THE BOOK REVIEW: "Senior Year" and other Mid Summer Reads

Dan Shaughnessy is one of the most versatile authors around nowadays adept at nostalgia, commentary, big time sports moments and now "Senior Year" ((Houghton Mifflin, $24.00, 228 pages.) The book is a melding of memory and magic, of musings of baseball times, a re-telling of Shaughnessy's son Sam's "Senior Year" of high school. The book is a look at fathers and sons, baseball and boys and men and life's passages. A notable read.

"Love That Dirty Water" by Chuck Burgess and Bill Nowlin (Rounder, $14.95, 221 pages) is a terrific idea for a book and one that will greatly interest Red Sox fans and those who follow the story of the Standells. The book's general focus is music as it relates to the Old Towne team. And more specifically the song, the unofficial BoSox victory anthem - "Dirty Water" ("We'll love that dirty water Oh, Boston, you're my home oh, you're the number one place..."

There is much in the Burgess/Nowlin volume to savor - including the singing careers of Red Sox heroes Mickey McDermott and Tony Conigliaro and the ballpark organ of John Kiley, to cite just a couple of the very interesting music connections. Highly recommended
Rounder Books also brings us "No Greater Love" by Todd Anton ($18.95, 253 pages). With a foreword by Curt Schilling, the book is sub-titled "Life Stories from the Men Who Saved Baseball." And we are there with such as Ted Williams, Jerry Coleman, Johnny Pesky, Bob Feller, Vin Scully and others. Not exactly "Saving Private Ryan," but a moving and important collection of memories. Get it!

"The Kings of New York" by Michael Weinred (Gotham, $26.00. 286 pages) truly proves that a book can be written about any subject and any sport. This one is all about Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School where there are no teams no sports teams that is. But there is the Murrow Chess team and this book follows for a year the geeks, oddballs and geniuses who comprise the top high school chess team in the United States. Very interesting and unusual reading. A terrific read.

"The Fat Lady Never Sings" by Steve Reilly (iuniverse, $18.95, 117 pages) carries a hefty price for a slim paperback, but this is an appealing tome focused on the community of Derby, Connecticut and the true story of the 1992 Derby Red Raiders narrated by one of its assistant coaches. It is all about the little guy the smallest school in its league advancing to the championship game. A very nice summer read.

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: THE 1927 YANKEES BY HARVEY FROMMER (coming in October)

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING By Harvey Frommer

Coming in October Five O'Clock Lightning
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the Greatest Team in Baseball,the 1927 New York Yankees! Look for it!

YANKEE STUFF

This has not been a memorable year so far for the Yankees of New York.
Roger Clemens has taken the money and fizzled.
Reliever Scott Proctor carried his personal game equipment out to the field long after a 7-0 loss to Oakland and set it ablaze on the gravel outside the Yankees dugout,
And the fans are getting restless waiting to see who thankfully replaces Joe Torre or Brian Cashman or both.

But even with all of the bad news today yesterday (the great, the goofy and the grand) still keeps the Yankee legend aglow:

Babe Ruth Day Speech, April 27, 1947:

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad my voice sounds. Well it feels just as bad. You know, this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you're a boy and grow up to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing clubs today in your national pastime. The only real game in the world, I think, is baseball. As a rule, people think that if you give boys a football or a baseball or something like that, they naturally become athletes right away. But you can't do that in baseball. You got to start from way down, at the bottom, when the boys are six or seven years of age. You can't wait until they're 14 or 15. You got to let it grow up with you, if you're the boy. And if you try hard enough, you're bound to come out on top, just as these boys here have come to the top now. There have been so many lovely things said about me today that I'm glad to have had the opportunity to thank everybody.

Yankees Manager Saga/Under George Steinbrenner In Chronological Order

Year(s) Name Won-Loss
1973 Ralph Houk 80-82
1974-1975 Bill Virdon 142-124
1975-1978 Billy Martin 279-192
1978 Dick Howser 0-1
1978-1979 Bob Lemon 82-51
1979 Billy Martin 55-40
1980 Dick Howser 103-59
1981 Gene Michael 48-34
1981-1982 Bob Lemon 17-22
1982 Gene Michael 44-42
1982 Clyde King 29-33
1983 Billy Martin 91-71
1984-1985 Yogi Berra 93-85
1985 Billy Martin 91-54
1986-1987 Lou Piniella 179-145
1988 Billy Martin 40-28
1988 Lou Piniella 45-48
1989 Dallas Green 56-65
1989-1990 Bucky Dent 36-53
1990-1991 Stump Merrill 120-155
1992-1995 Buck Showalter 313-268
1996 - Joe Torre


George Steinbrenner's "Seven Commandments" for judging Billy Martin
1. Does he win?
2. Does he work hard enough?
3. Is he emotionally equipped to lead the men?
4. Is he organized?
5. Is he prepared?
6. Does he understand human nature?
7. Is he honorable?


Misconceptions
That the day Gehrig replaced Pipp was the day the 2,130 game streak began. It actually began the day before when the man they could call the Iron Horse pinch hit for Pee Wee Wanninger who replaced shortstop Everett Scott who had the record for consecutive games played (1307) until Wanninger took his place.

