Baseball Books

The view from the stands is a nice collection of stories recounting one woman's journey through the halls of all the major league baseball stadiums. Ms. Wagner is a die-hard fan, raised in Ohio and nourished on The Big Red Machine. Ms. Wagner tells a good story but the shining points in the book come when she is interacting with the fans on her recent journey - she shows a real insight for what fans connect with when going to their hometown park - and what they don't.

The book has an interesting perspective and would be a valuable read for all major league owners. While they need to be concerned with what is going on in the field, Ms. Wagner does the owners a real service by providing some gratis research for what's going on in the minds of the fans.

An interesting read.

Ms. Wagner does a brilliant job of piecing together her trips to various ballparks around the country, entwining them into a cohesive whole. I am not aware of any other book about baseball that discusses the aspects of various stadiums and team franchises and how they affect the fans. Her opinions are often strong, but she backs them up with solid reasoning, and also offers her own ideas on remedying various problems in the baseball world.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in baseball's fan base and the pleasures and difficulties of being a fan.

I have read that authors read reviews by readers. I hope Ms. Goodwin reads this. This is simply a wonderful book
This is the second time I read this book. I read this for a book club. I had remembered the portions about baseball and the wonderful relationship between Ms. Goodwin and her father. The rereading does not diminish the pleasure of this portion of the book.

The second reading permitted me to think about the the insightful description of growing up in the 50's--an experience I share with Ms Goodwin. It was a simpler time when fathers came home the same time and mothers stayed home and raised the children. Children owned the streets and everyone was growing together. Ms. Goodwin also points out that it also was a time when woman could not work. A simpler time is not always the better time.

The most interesting portion of the book on the second reading is the foreshadowing of what is required to be a historian. Joining her ability to recreate a ball game as the beginning of her career as a historian, which she points out depends upon the ability to tell a story. SEcond when historical events such as the integration of Little Rock we see her mastery of history.

I used to think that No Ordinary Times was my favorite book. I will reread that as well but right now it has taken second place.

Wait Till Next Year is about baseball and life. It is the title of Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir of childhood. Set in suburban New York in the `50s, and lived before the backdrop of baseball, the account follows Goodwin through her childhood ending when she is fifteen at the death of her mother Helen, and the move from the family home. The opening line: "When I was six, my father gave me a bright-red scorebook that opened my heart to the game of baseball."

When Thomas Kearns teaches his daughter to keep a scorecard on each Brooklyn Dodger game he initiates her love for baseball, as well as for telling a compelling narrative. Baseball bonds their relationship. With careful records Doris relives each game with her father after he comes home from work. Baseball permeates other relationships. Doris listens to games on the radio after school with her mother. Her first boyfriend shares her love for baseball; her best girlfriend Elaine does too, although she was a rabid Giant's fan. The repetitive disappointment about the team's poor results demanded optimistic philosophy. Ever hopeful of winning a pennant, "wait till next year" became the family theme at the close of a season of defeat.

Defeat overwhelms the Kearns' family when Helen dies. For a time Thomas' grief was inconsolable. Doris threw herself into activity and study. One of the final scenes in the book takes place in the attic. Doris and her father are looking at a box of old scorebooks. Thomas admits he cannot live in the house anymore without his wife. It is time to move on. Baseball continues, as does their family. Cycles repeat. In the final pages of the memoir Doris initiates her own sons into the culture of baseball teaching them, like her father had taught her, how to keep a scorebook. Like her father she opens her sons' hearts to the game of baseball. "Wait till next year" prevails.

Poet Tim Peeler hits another two out, bases loaded home run with his thought provoking and very personal Waiting for Godot's First Pitch. Peeler paints the outside corners with extraordinary word-play about the boys of Summer, but it is the intimate tales of his own Summers spent playing ball with his father that ring the truest and the loudest. This is poetry that one can experience as one reads. As every boy becomes a man, the sound of a bat striking a ball or a ball slapping into a glove never leaves our consciousness. Poet Tim Peeler reminds every man of the special bond of baseball in every prosaic line. A very fine and wonderful collection.

Tim Peller's Waiting For Godot's First Pitch: More Poems From Baseball is a wonderful compendium of original verse in celebration of America's great pastime. This anthology of outstanding poetry focuses on fathers and sons, baseball and time, memory and the nation, team and player, fan loyalty and baseball's enduring inspiration. You Pitch The Night To Me: Your freeze-frame fastball fizzles/Like the west blue fuse of me--//Your baneful curve curls from/A burning page in an open diary--//Your cool change up waits for my cows to come in,/But my cows drink gin and refuse to come in--//As I leave the game quietly,/Your record another strikeout.

Great book - very moving and insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it highly!!

