I ran across this recently…   Ten Baseball Movies That Belong in the Hall of Fame from VideoHound. 

Most of the usual suspects are there and I don’t disagree with almost all of them on the list.

A movie I’d have to add to the list is a classic from 1957, Fear Strikes Out based on the autobiography of Jimmy Piersall.  Anthony Perkins in his pre-Norman Bates days, plays the lead role and Karl Malden plays his father. 

The story of Fear Strikes Out deals with Piersall’s battle with both his mental illness and his overbearing father as he came up into the major league system. 

Apparently, Jimmy Piersall wasn’t pleased with the final product of the movie and didn’t give it his seal of approval mostly due to some stretching of the truth in the screenplay. 

That said, it’s a moving film and one of my favorites. 

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Bill Gutman has penned an interesting and thought provoking series of “What if?” questions related to all of the major sports in his new book: What if the Babe had kept his Red Sox? (And other Fascinating Alternate Histories from the World of Sports)

(Skyhorse Publishing- Paperback 2008).

 Gutman includes all major sports and is sure to satisfy the Sports Historian in your family. He includes such eclectic and intriguing topics such  as “What if Sonny Liston had knocked off Muhammad Ali (not as far-fetched as you would think given Liston’s punching ability) and What if Vince Lombardi had  left Green Bay after two seasons to take the vacant New York Giants job- also  within the line of logic and reason since St. Vincent had long roots to the east coast and specifically to the Giants and their owners . Don’t worry basketball golf and even hockey fans (and you two guys know who you are.) Gutman has something for you as well!

Since the Baseball Zealot is where we’re at, I want to hone in on some of the book’s baseball questions and possibilities. Gutman has plenty of these conundrums to satisfy all baseball fans. Do baseball fans discuss their sport’s history more than fans of any other sport? I think so.

Gutman discusses what the ramifications would be for the Yankees and the Red Sox if Babe Ruth stayed with the Red Sox,.hence the title of the book. (Coming from Chicago I refrain from using just “Sox” to describe New England’s version of hose since I reserve that for Chicago’s team but I digress.)  The author thoughtfully and informatively includes nuggets like not only did Boston’s owner Frazee sell the prized “Babe” to the Yankees he also gave them such players like Herb Pennock (Hall of famer), Carl Mays and others.

Continuing on to other plausible national pastime scenarios, Gutman discusses what the potential impact would have been if the Phillies would have signed Negro league Hall of Famers Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson (The so-called Black Babe Ruth) to major league  contracts back in 1936!

I’ll let the reader discover the many other nuggets included in this book but a couple of other “What if’s” to further whet the appetite are what it would be like if Sandy Koufax and Dizzy Dean and even football great Gale Sayers did not have their careers cut short by injuries.

How about what if John Smoltz never made it to the Braves from the Tigers. (Who remembers that deal?)

All in all Gutman has put together an enjoyable read for the serious sports fan or dare I say the Sports historian. He ha buttressed his arguments with nice accompanying background information and stats and has made plausible summarie son what might have occurred and why. I was skeptical at first at the book’s premise of What If’s but was pleasantly surprised after I dug into the text. A nice nugget to put on anyone’s Christmas list. (At least those of us sports/baseball nuts who frequent the Zealot). 

You can find this book on Amazon or at Skyhorse Publishing. 

Rating:

Three bats.

-CLuke

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Zealot friend Adrian Burgos, author of Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line, was the topic of a feature article on Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf.

Burgos is back teaching at the University of Illinois after a sabbatical.  During his sabbatical, he was working on his second book, a biography of Alejandro Pompez who was the owner of the New York Cubans and later the director of international scouting for the Giants. 

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I just finished Stan Isaacs’ Ten Moments That Shook the Sports World: One Sportswriter’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Most Incredible Sporting Events of the Past Fifty Years and I have to say I enjoyed it. 

Isaacs is an award-winning former feature columnist for Newsday and has certainly been around the world of sports.  He writes about ten events in sports history (all which he has witnessed personally) in great detail.  Events such as Secretariat’s win at the Belmont Stakes in 1973, Bobby Thomson’s "The Shot Heard ‘Round the World" and the massacre of the athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The book is formatted into 10 chapters… one for each ‘moment’, in countdown fashion so it is evident Isaacs is helping your opinion which events had the most impact, at least in his experience.  Maybe I being simplistic, but I enjoy books like these.  They’re easy to pick up and read. 

