The Bookshelf Conversations: The Lost Tapes

While I was chatting with Jon Leonoudakis about his latest documentary, Ball Four Turns 40, I remembered that one of my earliest interviews was with Jim Bouton. This was in the pre-Covid, Pre-Zoom days when I was doing everything on a digital tape recorder over the phone or in person (and the fidelity or lack thereof really shows). Bouton was so generous with his time that I had to edit the Conversation into three parts.

So the numbers attached to each current interview are no longer valid accurate but I’m not going to recalculate. The earliest Conversation in the sidebar was with George Vecsey in 2012. So herewith, a list with links to those “lost tapes.”

I would like to think that like wine, they’ve improved with age, but I leave that for you to decide.

Jim Bouton (Posted August 30, 2010)

Jason Turbow on The Baseball Codes (May 23, 2010)

Dan Epstein on Big Hair, Plastic Grass (May 23, 2010)

Robert Schnakenburg on The Underground Baseball Encyclopedia (May 9, 2010)

Flo Thomasian Snyder on Lady in the Locker Room: Madcap Memoirs of the Early LA Dodgers (4/30/2010)

Danny Peary on Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero (April 18, 2010)

Dave Jamieson on Mint Condition (April 18, 2010)

Sean Manning on Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time (April 1, 2010)

Fritz Peterson on Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven (12/26/2009)

Roy White on Then Roy Said to Mickey…: The Best Yankees Stories Ever Told (11/27/09)

Frank Ceresi on Baseball Americana (11/13/2009)

Mike Vaccaro on The First Fall Classic:The Red Sox, The Giants and the Cast of Players, Pigs, and Politicos Who Reinvented the World Series in 1912 (10/16/09)

Kadir Nelson on We Are the Ship (2/19/2009)

Book merchant Bobby Plapinger (2/7/2009)

Joe Orlando on Collecting Sports Legends: The Ultimate Hobby Guide (2/5/2009)

Sadly, some of the discussions are no longer with us but you can read just a bit (tease) about books and projects by James S. Hirsch, Steven Goldman, Lonnie Wheeler, Marty Appel, Joe Posnanski, Gary Mitchem, S.L. Price, Allen Barra, Zev Chafets, Gabriel Schechter, Curt Smith, Greg Prince, Lisa Winston, and Jane Heller.