It's hard to tell which is better: reading Delani's book or seeing him speak in person. I was at a seminar he gave to faculty members at a local college. When I left, I couldn't wait to read his book (again!). He has an uncanny ability to weave Plato, baseball, and life's crises into a moving and transformative narrative. Buy the book, and get him to speak at your next company meeting. He is excellent!

This is a very well researched and loving look at a very mediocre at best expansion team. During baseball's expansions of the 1960's, teams were doomed to years of frustration. This didn't stop fan's from loving their teams. JIm Heartley is obviously a very devoted fan. Season by season accounts, player interviews, and a well done statistical index make this a very worthwhile book for both reference and fun. If you ever had the pleasure of seeing Frank Howard hit one into the upper deck at DC / RFK stadium, you will enjoy this book tremendously. Let's hope Washington will soon field another big league team.

Washington's Expansion Senators (1961-1971) is a comprehensive look at the last years of baseball in Washington, DC. Year-by-year summaries, former players' reflections on their careers and memorable moments, photos, and every statistic that a Senators' fan could want combine to form a "must read" for any fan of the Washington Senators.

This was a gift for my boyfriend's birthday. He hasn't read it yet, but is looking forward to it. He was really excited when he saw it. Thanks.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans have suffered through an agonizingly extended season of discontent - one that encompasses fourteen consecutive years of losing more games than they have won. As October approaches, we watch the excitement that other fans in other cities experience, and watch our team hang up their spikes and go home - again. We wait for next year - a next year that never comes. As if we were in a bad dream from which we cannot wake, it is all the same, year after year; one excruciatingly long nightmare season. It's enough to drive a man to drink!

To keep off the sauce and chase away the baseball blues, I picked up `When the Bucs Won It All', the story of the 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. It proved to be just the right tonic to put a smile back onto my face. The book was a quick read - it does not dwell endlessly on a game by game, blow by blow recreation of the season, but hits on all the memorable highlights. One thirty-four page chapter covers the regular season, and forty-six pages are devoted to the post season. It is not exhaustive coverage of that championship year, but is really all that is necessary to trigger the great memories in any fan that lived through it. Like any good baseball book, it includes a good selection of black and white photos and plenty of charts of statistics as well.

The bulk of the book is taken up by biographies of the players who made up the Pirates' "Family" that magic season. Every player who was on the Pirates major league roster at any time during that season, as well as the manager and coaching staff, is covered. A brief history of their careers prior to the '79 season is given, a recap of what that player did during the '79 season and post season follows, and finally, what they did and what became of them after 1979 is related. Some of these bios are loaded with interesting information. For both Bert Blyleven and Dave Parker, the authors explore their respective cases for possible enshrinement in The Hall of Fame. In relief pitcher Enrique Romo's bio, they talk about his mysterious disappearance from Pittsburgh and baseball after the 1982 season, and the rumor that he had a relationship with a woman involved with a mob figure who told him never to return. To date, Romo has never appeared at any of the '79 Pirates reunions or autograph signings. I found this section most appealing, and more interesting than a simple blow by blow recreation of the season.

Any Pirate fan who remembers "the Family" and that magical '79 season will enjoy this book. It may have a broader appeal as well for those interested in that era of baseball, as it provides a snapshot of how the game was played at the dawn of the free agent era, when relief pitchers were first coming into prominence, and the game was in a major state of transition.

Theo Logos

Mr. Baumer has taken what could have been a very dry topic, and turned it into a wonderful interesting book. He took so much care in writing this, in gathering information from folks that were involved with the town teams, we get to hear amazing stories that other wise would have dissapeared forever. I reccomend this book to folks from Maine interested in a part of their state's history, and I also reccomend it to baseball history buffs everywhere.

If your interests are the same as mine - minor and semi-pro baseball history in New England - then this book is a must. It is a real gem and Mr. Baumer is to be congratulated on such a fine effort. It is easy to see that it was a labor of love for the author. He covered his subject well, mixing his stats and his oral histories to just the right degree.

My big hope is that the author continues his research and writes a second volume, one that covers the same subject for the pre-Second World War era.

Of course this book will have a limited audience; that being Maine baseball fans and then possibly more hardcore baseball historians, say from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), an organization to which I belong.

It is sad that most best-selling baseball books have to be about Ted Williams or Babe Ruth. Afterall, how many of those do we really need? It is the efforts of people like Mr. Baumer - the people who are really capture baseball history in its purest form - that deserve the real praise.

This is a terrific book written with honesty and courage and filled with wisdom and encouragement. However, the title is a bit misleading because Dave and Jan do comeback: better and stronger than ever. I highly recommend this enjoyable and fast read.

This is a great book. I am a sophmore in high school and I am so glad the english department chose to put this on the summer reading list. It shows that the all-amercian family isn't perfect and how they coped with all of the hurdles that were put in front of them. They should be commanded on their ability to cope with any problem that arises. Their kids should be recognized also because they had to see Mr Fix-It(aka known to families as Dad) have something that couldn't be fixed. This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone who needs a little diversion from their problems, because there'll always be someone who has it worse off than you do.