As a matter of fact, I didn’t even start with the beginning.  I began with the chapter on the 1972 Munich Olympics for two reasons.  One, I’m not that familiar with the event and two, the Olympics were starting up soon at the time and that I knew the mass media would be talking about it a little.  

After that, I jumped around from Bobby Thomson’s ‘Shot’, to Casey Stengel’s ‘Amazin’ Mets’ and kept reading till I read the whole book.

Isaacs strength (other than he actually witnessed these events rather than reading about them or watching them on a screen) is that he provides a good background for each of these events.  For Bobby Thomson’s ‘Shot’, for example, he doesn’t start with the morning of the game.  He provides detail on the rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants for the 1951 season (and even gives some background history). 

Give the book a try.  I really enjoyed it. 

You can get it from Skyhorse Publishing or from Amazon. 

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I just finished the book Mets By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by the Uniform Number by Jon Springer and Matthew Springer.  The book’s title is pretty self-descriptive.  I don’t think it leaves out a single player that ever played for the NL New York team.  Creatively titled chapters start from Uniform #1 and the New York Mets that had that number and go from there.

There’s a bit of a bio or trivia that goes with each player (at least the ones that any major playing time).  Plus at the end of each chapter, a complete rundown on the uniform number; how many Mets had the number, the best season by a Met with that number etc.

From Mookie Wilson (#1) to Turk Wendell (#99) not to mention Rey Ordonez who debuted with a #0, this book delivers as promises.  It goes without saying that this book would definitely interest a New York Met fan more than anyone.  It’s possible that a baseball history buff might enjoy this as well for all the trivia as well. 

Mets By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by the Uniform Number Author: Jon Springer and Matthew Silverman Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

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I met TBZ at a fantasy baseball auction draft recently. He handed me a book he received from a publisher and asked if I was interested in reading it and posting a review. I love to read, and I’m always in the middle of at least one or two books. But it would be an understatement to say that I am not the fastest reader in the world. I’ve never been able to “plow” through a book, probably because I don’t give myself any deadlines. Thanks to TBZ I finished Working at the Ballpark: The Fascinating Lives of Baseball People from Peanut Vendors and Broadcasters to Players and Managers by Tom Jones in a personal record time.

The book is comprised of fifty interviews of people who are involved in major league baseball in some fashion. Each interview is its own chapter making it very easy to read a few minutes at a time.

Jones presents each interview in the voice of the interviewee. He recorded each of his interviews and did a wonderful job preserving the speaking styles and tone of each person. They come across more like a conversation than an interview. He does not print the questions he asks so you don’t “hear” the author at all. In the style of a film documentary, you only see and hear the subject. This made for very enjoyable reading.

He talked with some of the more obvious subjects: players, coaches, managers, broadcasters, general managers, and front office executives. These people are constantly badgered by the press so you sense in their interviews that their answers are more groomed, polished, and somewhat restrained. But Jones also talks to the kinds of people who are not commonly sought after: clubhouse managers, groundskeepers, video coordinators, scorekeepers, and scouts. These are some of the more revealing interviews.

No one is left out, not even the food vendors or the ticket hustlers. Jones gets them all to talk. My favorite is the one of major league umpire Fieldin Culbreth. His insights on the pressures of being a major league umpire and how he deals with them are fascinating.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about today’s game of baseball from uniquely different perspectives.

Working at the Ballpark Author: Tom Jones Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

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“Mr Aaron, for every one of those bad letters you receive, there are thousands pulling for you. Good luck in your quest… after you leave the Astrodome.”

Greeting on the Astrodome scoreboard welcoming Hank Aaron during his quest to break Babe Ruth’s homerun record in 1973

-

It was a nice gesture to be sure but it underscored the pressure Hank Aaron must have been going through the year he attempted to break Babe Ruth’s record.

