HARVEY FROMMER ON SPORTS

The Book Review: “Bases Loaded,” “The Baseball Hall of Fame” and more . . .

        Kirk Radomski was employed in the clubhouse of the New York Mets for a decade. Now in his first book “Bases Loaded”(co-authored by David Fisher (Hudson Street Press, $25.95, 246 pages) the chief figure inn the Mitchell Reports takes the reader behind the scenes for some little tolds stories of the steroid scandal in baseball. It is an eye raising book, a story whose end is not yet in sight, a book as timely as today’s headlines. Controversy and conflict dogged Radmoski who became the main clubhouse supplier of performance enhancing drugs to nearly 300 major leaguers.

        “The Baseball Hall of Fame” by Bert Randolph Sugar” (Running Press, $35.00, 272 pages, more than 500 photos)  is the mother of all books on the shrine in Cooperstown, New York.  Page after page of items from the Hall’s collection intermingle with the text of Sugar, an old hand at the sports book game – he has written more than 50 books. Recommended

      From Clerisy press in Cincinnati comes a quartette of baseball books aimed at all kinds of readers and for all types of tastes. “365 Oddball Days in Boston Red Sox History” by John Snyder ($12.95, 372 pages, paper) is an almanac style tome that picks up a lot of eccentric nuances of Sox history through the years. “Rollie’s Follies” by Rollie Fingers ($14.95, 22 pages, paper) is a collection of stats, lists and lore – all very illuminating and entertaining. “Cincinnati’s Crosley Field” by Greg Rhodes and John Eradi ($25.00, 216 pages, paper) is a perfect book for fans of the Reds and others into baseball history showcasing as it does the old ballpark in words and picture. And finally “Dodgers Journal” by John Snyder ($29.95, 800 pages, paper) is a fountainhead of all kinds of information about the franchise since its inception in 1884.

        For the golfers for getting or giving there is Homer Kelley’s “Golfing Machine” by Scott Gummer (Gotham Books/Penguin, $26.00, 267 pages) an illuminating look at nuances of the game and the genius whose theories revolutionized it.  

Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them 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." The prolific Frommer is at work on REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK (2010).

Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

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