Books Archives

James Crabtree and his friend Ryan set out to find Bob Wood on the 20th anniversary of the publication of Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks: The Ultimate Guide to America's Top Baseball Parks. Here is their story:

The lure of the open road, a quest to visit all the sacred green cathedrals of America's National Pastime, and the joy of summer vacation equal the perfect mixture of pure bliss to many. It was certainly the right recipe for one inspired author and scores of his future readers. If baseball is the thinking man's game, then one quintessential book is the thinking baseball fans idyllic daydream of a wistful journey. Twenty years ago Bob Wood was a young 28 year-old high school teacher with an abiding love of baseball and travel. With no prior writing experience he had set out on an epic road trip to visit all 26 Major League Baseball stadiums in one summer. His book, Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, quickly became a cult classic with baseball fans around the globe. Today it still endears itself to legions of readers and offers a glimpse of a time in baseball that has now long since passed. Most of the 26 stadiums he visited are gone. Cell phones and GPS devices are common. Laptops, cable television, and the internet have revolutionized life. Steroids and other issues have had their effect upon the game. Yet, somehow baseball remains as beloved as it ever was. Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks was a fascinating read and was quickly embraced by baseball lovers everywhere. Its author however had long since left the public eye. In fact, he seemed to be missing. Where was Bob Wood? Had he become baseball's J.D. Salinger?

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My friend Ryan and I were determined to find him. Bob Wood had written Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks when we were young devout baseball fans. Now, twenty years later our love for the game was additionally filled with nostalgia for our youth. Players we had watched on the field are now manager and coaches. Stadiums in which we had watched our first big league games have been reduced to mere parking lots or vacant fields. Life moves on. Wood's book had captured our young imagination back in 1988. The idea of loading up a car and trekking across the country to visit every stadium in one summer was something we all dreamed of. Somehow, someway, Bob Wood had managed to do it. Not only had he done it, but his book had also brought us along for the ride. We were with him every mile of his solo trip. We experienced the thrill of him receiving free tickets from some teams, the fun of watching a sun baked game at Wrigley Field from the rooftop of a building on Waveland Avenue, and had suffered with him when his car was looted of all his possessions or when he feared for his safety while riding the dangerous subways in NYC. We also worried along with him about his ever-tight budget that caused him to camp in a sleeping bag most nights and subsist on hotdogs for a majority of meals. It was a book like no other. Amazingly, there has been none like it since. Wood had set out in the summer of 1985 with a Toyota Tercel loaded up with camping gear, a road atlas, some Frank Sinatra tapes, a camera, and a tape recorder. He brought little else except his dream of completing the journey and sharing his trip with friends and family. His plan was to keep an audio journal of his travels. It wasn't however until sitting under a tree one sunny day in Bozeman, Montana on his way home that he thought that perhaps he had the beginnings of a book. He would soon find himself rising at 3am most mornings to pound out a rough draft before slogging off to school to teach all day. Three years after his epic road trip his first book would finally be published in the summer of 1988. Dodger Dogs would go on to be a surprise hit, but even his publisher, McGraw-Hill, didn't realize the treasure they had on their hands and failed to even promote the book. Still, it sold. It sold everywhere it was placed on the shelf. Wood decided to take matters into his own hands and became a one-man media machine. Soon he was promoting his book by placing calls to nation wide programs and letters to newspaper editors. Before long he was appearing on the CBS Morning Show, David Letterman's program, and radio shows coast to coast. Not bad for a guy from Kalamazoo, Michigan that had admittedly majored in tailgating at Michigan State and had somehow found his way into teaching high school near Seattle, Washington. The book sold enough copies that it appeared in paperback the next year and had rave reviews from the likes of Bob Costas, Larry King, and Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell. It had taken three years for Dodger Dogs to go from a road trip to a book in stores. It would take just one year for Wood's second and final book, Big 10 Country, to be published. It was a loving look at the stadiums of the Big 10 college football conference. The audience for it though was small and it eventually faded into obscurity. It seemed that Wood had done the same. He had not written anything since then. Where was he? How to find a person with a common name that has not been in the public eye in 20 years? The search began.

"I think I've found him," read the title of the email. I was sitting at work as normal when my good friend Ryan's email hit my in-box. We had spent parts of the last four or five months trying to locate Bob Wood. It had become like a quasi-hobby. We enjoyed speculating where he would be or how to identify him. Ryan's father had spent his career in the F.B.I. and we began to think of our search for Wood like the F.B.I.'s quest for the elusive D.B. Cooper. At times we felt that our odds of success were about as remote. Wood's books had offered only a few clues. We knew he was from Kalamazoo originally. We knew that he had been a teacher. We knew that that was about all we knew. Calls and emails to his old publisher went unanswered. No one at the Kalamazoo sports page had any idea. I had even called a local convenience store that was mentioned in Dodger Dogs as being owned by the family of his childhood friend. No luck. The new owner was from Pakistan and didn't know what baseball was, let alone had he heard of Bob Wood or his infamous book. We began to think that the author of one of our favorite books had turned into J.D. Salinger, except that no one knew it.

