Book Review

When I got the invitation to review John Smoltz's new book, Starting and Closing, I was of course willing and ready to jump on the chance.  When I realized that the framing convention was going to be his last...

In the recently released book, Driving Mr. Yogi by Harvey Araton, the front seat is occupied ably by Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry, but the back seat is filled with the Pantheon of modern day Yankee heroes. Characteristically, George Steibrenne...

                    60’6: Balls, Strikes, and Baseball Mortality, the debut novel from former college and semipro pitcher Mike Arsenault, is a portrait of a young man clinging to an impossible d...

No matter how popular the NFL or NBA becomes, baseball still holds the title of America’s pastime.  For over a century it has been seen as a way to connect Americans with fellow countrymen and those from abroad, but is that a true represen...

I've known of Jeff Polman's Strat-O-Matic based replays for a long while now, due to my connection with the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.  Jeff contacted me during his first blog and he's continued to be a part of the BBA through...

Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding tells the tale of Westish College, a D-III school in northwest Wisconsin. Their athletic program has historically been about as successful as any tiny, unheard-of school ever is, but that changes when catcher...

Today is Bill Veeck Day. It is the day that Paul Dickson’s biography of Bill Veeck is officially released, the day “Sport Shirt Bill” is back with us once again. Like a bad penny, he has returned. It is something he himself said oft...

Since the dawn of the game itself, Baseball and Art have been inextricably linked. Nowhere is this more so than in literature, which often propagates the national pastime as folklore and myth.  One of these great neo-“myths” is The Natural, a 19...

I've mentioned before that the great people at University of Nebraska Press will, from time to time, send along a book for me to read and hopefully review.  Every once in a while, though, they do a foolish thing and...

As I've often mentioned, from time to time I get free baseball books in the mail.  Thankfully, publishers and promoters wildly overestimate my reach and influence and hope that I'll give their book a little writeup in this portion of cyberspace.

The last few years, the great folks over at Out Of The Park Baseball have set me up with a review copy of their amazing game.  I don't think I got a chance to write a review last season, but with OOTP13 and the fascinating iOOTP now out, it seem...

Baseball is steeped in the notion of myth and the existence of a narrative declaring the game to be a bastion of good and American wholesomeness. Such contrivances interfere with the study of history, making it difficult to find works associated with...