That Billy Martin punched St. Louis catcher Clint Courtney. at St. Louis' Sportsman's Park on April 28, 1953 -- Yanks and the Browns was a close one, but in the top of the 10th, Gil McDougald broke the 6-6 tie by barreling into Courtney at home plate and jarring the ball loose.

"I'm going to cut the first guy I reach," Courtney promptly announced when he came to the plate in the bottom of the inning. Yankees hurler Allie Reynolds heard the declaration and tried to go up and in on Courtney, but missed. The St. Louis catcher lined the ball into right field and raced around the bases in search of a double, but was far behind the throw to the second base bag.
But Scrap Iron came through on his promise and slid into second with his spikes high. Phil Rizzuto, covering second on the play and was cut badly.

The Bronx Bombers immediately retaliated. Reynolds, McDougald and first baseman Joe Collins were on top of Courtney, the three of them swinging wildly. Both benches cleared as After a lot of flying dust and a lot of flying punches, the melee cleared. Umpire John Stevens emerged from the brawl with a separated shoulder The fines handed out totaled $850 then a major league record for a brawl. Courtney was docked $250. But the most mysterious fine was the $150 tagged on Yankee second baseman Billy Martin, who never threw a punch.

"The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl" and Other Interesting Reads

The Book Review

There is an entire tradition of "inside baseball" books and now we have "The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl" by Phillip Morrissey (Doubleday, $23.95, 288 pages). The "New York Post" baseball writer had unrestricted access throughout the 2006 season to all things Yankee - and he has written an insightful, steamy, sometimes sordid account of the happenings that year - what went wrong and why it did, being one of his main themes.
There is gossip galore, embarrassing accounts of grown men acting like teenagers. We have Joe Torre's feud with ESPN and YES. We have the struggles of perhaps the worst Yankee free agent signing ever - Carl Pavano and the enmity he engendered from his Yankee brothers. We have more info than we really need on George Steinbrenner's health condition. We have gossipy treatments of A-Rod vs. Jeter - their relationship and non-relationship on and off the field.

If you are into Yankee gossip, if you are one of those who wants a look at the game within the game - this is the book for you even though reading it in 2007 makes a great deal of the content which is from 2006, dated. .

"Reynolds, Raschi and Lopat: New York's Big Three and the Great Yankee Dynasty of 1949-1953 by Sol Gittleman (McFarland, paper, 230 pages) is not at all dated but a winning look back by the author, a history and literature professor at Tufts University. We are there in the glory days of the team and their workhorse hurlers through the momentous winning days and nights of Bronx Bomber baseball. This slim tome is a real treat.

FOR RED SOX FANS: "Big Papi! My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits by David Ortiz and Tony Massarotti (St. Martin's Press, $24.95, $16.95 Spanish edition) is the rags to riches story of the Boston strong boy slugger. For BoSox fans this is the book to go for - for the rest out there - optional reading.

NOTABLE: From Frank Deford comes "The Entitled" (Sourcebooks, $24.95, 318 pages) about Howie Traveler who had an 0.91 big league average and now has a shot as a manager of the Cleveland Indians. About a Willy Loman type character, a book Arthur Miller would have enjoyed, an inside look at the game today, "The Entitled" is the kind of tome one would expect from the man GQ dubs "the world's greatest sportswriter."

BACKLIST: There are two especially wonderful books for Yankee fans - by Joe Carrieri, former bat boy for the team - "Joe DiMaggio the Promise (Carlyn Publications, Inc., $22.00, 212 pages) and "Searching for Heroes (Carlyn Publications, Inc., $22.00, 214 pages). Both are wonderful reads detailing Carrieri's time with the Bronx Bombers from 1949-1955.

"THROUGH A BLUE LENS" and other Special Reads

Harvey Frommer on Sports
The Book Review

If you love a beautiful book, if you are a baseball fan, if you are a fan of prized archival photographs, if you have a special affection for the old Brooklyn Dodgers - if you are any of these "Through a Blue Lens" is just the book for you.
Sub-titled "The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein 1937-1957" by Dennis D'Agostino and Bonnie Crosby (Triumph Books, $27.95, 162 pages), the book is a real page turner. Ms. Crosby is the daughter of the late and great official photographer of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mr. D'Agostino is a highly respected author and sports public relations executive especially know to many for his sparkling stint at Madison Square Garden. The two make a terrific team serving up words from such bleeding Dodger blue types as Vin Scully, Johnny Podres, Ralph Branca) and images (nearly 200 taken over 21 seasons by Barney Stein.
The result is a fabulous book, re-living the world and time of the Brooklyn Dodgers. For browsing, for gift giving, for treasuring -- make this your next sports book purchase.

" Ted Williams At War" by Bill Nowlin (Rounder Books, $24.95, 352 pages) is a sterling look in words and pictures focused on not only a terrific ball player but an authentic American hero. The "Kid" is the only Hall of Famer who served in two wars. A flight instructor with the Marines in World War II, Williams flew 39 combat missions in the Korean War. Nowlin, the author of 15 books and Vice President of the Society for American Baseball Research, knows his stuff and struts it in page after page in this important tome. The prolific and energetic Nowlin interviewed more than 40 pilots who flew with the Splendid Splinter and more than 100 who knew Williams during his military service.

