Getcher Hot Links
- Meghan O’Rourke and Ruth Franklin with more on sexism and book reviewing.
- Although if the NYTBR fails to review this, I wouldn’t say it’s evidence of sexism.
- Thesis: Carl Paladino is a bigger trainwreck than Christine O’Donnell.
- The best book about baseball not written by Bill James turns 40.
- Bazelon on the tragedy at the Virginia Quarterly Review.
- Although I vaguely remember Rush Limbaugh’s short-lived TV show Rush Limbaugh Plugs His Unreadable Book for 22 Minutes, I didn’t know that he guest-hosted for Pat Sajak’s even more short-lived talk show, with grimly hilarious results.
- The Kansas City Royals and the Domino’s Pizza marketing strategy.
- Jacob Levy on James Scott.
- Without getting into the too-often-rehashed-in-the-history-of-this-blog larger point, I must respectfully disagree with Daniel that strategic and tactical voting are necssarily a “pathology” for a democratic system. In fact, strategic voting is what allows badly designed voting systems (such as, say, the American and British ones) to usually replicate the results of well-designed voting systems.
I also love “Ball Four!” It’s still a great read. I read it every 5 or so years, just to have a few laughs at simpler times. I’m glad Mantle found it in his heart to forgive Bouton (he was misled about what was written about him). The Mantle in the book is a very endearing character.
I’ll give you a couple of other non-James greats:
“The Glory of Their Times.”
“The Boys of Summer.”
“The Summer of ’49.”
Creamer’s bio’s of Ruth and Stengel.
Pete Palmer’s statistical books (I’m not the maven of stat’s that some readers here are, but I do love reading good ones, like his and James’s).
Hell, there are SO many great books about baseball, it’s hard to name them all. What’s the old line, ‘the smaller the ball, the better the writing?’
I’d love to have you do a post on your favorite baseball books and ask readers for theirs. I’m a baseball junky and I’ve read a ton of books, and I’d be curious to see what others consider their favorites. Maybe they’ll give me some titles I haven’t read yet, or have forgotten over the years.
I think it might be nice to do in the interlude between the end of the season on Sunday, and the beginning of the playoffs.
What do you think?
hey, i get my second chance in a week to say that jim brosnan’s “pennant race” is better than “ball four:” more original, better written, funnier, and given that it’s 1961, more fascinating for what could be said even then….
While “Ball Four” is unquestionably a historically important book, I find it nearly unreadable. Bouton is one of those guys who thinks he is always the smartest person in the room. He complains at length about not getting a start, but when he does he chokes. So who’s the smart guy?
For a great book which deserves more love than it gets, consider Harold Seymour’s “Baseball: The Early Years.” It was written a half century ago, but it is still the standard survey of the subject.