That drama that unfolded that year is one of several that is detailed in the book Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid. The book essentially focuses on baseball during the year of 1973.

Now, when it comes to baseball history I love the 1970’s. I liked the style of play with its balance of speed, power and pitching. There were interesting players and other people of importance in the game. Before the era of “spin”, it didn’t take a scandal for a player to be “colorful”.

Author John Rosengren does a fine job picking his stories to tell. You’re not going to find a game-by-game account of the 1973 season. Rather he finds the important tales that remain relevant or at least interesting to today’s audience.

Speaking of relevance, Aaron’s story is told. Anyone who has not heard any version of it must read that chapter. There’s also Willie Mays’ last stand with the Mets. The rise of George Steinbrenner. And Orlando Cepeda making the most of the new Designated Hitter rule in Boston before his knees blow out.

Of course, Rosengen spends a lot of print on the World Champion Oakland A’s. We read much about the team interaction, with each other and with Dick Williams and Charlie O. Rosengren gives a pretty good insight into the workings of Reggie Jackson.

I’ve been asked to review books fairly often and I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed all them to some degree. But Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid has got to be one of my favorite. That’s partially because I like baseball history books and because of the time period written about. But John Rosengren did his research (the book is well documented) and wrote a book that didn’t put me to sleep. THAT makes it a keeper.

Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid

Author: John Rosengren

Publisher: Sourcebooks. Inc

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Zealot friend and author of Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line, University of Illinois professor Adrian Burgos has come through again with a thoughtful piece on the effect of black Latinos in the scope of the integration of baseball. 

You can read it on Baseball Musings. 

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It’s spooky enough that a Red Sox fan and a Yankee fan can get together and accomplish anything but the book Haunted Baseball (which has its own brand of spookiness) is proof enough that it can happen.

Dan Gordon (the Red Sox fan) is my guest this week on Baseball Zealot Radio and he’s talking up the book. Here are the show notes:

Show Notes for Episode 37:

Hosts: Tom:

Summary: In this week’s show, I interview author Dan Gordon who has just come out with his book, Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends and Eerie Events with co-author Mickey Bradley. Dan talks about the impetus to write his book and relates some of the stories he heard when he and Mickey interviewed hundreds of baseball players in researching the book.

Links:

Haunted Baseball book web site

Haunted Baseball review on The Baseball Zealot

Time: 22:28

Date Recorded: 2/5/08

Download Episode 37	Listen to the show via iTunes!
Listen to other Baseball Zealot Radio episodes	BZR Podcast Feed

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I’m just about finishing a book called Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends and Eerie Events by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon. 

I’m not much of a believer in the paranormal but I still found the book pretty interesting.  Don’t get scared by the title (no pun intended).  While there are plenty of stories of sightings of apparitions at ballparks and such, Haunted Baseball also details some other interesting anecdotes. 

My favorite was the section on Curses.  In today’s growing cynical society the idea of curses seems antiquated.  But I think they have a place in baseball tradition.  Of course, my Cubbies feature prominently in THAT section.  There is a whole chapter on the Curse of the Billy Goat.

Haunted Baseball details unexplained oddities, rare coincidences, and how the memories of those who have passed on (spirits, if you will) have manifested themselves in the thoughts of the living. 

There is also a very thoughtful chapter on how the events of September 11, 2001 had affected the game of baseball.  That chapter is a definite read. 

The most humorous part for me was reading about Ellis Burks’ pranks he would play on the rookies.  I won’t give away too much other than say that it involves a “haunted” elevator. 

I encourage any baseball fan, especially one who enjoys the history of baseball, to give this a read.  The anecdotes in this book run the gamut from early 20th century to modern day baseball.  I ran the premise of this book by my friend Brando and he says it’s the kind of book that’s right up his alley. 

If you want to find out more about this book, I’ll be interviewing one of the authors, Dan Gordon, on our podcast, Baseball Zealot Radio this week.  I’ll post a link once it is up. 

Here are the details:

Haunted Baseball:  Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events

Authors:  Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon

Publisher:  The Lyons Press  (an Imprint of The Globe Pequot Press)

Haunted Baseball Web link

Amazon Link

Update:  You can find my interview of Dan Gordon here.

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