"Yep, I think this is him," read the email. "His photo looks similar to the dust jacket photo and the writing style seems like his," wrote Ryan. He was right. It did seem to be a hit. It was our first true lead. Through the wonders of internet searching (a tool that Al Gore had not yet invented in 1988) we could see a short story about a trip to Africa by a Mr. Bob Wood, a high school teacher in Muskegon, Michigan. There was a photo of a mustachioed middle age man that appeared to bear a strong resemble to the old dust jacket photo in Dodger Dogs. It had to be him. A few more quick searches were like firing for effect with the artillery and soon we had email addresses and phone numbers for our prospective long lost author. Next, how to approach him? Was he THE Bob Wood? Was he still a fan? Why had he not written anything for so long? Would he be angered that we had found him? There was only one way to find out. My emails at first went unreturned. Perhaps they were being filtered out as spam. Eventually however I got an affirmative response. Yes, it was THE Bob Wood. No one had asked him about his book in years. The puzzle pieces were finally falling together. Months and months of part time sleuthing had finally found our Salinger; if that's what he was. So much had changed in baseball over the last 20 seasons since his book was published and we had a vast amount of questions. Some of the more pressing dealt with the logistics of the trip, how he got the book published, and queries for behind the scenes details. Luckily for us, and all true baseball fans that had ever read Dodger Dogs, Bob Wood was still very much a fan, albeit conflicted over some changes in the game, and he would gladly take the time to talk.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon the day before most teams were set to open the 2008 regular season I called Bob Wood in Michigan. Finally, after all the effort and investigations we would be able to speak. His voice is one that immediately sounds like it belongs in western Michigan with the distinct flat accent that is so common in the region. He seemed like a genuinely likeable person, just like in the book. I begin to ask question after question, many that I had wondered about since I read Dodger Dogs for the first time as a 13-year-old. Luckily for me Wood still remembered almost every moment of his journey. Over the next hour and a half we covered every question I could come up with.

For the last 16 years Wood has been a high school government teacher at Oakridge High School in the aging industrial town of Muskegon, Michigan. He views teaching as a labor of love and spends long hours on campus every day. Never married and with no children, Wood still loves to travel and has been on numerous trips to Africa and Europe. His students are excited to hear his stories about these adventures and he often leads them in various extracurricular clubs that hopefully will broaden their knowledge and expand their opportunities. Yet, Wood has seldom told them about being an author, and it was not until some of his students found a mention of him on Wikipedia that they knew much about his books. In fact, Wood was even unaware that 2008 was the 20th anniversary of Dodger Dogs being published. The thought of doing an anniversary edition is something he had not considered, but as we talk he seems to grow fonder of the idea. That is especially the case when he realizes that Dodger Dogs has now, because of the passing of time, become a resource for those that want to learn about stadiums that are now gone. Actually, it is more than that. It is about a time and an era that has faded and been replaced. A time that Wood states was "an era of innocence." It's strange to describe 1985 that way to some, but for those of us whose youths were lived in the '80s we know exactly what he means. Fully 22 of the 26 Major League Baseball stadiums that Wood visited will have been vacated or destroyed in the next three years. Gone are iconic fields of dreams such as Tiger Stadium and Comiskey Park. Others such as Yankee Stadium will soon join the roster of the deceased, along with less heralded venues like the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis. Good or bad, ballparks like Arlington Stadium and Candlestick Park are gone and their likes will never return again. Wood laments the fact that virtually every stadium today is alike. "They are all like going to the mall. When I went you saw a vast disparity amongst the stadiums. There were ups and downs along the way. There was something sorta neat about going to a crummy ballpark with 5,000 fans. That doesn't happen anymore."

In 1985 the Texas Rangers were one of the poorest franchises in baseball. Despite being located in the fast growing Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex (even the regional name that was used by the locals sounded like a mall) the team could barely draw fans to the ballpark. They played in a renovated minor league stadium in which fully half of the seats were metal bleachers that ran from foul pole to foul pole in the outfield. Wood remembers well his time there. The Rangers were so starved for attention that they placed his name on the big screen (something only half of the teams had in 1985), provided him a free hotel room (one of the few times he didn't camp by his car), and showered him with boxes of free giveaway items they used to lure fans such as hats, beach towels, and plastic beer mugs. "That was their thing," says Wood when describing the Rangers of that era. "I get the feeling that it isn't that way anymore." He's right. Today the Rangers reside in a first class structure with every amenity one could imagine. There are no more metal bleachers and no more minuscule crowds. Progress has meant huge revenue along with features such as restaurants and luxury suites. Its no longer like how All-Star Buddy Bell once described it as being so quiet during a game that you could hear the typewriters in the press box while standing at third base. My brother and I were often some of those few fans at Arlington Stadium and we built our first memories of the game there. Today, the stadium is gone and its past location serves as a parking lot. My request to the Rangers' p.r. department for a free media guide or pocket schedule was met with silence. It seems that more has changed in Arlington than just the ballpark.

