The SABR Bookshelf: Spring 2017
Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Spring 2017.
To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB or Kindle/MOBI format to jpomrenke@sabr.org.
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.
Bolded names indicates that the author(s) is a SABR member. Click here for a list of publishers found in the SABR Bookshelf, along with their contact information.
In addition, check out new books published by SABR at SABR.org/ebooks.
NO-HITTERS
Edited by Bill Nowlin
Publisher: SABR
Retail Price: $9.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9438-1650-7
Buy It: SABR
Summary: A combined effort between the SABR BioProject and Games Project focusing on no-hitters and the pitchers who have thrown them in the major leagues.
The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium on the Field
Edited by Bill Nowlin and Dan Desrochers
Publisher: SABR
Retail Price: $9.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9438-1648-4
Buy It: SABR
Summary: An updated 50th anniversary edition of a SABR BioProject publication on the 1967 Red Sox.
The SABR Book on Umpires and Umpiring
Edited by Larry R. Gerlach and Bill Nowlin
Publisher: SABR
Retail Price: $9.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9438-1644-6
Buy It: SABR
Summary: A SABR Digital Library publication featuring biographies of Hall of Fame umpires and other notable arbiters, plus essays about professional female umpires, umpiring in the Negro Leagues, explorations of the baseball rules, umpire equipment, and more.
Dome Sweet Dome: History and Highlights from 35 Years of the Houston Astrodome
Edited by Gregory H. Wolf
Publisher: SABR
Retail Price: $6.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9438-1632-3
Buy It: SABR
Summary: A SABR Digital Library publication that includes articles on 70 memorable games played at the Astrodome and essays on the Houston ballpark’s life and legacy.
Overcoming Adversity: Baseball’s Tony Conigliaro Award
Edited by Bill Nowlin and Clayton Trutor
Publisher: SABR
Retail Price: $6.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9438-1642-2
Buy It: SABR
Summary: A SABR BioProject publication on the winners of the Tony Conigliaro Award, given in honor of the Boston Red Sox slugger to an MLB player who “overcomes an obstacle and adversity.”
Baseball’s Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957
Edited by Steve Weingarden and Bill Nowlin
Publisher: SABR
Retail Price: $9.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-9438-1636-1
Buy It: SABR
Summary: The first book-length treatise on the business of baseball at the Winter Meetings, covering the early years of the minor leagues, the National League, and the American League, and even a chapter on the Eastern Colored League Winter Meetings.
Kill the Ámpaya! The Best Latin American Baseball Fiction
By Dick Cluster
Publisher: Mandel Vilar Press
Retail Price: $19.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-942134-26-8
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: These inventive and entertaining stories reveal the place of baseball in Latin America.
Called Out: A Novel of Base Ball and America in 1908
By Floyd Sullivan
Publisher: Amika Press
Retail Price: $15.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-9374-8451-4
Buy It: Amika Press
Summary: A dramatic novel focusing on National League president Harry Pulliam and the tumultuous 1908 baseball season.
The Culture and Ethnicity of Nineteenth Century Baseball
By Jerrold I. Casway
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-7864-9890-1
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: Following on his earlier book on Irish-Americans, Casway turns to the spectrum of 19th-century ethnic and racial groups and their interactions on the diamond and off.
They Wore Red Socks and Pinstripes: Players Who Went to the Enemy
By Todd Stanley
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-7864-9751-5
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: Stanley follows players between the two teams over seven eras, from George Prentiss to Kevin Youkilis.
Piazza: Catcher, Slugger, Icon, Star
By Greg W. Prince
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Retail Price: $24.99 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6835-8007-2
Buy It: Sports Publishing
Summary: A longtime Mets historian traces the careers of Piazza and the Mets through the 1990s, and then tells how the two made something more than their parts after the trade.
Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers
By Debra A. Shattuck
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-2520-7975-7
Buy It: University of Illinois Press
Summary: A first-of-its-kind portrait of the popular Bloomer Girls and other women players who organized baseball clubs and played on men’s teams around the turn of the 20th century.
Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son
By Paul Dickson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Retail Price: $28.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-63286-311-9
Buy It: Bloomsbury Publishing
Summary: Leo the Lip gains another biographer, this one Paul Dickson, who covers the prodigal son from West Springfield, Massachusetts, to Cooperstown.