This August Cal Ripken, Jr. will be officially inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. In anticipation of that event we have "Get in the Game" from the baseball legend and Donald T. Phillips (Gotham Books, $26.00, 247 pages). The major focus of the work are "eight elements of perseverance that make the difference" and that surely made the difference in Ripken's career as he honed in breaking the Lou Gehrig consecutive games played record and setting the new one at 2,632. If you are a Ripken fan, if you want some sage advice on getting into any game - this is the book for you.

From Thunder Bay Press comes two engrossing picture book: "Ballpark: Then and Now" by Eric Enders and "Chicago: Baseball in the City" by Derek Gentile. The former is a roundup of parks then and now in words and pictures; the latter focuses on the national pastime in the windy city.
Coming soon: "You're Still Away" by Robert Sullivan (Maple Street Press, $19.95) is a on the drawing board and coming to bookstores very soon. Father's Day? It is a delightful and ranging work about so many facets and thrills that the world of golf contains as seen by a man who is the editorial director of LIFE books and accepts the game for what it is, which is much more than a game. Go for it. Highly recommended for golfers and those who like a wonderful read.

BACKLIST: "Great Baseball Films" by Ron Edelman (Citadel Press) is still a page turner and still very relevant. If you are a movie buff and a baseball book lover - Edelman's effort is your cup of tea.

Coming in fall 2007 YANKEE CENTURY AND BEYOND

Coming in fall 2007 YANKEE CENTURY AND BEYOND - an updated and enhanced version of my book A YANKEE CENTURY. Look for it where all Yankee Books are sold.

The cover is the reprint for my A YANKEE CENTURY book new edition.

BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 YANKEES

(An excerpt from the forthcoming book FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING (Wiley)

It was rare for more than two days to pass when a Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig home run was not being described in detail in one of the New York newspaper’s sports pages. Daily pools were organized in the press box by the reporters covering the Yankees. Nine slips of paper, each one with a number signifying an inning, were deposited in a hat. Nine dollars were collected, and then the slips were picked out of the hat.
Home run, Ruth!
Bam 'em, Babe!
Home run, Gehrig!
Bust 'em, Lou!
The entire pot would be collected by the happy scribe who had the correct home run inning. There would be cheering and grumbling. And the game would start out all over again.
"I’d rather see Babe Ruth than Lou Gehrig in a tight place," Manager Dan Howley of the Browns said.

"Sometimes you can figure out what the Babe is going to do. But you can never tell about Gehrig. He is likely too hit any kind of ball to any field." There were the casual and professional observations from such as Howley and there were the pseudo scientific comments made by such as Austen Lake in the Boston Evening Transcript: "The Bambino does not wave it (his bat) as others do when addressing the pitcher. He flicks it with a switching motion, in his hands it becomes as responsive as a baton. . .. "His combined leg, shoulders, arms and wrists motion is almost 100 per cent efficient as far as it concerns getting weight behind the swing. Ruth’s bat on a missed strike usually fills a full circle and three- quarters of another. … "Ruth also has that famous "brown eye" which oculists say is unrivaled for sharpness of vision. . . . And lastly comes his co-ordination of eye, mind, and muscle, and action that is so synchronized as to be instant and accurate. " The stride of Gehrig was short, out of a stance that was like a man standing at attention. Using a compact, tight swing, holding the bat down near the knob, swinging with much force, his homers were line drives straight to the seats or out of the park. Early in that magic season of 1927, he attempted to adjust his swing to make it similar to Ruth’s. But he gave up on that saying: "I’m going back to just try and meet the ball. " Gehrig’s was more a business- like swing, much less fluid than that of the "Colossus of Clout." Ruth’s swing was graceful, corkscrew-like. Pulling power came into it from the Babe twisting his skinny ankles. His home runs generally took a longer time to get out and had more air under them, making for high rising home runs.

"I use a golfing swing, loose and easy with a slight upward movement," the Babe compared his approach to that of his home run twin in Babe Ruth’s Own Book of Baseball. "Lou hits stiff-armed. Lou stands with his feet farther apart, and takes a comparatively short stride with his swing. I stand with my feet fairly close together, the right foot a little further in than the left, and take a long stride with the swing. Lou hits with his shoulders. I hit with my entire body coming around on the swing.

Swinging stiff arm, too, Lou usually hits a ball on a line. The hardest balls he hits are those which travel twenty or twenty-five feet above the ground and on a line to the outfield. Any time he lifts a ball into the air (a fly ball) he loses some of the power. The balls I hit most squarely and with most power are apt to go high into the air. My home runs, for the most part, are usually high flies that simply carry out of the park. That's because I take a loose swing with a slight upward angle.