Baseball has grown obviously, but the game also reveres history and tradition. "I think the game still does better than most at holding its heritage," says Wood. "Still, a lot has changed and isn't coming back. Many of the people at ballparks just seem to be there because it's like going to the mall. When I was a kid I would sit and score the game or listen on the transistor radio. I think we're losing those fans."

Bob Wood began his journey through America on Sunday, June 16, 1985 with an afternoon game at the now demolished Seattle Kingdome. After watching the Mariners eke out a 2 to 1 win over the K.C. Royals before a crowd of 14,103 fans he would jump into his Toyota Tercel and hit the road. His quest would end in Atlanta at the now imploded Atlanta Fulton County Stadium on Monday, August 5, 1985 with a 6-1 Dodgers win over the lowly Braves. He had seen a game in each of the 26 stadiums and had logged over 10,000 miles on his car. He had driven long expanses of highway on an extremely tight schedule. Today he's amazed he did it. "I don't know if it could be done today," says Wood from his home near Muskegon. "To hit 30 stadiums like I did would be even more difficult, especially with the price of gas and the logistics of the games." Teams that have been added in Colorado, Arizona, and Florida would certainly put an added burden to today's journey. He admits however there would be some advantages today that didn't exist in 1985. "Yeah, I would call my mom back in Kalamazoo on a pay phone most nights to let her know I was ok. I mean, I had to drive across the desert in Arizona and New Mexico at night because my car had no A.C." he adds with a laugh. "In fact, my mom even filed a missing persons report on me in San Francisco because I was so despondent about my car being broken into and most of my possessions being taken" says Wood. "It's just so absurd when you look back on it, but man it was a great trip."

Wood still owns the rights to his book. After some prodding I think he begins to come around to the idea to issue a 20th or 25th anniversary edition. Perhaps he could do a new forward? When Dodger Dogs was first published McGraw-Hill, besides doing no promotional work for it, also ran exceedingly small printings of the book. Small enough that they could never meet demand. "It was very frustrating," says Wood. "It went to something like seven printings, but each printing was only around 2,000 or 4,000 copies. It was never enough to meet the demand from the bookstores. Today, you could simply go around a bad publisher by selling your book via the internet. At that time in the '80s publishing was still very much a slow system and you just had to stand in line and hope that the publisher would print more copies. I think that's changed some." It is all the more reason for a new edition of his classic. "I'm really glad people still love the book. You know it just seems to pop up from time to time. I think it's become a cult classic of sorts and that's cool," he says reflectively.

There are some great anecdotes that I glean from our interview. Items that didn't make the book include the fact he surprisingly lost over 20 pounds on the road trip due to malnutrition. Wood's eating of hot dogs and ballpark peanuts for virtually every meal finally caught up with him half way through his trip. "I got sick in Minnesota and threw up. I had this great idea that I could just eat hot dogs and beer the whole time, but it finally got to me. I had to keep going on the trip, but it was hard to keep the weight on." Wood also confesses to sometimes skipping out of the KOA campgrounds without paying. "I had to. I had no money. So, I'd get up in the dark, shower, and pack up and slide off out of there." Perhaps the most revealing detail was his fear of New York City. In the book he had described carrying a knife for protection on the NYC subway and his strong belief he could be attacked. I ask if that was a real fear, or just an exaggeration for the story. "No, I was really scared. I had never been to New York before and was very worried for my safety. I've been back since many times however and really like it." This account, more than perhaps any other, demonstrated how dedicated he was to the journey. He was willing to face potential mortal danger on a Bronx subway while holding a knife underneath a folded up newspaper to ensure that he made it to Yankee Stadium. Had J.D. Salinger ever done that?

At some point it becomes clear that Bob Wood is no recluse. He may not have written another book since 1989, nor has he desired to do so, but he lives a life he finds rewarding. "I love being a teacher. I've always had a passion for it," says Wood. "People would ask me when the book came out if I was a writer doing a story about baseball or if I was baseball fan that wrote a book. I would always tell them I was just a fan that wrote a book." Wood however still loves to travel and continues to use his summer vacations for that purpose. "I love being able to just go once summer hits. I've been to Europe and Africa several times. It really opened up my perspective on life," says Wood. In fact, Wood has used his African travels to become a one-man media campaign once more. This time instead of trying to promote his book he is trying to promote the idea of change in the war torn Darfur region of Kenya. He has also led his students to become active in American politics and serves as an advisor to a group of that calls themselves the "Super Dupers." They are a club that has been relentlessly bugging Michigan Democrats to do away with the super delegates in their primary process. An effort to eliminate the designated hitter might have more success, but to Wood the quixotic seems to be something to celebrate and embrace.

