few months ago? The Baseball Writers of American crunched all the numbers for a dozen years. It didn’t quite add up. But the voting on the veterans’ committee, long after Baines’ eligibility with the BBWAA electorate expired, had enough numbers to make it happen. Continue reading “Day 7 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: Sometimes, this just doesn’t add up” →

A movie made for the Baseball Hall of Fame about Josephine Morhard’s Little Big League program in the Cleveland area

The book:

“Mrs. Morhard and The Boys: One Mother’s Vision … The First Boys’ Baseball League … A Nation Inspired”

The author:
Ruth Hansford Morhard

The publishing info:
Citadel Press/Penguin Random House Canada, 352 Pages, $27, released Feb. 26

The links:
At the publisher’s website, at Amazon.com, at BarnesAndNoble.com, at Powells.com
Also at a website dedicated to the book.

The review in 90 feet or less

When you stumble onto a story that has less to do with the sport it’s trying to use as a foundation and more about the history of someone’s life who accidentally became attached to it in somewhat of a desperate measure, you’ve found something that shouldn’t be kept a secret.
Josephine Morhard’s life story is worth telling on its own, and by the time we get around to the baseball angle of it, you figure out how a sport gave her only son some structure, discipline and a chance to shed himself from a Depression Era plight.
The unsinkable single mom, twice-divorced, resourceful and resilient, reads like a Louisa May Alcott character. Her own daughter-in-law, Ruth Hanford Morehard, who barely knew much of Josephine when their lives crossed, recounts this personal tale that involves her husband Al (aka, Junior), who in passing mentions some interesting parts of his mom’s life as they’re cleaning out her attic.
A film surfaces of Josephine and her youth baseball organization she started in Cleveland, years before such a thing took national prominence in Willamsport, Pennsylvania in the late 1930s. Continue reading “Day 6 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: We’re left wanting to know more about the Marvelous Mrs. Morhard” →

The book:

“Here’s the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising”

The author:
Roberta J. Newman

The publishing info:
University of Nebraska Press, 352 pages, $34.95, released March 1.

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

The review in 90 feet or less

We caught up last fall with author Jane Leavy to talk about her critically acclaimed 2018 book, “The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World Her Created” — the focus on Babe Ruth’s celebrity status and how he got it rolling for others> For a point, we got sidetracked onto the outcome of an interview she had with modern day sports agents Scott Boras and Leigh Steinberg. They were brainstorming about what the Yankees’ slugger would be best suited to endorse if he were around today.
“(Steinberg) said that Ruth would have to do ‘this and this and this…’ But he did that,” said Leavy. “He even had a foundation that didn’t survive but he would have taken up causes synonymous with it.
“I remember asking him what kind of endorsements would he have created for Babe as a brand. My thought was maybe a Cartier watch, because he was always late for everything.
“Leigh thought he would go for something like Rochester’s Big & Tall men’s suits. My thought: That wasn’t classy enough for the Babe. And Leigh said: That’s the idea, you bring class to the product.”
Leavy paused.
“I’d still rather see him with a watch,” she said. Continue reading “Day 5 of 30 baseball book reviews for April 2019: The value-ad to a Mad Man’s portfolio” →

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” →