"I’m paid to hit home runs," the Babe continued. "In a way that’s a handicap. I’ve got to swing from the heels with all the power in my body. Which isn’t a good batting style." The batting style of Ruth and Gehrig and the other Bombers was on display Memorial Day in Philadelphia. Connie Mack’s Athletics made a batch of money from that display in a doubleheader at 18-year-old Shibe Park, the major league’s first concrete-and-steel stadium. There was a morning game and a later game. Mack, always looking for the extra buck, charged separate admission prices for each game. The total attendance was 80,000.

Philly took the opener, 9-8. In that game chunky Walter Beall saw his only action of the year for the Yankees, one inning, pitching to four batters, giving up one run. The Yanks won the second game, 6-5, and the mighty Ruth, despite his claims that he did not have such a good batting style, swung with such gusto at a pitch that he ripped the horsehide cover off half of the baseball’s circumference.

NEW YORK YANKEES: BY THE NUMBERS (III)

We have got your number if you are a number cruncher, a stat guy, a fan or the Yankees or just into baseball trivia.
Single digits, double digist, triple digits and on and on - the world of baseball is one that lives and dies with numbers.

So for your perusal and reading pleasure . . .


1,995 - Most career RBI''s, Lou Gehrig.

2010 ­ Expiration year of Derek Jeter's contract.

2,120 ­ Number of games Babe Ruth played for the Yankees.

2,130 - The number of consecutive games Lou Gehrig played in.

2,401 - Most games played in by a Yankee, Mickey Mantle, 1951-1968.

2,584 ­ Career hits, Reggie Jackson.

2,597 - The record number of career strikeouts by Reggie Jackson.

2,721 - The Yankee record number of hits recorded by Lou Gehrig.

3,654 ­ The number of home runs Yankees hit at old Yankee Stadium,1923-1973

$6,595.38 - The amount payable in 1927 in bi-weekly checks to Babe Ruth that added up to the record salary he earned of $70,000.

$18,000 - Cost of purchasing the franchise of Baltimore and transferring it to New York City.

$50,000 The New York Giants offered that unheard of amount to the Yankees for Yogi Berra.

64,519 - The number of people in attendance at Yankee Stadium in 1956 when Don Larsen pitched the Perfect Game.

$65,000 ­ Gillette and Ford paid this amount for the exclusive sponsorship rights to the first televised World Series shown only in New York City, 1947. Liebmann Brewery had offered $100,000 for the rights, but baseball Commissioner Chandler rejected the offer claiming it wouldn't be appropriate having the Series sponsored by the producer of an alcoholic beverage.

211,808 -The New York Highlanders attendance, 1903

2,561, 123 - Shea Stadium attendance for Yankees, 1974-75

3,451,542 - Hilltop Park attendance 1903-1912

6,220,031 -Polo Grounds attendance 1913-1922

$12,357.143 ­ Annual salary of Bernie Williams in 2001, more than the entire Division play-off opposition Oakland infield and two of its outfieders.

$12.6-million - Annual salary of Derek Jeter that began in 2001.

64,188,862 -Yankee Stadium attendance 1923-1973

Keepers from Bison Books and other Reads

THE BOOK REVIEW:

The hits keep coming from University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books - fine sports books given a new package and a new life. There is much to savor, to enjoy and to definitely keep in your sports bookshelf. All are a bit pricey for paperbacks, but they are nicely produced.

"Invisible Men" by Donn Rogosin ($24.95, 283 pages) originally published in 1983 is still relevant, perhaps more relevant than ever as it recounts in telling detail life in baseball's Negro Leagues."

"Paper Tiger" by Stanley Woodward originally published in 1963 ($17.95, 286 pages) is not as relevant as the Rogosin tome but if you are into the sporting scene as recalled by an old sportswriter and editor of the "New York Herald-Tribune" - this is a book for you.

"Players and Pretenders" by Charley Rosen ($18.95, 324 pages), originally published in 1981, is as its sub-title states about "the basketball team that couldn't shoot straight." If you are into college sports and a well told humorous narrative, pick up this book.

And finally from University of Nebraska Press comes a new title "Level Playing Fields" by Peter Morris ($24.95, 184 pages). This slim volume focuses on the family Murphy, groundskeepers and their unique contributions to the shaping of the national pastime.

"Professor Baseball" by Edwin Amenta (University of Chicago Press, $25.00, 231 pages) is all about the competitive and insular world of softball as played for real in New York City's Central Park. The title is a tip of the cap to the author's status as a real life prof.

From Dutton there is "The Baseball Economist" by J.C. Bradbury ($24.95, 336 pages) a book that gives Bill James a run for his money and all of us new awarenesses and insights into baseball treating as it does "the real game exposed" and looking at the game behind the game.

Recommended reading.
MOST NOTABLE: Beautifully produced, carefully crafted, priced right for the package one gets, this is the ultimate gift book for the golfer - - "CLASSIC SHOTS: THE GREATEST IMAGES FROM THE UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION: by Marty Parkes (National Geographic Books, $35.00, 345 pages). Pulled from the USGA's archive of more than half a million images - the range and style and substance of the images is something to savor.

COMING FALL 2007

Coming in fall 2007 YANKEE CENTURY AND BEYOND - an updated and enhanced version of my book A YANKEE CENTURY. Look for it where all Yankee Books are sold.