Bob Wood's favorite baseball memories are both related to the Red Sox. As a teenager his parents had allowed him to drive with a friend on a whim from Michigan to Boston to go see a game at Fenway Park. It had planted a seed that would spur his epic 1985 quest. It has also made him a lifelong Red Sox fan. His devotion explains why the 2004 American League Championship Series is his best baseball moment out of a life of baseball memories. "Man, when the Sox came back to win four straight and beat the Yankees...well, it was the best and most exciting moment I've seen in baseball." His voice sounds like that of a 13 year-old kid filled with excitement and awe. It is the same tone that filled Dodger Dogs for page after page. I ask for more details about his one-man media campaign to sell his book. "Well, I was determined to do whatever I could. I just started making phone calls to people non-stop. The first big break was being interviewed by Kathleen Sullivan on the CBS morning news show. From there things just grew." Wood recounts how his favorite show was ________ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "He was just a great radio host. He had me on several times to promote it and he would just do an entire hour with no ads. We'd just talk about the trip, the stadiums, and take phone calls. I wonder what ever happened to him?" I ask for information about the David Letterman experience. "Letterman was actually pretty cold. His studio was freezing, but also he just personally wasn't very friendly to me. Now, his staff was great however." Wood adds that he was determined not to make a fool of himself during his full seven-minute interview segment and believes he didn't. He adds with a laugh however that he was on the show the same night controversial singer Sinead O'Connor made her first appearance on an American television. Letterman's demeanor was the rare exception. Others were far warmer and more gracious. Two well-known and high respected baseball broadcasters were his earliest and most fervent advocates. "Ernie Harwell and Bob Costas were the best. They really went out of their way to help me. They made calls and helped with promoting the book. I think they each understood the appeal of the book far quicker than most did," says Wood. "They really helped out a lot."

One tale from the book featured a man who made his living selling peanuts outside games at the famed Wrigley Field in Chicago. Wood spent an entire afternoon with him learning the trade and hawked peanuts one summer afternoon to the throngs that were heading inside the historic ballpark. The stadium remains, but the vendor is long since gone. "They chased him out of there," Wood says ruefully. "The Cubs and the city came in and cracked down on street vendors around the ballpark. It became very corporate. You know, I sat on a rooftop of an apartment across the street from Wrigley in a lawn chair and watched the game. That's gone." Wood is right. In fact, all of the rooftops across from Wrigley now feature built in seats and earn so much from ticket sales that the Cubs sued the building owners a few years ago to ensure they got a cut of the increasing revenue. Wood bemoans what he sees as the squeezing out of the common fan. "I don't know how a family can afford to really go to many games anymore." Back in 1985 $10 or $12 would get you the best seat in the house in most ballparks. Today a fan is lucky to park their car for that amount. The idea of bleacher seats has all but faded and those that remain, such as at Wrigley, are now so in demand that they are far harder to find tickets for than any other seat. Our conversation has taken a turn toward the melancholic as we continue to discuss some of the unfortunate changes in the game. We ponder how baseball has now opened their season once more in Japan for the third time in its history. We wonder why baseball cards now cost around $3 for 10 cards when they were a simple quarter for 15 back in the mid '80s. We reflect on how World Series games are now all played at night and have such late start times that any kid that has to attend school the next day is lucky to view the first three innings. The rulers of Major Baseball seem to have focused on the short-term financial gain, but what have they forsaken in terms of future generations? Have changes such as inter-league play, the DH, and the wild card added anything to the game? Wood clearly seems to fall into the camp of baseball purists, but he isn't sour about it. He clearly still loves the game and enjoys it. As much as things seem to have changed since the mid '80s more than we realize has remained the same. The love for baseball and the dream of the ultimate road trip are probably stronger today than ever. That is why Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks continues to grow as a classic. Its appeal is timeless, just like the game it chronicles. One day Bob Woods' talents as a writer may lead him back to writing about the game. Twenty years has changed a lot in baseball, as it has in life, but childhood loves of nostalgic moments in baseball seem to never fade. After finally finding and talking with Bob Wood I'm convinced that not only does the nostalgia for baseball and youth never fade, it only grows stronger with time.

Alex Belth polled 55 readers and lists the ten essential baseball books. One I like that didn't make the top ten is The Managers by Bill James.

In my time at ESPN, I don't remember working much with Kenny Mayne, but I remember liking him very much. Almost all the anchors I worked with were good people. They had the occasional conniption, as the videos of Chris Berman that popped up on YouTube can attest. I can't say I ever heard Kenny utter a mean word, or knew anyone who didn't love working with the man.

