Home / Book Reviews

Book Reviews

‘A Fastball For Freedom’ Imagines Turn Of The 22nd Century World, Baseball

If fans think baseball has changed a lot since they were kids, just wait until they find out what Gary Morgenstein has plotted out for the next few decades. In the second installment of his series of books, A Fastball for Freedom (BHC Press, 480 pps, $30.00), Morgenstein presents a ...

Read More »

Drama of 1962 Went Beyond The Field

When Willie McCovey’s ninth-inning, two-out, Game 7 screaming liner ended up in Bobby Richardson’s glove, the difference of a foot or so up or over decided the 1962 World Series on a single swing (and, as most fans of a certain age are aware, with another Hall of Famer, Willie ...

Read More »

‘Stealing First’ A Quick Read Of A Breadth Of Baseball Stories

A big part of baseball fandom for many of its most fervent followers is it nearly endless trove of stories. And while many are known to more casual fans, the chance to dig a little deeper about less heralded players and feats keeps it interesting for those who have heard ...

Read More »

Madigan Made Mark In Modernizing Football

When thinking of classic old-time college football coaches, names like Knute Rockne, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Pop Warner probably come to mind first. If you want to ease into the 1940s, Eddie Robinson, Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes got their starts then and achieved great fame. But Slip Madigan? There ...

Read More »

What’s In a (Baseball) Name?

In 1969, singer and lyricist Dave Frishberg released a novelty song called “Van Lingle Mungo,” an amalgam of baseball names, some famous, some lesser-known, that fit a comfortable if slightly forced-sounding rhyme. And though it isn’t going to make any lists of greatest all-time tunes, or even baseball-themed songs, it ...

Read More »

‘Baseball Memories’ Tracks Baseball History In Poetry

You know Doubleday didn’t invent it, The myth spun by Spalding to circumvent it. Abner was a soldier, never a player Says one of the poems by Ronald A. Mayer. The course of baseball history set to verse In a collection of poems, some longer, some terse, Baseball Memories brings ...

Read More »

‘The Called Shot’: A Heralded Home Run In An Unheralded Season

Baseball in the 1930s feels less covered than during other decades. That could just be a feeling, but it seems like the Deadball Era, Murderer’s Row Yankees of the 1920s, DiMaggio vs. Williams battles of the 40s, New York domination of the 50s, Mantle-Maris and the 60s and future seasons ...

Read More »

‘Yogi’ Puts A Smile On Fans’ Faces

There is something about saying the name “Yogi Berra” that puts a smile on your face. Fans under, say, 60, didn’t see him play live, but his feats on the diamond are legendary: the bad-ball hitter who won three MVPs and 10 World Series rings. (10!) No one is close ...

Read More »

All-Time Great Charleston Gets Deserved Biography

Asked to list the greatest players in Negro League history, names like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell likely leap to mind first for most fans with at least a passing knowledge of pre-integration baseball. Jackie Robinson, though he only played there for a short time, might be ...

Read More »