Also Coming This Fall "Brand New"

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING:

Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of an historian to what was arguably the most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasm for classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book. -- Roger Kahn

The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely this is the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent. --George F. Will

A great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. Jonathan Eig, "The Luckiest Man"

Baseball's greatest team as recounted by baseball's greatest author. -- Seth Swirsky, "Baseball Letters" and "Something to Write Home About"

Engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. --Leigh Montville, 'The Big Bam"
Home run. Sweet look back -- Dan Shaughnessy, "Senior Year"

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.

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 NEWYORK YANKEES, THE GREATEST BASEBALL TEAM EVER

COMING FALL 2007

FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING: BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 NEWYORK YANKEES, THE GREATEST BASEBALL TEAM EVER.

Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of an historian to what was arguablythe most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasmfor classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book. -- Roger Kahn

The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely thisis the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent. --George F. Will

A great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. Jonathan Eig, "The Luckiest Man"

Baseball's greatest team as recounted by baseball's greatest author. -- SethSwirsky, "Baseball Letters" and "Something to Write Home About"

Engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. --LeighMontville, 'The Big Bam" Home run.

Sweet look back -- Dan Shaughnessy, "Senior Year"

The Book Review: Jonathan Eig's "Opening Day" and other Fine Reads

April 15, 2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the breaking of the color line by Jackie Robinson (and Branch Rickey). And rightly so Major League baseball and book publishers have taken note of the significance of the time with activities and new publications."Opening Day" by Jonathan Eig (Simon and Schuster, $26.00, 323 pages) is the best of the lot as it explodes myths, creates new awareness, spins an almost hypnotic narrative arc from its first page:
"April 10, 1947, The telephone rang like an alarm, waking Jackie Robinson from a deep sleep" and its last page "...Given a chance to change the world, he never hesitated, He played hard and won. After that it was a whole new ball game."
Reading "Opening Day" we are transported back to another time, another place, another world by a master story-teller. Buy this book!

"Branch Rickey, Baseball Revolutionary" by Lee Lowenfish (University of Nebraska Press, $34.95, 686 pages) is a mother lode of info about the man who along with Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line. Lowenfish has done his homework here and it shows. We are with the man they called "the Mahatma" from cradle to grave. Scholarly, broad in its reach, this is the definitive book on the subject. A couple of small carps - the book is a bit pricey and also a bit repetitious. Scott Simon of NPR fame gives us "Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball" (Wiley, $12.95, 168 pages, paper). Originally published in 2002, this is one of those brought out as timely reading as the headline on its cover says: "Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Baseball's Integration."

For Red Sox fans especially - - a nice trip back in a kind of time machine is "Under a Grapefruit Sun" by Dan Valenti (Rounder, $27.95, 144 pages). This is a collection of photos and interviews and perception from the early 1980s when Valenti covered the Red Sox in spring training. This is a charming and enjoyable book, a look at much younger versions of Ted Williams, Roger Clemens, Yaz, Boggs and more.

Highly Notable: "The Voice: Mel Allen's Untold Story" by Curt Smith (Globe Pequot Press, $24. 956, 304 pages) is a book that belongs on your shelf. Detailed, definitive, dramatic - it is a splendid bio of the Hall of Fame Yankee broadcaster and "This Week in Baseball" superstar. Smith thankfully explodes some of the nasty myths about the man who was born in Alabama to Russian immigrants Anna Leibowitz and Julius Allen Israel. A lot of those genes went into the making of this man who had an impact on so many (Yankee) baseball fans. How about that!

DEADBALL STARS of the American League and other Spring Reads

The Book Review:

Even the nearly 600 foot winding driveway that leads to my home is becomingmore and more bearable as winter's bad weather memories recede and the "Boys ofSummer" books make their way up to the house by sometimes cheerful and carefulUPS and FedEx drivers."DEADBALL STARS of the American League" edited by David Jones (Potomac Books,$24.95, 812 pages, paperback) is a mother and father lode of data offeringnearly 140 bios of players and personalities from that long ago time. The wholedeal was put together by more than 85 members of SABR's Deadball Era Committee.

For fans of the Red Sox of Boston -here are two for you. The reissued "Fenway" by Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld (Houghton Mifflin($29.95, 190 pages) hits a home run again! It is billed as a bio of the Fens inwords and pictures and that it is.

"The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox" edited by Bill Nowlin and Dan Desrochers(Rounder Books, 382 pages) is a fabulous collection of images and writing aboutthe 100-1 BoSox team that went all the way. Authoritative, entertaining,entrancing, this book belongs on your sports bookshelf.

From Yale University Press comes "Bart Giamatti A Profile" by Robert P.Moncreiff ($35.00, 219 pages with 22 black and white photos) which of coursefocuses on the life and times of the former baseball commissioner. Vivid,touching, perhaps not having as much baseball stuff in it as fans would like anda bit pricey - this nevertheless is a highly worthwhile read.

