Recent book reviews:
All
American
The
Cracker Jack Collection Baseball’s Prized
Players
Dr. Harvey Frommer
SportsBookShelf
“Wrigley Field
Year By Year,” “A Difficult Par” and
more
Many tomes have been published geared to making a buck on Wrigley
Field’s centennial year. As a collection they are not top rank aside
from George Will’s wondrous entry. Now we have another
contender
“Wrigley
Field Year By Year.”
The coffee table sized book by Sam Pathy with
an appealing intro by the sagacious
Official Historian of MLB, John Thorn, (Sports Publishing, $35,00,
362 pages) is a winner in every way. Priced right, a labor of love and accuracy
by the public librarian author who spent the past quarter century researching
Wrigley’s history, this handsomely designed effort belongs on your sports
bookshelf. Everything one might want to know about Wrigley’s century
is here, packaged and concise. Full disclosure – as the author of
Remembering Yankees Stadium and Remembering Fenway Park, I can fully appreciate
the effort Sam Pathy put forward.
“Throwback” by Jason Kendall
(St. Martin’s Press, $25.99, 291 pages) is a winner in the same way
its author was. Former All Star catcher Kendall takes us behind the scenes,
into the game, allowing us to see the national pastime with all of its nuances
through his eyes. The look is astonishing, amazing and enliftiningas get
inside the clubhouses, inside the conversations at the plate. Highly
Recommended.
From long-time and storied author Stan Fischler
comes
“Having
a Career Day” (Sports Publishing, Skyhorse). The terrific tome
showcases Fischler’s vast knowledge of the national pastime. Terse takes
on 101 Incredible, Amazing baseball accomplishments are
showcased.
“A
Difficult
Par” by James
R. Hansen (Gotham Books, $32.50, 498 pages) is an epic work focused on the
world of golf and the legend that is Robert Trent Jones. Painstakingly
researched, filled with kinds of fascinating insights, - the book as its
sub-title proclaims is all about the making of modern golf. We are there
through the 70 year career of the mighty Jones who created or redesigned
in excess of 400 golf courses around the globe. Highly
Recommended.
“The
Devil’s Snake
Curve” by Josh Ostergaard (Coffee House Press, $15.95, 236 pages, paper)
is unique, insightful, humorous and worth reading. It is a kind of radical
and high subjective view of the national pastime, a kind of “Fargo”
of baseball books.
“I
Don’t Care If We Never Get Back”
from Grove Atlantic by Ben Blatt and Eric Brewster ($24.00, 342 pages)
is about the ultimate road trip taken by these college friends. It covers
22,000 miles, 37 states, 716 hours . . . exhausted
enough? The book is a winner
focusing as it does on “30 Games in 30 Days on the Worst Best (or Best
Worst) Baseball Road Trip Ever.”
This is the first of many planned tomes on the
Yankee legend Mariano Rivera –
“Facing Mariano Rivera”
edited by David Fischer (Sports Publishing, $24.95, 275 pages).It is essentially
a collection of mini memoirs from such as Joe Torre, David Ortiz, Chipper
Jones, Jim Leyland, John Smoltz – friends and foes alike on what it
was like to come into contact with “the Sandman.” Required reading
for all fans of the great Mario.
Finally, there is Tim Hornbaker’s
“Turning
the Black Sox White” (Sports Publishing, $24.95, 368 pages).
Thorough, painstakingly researched, revisionist, Hornbaker’s opus is
an effort to untarnish as the book’s sub-title proclaims: “The
Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey.”
Dr. Harvey Frommer is in his 39th year of writing books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 42 sports books including the classics: best-selling “New York City Baseball, 1947-19573 and best-selling “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” his acclaimed Remembering Yankee Stadium was published in 2008 and best-selling Remembering Fenway Park was published to acclaim in 2011. The prolific Frommer is at work on WHEN IT WAS JUST A GAME, AN ORAL HISTORY OF SUPER BOWL ONE.
Frommer mint condition collectible
sports books autographed and discounted are available always from the
author.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated)
reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines
for extended periods of time.
NEW YORK CITY
BASEBALL
http://www.amazon.com/New-York-City-Baseball-1947-1957/dp/1589798
