What Are You Reading Right Now?

[Sabo-metrics]

I just finished the new Cobb book: Ty Cobb, A Terrible Beauty. This is a must - read for any Ty Cobb fan. If you haven't heard, the author goes back and researches the true story of Ty Cobb and explains in detail how the Al Stump book and Cobb movie are basically worthless. He also points to THIS WEBSITE as a source for some of his research!

I had loaned Cobb's biography to my young nephew (12 yrs old) and then felt a little guilty when he became obsessed with baseball's biggest monster. After finishing this book, I am relieved to know that Cobb's biography is a lot closer to the truth than most of the information out there, including Ken Burns documentary which paints him as a dangerous man.

[Cowtipper]

I'm currently reading If at First: A Season With the Mets by Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan.

[Cowtipper]

I'm currently reading If at First: A Season With the Mets by Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan.

^^ good book, would recommend. Hernandez's arrogance gets to be a little much sometimes, but a quality read.

Now I'm reading The Worst Team Money Could Buy by Bob Klapisch and John Harper.

[Jeremy]

Just curious guys

For those that have read fools rush in by bill James how did they enjoy it?

[The Monument]

I just picked up all four volumes of The Fireside Book of Baseball series for $14 at a used book store. I've heard about this series and been wanting them for awhile, so I'm pretty excited to start reading them.

Great books at a great price! I read those growing up in the 70's. Lots of BB history.

[The Monument]

Just finished Ryne Duren's I Can See Clearly Now. With a 100 mph fastball and a serious drinking problem, Duren was Yanks closer before the term was used. Follows his career from late 50's to mid 60's, including glory years with Yanks in '60-61. Split between 50% baseball and 50% alcohol education without being preachy. This book segued nicely into Mariano Rivera's The Closer, which I'm halfway through. Amazing how Mo takes little credit for his abilities and chalks most of it up to God-given talent. I liked how he was able to bad-mouth the PED bunch without really saying anything bad . You have to read it to see what I mean. Both books are easy reading and highly recommended.

[abolishthedh]

The biography on Vin Scully, Pull Up A Chair, by Curt Smith. The author assumes a great deal on the part of the reader in the form of cultural reference points in the 1950s. These assumptions are not as troublesome once you have familiarity with those reference points from your own memory, just in my view. It is timely, with this being his last year.

[abolishthedh]

It would be worth sharing a review of Pull Up A Chair. As media books go, this is one of a kind, because not too many broadcasters have an autobio nor a regular biography published about them. A lot of behind the scenes stuff is shared over who got along with whom, perspectives on the mistakes made by the networks in the hindsight of fans, and some baseball trivia which I never knew from time to time.

That said, this is the kind of book which fans will read with the intent of reminiscing, but the author just doesn't have the style to allow for reminiscence. At one point on a page, you are reading about 1986, and in the same paragraph he is clearly mentioning 1988. The author isn't confusing his facts, he just moves too quickly. The book is 238 pages of reading, and that isn't enough to cover Scully's career. Admittedly, it might become boring to cover 67 years with the detail that some biographies offer, because Vin Scully is a family man without interesting personal sideshow stories. In any case, the author just moves too quickly to bring about any nostalgia, and so that is disappointing.

[Cowtipper]

^^ good book, would recommend. Hernandez's arrogance gets to be a little much sometimes, but a quality read.

Now I'm reading The Worst Team Money Could Buy by Bob Klapisch and John Harper.

^^ Good book, would recommend. Now I'm reading The Last Best League by Jim Collins. It's about the Cape Cod League.

[toomanyhatz]

I finally got to reading Molly Knight's book, which I loved. Here's what I said on another site (not sports-related):

One of the truly great baseball books. Knight is a good writer, not a great one, but she got unprecedented access to one of the most colorful almost-great teams of recent times. And perfectionist Clayton Kershaw, oddball talent Zack Greinke, untamed youth Yasiel Puig and sensitive superstar Matt Kemp (a year on from having dated Rihanna) are an amazing cast of characters.

I think it's almost better that Knight is a reporter and not a Norman Mailer type bringing her own agenda to it. It's such an unlikely combination of characters that the story can't fail to be interesting. And there's so many great 'right place at the right time' elements to it - like when she shows up at Kershaw's Dallas house right as the new contract is announced.

Some of the players are apparently unhappy with how they're portrayed, but it certainly seems pretty honest and admirable. She doesn't throw anyone under the bus, but she doesn't gloss over anyone's flaws, either.

[Cowtipper]

^^ Good book, would recommend. Now I'm reading The Last Best League by Jim Collins. It's about the Cape Cod League.

^^ good book, would recommend.

Now I am reading The Sluggers by John Holway.

[abolishthedh]

Last summer, in a reply to another thread about which book I would like to see written, I mentioned that it would be great to see a book written about the 1970-1975 Oakland A's and all of the turmoil around that great team. Such a book had already been published by 1976, by Tom Scott, by the name of Champagne and Baloney.

This summer I have the chance to savor this one. The author has a slight 'homer' style, but only a little bit. He must have been a West Coast individual, but his research and detail are fantastic. Scott is heavily slanted against Finley. It is interesting to read his opinions in what would have been present terms and without any hindsight over free agency or of Marvin Miller. The influence of other owners or the commissioner were also on the horizon. Not that these factors would have taken away from the story, but the present terms viewpoint takes me back to my fandom in the early 1970s. There is so much I had forgotten. The fights between the players on the team and in the locker room were worse than I had known about.

[abolishthedh]

The fact that noone has posted on this thread since July 1, 2016 is bothersome. Does anyone read anymore? Surely some folks do, from all ages.

Soon, I will be starting the Howard Cosell biography, but I intend to read only about 2/3 of the book. His announcing career is of interest, but his childhood? You have to be kidding.

[Eyeshade]

Ok...I'm reading a collection of old newspaper columns/tidbits originally written by Addie Joss in Toledo papers from the early 1900's (published by McFarland) and finishing "Ring Around the Bases" by Ring Lardner and sitting in the on-deck pile is "Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?" by Jimmy Breslin (reread from my childhood). As far as people reading, all I can say is I find a lot more fans interested in fantasy baseball and Sportscenter than in baseball history or classic baseball fiction. Sad.

[jsontag]

As far as people reading, all I can say is I find a lot more fans interested in fantasy baseball and Sportscenter than in baseball history or classic baseball fiction. Sad.

Eyeshade, The same is true when it comes to football, maybe even a lot worse than baseball. The NFL Network and Sports Center seem to think the NFL stared in the 1990's, or with the Super Bowl era. Seems most fans today don't read and al, they care about is fantasy football. The NFL is really bad in promoting its history and there are not a lot of us who want to know, read, and study the game. I do and I'm also one who likes to do the same with baseball as I believe one should know the history of the game to have a better understanding of the game today, if that makes any sense.