As you may or may not know, Kenny and his wife lost a set of twins. It was devastating for them, and Mayne took some time off after the tragedy. Eventually, the couple did have a child. To celebrate, Kenny bought ice cream for ESPN. He sent the owner of the local ice cream parlor to the Bristol studios with tubs of ice cream, and everyone got to make a sundae.

On top of everything else, Mayne is hilarious. So I was very happy to receive a copy of An Incomplete and Inaccurate History of Sport: . . . and Other Random Thoughts from Childhood to Fatherhood. By luck, I opened to the chapter on rowing. I was a coxswain in college, so I identified with this:

In rowing, a bunch of men or women sit in a boat and row as hard as they can while another person, the coxswain, yells at them to row even harder.

Continuing:

For some reason, it's a real big deal at prestigious colleges such as Harvard. Most of the kids who go to Harvard are really smart and will end up owning boats driven by other people, though no oars will be involved and there won't be that much yelling. You'd think, being so smart, all the people at Harvard who want to be on the rowing team would try out for the part where you get to yell at people to row harder than they already can. It's management training.

The book has a foreword, a backwords and a forward, all designed to frustrate delay Canadians from getting to the first chapter, Ice Hockey. Kenny, a former football player writes five chapters on tackle football, including indoor tackle football and electric tackle football.

It's a funny look at the sports we know well, and an even funnier look at the sports we don't know at all.

Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Else presents Rob Neyer at his best. My first exposure to Rob's work came from his contributions to Bill James's Baseball Books, where Neyer wrote sidebars tracking down these types of stories. Now with Retrosheet at his disposal, Rob can do even better work. He tracks down home run banter between Fred Haney and Babe Ruth. He discovers if Munson dropped third strikes so he could pull ahead of Fisk in assists. He examines bean balls and Bob Feller's wildness.

All the while Rob's conversational tone makes you think you're sitting there talking baseball with a fellow fan. For those of you who want to know if announcers are telling true stories or embellishing the facts, Baseball Legends is for you.

Jon Heyman reports on the reason Jose Canseco hates A-Rod:

Canseco claims in his new book, Vindicated, that the reason he "hates [Alex Rodriguez's] guts'' is because A-Rod hit on Canseco's then-wife Jessica. However, people who were close confidants of Canseco insist the actual reason the ex-ballplayer despises A-Rod has nothing to do with Canseco's former wife but regards Canseco's true passion, which, of course, is money.

Those former confidants told SI.com the rift between the two Miami-raised superstars actually occurred when Rodriguez chose not to let Canseco and his brother, Ozzie, be his agents. Those former confidants say Canseco was bitterly disappointed in A-Rod's business rejection.

"I know Jose, and I know Jose very well. He would be madder at A-Rod for not signing with the agency than for going after Jessica,'' said Juan Iglesias, a well-respected Miami-based player agent and former business associate of Canseco's.

Iglesias also dispells the idea that A-Rod hit on Canseco's wife.

Joe Lavin got his hands on a copy of Canseco's new book and provides spoilers. Since it's a humor column, I don't know if it's made up or not.

Hat tip, FanHouse.

Update: The post appears to be real. A-Rod was asked about both accusations and gave a no comment to both. Alex is a lot smarter than Roger Clemens when it comes to keeping his mouth shut about things that might get him in trouble.

Update: River Ave. Blues still thinks it's a joke.

In the mail today, Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual. It has all you need to know about the San Diego Padres. I'm looking forward to some free time to read it.

The Baseball Musings pledge drive continues through March. Please consider making a donation.

The Mariners posted their media guide online. This is very useful. In the past, you had to be a member of the media to get one or shell out $5. Now you can just look up numbers anytime anywhere without lugging books around. I hope all teams are doing this.

The Baseball Musings pledge drive continues through March. Please consider making a donation.

Rays Anatomy provides pictures of the Tampa Bay Rays fanfest. I like this one of the Baseball Prospectus table, showing how they are trying new and different ways to sell their books:

I wonder what their VONS (Value Over Nate Silver) is? :-)

Redleg Nation finds a classic book.

Jose Canseco's ghost writer quits.

"I'm passing," Yaeger told the Daily News. "I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco (material) that he provided me. I don't think there's a book there. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think he's got what he claims to have, certainly doesn't have what he claims to have on A-Rod.

"There's no meat on the bones."

It's a good day for Alex Rodriguez.

Jose Canseco's new book is set for an opening day, 2008 release. Given the veracity of Jose's previous book, there are going to be many unhappy players the day the volume hits the stands.

R.J. Anderson published his book on the early years of the Devil Rays, Lamar-itis. It's available via download at the link.

ACTA Sports is now taking orders for Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster 2008.

On the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the major leagues, it seems appropriate to review Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. Jonathan Eig presents a narrative tough to put down. I like to skim books to get a feel for the story, but I found myself reading page after page and letting the time slip away.