Highly Notable: "A Great Day in Cooperstown" by Jim Reisler (Carroll and Graf,$15.95, 241 pages, paper) is a splendid slice of Americana and baseball historytold by a writer who knows the score."The story of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a triumph ofpublic relations, organization and old fashioned persistence," Reisler writes.And from there on we are captivated by the twists and turns and politics of thetime and the event. Buy the book!

The Book Review:

STAT BOOK TREATS FOR ALL: The 2006 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia and More
Facts, figures, factoids, tables, charts, numbers . . .if all of these are your game - you have come to the right place.

"The 2006 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia" edited by Gary Gilette and Pete Palmer (Sterling Publishing, $24.95, 1760 pages) is a grand slam collection of everything baseball.
Also from Sterling is "All-New Baseball Brainteasers" by Michael Morse ((9.95, 160 pages) - -a book that has all the questions and all the answers about 60 challenging rules situations that took place in real-life big league baseball games.

From Acta Sports comes "How Bill James Changes Our View of Baseball" edited by Gregory Augustine Pierce ($19.95, 144 pages), a no holds barred outright bit of homage to James and "The New Ball Game" by Glenn Guzzo ($14.95, 160 pages) a primer on old time baseball stats and several new fangled ones.

"The Bill James Handbook" features Ryan Howard on the cover, by Bill Jamesby and Baseball Info Solutions ($21.95, 480 pages) is a mother lode of Jamesian baseball knowledge and insights complete with stats, registers, projections - you're going to love it.

And two more from Acta Sports are "The Fielding Bible" by John Dewan and Baseball Info Solutions ($19.95, 241 pages) (features Miguel Tejada on the cover) and "The Hardball Times Baseball Annual" ($29.95, 352 pages). The usual suspects cover the usual subject matter and a lot more.

Five O'Clock Lightning . . .

FROM HARVEY FROMMER
COMING FALL 2007 -- FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING:
BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE 1927 NEW YORK YANKEES, BASEBALL'S GREATEST TEAM EVER

"Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of an historian to what was arguably the most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasm for classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book. - Roger Kahn

" The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely this is the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent." --George F. Will

" ... a great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life..."- Jonathan Eig, "The Luckiest Man" "Baseball's greatest team as recounted by baseball's greatest author." -- --Seth Swirsky, "Baseball Letters" and "Something to Write Home About"

."An engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team..." - Leigh Montville, 'The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth "Home run. Sweet look back..."-- Dan Shaughnessy, author of "Senior Year"

Five O'Clock Lightning
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the Greatest Team in Baseball History, the 1927 New York Yankees
Harvey Frommer

The definitive account of the 1927 New York Yankees.

"Harvey Frommer has a great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. The book is a delight." -- Jonathan Eig, author of Luckiest Man and Opening Day

Drawing on oral histories, long-buried letters, and other archival material, Harvey Frommer tells the fascinating story of the greatest season of baseball's greatest team, offering the facts and stats that fans love, revealing the colorful and sometimes controversial details of the lives of the players as well as what happened to them after the storied season.

Harvey Frommer is a celebrated oral historian and sports author who has written almost forty sports books, including A Yankee Century and Red Sox vs.Yankees, and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. Cited in the Congressional Record and the New York State Legislature as a sports historian, Professor Emeritus, City University of New York, he is a professor at Dartmouth College in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program.

Hardcover * ISBN-10: 0-471-77812-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-77812-7
$24.95 US * $29.99 CAN * £15.99 UK
288 pages * 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 * tk books per carton
[tk] B&W photos
All Rights except tk
SPORTS & RECREATION / BASEBALL / HISTORYOCTOBER / In stores October 19

CRAZY '08 and other Worthy Reads

BOOK REVIEWS

Spring time is when baseball books come in a rush - crowding book shelves in stores, competing for attention in the media, arriving in the mail of book reviewers.
Here is a look at some in the first batch of spring '07.

"CRAZY '08" by Cait Murphy (Smithsonian Books, $24.95, 368 pages) is a winner. I said so in a blurb that appears on the back cover of the book: "Zany, lively, filled with all kinds of delicious baseball detail - Cait Murphy has hit a grand slam with this important account of what was happening in the national pastime in 1908. I love it!" It was a time of all kinds of interesting characters and happenings and most of all the time of the Cubs of Chicago. Go for this book!

From Stewart, Tabori, Chang/Abrams Books comes two winners: "101 Reasons to Love the Dodgers" by Ron Green, Jr. and "101 Reasons to Love the Giants" by David Green, both 120 pages and priced at $14.95. The books are exquisitely laid out with archival black and white and glorious color photos. Green's snappy prose merges with trivia and stats. The works are recommended for the book shelves of Giant and Dodger fans - and for all baseball fans who want new takes on two of the great franchises in National League history.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: "Satchel Paige, Don't Look Back" written by David A. Adler and Illustrated by Terry Widener (Harcourt Children's Books, $16.00, 32 pages) is geared to ages 5 to 8. But this is really a book for all ages and for gift giving or to retain as part of your sports library. "Satchel Paige may have been the best pitcher ever," the book begins and we are then there through his many baseball highlights in clear and concise prose and brilliant and appealing art.

