The SABR Bookshelf: Fall 2011
Here are The SABR Bookshelf listings for Fall 2011. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: SABR, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018.
To ensure a listing in The Baseball Index — SABR’s online catalog of baseball research materials at www.baseballindex.org — make sure a review copy is sent to The Baseball Index, 4025 Beechwood Pl., Riverside, CA 92506.
These books can be purchased at the SABR Bookstore, powered by Amazon.com.
Bolded names indicates that the author(s) is a SABR member. Publishers’ contact information can be found by clicking here.
Wizardry: Baseball’s All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed
By Michael Humphreys
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Oxford University Press | $19.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-19539-776-5 |
- Summary: The author uses a new statistic, Defensive Runs Analysis (DRA), to quantify the number of runs that individual fielders save. He also includes lists of single-season DRA ratings for every fielder since 1893.
Moneyball
By Michael Lewis (republished)
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| W.W. Norton & Co. | $15.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-393-33839-3 |
- Summary: A reissue of the 2003 New York Times bestseller by Michael Lewis to coincide with the release of the 2011 film starring Brad Pitt. Covers the Oakland Athletics’ quest for success under general manager Billy Beane and the search for new baseball insights — using sabermetric analysis on a budget.
Baseball Is …: Defining the National Pastime
Edited by Paul Dickson
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Dover Publications | $9.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-486-48209-5 |
- Summary: Baseball is a game of many interpretations. This book features hundreds of wisecracking, philosophical, nostalgic and entertaining quips and observations from players, their wives, managers, authors and other observers of the game.
Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway’s Remarkable First Year
By Glenn Stout
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | $24.00 (hdcvr) | 978-0-547-19562-9 |
- Summary: Marking the centennial anniversary of a Boston landmark, “Fenway 1912″ tells the behind-the-scenes story of the beloved ballpark’s tumultuous and glorious first year.
The Deacon and the Schoolmaster: Phillippe and Leever, Pittsburgh’s Great Turn-of-the-Century Pitchers
By Robert Peyton Wiggins
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $35 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-5842-4 |
- Summary: In the first decade of the 20th Century, the Pittsburgh Pirates were blessed with two of the most dominant pitchers in their history, Charles “Deacon” Phillippe and Samuel “The Schoolmaster” Leever who helped the Pirates in their annual duels with the Chicago Cubs for dominance of the National League.
DiMaggio’s Yankees: A History of the 1936-1944 Dynasty
By Lew Freedman
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $29.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-5906-3 |
- Summary: With Babe Ruth gone, the New York Yankees need a new complement to Lou Gehrig. He was Joe DiMaggio and on him the Yankees built a new dynasty.
Roger Connor: Home Run King of 19th Century Baseball
By Roy Kerr
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $29.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-5958-2 |
- Summary: Roger Connor hit 138 career home runs at a time when others hardly hit any. This is the first full-length biography of the Hall of Famer called “The Babe Ruth of the 1880s.”
The Baseball Film in Postwar America: A Critical Study, 1948-1962
By Ron Briley
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $40 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-6123-3 |
- Summary: From the Babe Ruth Story to Mickey Mantle in Safe at Home!, Briley examines baseball films of the postwar era and how they reflected the social concerns, politics and ethos of the times.
Baseball’s Heartland War, 1902-1903: The Western League and American Association vie for Turf, Players and Profits
By Dennis Pajot
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $29.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-6337-4 |
- Summary: In the years the American League successfully challenged the National League, a similar war broke out in the Midwest, between the Western League and the breakaway challenger which called itself the American Association.
The Rise of Latin American Baseball Leagues, 1947-1961: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela
By Lou Hernandez
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $49.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-6384-8 |
- Summary: Hernandez tracks the rise of baseball throughout the Caribbean region and how the leagues that sprung up fostered the development of the Latino players who would become so prominent in the major leagues beginning in the 1960s.
The Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League: A History, 1903-1957
By Richard Beverage
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $40 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-6520-0 |
- Summary: Former SABR President Dick Beverage updates his definitive history of the PCL Angels with fresh research and more coverage.
The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903-1957
By Dennis Snelling
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $45 (hrdcvr) | 978-0-7864-6524-8 |
- Summary: From its roots in outlaw baseball to its place as the dominant minor league of the mid-20th Century, Snelling follows the Pacific Coast League through its franchise shifts, great teams and great players.
Peanuts and Crackerjacks: A Baseball Novel
By M.Z. Ribalow
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| McFarland & Co. | $25 (sftcvr) | 978-0-7864-6598-9 |
- Summary: A young pitching coach realizes baseball has changed in ways he hadn’t anticipated and must balance tradition and modernity.
Baseball in Petersburg: The Virginia League and Beyond
By Larry C. Toombs
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| The Dietz Press | $17.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-87517-139-5 |
- Summary: The history of baseball in Petersburg, Virginia, is documented from the Civil War to Hall of Famer Sam Rice, and from the Negro Leagues to today’s incarnation of the Petersburg Generals.
The Bill James Handbook 2012
By Baseball Info Solutions
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| ACTA Sports | $24.95 (sftcvr) | 978-0-87946-473-8 |
- Summary: From longtime SABR member Bill James and Baseball Info Solutions, this handbook includes complete, up-to-date statistics full of analysis, registers, projections and answers on players and teams through the 2011 season.
A Unique Look at Big League Baseball
By Joe Taxiera
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Self-published | $39.95 (sftcvr) | 978-1-4507-7202-0 |
- Summary: This reference book is the culmination of 10 years of personal research. It includes 12 sections on batting, pitching, fielding, postseason performances and awards. To purchase the book, visit www.uniquebaseball.com.
The Giants Win The Series! Headlines and Highlights of 1954
By Mike Getz
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| AuthorHouse | $12.00 (sftcvr) | 978-1-45672-818-2 |
- Summary: Chronicles the 1954 New York Giants from spring training to the end of the World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians.
Garlic Fries and Baseball: The Book
By Ronni Redmond
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| CreateSpace | $10.95 (sftcvr) | 978-1-4609-3567-5 |
- Summary: A compilation of blog essays from the author’s first meeting with Willie Mays in 1958 to the present.
One Home Run
By Art Voellinger
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| iUniverse Inc. | $10.95 (sftcvr) | 978-1-4620-1066-0 |
- Summary: This work of sports fiction from a veteran journalist captures one Indiana player’s journey as he spends a mid-1950s summer with an amateur team in Ashville, Illinois.
Lipman Pike: America’s First Home Run King
By Richard Michelson (illustrations by Zachary Pullen)
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping Bear Press | $16.95 (hdcvr) | 978-1-58536-465-7 |
- Summary: This children’s book tells the story of a pioneering ballplayer of the late 1860s. The Brooklyn-born Pike was voted off a team from Philadelphia before finding success with another.
Amazing Baseball Heroes: Inspirational Negro League Stories, by Bryan Steverson
| Publisher | Retail Price | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee Valley Publishing | $29.95 (hdcvr) | 978-1-932604-81-8 |
- Summary: Profiling twenty Negro Leagues players, including Jackie Robinson, as a reminder of how they handled adversity with flair, grace and a sense of humor.
To go back to The SABR Bookshelf, click here.