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The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri

On April 3, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail.

Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry

On April 1, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

New York Times columnist Barry provides a charming, meditative portrait of a minor league baseball game that seemed to last forever. Because of a rule-book glitch, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings played for 33 innings on a chilly Saturday night into the Easter morning of 1981. Using the game as a focal point, Barry examines the lives and future careers of many of the players, including the then unknown Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken.

Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil (Icons of America) by Jerome Charyn

On March 28, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

As the New York Yankees’ star centerfielder from 1936 to 1951, Joe DiMaggio is enshrined in America’s memory as the epitome in sports of grace, dignity, and that ineffable quality called “class.” But his career after retirement, starting with his nine-month marriage to Marilyn Monroe, was far less auspicious. Writers like Gay Talese and Richard Ben Cramer have painted the private DiMaggio as cruel or self-centered. Now, Jerome Charyn restores the image of this American icon, looking at DiMaggio’s life in a more sympathetic light.

Campy: The Two Lives of Baseball Catcher Roy Campanella by Neil Lanctot

On March 26, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

Dodger catching great Roy Campanella was born to an Italian American father and an African American mother in Philadelphia in 1921. The round, affable boy fell in love with baseball and was playing in the Negro Leagues at 15. Lanctot spins out Campy’s story in exhaustive (occasionally exhausting) detail. Nearly every game he played is covered, and his tangled relationship with Jackie Robinson–friends, enemies, wary supporters–is treated with nuance. Campy’s extraordinary abilities as a catcher are not only described but illustrated with anecdotes from specific games and seasons.

Branch Rickey – General Manager Of The Brooklyn Dodgers by Jimmy Breslin

On March 26, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

Branch Rickey grew up poor in Ohio but graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University. Later, he invented baseball’s minor-league farm system and built winning teams in St. Louis, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh. Yet one accomplishment dwarfs all others: he integrated baseball when he signed Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line in 1947. The mistreatment of a college teammate fueled his altruism, but Rickey also knew black players would expand baseball’s fan base.

Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game by Rob Ruck

On March 15, 2011, in Book Reviews, by Editor

Rob Ruck pioneered historical research and writing about black and Latin baseball, and Raceball proves that Ruck remains at the top of his game. Incorporating personal interviews with many former players and personalities, such as Harold Tinker, Ted Page, Mal Goode, and August Wilson, who have since passed away, Ruck relies on their voices from the grave and his deep knowledge of black and Latin baseball to make his narrative truly sing.

Knocking on Heaven's Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream by Marty Dobrow

On November 24, 2010, in Book Reviews, by Editor

Marty Dobrow is a patient listener and sure-eyed observer as he sketches these portraits of a half-dozen people beguiled by baseball. The result is as lively, intimate, and engrossing a book as Hoop Dreams was a movie. –Alexander Wolff, Senior Writer, ‘Sports Illustrated’ and author of ‘Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure’

Kindle Edition – The Last Boy by Jane Leavy

On October 20, 2010, in Amazon Kindle, by Editor

Jane Leavy, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, returns with a biography of an American original—number 7, Mickey Mantle. Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle’s life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.

The Murderous Red Sox – Yankees Rivalry

On April 19, 2010, in Baseball is NOT a Sport!, Life in New England, by Editor

The rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees is a much needed spice for an otherwise sober game that, more than once, challenged my ability to stay awake during late night hours.

Really! Baseball is NOT a Sport!

On April 16, 2010, in Baseball is NOT a Sport!, by Editor

Yes, I do stand to my statement that Baseball is not a sport. To put it in a nut-shell, Baseball is a game interrupted by momentary eruptions of athletic interferences, or, as Yogi Berra put it so much more exquisitely, “Baseball is 90% mental; the other half is physical.”