Years ago, I picked up Ballpark Mysteries #01 The Fenway Foul-Up by David A. Kelly (illustrated by Mark Meyers). While I was not jumping up and down and yelling, “Kill the Ump!” over it, I was thinking “This is good.” I was recommending the series when it was appropriate. Yet, I never read another in the series until the other day. Sadly, book 14 The Cardinals Caper, was damaged. I picked it up before we had to process it as damaged, and spent a nice […]
The United States v. Jackie Robinson
A non-fiction book about Jack Robinson. Or better known as Jackie Robinson. The United States v. Jackie Robinson is not a typical biography of a baseball player. They start out with him being a child growing up as the only black family on their street. His mother’s strength and finally Jackie’s strength in the military. Few probably know that Jackie would not give up his seat on a bus either and it lead to a historic ruling, too. Finally, it ends with some of his […]
College baseball, without Linklater, with the White Whale
The cover drew me in: this book looks like it should be a delicate coming-of-age tale about a boy growing into a man, using baseball as an allegory for the wins and swings-and-misses of life. Given the cover model’s relaxed repose (and likely heavily influenced by the amount of fanfic I read, which, as John Cho says “gets gay fast”), I also assumed it would be a tale of a young man discovering his homosexuality. Baseball, young men exploring their sexuality: tick, right up my alley. […]
Print the Legend
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” -The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Written forty years afterward, David Halberstam’s warm look back at the Yankees-Red Sox pennant race of 1949 is not for the sabrmetrically inclined. With its unchecked assertions and reliance on anecdotes, there are many parts of Halberstam’s narrative that are unlikely to survive statistical scrutiny. Can it really be true that Joe DiMaggio was never thrown out going from first to third once in his long career? Or that Boston’s Johnny […]