Wopper: How Babe Ruth Lost His Father and Won the 1918 World Series Against the Cubs
By Frank Amoroso
Publisher: Simply Francis Publishing
Retail Price: $14.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6306-2013-4
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: Volume 2 of a three-part novel about a young Babe Ruth’s life as a German-American during World War I.
Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball’s Fast Lane
By Tim Raines with Alan Maimon
Publisher: Triumph Books
Retail Price: $25.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6293-7400-0
Buy It: Triumph Books
Summary: Baseball’s newest Hall of Famer tells his story from this triumphs on the field to his addiction battles off it.
Big Papi: The Legend and Legacy of David Ortiz
Edited by Janice Page
Publisher: Triumph Books
Retail Price: $15.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6293-7347-8
Buy It: Triumph Books
Summary: A picture-heavy paean to the big man and his triumphs in Boston, from the Boston Globe archives.
The Plan: Epstein, Maddon, and the Audacious Blueprint for a Cubs Dynasty
By David Kaplan
Publisher: Triumph Books
Retail Price: $24.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6293-7326-3
Buy It: Triumph Books
Summary: A paean to Cubs’ latest owners, the front office, and the manager for putting together a plan and sticking to it on the way to a 2016 World Series championship.
The 50 Greatest Players in New York/San Francisco Giants History
By Robert W. Cohen
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Retail Price: $24.99 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6132-1999-7
Buy It: Sports Publishing
Summary: From No. 1 (Willie Mays) to No. 50 (Sal Maglie), Cohen profiles his picks for the 50 greatest Giants players since 1900.
Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War
By Ron Kaplan
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Retail Price: $24.99 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6132-1991-1
Buy It: Sports Publishing
Summary: Kaplan focuses on just one of Greenberg’s many fine seasons and interweaves the tale with lots of off-the-field pressures.
The New Baseball Bible: Notes, Nuggets, Lists, and Legends from Our National Pastime
By Dan Schlossberg
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Retail Price: $17.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-6132-1835-8
Buy It: Sports Publishing
Summary: From Schlossberg’s deep well of baseball research, the anecdotes, lists and trivia flow.
Waiting for Pumpsie
By Barry Wittenstein
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
Retail Price: $16.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-58089-545-3
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: A fictionalized account of a young boy Bernard is overjoyed to witness the first African American player for his beloved hometown Red Sox, Elijah “Pumpsie” Green.
Breathing Orange Fire: Jose Altuve
By Bill Brown
Publisher: CreateSpace
Retail Price: $14.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-5300-6769-5
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: Insight into the young 2016 Houston Astros on the rise and how good times could be coming.
Almost Perfect: The Heartbreaking Pursuit of Pitching’s Holy Grail
By Joe Cox
Publisher: Lyons Press
Retail Price: $26.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4930-1950-2
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: Cox reviews 16 near-perfect pitching performances, from Hooks Wiltse to Max Scherzer, and chronicles just what went wrong.
The All-American Girls After the AAGPBL: How Playing Pro Ball Shaped Their Lives
By Kat Williams
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4766-6538-2
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: The AAGPBL’s story has been well told, but the lives of the players remain largely unknown. This book offers a remedy for that, telling the stories of more than 600 female players in the World War II-era league.
Playing for a Winner: How Baseball Teams’ Success Raises Player Reputations
By Brandon Isleib
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4766-6535-1
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: Isleib uses several sabermetric formulae to track how team success translates into players’ reputations over several eras.
Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth’s Shadow
By Dave Heller
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4766-6518-4
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: The first book-length biography of one of the great sluggers of the 1920s.
The Culture of Sports in the Harlem Renaissance
By Daniel Anderson
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4766-6403-3
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: This book examines the ties between the cultural aspects of the Harlem Renaissance and the performance of black athletes of the time.
Baseball in Northwest Iowa
By Joan Wendl Thomas
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Retail Price: $21.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4671-2514-7
Buy It: Arcadia Publishing
Summary: A pictorial history of how baseball took root in Sioux City and other towns in northwestern Iowa.
Ware’s Boys of Summer: The Stories of Seven Major League Baseball Players from One Small Central Massachusetts Town
By Stephen R. Katz
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Retail Price: $15.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4575-4911-3
Buy It: Dog Ear Publishing
Summary: A chronicle of the lives and careers of seven major-leaguers, from Candy Cummings to Billy Jo Robidoux, from one central Massachusetts town.
Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger
By Lyle Spatz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Retail Price: $40.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4422-7759-5
Buy It: Rowman & Littlefield
Summary: The first full biography of a man whose full career is often overshadowed by a pitch in the 1941 World Series.
Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue: Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Rivalry
By Tom Van Riper
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Retail Price: $38.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4422-7538-6
Buy It: Rowman & Littlefield
Summary: This book covers the 1970s National League rivalry between the Big Red Machine vs. the Little Blue Bicycle in great detail.
Baseball’s Roaring Twenties: A Decade of Legends, Characters, and Diamond Adventures
By Ronald T. Waldo
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Retail Price: $38.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4422-7425-9
Buy It: Rowman & Littlefield
Summary: Waldo covers baseball in the 1920s in a series of topical essays rather than a chronology of pennant races.
Lyman Bostock: The Inspiring Life and Tragic Death of a Ballplayer
By K. Adam Powell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4422-5205-9
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: The story of Lyman Bostock, and his brief MLB career that was cut short due to his death at the age of twenty-seven.
Suicide Squeeze: Taylor Hooton, Rob Garibaldi, and the Fight against Teenage Steroid Abuse
By William C. Kashatus
Publisher: Temple University Press
Retail Price: $35.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-1-4399-1438-0
Buy It: Temple University Press
Summary: A chronicle of two high school baseball prospects who abused performance-enhancing drugs and took their own lives, and the impact of their parents’ fight against adolescent PED use on Major League Baseball.
Fathers, Sons, & Holy Ghosts: Baseball as a Spiritual Experience
By Austin Gisriel
Publisher: Smashwords
Retail Price: $0.99 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-3702-6528-2
Buy It: Smashwords
Summary: An examination in memoir form on the shrines, rituals, myths, and heroes that give baseball a religious aura.
A Deadly Game
By Gary M. Lepper
Publisher: Phosphene Publishing
Retail Price: $10.99 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-5781-8699-3
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: A crime novel that brings together fantasy baseball and murder-for-hire.
Coulda Woulda Shoulda: Baseball Stories You Haven’t Heard (Yet)
By Chris Williams
Publisher: ACTA Sports
Retail Price: $10.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8794-6586-5
Buy It: ACTA Sports
Summary: A collection of essays focusing on some of the most intriguing “what-if” questions in baseball history.
Borchert Field: Stories from Milwaukee’s Legendary Ballpark
By Bob Buege
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Retail Price: $26.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8702-0788-4
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: The history of Milwaukee’s iconic baseball home for six decades before the Braves moved to town in the 1950s.
Legends Never Die: Athletes and their Afterlives in Modern America
By Richard Ian Kimball
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Retail Price: $55.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8156-3506-2
Buy It: Syracuse University Press
Summary: A look at the myths and collective memories that surround athletes who die young.
From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War
By Jim Leeke
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $26.50 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8122-4572-1
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: From the first debates over baseball’s wartime status to the battle experiences of professional players, Leeke tells the story of the War To End All Wars.
Home Team: The Turbulent History of the San Francisco Giants
By Robert F. Garratt
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $32.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-9599-5
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: The Giants, from departing the Polo Grounds to building the current ballpark, through three ownership eras.
Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador
By Dennis Snelling
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $27.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-9086-0
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: The first biography of one of baseball’s greatest hitters, most colorful characters, and the unofficial father of professional baseball in Japan.
Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age
By Steve Steinberg
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $32.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-9072-3
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: The first full biography of one of the unsung but important pitchers of the 1920s.
Macho Row: The 1993 Phillies and Baseball’s Unwritten Code
By William C. Kashatus
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $29.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-8690-0
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: Kruk, Daulton, Hollins, Dykstra, Schilling, Mitch Williams and the other stars of the 1993 Phillies are examined in the light of the unwritten rules of the game.
One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime
By John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $29.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-8683-2
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: The title tells it all: a look at baseball through the prism of the changing 1960s.
Making My Pitch: A Woman’s Baseball Odyssey
By Ila Jane Borders with Jean Hastings Ardell
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $28.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-5521-0
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: A powerful autobiography from the female baseball pitcher who overcame formidable obstacles to succeed in high school, college, and the professional ranks during the 1990s.
