EEEEEE! Looks at Books

Not book reviews so much as, well, book reports, really.

• Mike Mandel's SF Giants: An Oral History -- A 1979 book full of interviews with former and then-current players. Examined by Gregg.
  
  
• Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball -- by Morgan and David Falkner. Li'l Joe's easier to respect than to like. Examined by Gregg.
  
  
• Charles Einstein's A Flag for San Francisco, examined by Richard Booroojian. A potentially happy tale.
  
  
• Nuggets on the Diamond, Dick Dobbins and Jon Twitchell's history of the old Pacific Coast League, examined by Todd Hawley. Now I have a reason to wear my Seals cap all the time.
  
  
• Hank's Book, Jon's Book, a brief, comparative "study" of This Copyrighted Broadcast by Hank Greenwald and Confessions of a Baseball Purist by Jon Miller, examined by Gregg. Read them both.
  
  
• The Pacific Coast League, 1903-1988: Bill O' Neal also takes a look at the Pacific Coast League, as Todd Hawley is the first to point out.
  
  
• Baseball's Hometown Teams: The Story of the Minor Leagues: Bruce Chadwick tells the tale, And Todd Hawley tells the tale about that.
  
  
• A Whole Different Ball Game: The Sport and Business of Baseball by Marvin Miller (with Allen Barra), as viewed by David Fox(x), aka Gunman.
  
  
• The Grand Minor League: Dick Dobbins classic look at a classic league, and Todd Hawley's classy review.
  
  
• The International League: A Baseball History 1884-1991, and The American Association: A Baseball History 1902-1991, both by Bill O'Neal, as seen by Todd Hawley.
  
  
• Fair Ball by Bob Costas, as observed by David Beck.
  
  
• The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers From 1870 to Today, from the point of view of Richard Booroojian, who passes on warmest greetings from Dave Bristol.
  
  

Keep your eye on this space. Eventually I hope to have writeups of the following books, at least (and in no particular order):

• My Giants, by longtime Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges. Loads of fun.
  
  
• Giants: Collector's Edition, by Joseph Hession, with a foreword by Bob Brenly, 1993. This is of interest to me, aside from the obvious reason (i.e., it's the Giants), in that it comes from a publishing house that just might be a good place to try and sell an EEEEEE! book to....
  
  
• When the Giants Were Giants: Bill Terry and the Golden Age of New York Baseball, by Peter Williams, with an introduction by W.P. Kinsella, 1994.
  
  
• The Original San Francisco Giants: The Giants of '58, by Steve Bitker, 1998. This might be the one that captures my fancy most, in that it consists of interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff, including (as my dad showed me) a kind of bitter interview with Bob Speake, who among other things cited his tenure with the Giants as the premature end to a promising career, but mostly he said that when he was with the Cubs, they had the green light to run on Willie Mays. More on that, and why, when I write about it.
  
  
• Dan Gutman's Baseball Babylon, a sleazily titled yet fascinating book about baseball's -- yes -- seamy underbelly.
  
  
• The misnamed The California Angels: The Complete History, by Ross Newhan, 1982 -- the copyright date tells you why it's misnamed; it's not Newhan's fault. The Angels, as you may know, have an interesting history fraught with misfortune.
  
  
• The Bronx Zoo, by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock (who also wrote at least one good book about the Yankees), 1979. Lyle, as you might guess, is not a literary genius, in the sense that Rush Limbaugh is not an underwear model for the Victoria's Secret catalog. Interesting story, though.
  
  
• Diary of a Yankee Hater, by Bob Marshall, 1981, a twenty-first birthday gift from David Beck. Marshall speaks of the "Radio God," an (possibly) nonexistent entity with whom he'd bargain, hoping that the Yankees would fail. Somehow this strikes a strangely familiar chord.
  
  
• Damn Yankees, by Douglas Wallop, 1954 -- the novel from which the musical came.
  
  
• Jackie Robinson, by Arnold Rampersad, 1997. I haven't read it, but I have the feeling everybody should.
  
  
• Baseball: An Illustrated History, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, 1994. This is a beautifully illustrated book indeed, but Burns' slant, both politically and in terms of rooting interest, came across loud and clear in his stunning documentary, which made it a li'l annoying.

Copyright © 2001 by Gregg Pearlman