Take two. Don’t know what happened, but the original post from earlier this week disappeared like a Doc Gooden curveball. Not even a draft of it, so I’m trying to recreate it as faithfully as possible. It seems to many outside the area that New Yorkers have an inflated image of themselves (at least those […]
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Brooklyn Dodgers,
Kevin Baker,
New York Giants,
New York Yankees
The long-time sportswriter and the first author to focus on a single-game analysis passed away Sunday at the ripe old age of 99. I had interviewed Arnold Hano back in 2012 to discuss A Day in the Bleachers, a classic about the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians. It would […]
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Arnold Hano,
Jon Leonoudakis,
New York Giants,
Willie Mays,
World Series
No, not Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But the “Shot heard ’round the world,” the game that regularly brings up “The Giants win the pennant” call. The game that forever link the names Thomson and Branca a generation before Wilson and Buckner. I was reminded of the platinum anniversary by a piece in […]
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Bobby Thomson,
New York Giants,
Ralph Branca
The latest batch of cheating accusations and ensuing scandals? This isn’t the first time complaints about the use of technology have been raised. I wrote about this over a decade ago and it seems like an appropriate time to revisit the conversation I had with Joshua Prager, author of The Echoing Green: The Untold Story […]
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Bobby Thompson,
New York Giants,
Ralph Branca
One of my comfort TV shows is M*A*S*H. If I’m home (and awake) when it airs on ME TV (hold the jokes, please), that’s what I’m watching. The episodes are usually played sequentially, so it was especially interesting that “A War for All Seasons” (season nine, episode six) was on tonight’s schedule. This one follows […]
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Brooklyn Dodgers,
New York Giants
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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Babe Ruth,
Baseball America,
baseball analysis,
Fantasy baseball,
instructionals,
Michel Lewis,
Mike Matheny,
minor leagues,
New York Giants,
No-hitters,
Oakland Athletics,
Pitching,
St. Louis Cardinals,
Ted Williams
It hasn’t even been released yet (official date: March 22) but Stealing Games: How John McGraw Transformed Baseball with the 1911 New York Giants by Maury Klein leads off this Examiner.com article on “The Write Stuff: A look at some of this year’s most notable books.” According to the piece, “The book gives a great—yet […]
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George Gibsonb,
Maury Klein,
New York Giants
With apologies to Chicago (the band, not the city). Feast or famine. Either I never get to Manhattan, or I’m there too much. After commuting from the New jersey suburbs to NYC for more than 15 years, I have to say it’s a culture shock whenever I go back and I’m not thrilled with it. […]
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A Day in the Bleachers,
Arnold Hano,
baseball business,
Charles Leehrsen,
Jon Leonoudakis,
Jon Pessah,
New York Giants,
Steve Steinberg,
Ty Cobb,
Willie Mays,
World Series
Literary birthday greetings: 1919 – Jackie Robinson, infielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer Since I addressed this last year — and there are soooo many books about Robinson — I just thought I’d link to that entry for everyone’s convenience. 1931 – Hank Aguirre, pitcher; All-Star 1931 – Ernie Banks, infielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer 1947 […]
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Barry Bonds,
Ernie Banks,
Jackie Robinson,
Joshua Prager,
New York Giants,
Nolan Ryan,
Ralph Branca
As mentioned in a previous post, Arnold Hano wrote one of the must-read books for any serious student of the national pastime. A Day in the Bleachers was the first, and in many ways the best, of the single-game analyses genre. His deconstruction of the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New […]
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Arion Press,
Arnold Hano,
Baseball Reliquary,
Fans,
Mark Ulriksen,
New York Giants,
Willie Mays,
World Series
by Arnold Hano. Da Capo Press, 2004. This is one of those things you always figure you’ll get to, like a New Yorker visiting the Empire State Building or The Statue of Liberty. It will always be there, so you figure you have time. Well, Hano will be receiving the the Hilda Chester Award, which […]
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Arnold Hano,
Baseball Reliquary,
Cleveland Indians,
New York Giants
Authors Dan Fost and Steve Steinberg will be appearing in NYC to celebrate the recent World Championship of the San Francisco Giants through their own published works. Fost and Steinberg will discuss their respective books — Giants Past & Present and 1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York, […]
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Dan Fost,
New York Giants,
New York Yankees,
San Francisco Giants,
Steve Steinberg
Both the topics and the release dates of these books could be considered appropriate here. The first looks at Frank Deford’s The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball, while the second considers Mike Vacarro’s The First Fall Classic.
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Boston Red Sox,
New York Giants,
World Series
I challenge anyone’s imagination to think of a time before 24-hour cable sports coverage. Before the Internet. Before sports-talk radio. Before TV coverage (before color coverage). Fred Stein can. The author of Under Coogan’s Bluff: A Fan’s Recollection of the New York Giants Under Terry and Ott grew up in an age when newspaper ruled […]
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Fred Stein,
New York Giants
Who says you can’t go home again? Bloomfield-born journalist Dan Fost returned to his old stomping grounds to give a talk and book-signing for his Giants Past & Present at the Yogi Berra Museum this afternoon. Fost, who grew up and still is a Yankees fan, became enamored with the team shortly after moving to […]
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Dan Fost,
New York Giants,
San Francisco Giants
by Dan Fost. MVP Books, 2010. A book such as Giants Past & Present caters to multiple readerships. On the one hand you have long-time fans of the team, both in the East and West Coast incarnations. You also have younger fans, who grew up on the San Francisco version. In addition, there are the […]
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Dan Fost,
New York Giants,
San Francisco Giants
Dan Fost, author of Giants Past & Present, posted this preseason video on his favorite team. A reminder, Fost will be at the Yogi Berra Museum on April 11 at 4 p.m. See here for further info. And thanks to all of you out there who became fans of The Bookshelf — the roll has […]
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Dan Fost,
New York Giants,
San Francisco Giants