Excerpt from

HARVEY FROMMER'S
FIVE O'CLOCK LIGHTNING:
BABE RUTH, LOU GEHRIG AND THE GREATEST TEAM IN BASEBALL HISTORY, THE 1927 NEW YORK YANKEES

Beer baron Jake Ruppert could remember names but never addressed anyone by a first name. The Yankee owner was characterized in Ed Barrow's memoirs as an "imperious" man, one who "in all the years I knew him, always calling me 'Barrows,' adding an 's' where none belonged.
Ruppert "was a fastidious dresser," Barrow remembered, "who had his shoes made to order, changed his clothes several times a day, and had a valet."

Arriving in style with his secretary Al Brennan for spring training in St. Petersburg in his own private railroad car, it was said that the honorary Colonel savored the comforts of his own drawing room and sleeping in a silk brocade nightshirt. Ruppert was particularly interested in and impressed with the man he had sunk all that money into.

"Ruth looks great," he announced. "Watch that boy. In fact, he may set another home run record. The team as a whole is in fine shape, shows real fighting spirit and looks like a winner, although I admit I'm not much of a prophet."

Despite the sunny side up outlook of their owner, there was an undercoating of gloominess that pervaded spring training for the Yankees whose wrenching loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1926 World Series was still close to the surface especially for the frail Miller Huggins who stayed during spring training with his sister Myrtle in a home he owned in St. Petersburg. A bachelor, he also lived with her in a Manhattan apartment.

There were times in his early years with the Yankees that he would come home dejected: "Ah, it's just too frustrating. Life is too short for this kind of rotten stuff and rowdy players I have to put up with. I think I'll chuck the whole thing."

"Stick it out" Myrtle would prop him up. "Don't let them be able to say that you quit when you were under fire."

Dubbed "the unhappy little man," Huggins was always with a short stemmed pipe in hand or mouth, a gray visage, a worrier, anguishing over his stock market investments although he played that game with great skill and enthusiasm and at times invested for players, turning a profit for them. He anguished over his real estate holdings, his players, his appetite, his real and imagined medical problems. One could never tell by the way he dressed, by the little well worn traveling bag he carried on the road that the mite manager's salary for 1927 was $37,500.

He had all those expressions that he was fond of repeating:
"Baseball is my life. Maybe it will get me some day. But as long as I die in harness, I will be happy." "A manager has his cards dealt to him and he must play them."
"Great players make great managers."
When Colonel Ruppert and Huggins first met, the patrician owner was not at all enamored with what he called: "the worker's clothes, the cap perched oddly on Huggins head, the smallness of the man."

Truth be told, Miller Huggins was the most unlikely Yankee. The Cincinnati native was 5'4", 140 pounds, aloof, superstitious. He had a law degree from the University of Cincinnati, but he never practiced law.

Initially, Ruppert balked at employing Huggins as Yankee manager. Initially, Huggins viewed managing an American League team as a step down from his time as skipper with St. Louis in the National League. Somehow, the little man at the age of 39, became the eighth manager in the franchise's 16-year- history in 1918.

"HUGGINS IS READY TO MOLD YANKEES" was the headline in the February 2, 1918 edition of The New York Times.

Dwarfed by Babe Ruth and other Yankees in size, reputation and image, Miller Huggins bitched: "New York is a hell of a town. Everywhere I go in St. Louis or Cincinnati, it's always 'Hiya Hug.' But here in New York I can walk the length of 42nd Street and not a soul knows me."

As pilot of the Yankees, it took him a while to make things happen. There was a 1918 fourth place finish in his first year as manager, then two third place finishes. There was a 1921 pennant, the first for the Yankees. A pennant in 1922. Another pennant in 1923 and this time, finally, a World Series victory over the Giants. After a seventh place finish in 1925, the roster was re-shaped for 1926 and there was another pennant. But that was the time of the wrenching loss to his old St. Louis team in the World Series Now in spring training of 1927, the shuffling, scuffling, searching for any edge Huggins was more intense than ever, looking for ways to improve his Yankees. In 1926, shortstop Mark Koenig had batted leadoff. Centerfielder Earl Combs, the Kentucky rosebud, had batted second. In June Huggins flip-flopped them in the lineup; they stayed that way for the remainder of the season. That would be the way it would be in 1927, too, Huggins decided.

Now in spring training, Huggins made another far more crucial, more dramatic lineup switch. Lou Gehrig would now bat cleanup, sandwiched in between the outgoing and energetic Ruth moved to the third slot and the taciturn and unpleasant Bob Meusel, in the fifth hole.

Huggins also added a new coach, Arthur Fletcher. The Phillies manager in 1926 would now be a fixture for the Yankees at third base and a heckler without equal. A former shortstop, a clone of John McGraw, whose Giant teams he had played on for more than a decade, "Fletch" was the leader and sparkplug of one of the Deadball Era's top infields that featured Fred Merkle at first, "Laughing Larry" Doyle at second, Buck Herzog at third. Fletcher was the shortstop.