Eig provides not only the story of Robinson in that year, but of the struggle for civil rights as a whole in the mid 1940s. Huge demographic shifts took place at that time as soldiers returned from the war, and black Americans among them pushed for eqaul treatment. A wave of relocation brought many black southerners north looking for better jobs, and created an atmosphere in New York City where integration on the baseball diamond would soon become forced. Branch Rickey was stayed ahead of the curve, which allowed him to integrate on his terms.

Eig delves deeply into Robinson the man. We get a clear portrait of Robinson's willingness to fight for his rights on two bus ride stories. One, in which he refuses to go to the back of the bus while in the army, led to his court martial. The other, in which he used the power of the purse to persuade a gas station owner to allow the players to use the washroom. Those incidents stand in stark contrast to his first trip to spring training. Airlines found excuses not to fly Robinson and his wife Rachael all the way to Daytona. They ended up on a bus, sitting in the penultimate row. But the driver demanded they move all the way to the back, and Jackie did without argument. It was the first case of him following Rickey's orders to have the strength not to fight back and thanks to the author's prose, we feel Robinsons' struggle with those moments.

Eig takes us through the cheers and catcalls, the worries and the triumphs of that amazing season. He describes the scene when the Dodgers returned home from a western road trip in September that won them the pennant:

As the Dodgers stepped down onto the train platform along Track Thirteen, some of the less recognizable players mixed with the crowd and escaped, their hats pulled over their faces. Not Robinson. As he walked toward a phone booth, eager to call his wife, some five hundred people -- most of them men, most of them white -- moved with him. He took off running, got to the phone booth ahead of the crowd, and slammed shut the accordion door. When he finished his call, half a dozen policemen rescued him, forming a circle, and, like the front line of the UCLA football team, clearing a path. Robinson took off for the IND subway line, where several pursuing fans begged for the privilege of paying his five-cent fare. At last, he reached his train and climbed aboard. And still, dozens of giddy admirers trailed him. They squeezed into his subway car, their destination of little matter, happy enough just to be along for the ride.

Robinson didn't mind. The Dodgers were winners. He was going home to his wife and son.

"I'm tickled silly," he said.

This season, think about honoring Jackie Robinson by reading this fine story of his great 1947 season. It reminds us how lucky we and the game are that Robinson succeeded.

The Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual is a perfect book for any Padres fans or for anyone looking to gain a better understanding of the Padres organization. Geoff Young, long time blogger at Ducksnorts presents the material in his usual fascinating way. His mix of opinion and numbers makes for an enjoyable read throughout. There's something there for everyone.

I especially liked the chapter on Kevin Towers' trades. He breaks down the best and the worst. Interestingly, his best is one that will surprise people. It netted negative win shares for the Padres, but benefited the organization in many other ways. That's the kind of insight Geoff brings to the book. He's able to look beyond the numbers to support his opinions.

His review of the history of the Padres made me realize just how few great players called the city home. They've had incredible right fielders, and of course Trevor Hoffman, but at almost every other position I said to myself, "That's the best they could do?"

So if you want to read a complete, in-depth review of the 2006 San Diego season, if you want to learn how this team was built, or even if you're just interested in some history about the organization, the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual is the book for you. Geoff presents numbers, opinions and history in a very enjoyable style. Don't miss this book!

I'll be attending the Baseball Prospectus event at the Yale Barnes and Noble tonight in New Haven. If you're attending, be sure to say hello.

Two new books came in the mail in the last couple of days. The Cheater's Guide to Baseball looks like a lot of fun. Just skimming through the book I came across the illustrations of how doctored pitches move. Given the ugliness of the substances on the balls, I'm glad I never caught Gaylord Perry. The author, Derek Zumsteg, can be read on a daily basis at U.S.S. Mariner.

Also recently arrived is the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual. It features analysis and commentary on the current San Diego Padres, as well as some historical information and lessons the organization can learn from other successful "small market" teams around MLB. You can read more about the Padres at Ducksnorts, the blog.

I'll be reviewing both in the next couple of weeks.

Finally today I bought Burning Annie. I've heard about this movie for a few years but never got the chance to see it in a theater. I'm a huge fan of Annie Hall. My roommate Jim Storer and I used to go see the movie whenever it played at the old Harvard Square Theater (for $2, you saw classic double features). One night we went and the movie was sold out, so we walked around reciting lines to entertain ourselves. I still say, "the universe is expanding," when I find someone worrying about something frivolous. I'll post a review of Burning Annie just for fun after I see the film.

Baseball on the Brain arrived in the mail. Dennis Purdy offers tons of various baseball trivia questions from records to movie quotes. My favorites are the pictures to identify. Even baseball experts will find this book challenging.

