"Traded" by Doug Decatur ($19.95,189 pages) is as its sub-title proclaims "Inside the Most Lopsided Trades In Baseball History." We are there for Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi, Rick Wise for Steve Carlton, Dave Kingman for Randy Stein and the worst of the worst Babe Ruth for cash. Loaded with insight, stats, concise reporting - if inside baseball is your game, this is the tome to treasure.
More limited in its scope but still a worthwhile read is "Go-Go to Glory" edited by Don Zminda ($19.95, 247 pages). The focus is the 1959 ChiSox - a team that featured speed and pitching, the peripatetic owner Bill Veeck and the brilliant manager Al Lopez and players like Luis Aparicio, Larry Doby, "Jungle Jim" Landis, Billy Pierce and Early Wynn.
"The Fielding Bible, Volume II" by John Dewan ($23.95, 400 pages) is a mother lode of facts and figures, analyses and observations - all focused on defense, an overlooked area of baseball efficiency and importance. The statistical sports analyst is at the top of his game in "The Fielding Bible, Volume II." HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
"After Many A Summer" by Robert E. Murphy (Union Square, $24.95,418 pages) is a book that has much content that is strangely familiar as it re-tells one more time the tale of the leave-taking of the Dodgers of Brooklyn and the Giants of Manhattan from their long time residence as baseball teams in the Big Apple.
For those with an interest in football (soccer), for those with an interest in a well told tale, "Carlo Ancelotti" by "Carlo Ancelotti" with Alessandro Alciato (Rizzoli New York, $25.00, 264 pages, 35 photographs) fits the bill. The former star player, the famed coach of top teams in Italy and England, the outspoken Ancelotti touches all bases in this illuminating autobiography. There is something to learn on each page about "the beautiful game" and the man some call "the ordinary genius." TOP DRAWER.
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