"If there be one among the gamesters of baseball who is gamer than the rest, that man be Fletcher," wrote sportswriter Frank Graham. Everywhere the Giants went, Graham wrote, "There was fighting and Fletcher always was in the thick of it. He fought enemy players, umpires, and fans. He was fined and suspended frequently." A friend of Huggins from their National League days, reluctant at first to take the job, Fletcher loved being a Yankee coach and being on the scene of a winning team.

Charley O'Leary, a buddy of Huggins, had been on the scene as Yankee first base coach since 1921. Skilled at and fond of getting on umpires and players, his rowdiness sharply contrasted with the muted personality of the cerebral Huggins. The slightly built Irishman, one of eleven boys in a family of sixteen children, like Fletcher, was a former shortstop and had starred for Detroit's pennant-winners in 1907-1908. It was O'Leary who Huggins would later give credit to for the development of the kid infielders Tony Lazzeri and Mark Koenig.

HARVEY FROMMER'S 1927 NEW YORK YANKEES: THE GREATEST BASEBALL TEAM EVER

A range of individuals made up the 1927 roster of the New York Yankees. The average age was 27.6. All white, they came from diverse backgrounds, had very different personalities, professional backgrounds, educations, interests, skills, avocations.

There was a former teacher, a railroad fireman, a bartender, a boilermaker, a seaman, a logger, a cardsharp, one who had studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood, another who as a kid had climbed the tenement stairs in New York City delivering laundry, swam in the Hudson River and knew his way around local pool halls. There was one who had an almost royal aura who had attended the finest prep schools and wore thousand dollar diamond rings, there was a meat cutter and an ex-vaudevillian. There was a former full time boilermaker, a talented painter, artist, writer and singer, a skilled piano (jazz and classical) player, several former farm boys and farmers. And a few who had never known anything but playing baseball.

Baseball was what bound the 25 of them together. The total payroll for that 1927 team was an estimated $250,000, while the average salary was $10,000 as compared to $2,699.292 for the 2006 Yankees. Salaries ranged from Julie Wera's $2,400 to Babe Ruth's $70,000. The team had a pronounced German- American flavor from its owner beer baron Jacob Ruppert to Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Mark Koenig, Bob Meusel, George Pipgras, Dutch Ruether and half Germans Waite Hoyt and Earle Combs.

There was also a collegiate flavor: Lou Gehrig (Columbia), Miller Huggins (University of Cincinnati), Joe Dugan (Holy Cross), Benny Bengough (Niagara University), Earle Combs (Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College), Mike Gazella (Lafayette), Ray Morehart (Stephen Austin College, Texas), Myles Thomas (Penn State), Bob Shawkey (Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania), Ben Paschal (University of Alabama), Dutch Ruether (St. Ignatius College, now San Francisco University)

One player received his education at St. Mary's Industrial School and another had been in an out of one room cotton county schoolhouses. A few had no true formal education at all.Born in 1904, the youngest player on the roster was Mark Koenig. He, along with Joe Grabowski, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri and Julie Wera were the only Yankees born in the 20th century.

The shortest players were catcher Benny Bengough and utility man Mike Gazella. Bob Meusel was the tallest Yankee at 6' 3" and Babe Ruth was the next tallest at 6' 2". Other six footers included pitchers Wilcy Moore, Herb Pennock, George Pipgras, Dutch Ruether, infielders Lou Gehrig and Mark Koenig, and centerfielder Earl Combs. The only members of the Yankee who weighed more than 200 pounds were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

There was no roster shuttling of players back and forth from the minor leagues. The 25 players who began the season remained on the roster all season long, tying a record for fewest players used by a major league team.

Only Lou Gehrig would start every game (155) at first base. Tony Lazzeri appeared in 113 games at second base, Mark Koenig 122 at shortstop and Joe Dugan 111 at third base. Earl Combs would start all but three games. The final statistics on Ruth and Meusel would be misleading. The Babe would start 95 times in right field and "Silent Bob" 83 times in left field. But they flip-flopped starts at Yankee Stadium and in a few parks on the road. Six men accounted for almost 90% of the innings pitched.

There was an almost grotesque quality to the team collectively as well as individually. One player could only sleep sitting up. He had a heart condition that he kept secret from his teammates. Another seemingly aloof, sometimes painfully quiet, was an epileptic whose condition was never mentioned by the press. One was taciturn, some would say miserable, a drinker, a scowler who looked at the world about him with annoyance and anger. One worked off-season as a mortician. Another was a "mama's boy," allegedly a virgin, who was very uncomfortable in the presence of women, enjoyed fishing by himself for eels and living with his parents in an apartment. There was one whose hearty belches sometimes rattled bats stacked in the dugout, who slugged down great quantities of beer, ate prodigiously. His prowess with women was the talk throughout baseball. Another was an uneducated dirt farmer, aged 30, or was it 40. There was also a Kentuckian, a church goer, a non-smoker, non-drinker, a man who never cursed and read his Bible on the road in hotel rooms.

There were ten pitchers on the roster, three catchers, seven infielders and five outfielders. =================================================================(This is an excerpt from a book to be published by John Wiley, Fall 2007)====================================================