Recent book reviews: 
Mickey and
Willie Nailed
Dr.
Harvey Frommer
Sports Book Reviews
George
Will on Wrigley, Peter Golenbock on Doug Harvey &
More
By
Dr. Harvey Frommer
This is the time of year that the
usual assortment of baseball books as tie in to the new season surface.
Generally, the quality is mixed. The 2014 sports season is a departure.
Generally, the quality is excellent. So let’s take a look.
Leading off the list is “A Nice
Little Place on the North Side” by George F. Will (Crown,
$25.00, 223 pages). It is so refreshing almost joyful to have this
terrific tome by an ultimate fan of the Chicago Cubs and one of the best
writers anywhere. This trim love letter to Wrigley Field is so appealing when
stacked up against the slew of hastily put together (some in need of much
editing) “picture books” on the subjects from publishers looking to capitalize on
the 100th anniversary of the ball park on the North Side.
George Will was born in Champaign,
Illinois in May 1941, a day his Cubbies lost to the Giants for their third
straight defeat. Never at a loss for words or puns throughout the book, Will
comments: “Had I been paying attention then, this book may never have been written.”
It’s a good thing he did pay
attention and became one of the best of the long suffering fans of the denizens
of the “friendly confines.” A Nice Little Place on the North Side is
a wondrous, carefully crafted work.
Another
book that fits the bill for the top of your sports bookshelf is “They Called Me
God,” by Doug Harvey and Peter Golenbock (Gallery
Books, $27.00, 274 pages). This combo of Hall of Fame umpire and Hall of Fame to
be sports author is tough to beat. Part gossip, part baseball history, part
story time, all winning prose, “They Called Me God” put you behind the plate
through the eyes of an umpire who was there for 4,673 games. We are there for
Roberto Clemente’s 3,000th hit, Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit homer, Pete
Rose’s debut and hundreds of other “inside” baseball moments. The book’s
sub-title brags: “The Best Umpire Who Ever Lived.” That might be too
over-the-top but to call “They Called Me God” one of the best baseball memoirs
ever is not.
Dan Epstein’s “Stars and Strikes” (Thomas
Dunne Books, $28.99, 400 pages) is an irreverent, swinging, tome with an
attitude that bemuses and amuses. Carefully researched, written with all kinds
of style, featuring the Big Red machine, the bird Mark Fidrych
mighty Mike Schmidt, the “Junkman” (not Eddie Lopat
but Randy Jones, owners Steinbrenner, George, Veeck,
Bill, Turner, Ted and Finley, Charles, the work is a roller coaster ride of
baseball and America in the Bicentennial summer of ’76 as the book’s sub-title
proclaims.
Engrossing, insightful, entertaining, vast in its
scope and depth, Mark Ribowsky’s (The Last Cowboy, Liveright|Norton
is almost 700 pages, $28.99) devoted to one of the true icons of American
sports Tom Landry. A player, a coach, a legend, Tom Landry always seemed bigger
than life - -and he was. He comes to life on page after page and in great
detail in this book that belongs on the sports bookshelf of every fan.
“The Million Dollar Arm” by J.B.
Bernstein (Simon and Schuster, $16.00, 233 pages, paper) is a whirlwind
narrative From Mumbai to the major leagues, from cricket to baseball. This is a
true story of a men with golden arms and the American
dream.
“Collision Low Crossers” by Nicholas
Davidoff (Little Brown, $29.00) is as its sub-title announces a Year inside the
Turbulent World of NFL Football. The author, granted full access to all things
New York Jets, takes full advantage of that blessing. The result is a funny,
insightful and no holds barred look at day-to-day life in the sports that is
now truly America’s Game.
For golf enthusiasts there are “Every
Shot Counts” by Mark Broadie (Gotham, $35.00, 255
pages), “Own Your Own Game” by Dave Stockton ($25.00, 127 pages). The Broadie book
makes maximum use of the revolutionary strokes gained approach to help every
golfer improve performance and strategy. The slim Stockton tome makes a point
of maximizing one’s mind to play winning golf.
NEW YORK CITY BASEBALL
http://www.amazon.com/New-York-City-Baseball-1947-1957/dp/1589798