Florida Spring Training, 3rd Edition: Your Guide to Touring the Grapefruit League (Florida Spring Training: Your Guide to Touring the Grapefruit League) by Alan Byrd provides all the information a traveler to Florida needs to navigate spring training baseball. Alan attended games at each stadium and gives you a real feel for what the ballpark is like. He lists the pros and cons, the beautiful and the ugly. For each park, a general introduction is followed by specifics on everything from, food to shade to how to exit the parking lot quickly. He tells you where it's easy to get autographs, where to stay in the area, and where to get food or drink before and after the game.

A perfect example of the value of the book is in the section on getting autographs at Chain of Lakes Park, the home of the Indians. After explaining the difficulties of meeting Indians players caused by the layout of the stands, he gives you detailed instructions for meeting Bob Feller and obtaining an autographed picture. The book makes his learned experiences yours. It's the perfect guide if you're headed to the Grapefruit League this year.

Alex Rodriguez wrote a children's book, Out of the Ballpark. (Also in Spanish, Out of the Ballpark (Spanish edition): Jonron!) The story line sounds familiar:

"Out of the Ballpark" follows a boy - appropriately named Alex - whose baseball team is playing in the playoffs. Alex, who is a second baseman, makes a key error in the game and begins to put extra pressure on himself. Only his play gets worse. Sound familiar?

Alex's team, the Caribes, overcomes his play to reach the championship game. Alex works harder, waking up before sunrise to practice, throwing a ball against his bedroom wall 500 times a day. Without giving away the ending, let's just say that the Yankees should hope that life imitates art come October.

Maybe when Alex retires he'll take up baseball blogging. He's one of the more intelligent players out there, and his views would certainly add to the discussion.

Gary Sheffield's autobiography is due out soon. Sheffield recounts his dealings with Bonds and BALCO, but there's not much new in that regard. It does shed some light on Sheffield's relationship with Joe Torre:

Sheffield called Manager Joe Torre "an enigma" and recalled how, in 2004, his first season in with the Yankees, he grew infuriated that Torre had said he wished the team had signed the slugger Vladimir Guerrero.

During a meeting in Torre's office before a May game in Baltimore, Sheffield told him: "I'm tired of hearing you talk about how much you love Guerrero. That disrespects me."

The next season, Sheffield recounted, he and Torre had an argument in St. Louis the day after Torre called him out during a team meeting for his uneven defensive play.

Sheffield said they quickly patched things up once Torre explained how he viewed him as a team leader and as someone who could handle the pressure.

Daniel J. Erickson writes that his book about the 1986 Mets, 1986 Mets Memories - A Fan's View of The World Champions is available from Amazon and also as an E-Book.

The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2007 is now shipping. There's plenty of time to make it a Christmas present for the baseball fan you love.

Steve Lombardi reviews The Bill James Handbook 2007 at Netshrine. I just received my copy of The Bill James Handbook 2007 yesterday. The first thing that caught my eye was the voting for best defensive players. Bill gathered a panel of experts from both the news media and the sabermetric world, gave them ballots and had them vote in a Borda count. What's interesting is there is a lot of agreement with the AL and NL voting. Even on something like shortstop, Everett wins but Vizquel comes in second (Jeter, however, doesn't make the top ten). Maddux and Rogers finish one-two among pitchers in their poll, and the objective stats back that up. That makes me think teams don't teach their pitchers to field any more if two 40 year olds are the best at turning balls into outs.

The biggest differences are in the outfield, where the gold glove awards vote for the best outfielders, giving centerfielders an advantage, while this poll was at each position. It's a voting system that's easily implemented and would likely improve the results of the voting, but not as much as I would have thought.

Also, in the managers section, take a look at Ozzie Guillen's entry. It's a good lesson in how the makeup of the team effects strategy. In 2005, with a weaker offense team, Guillen stole more, sacrificed more and put runners in motion more often than with his 2006 power team. That's just what a manager should do, as the investment in outs is more costly if it's easier to score a man from first with a long hit.

Just arrived in the mail, an advance copy of The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed by JC Bradbury, author of Sabernomics. He looks at sabermetric research using the tools of economists. I've just started reading, but so far his arguments are interesting and informative. I'll have a few review at a later date.

In the mail, A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports. Brad Snyder spends a few chapters on Flood's biography, but the bulk of the story is devoted to Flood's court battle. If you're interested in a more complete biography of Flood, I'd recommend Stepping Up: The Story of All-Star Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players' Rights by Bronx Banter blogger Alex Belth.

The Hardball Times provides a preview of their new annual, introducing new metrics on batted balls.

You can pre-order your copy of the Bill James Handbook 2007 at Amazon now. Now only does it give you the career stats for each player soon after the season is over, but it's full of all kinds of interesting charts on defense, managers, projections and park effects. I always keep my copy next to my computer.

Little Leagues, Big Dreams just arrived in the mail. It looks to be a look at the pros and cons of Little League, and how it's grown into a big business told through the lens of the 2005 Little League World Series.