Baseball Beyond Our Borders: An International Pastime
Edited by George Gmelch and Daniel A. Nathan
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Retail Price: $24.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-8032-4965-3
Buy It: University of Nebraska Press
Summary: A collection of essays focusing on the different histories and cultures of the nations in which baseball is played.
Rowdy Patsy Tebeau and the Cleveland Spiders: Fighting to the Bottom of Baseball, 1887-1899
By David Fleitz
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $29.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-7864-9947-2
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: The incompetence of the last Cleveland Spiders team overwhelms the image of a team that had competed successfully earlier in the 1890s.
Ed Bolden and Black Baseball in Philadelphia
By Courtney Michelle Smith
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $29.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-7864-7849-1
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: Bolden developed two Negro League clubs in Philadelphia (Hilldale and the Stars) and headed the Eastern Colored League, presented in this biography of a black entrepreneur in baseball.
Baseball Meets the Law: A Chronology of Decisions, Statutes and Other Legal Events
By Ed Edmonds and Frank G. Houdek
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $49.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-7864-7430-1
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: An exhaustive chronology that traces the law’s effects on baseball, from the use of copyrights to the reserve clause.
The 1933 New York Giants
By Lou Hernandez
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $39.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-7864-7043-3
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: Hernandez profiles the stars and journeymen of the NL champions and follows the course of the pennant race and World Series.
Kansas Baseball, 1858-1941
By Mark Eberle
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Retail Price: $27.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-7006-2440-9
Buy It: University Press of Kansas
Summary: The early history of baseball in Kansas from the Civil War era to the start of World War II.
Right Down the Middle: The Ralph Terry Story
By Ralph Terry with John Wooley
Publisher: Müllerhaus Publishing Arts
Retail Price: $17.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-6927880-8-0
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: Autobiography on the life and career of the top right-handed pitcher on the fabled New York Yankees teams of the early 1960s.
City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles
By Jerald Podair
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Retail Price: $32.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-6911-2503-9
Buy It: Princeton University Press
Summary: The story of the political and social struggles which led to the building of Dodger Stadium and its place in the city.
Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography: The Faith of a Boundary-Breaking Hero
By Michael G. Long and Chris Lamb
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Retail Price: $17.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-6642-6203-7
Buy It: Westminster John Knox Press
Summary: A study of Jackie Robinson’s faith, which was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond.
The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age
By Sridhar Pappu
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Retail Price: $28.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-5477-1927-6
Buy It: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Summary: A portrait of two pitchers who formed one of baseball’s most memorable rivalries during a turbulent year.
The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., and Baseball’s Most Historic Record
By John Eisenberg
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Retail Price: $26.00 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-5441-0767-0
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: The longtime Baltimore Sun columnist examines Ripken’s impressive but controversial milestone and the history of consecutive game streaks.
The Life and Trials of Roger Clemens: Baseball’s Rocket Man and the Questionable Case Against Him
By Hansen Alexander
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Retail Price: $29.95 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-4766-6576-4
Buy It: McFarland & Co.
Summary: Alexander is an attorney and takes to Roger Clemens’ defense in this biography which focuses on the steroid allegations.
Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character
By Marty Appel
Publisher: Doubleday
Retail Price: $36.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-38554-047-6
Buy It: Doubleday
Summary: Appel’s extensive biography of Casey Stengel has equal time for his playing career, the Yankees years and the Mets period, plus a coda for retirement.
Baseball Life Advice: Loving the Game That Saved Me
By Stacey May Fowles
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Retail Price: $18.00 (sftcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-7710-3871-6
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: Fowles offers a personal perspective on baseball subjects ranging from bat flips to mental health, and using the lens of baseball to examine who we are.
A History of Badger Baseball: The Rise and Fall of America’s Pastime at the University of Wisconsin
By Steven D. Schmitt
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Retail Price: $29.95 (hdcvr)
ISBN: 978-0-2993-1270-1
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: The history of Wisconsin’s baseball program from its early integrated days to its discontinuation in 1991.
High and Inside: The New York Knickerbockers Baseball Team and the Season of 1956
By Mark Mitchell
Publisher: Self-published
Retail Price: $2.99 (ebook)
ISBN: n/a
Buy It: Amazon
Summary: A novel about a 1950s Yankees-like dynasty that has hit hard times and is struggling to get back on top.
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