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Tag: baseball

What I’m Reading: Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself

Bottom of the Ninth, by Michael Shapiro, is about ex-Pirates/Cardinals/Dodgers manager Branch Rickey and his plan, starting in 1958, to create a new major league to compete with the existing National and Americal Leagues. HIs partner in this effort was New York attorney Bill… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself”

What I’m Reading: To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia

Bruce Kuklick is a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and his book To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia is a labor of love on his part. It’s also the kind of book I personally love–a mix of baseball… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia”

What I’m Reading: The Old Ball Game

The Old Ball Game, by Frank Deford, is actually a re-read for me. I read it when it first came out in 2005 and remembered it as a delightful and informative book about the New York Giants in the early 1900s, focusing on their… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: The Old Ball Game”

What I’m Reading: My Turn at Bat

My Turn at Bat is the 1969 autobiography of Ted Williams (with writing help from Sports Illustrated writer John Underwood), who as a kid wanted to be the greatest hitter who ever lived, and largely achieved his goal. Notice, he did not want to… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: My Turn at Bat”

What I’m Reading: Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series

Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series is one of the books my son is reading for his Battle of the Books team at school. (I recently read Re-Start, another of the books he’s reading for BoB.) I can see why Virginia picked this one for… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series”

What I’m Reading: A Single Happened Thing

Ack, I’m falling behind! Before I rate some more scary movies, I want to briefly review A Single Happened Thing, by Daniel Paisner. This book follows New York City book publicist David Felb, who has a boring, normal, and kind of disappointing life until… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: A Single Happened Thing”

What I’m Reading: Where They Ain’t

Where They Ain’t, by Burt Solomon, is an excellent look at baseball in the immedate pre-modern era, from 1894 to 1902. It observes this era through the lens of the Baltimore Orioles, who invented a new style of baseball that made them the most… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Where They Ain’t”

What I’m Reading: Game Time: A Baseball Companion

Game TimeĀ is a collection of essays by Roger Angell, who covers baseball for The New Yorker magazine. I believe most or all of these essays appeared in that magazine. They range from the very beginning of Angell’s career in the early 1960s to 2002.… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Game Time: A Baseball Companion”