The Team by Team Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball arrived in the mail today. The book presents history, stats, lineups and significant players for each organization. It looks like a nice addition to any baseball library.

In Feeding the Monster, Seth Mnookin offers an intimate view into the operation of the Red Sox from their sale by the Yawkey Trust to the start of the 2006 season. Seth's prose is enjoyable to read. As I initially skimmed the book, I found my self reading pages into chapters rather than just trying to get the gist of the story. Mnookin spent 2005 with a desk at Fenway, going to meetings, interviewing personnel, almost acting as part of the operation. Through him we learn how the Henry group came together, and how Charles Dolan lost the team by offering money to the limited partners too early. Seth takes us through the long process that developed into the rift between Lucchino and Epstein, something that could have been fixed early if either of them had spoken about it to the other.

Manny Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez and Kevin Millar are all explored in depth. Despite this, I understand Manny no better now than I did before reading the book. The Manny tales are more a rehash of what we know. Mnookin never gets in the player's head. That was a big disappointment.

What turned out to be very interesting to me was the tension between Baseball Operations and Marketing. Theo Epstein felt marketing was promising too much to the fans. Epstein realized after the 2005 season the team might need to take a step backward so they could be both a high revenue club and have a strong farm system. But marketing wouldn't listen and that helped drive Theo away from the team in last October.

It's a fascinating look at how a team operates, how players behave, and how the media is involved in all of it. While Red Sox fans will love every minute of the book, any baseball fan will enjoy the real-life drama that was the Red Sox over the last four seasons. I highly recommend Feeding the Monster.

In the Mail, Feeding the Monster by Seth Mnookin. I'm skiming it now, but it's very engaging and appears to be very well sourced. I'll have a more thorough review when I finish. The Boston Globe has highlights.

Ken Aven writes that his first novel, Chavez Ravine Echoes, is now available for purchase. You can read more about Ken at his site.

Alex Belth always gets the best interviews. Today he talks to Joel Sherman, author of The Birth of a Dynasty, the story of the 1996 Yankees.

In Bubble Wrap is offering twenty five copies of Jeff Angus' Management by Baseball. I'm told there are no strings attached, just click on the "I Want One" button and you're entered in the drawing.

I just received Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders in the mail. Rob and a host of guest authors explore some of the famous mistakes in baseball history; trades, managers and players. Yours truly gets a side-bar on Dusty Baker and game six of the 2003 LCS on page 270, so I'm not the most unbiased reviewer. However, I love Rob's books, and if you're a fan of the ESPN columnist, I'm sure you'll love this one too.

There's a new children's book about Manny Ramirez. Seems appropriate.

The audio version of Clemente, The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero arrived in the mail. David Maraniss writes and read this biography. The title shows Maraniss sees Clemente through a romantic lens, and listening to the first chapter that shines through. David is impressed by Clemente's humanity, which starts long before his ill fated trip to help earthquake victims. Clemente visits children in hospitals wherever he goes, he gives out coins to poor people he meets on the street. If you're looking for a book about the legend of Clemente, Maraniss provides the text.

Former commissioner Fay Vincent started a project to conduct videotape interviews of former players to preserve the history of the game. The Only Game in Town is the first fruit of that project. The book contains interviews with ten players from the 1930's and 1940's, with an eye on how the game changed from before World War II to the breaking of the color barrier in 1947.

I've read the first chapter, an interview with Elden Auker, the last surviving member of the Detroit championship teams of the early 1930s. A submariner, Auker pitched against and played with some of the greats of the day. He tells stories about Babe Ruth, Mickey Cochrane, Joe Cronin, and how Auker almost ended Lou Gehrig's streak when one of Elden pitches broke the toe of the Iron Horse.

This is the first volume of the history, and it looks like it will be a must have for a baseball historian's library.

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Steve Lombardi pens a positive review of The Last Nine Innings at NetShrine.

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6-4-2 Has the link to a story about Barry Bonds suing the authors of Game of Shadows. It's looks to me that Bonds' lawyers want to hold the authors in contempt for illegally obtaining grand jury testimony.

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Game of Shadows arrived at the house today, accompanied by the fanciest press kit I've seen so far. It has excerpts, bios, interviews with the authors, everything you might want to review the book without reading it. I'll make the effort to actually read the book before reviewing it, however.

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Alex Belth, author of Bronx Banter, is now the author of the first biography of Curt Flood. Stepping Up, The Story of Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players' Rights is the first book by the fine blogger.

I've just started the book, but in first 40 pages Alex is already fleshing out a complex man living in a complex time. Belth is a fine wordsmith; the pages fly by, both interesting and informative. I'm looking forward to the whole story, especially the fight for freedom from the reserve clause.

Correction: Changed not to now. Makes much more sense that way.

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