Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Book Review: The Open


There are sports books and there are sports books and then there is “THE OPEN: GOLF’S OLDEST MAJOR.” You don’t even have to be a fan of golf or know much about it to want to own and savor this wondrous tome.


“THE OPEN: GOLF’S OLDEST MAJOR” (Rizzoli, $60.00, 304 pages, 9” X 12”/ 240 color and black and white illustrations) with text by Donald Steel, a foreword by Arnold Palmer, afterword by Peter Dawson - -is quite a package. Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Open Championship, Rizzoli has partnered with R&A and Getty Images for this massive and significant undertaking.

The book is like a time machine as it goes back through the 14 iconic links along the coastline of Britain where the Open has been staged. A chapter focused on each course, highlights special moments, tradition, competitors are just a small part of the content. HIGHLY NOTABLE

From Arcadia Publishers comes a quartette of interesting books in their “Images of Baseball” series. There is “Chicago Cubs Baseball on Catalina Island,” “Eastern Shore League,” “Baseball in Birmingham” and “South Carolina Sports Legends.” All in in paper, all priced at $21.99, all with a regional slant.



Harvey Frommer is in his 34th consecutive year of writing sports books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, the author of 40 sports books including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his acclaimed REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published in 2008 as well as a reprint version of his classic "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball." Frommer's newest work CELEBRATING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION is next.
HARVEY FROMMER ON SPORTS (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and is housed on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

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