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Dr. Harvey Frommer on Sports

SPORTS BOOK REVIEW:

"The 300 Club," "The Only Game in Town" and more

The highly prolific Dan Schlossberg is at it again with another winner ­ "The 300 Club" - (Ascend Books, $24.95, 293 pages). Carefully crafted, brilliantly organized, this terrific tome focuses on that rarest of baseball fraternities, the two dozen hurlers who won 300 games in their careers.

We are there with the great Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Cy Young and his 511 wins, Lefty Grove and Early Wynn who just made it into the exclusive club with 300 victories and Pud Galvin (361 victories) who was there first way back when. Painstakingly researched - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

"The Only Game in Town" edited by David Remnick (Random House,$30.00, 492 pages) is a mother lode of fabulous sports writing from the pages of the New Yorker Magazine where the editor of this book is the editor.

We are able to enjoy works by Roger Angell, John Updike, Ring Lardner, Dom Delillo, John Cheever, Nancy Franklin and others on all matter of sports representing 80 years of writing in the storied magazine. GO FOR IT

"Batting Stance Guy" by Gar Ryness and Caleb Dewart (Scribner, $18.00, 255 pages, trade paperback original) is part unique and detailed analysis of what the authors deem to be the 50 most interesting stances of the last three decades, part book of lists (like best home run trot, etc.), part all over the map insights into the facts and factoids and stats of the national pastime. YOU HAVE TO LOVE IT

"Dream Golf" by Stephen Goodwin (Algonquin Books, $24.95, 344 pages) is about golf, architecture, dreaming, adventure. It is a must read containing as it does splendid writing about the adventure of the creation of a quartette of top courses that grace the coast of Oregon.

"Miracle Ball" by Brian Biegel (Three Rivers Press, $15.00, 231 pages, paperback reprint) is a narrative focused on the author's quest to find the Bobby Thomson "Shot Heard 'Round the World" baseball. Biegel's two year effort reads like a detective story.

Interesting, beautifully written, "Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling" by Ruth Raymer (Random House/Spiegel & Grau, $25.00, 226 pages) is sort of like a coming of age adventure. The "sort of" is the key word here in a book that takes on a roller coaster Damon Runyan world of hipsters and gamblers and touts and gaming ­ all of which is sort of a sports universe.

Children's Corner: "Bases Loaded" by Mike Knudson illustrated by Stacy Curtis (Viking, $14.99, 155 pages) showcases the duo Raymond and Graham and a thrill a minute scenario spinning of the pair's goal to have their Little League team beat their rival and cop the championship. Suitable for ages 8 and up, but a nice "read to" for lower ages ­ this is a home run of a book.


Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

 

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