Wilber's words move swiftly and smoothly and allow the reader to savor the magic of the story. He manages to turn fantasy into reality and make reality seem a whole lot better than it is.

He brings people like Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Stephen Crane back to life in such a way that it seems he's had a close relationship with all of them. Each story carries a sense of genuine authenticity that no ordinary writer can possess.

Wilber's portrayal of "The Game," as he calls it, will appeal to baseball fans and nonfans alike. He doesn't get too technical nor does he omit important baseball details. "Where Garigiola Waits" really does have something for everyone.

With his first book of stories and essays Rick Wilber demonstrates again, for those who need further proof, that baseball is our most literary sport, producing more good writing than all other sports combined. In these stories Wilber's love of baseball is clear, though he does not unduly sentimentalize the game. You won't hear the strains of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" as you read. This is no five-hanky Ken Burns tearjerker., but the work of a serious (though not solemn) writer. Those looking for intelligent appreciation of baseball will find it here. But it will also repay those in search of what good fiction has always provided, a look at the human heart at work. The game is always there. Part of the very connective tissue of Wilber's men characters. They would miss it terribly is they weren't playing, even at the humble amateur level at which they're competing. But the game, important as it is, lacks the power to heal. These guys, and the women and family members who love them, must deal with their sea of troubles by other means. Much of Wilber's early stories are science fiction and fantasy, appearing in such publications as "Asimov's Science Fiction" and "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction." So it's no surprise when Wilber plays fast and loose with time in the title story. This allows him to deal with regret and with one of the longest running and fondest human fantasies, going back in time to get a second chance to do something right. Even with the time tirck, "Where Garagiola Waits" is not slick genre fair. Real time will tell whether it's literature, but we can say right now that it's a good story. An elderly man, justifiably guilt-ridden about much that's gone wrong in his and his wife's life thanks to his weaknesses, gets another chance at a career in the bigs and another chance to do better by a woman he clearly loves. A voyage worth going on even for those who have no clue who Joe Garagiola is or why he would be waiting for anyone. "Run Down West" is a poignant story of a man's guilt over a youthful impetuosity, a family's loss, and the hope to be found in yet another generation. In "Sixty Feet and Sinking" (first published in SPTBALL), a lonely man and a lonely father learn more about each other. In "Straight Changes" a departed father returns to help call pitches for his amatuer pitcher son who himself has a son with Down's Symdrone, a truly strange girlfriend, and more troubles than just getting batters out. In "Stephen to Cora to Joe" writer and college baseball player Stephen Crane shows up in, you guessed it, an open boat. "Bridging" is in straight time, but shows a man getting a second chance to do what he thinks a man should do. Baseball fans will likely have the most fun with "The Babe, The Iron Horse, and Mr. McGillicuddy," co-written with novelist Ben Bova. Resorting to the time shuffle again, Wilber and Bova get Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb into the same game with Pete Rose, Willie Mays, and, heaven help us, Fidel Castro. These luminaries help us focus again on the proper relationship between winning and how we play the game. Wilber's original connection to baseball is his father Del, who was a reserve catcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Boston Red Sox during the late forties and early fifties (.242 and 19 homers in 299 games for those who must know). After his playing days, Del Wilber coached and managed in the minor leagues for many years. He managed the Texas Rangers for one game in 1973 (finishing with a .1000 won lost percentage) before that club hired Billy Martin. The senior Wilber, now 80, lives in St. Louis. The four essays in this books first appeared in either "The Tampa Tribune" or "The Boston Globe Magazine." They focus on Wilber's youth as a baseball brat (when Wilber's dad had the guys from work over to the house to grill a few, the guys had names like Musial, Slaughter, Williams, Garagiola), on his relationship with his father, and with his return to playing baseball on an over-40 amateur league. Wilber lives in St. Petersburg and is a professor of journalism as the University of South Florida. He plays first base and occasionally pitches for a St. Petersburg-based team called the Cubs. Wilber has published more than 50 short stories and numerous essays, reviews, and features. His novel "Bone Cold, " wil;l be out this year. He is at work on a novel-length version of the short story "Where Garagiola Waits." Larry Thornberry LTberrywtr@aol.com Tampa

I was so very happy with the product. I gave it to my father a s a gift and hoped it would be just what he wanted. It was and he could't be happier. I was very pleased how easy it was to purchase the item on Amazon and how fast I recieved it ! Thankyou and I will be buying more items in the future !! M.J.L.

The Chicago Sun-Times put together a wonderful commemorative keepsake book for the 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox, full of full-color photographs, player profiles and articles encompassing the entire season, playoffs and World Series. This is truly a first-rate publication that is a worthy addition to any White Sox fan's memorabilia collection.