The Book Review: "The Joy of Keeping Score" and Other Interesting Reads

It's not what one might call ideal baseball weather in many parts of the United States. In fact, reading and reviewing baseball books with the snow still on the ground and more coming down on my New Hampshire acreage - it seems like spring will never come.
But sources of consolation and interest are all the baseball books prolific publishers send for review. They come in all sizes and shapes with all kinds of subject matter and approaches but all in varying degrees have much to offer.

Paul Dickson's "The Joy of Keeping Score" (Walker, $14.95, 117 pages) is a slim but choice volume that definitely fulfills its sub-titles claim that the book is about "how scoring the game has influenced the history of baseball." From basic info on how to tend a scorecard to advanced scoring techniques to scoring and baseball history from A to Z and a unique section containing reproductions of scorecards of historic games - this book is the alpha and omega on this topic. Dickson has scored big here!

In "The Great Book of Inspiring Quotations" by Peter Klavor and Dave Chamber (Sports Books Publisher) there are over 1500 quotations - and many of them cover the gamut of advice and inspiration. So if you are looking for the right words for the right sports or life situation - this book should work for you.

BACKLIST BEAUTIES: From Rich Marazzi Productions comes the winner: THE DVD "Win With Ruleball" which educates players, coaches and fans about the rules. It focuses on commonly misunderstood rules and explains how players and coaches can utilize the rulebook to win games. User friendly with a 26 chapter menu, the DVD is priced at $25 including postage. (Rich Marazzi Productions, 105 Pulaski Highway, Ansonia, CT 06401)

"Baseball Players of the 1950s" by Rich Marazzi and Len Fiorito (McFarland & Co., Inc., $55, 450 pages) has over 200 photographs and chronicles the lives and playing careers of all 1,560 players who appeared in a major league box score between 1950-1959. It is the most definitive and exhaustively researched book of the halcyon decade of the 1950s.

"How About That" by Stephen Borelli (SportsPublishing, $24.95, 257 pages) truly belongs on your sports bookshelf filled as it is with all kinds of "inside information" based on solid research and illuminating interviews. This is a "Ballantine Blast" and a "White Owl Wallop" of a book. Pick it up.

"Baseball's Most Wanted" Floyd Conner (Potomac Books) is a few years past its pub date but one to look for dealing with as it does all types of oddities, asides, lists and info on the national pastime.

More than 300 pages, filled with eye popping photographs - archival, contemporary in color and black and white, "100 Years of Football" by Pierre Lanfanchi (Weidenfeld and Nielson/Sterling Publisher is a lavish celebration and retrospective on 100 Years of FIFA Football. The book is a collectible and still available, from Sterling @ (212) 532 7160.