No comments about Nomo: The Inside Story on Baseball's Hottest Sensation.

No comments about Over the Bar: A Personal Relationship With the GAA.

1 comments about Steamboat Single Tracks : The Mountain Biking Guide to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

1. We bought this book for a trip to Steamboat in July 2003. My wife is a beginning rider, so we picked a ride classified as "easy", and described as fire roads/dirt roads throughout. That may have been the case when this book was first written in 1993, but 10 years later, there were almost no signs, and about half the course had regressed to seriously overgrown single-track. It took three of us (two with substantial outdoor and hiking experience) 6 hours to finish what should have been a 2 hour ride, as we kept getting lost and having to back track. The authors say they revise this book: DON'T BELIEVE THEM.

2 comments about The 500 Home Run Club : Baseball's 16 Greatest Home Run Hitters from Babe Ruth to Mark McGwire.

1. I have always dreamed of meeting the 16 baseball players that have hit over 500 home runs. Now I realize that meeting Ruth, Ott, Mantle and Matthews would be impossible that's why I'm glad to have a copy of this book.

   Along with those listed earlier you read about Aaron, Schmidt, Jackson, Foxx, Killebrew, Mays, Robinson, Williams, McCovey, Banks, Murray and the newest member McGwire.

   The book is new and updated and the 16 players are listed alphabetically and no ranking system is used. I like this concept as it gives the reader the choice as to which they consider the best of this very special and elite group.

   Each chapter is written to not only discuss the career of the player but also let others who knew them talk about the person as well. The book also includes photos of each of the players. This is for every baseball fan young and old - excellent work and well done!!




2. Right now there are sixteen players who have hit over 500 home runs. Each one has a nice write-up and stories that are very enjoyable to read. Fifteen are retired or deceased and one is still playing.

2 comments about Hideki Matsui: Sportsmanship, Modesty, and the Art of the Home Run.

1. This book wasn't very informative. While I did learn some stuff about Matsui, most of it I already knew. I thought it was going to go into detail about his childhood, playing with the Giants, and coming to the Yankees. It sort of glossed over all of those, not really exploring any one thing in depth.
   
   The author knows Hideki personally, and therefore spends a lot of time talking about himself. While some of these stories are interesting, most are not. Ijuin's narcissism gets old after a while. If you've been waiting for a good Matsui biography to come out, keep waiting.



2. The term "hagiography" was coined for this book. It was absolutely glowing about Matsui in a fawning and sort of obsessive way. I don't know if it's due to cultural differences or what, but this reads like a Junior High School girl's diary entries, without the "LOLs." One of the author's quotes sums up this biography's tone: "For Hiroko [the author's wife] and me, middle-aged and childless, the appearance of Matsui in our lives was magical. It was as though a sprite had breathed a kind of radiance into us." Come on, get a grip, Shizuka.
   
   Not to mention, the book's title should have been "My Life as an Obsessive Matsui Fan." This was more of an autobiography of author Shizuka Ijuin than a biography of the Japanese Yankees slugger. I will never regain the time I lost learning about Ijuin's wife, dogs, frustrated baseball ambitions, and literary accolades. Matsui is mostly mentioned as the guy at the other end of the dinner table from Ijuin.
   
   All accounts I've read of Matsui portray him as a decent and charitable human being, which is why I risked my hide reading about a Yankee from Red Sox country: he is a philanthropist without ulterior motives, donating mostly anonymously (until later discovered); he has a tireless work ethic; he respects both his native Japan and the United States, visiting Ground Zero in a snowstorm his first day in New York; and he in general embodies the modesty that Japanese are traditionally known for. However, this stuff was touched upon so briefly and shallowly in this book. Did you know that Matsui earned a first-degree black belt in judo and won a citywide sumo tournament as a youngster? Or that he credits his tremendous professional restraint to a severe public slapping he received from his junior high school coach for throwing a bat in anger at an opposing pitcher who intentionally walked him? No? Well, you wouldn't have learned it from reading this book, either. It omitted these and other stories from the biography while describing the temperaments of the author's wife and dogs.

No comments about Baseballs Fallen Heroes.

5 comments about Rothstein: Library Edition.

1. Author David Peitrusza deserves plenty of kudos for his sweeping biography of Arnold Rothstein, the mad credited for fixing the 1919 World Series. In "Rothstein" we have an overview of the man and his times with perhaps too much of an emphasis on peripheral people and events. The reader will be regaled by stories of turn-of-the-century through prohibition era gamblers and big time criminals. Readers will acquire a greater knowledge of the East Coast underworld and some of the prominent figures who walked the line between criminal and legitimate. From casinos, race fixing and high society's degenerate gamblers to crooks both small time and big, "Rothstein" is an excellent account of the times of the famed gambler. Rothstein surely ranks as one of this country's most notorious criminal master minds.
   As much as I enjoyed the book I would have liked getting to know the man himself a little better. While readers will enjoy an opportunity to learn what AR, (as Rothstein was sometimes called) did, where and with whom he did it you cannot be sure to understand what made him tick. His childhood and early years are skimmed over while great detail is given his murder and its subsequent investigation. Hopefully someone can come along who will provide a fuller view of Rothstein. For that biographer and anyone interested in a man immortalized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in "The Great Gatsby" Petrusza's book is a must-read. Whatever "Rothstein's faults as a biography, it is still a good read and highly recommended.



2. 
   Tackling the biography is Arnold Rothstein is not like undertaking to deal with the life of most equally known men of even the same time. Rothstein was covered, as can be seen in the bibliography, in hundreds if not thousands of articles of the time in newspapers, magazines, books, and legends. The problem is not lack of words written, but lack of actual knowledge of the subject. Simply put, much of what has been written is legendary, apocryphal, repetitive, speculative or downright false, and it must have been an overwhelming task to wade through the junk to find the goods. Pietruszka has done as good a job of it as likely can be done at this remove.
   
   Further complicating the task is the personality of the subject, in this case a man who was clearly highly intelligent, charismatic, and industrious, but was missing some kind of chip to his personal makeup that would have made him fully human. Judging from the book, AR loved the multiplication of money in any way possible, judging everything and everyone useful or not useful based strictly upon the expected financial return. Associates passed in and out of his life and he had no compunction about lying to them or ripping them off or leaving them hanging out to dry, to take whatever heat might come down in his wake, and he'd pick them back up again if there was money to be made with no personal feelings entering into it. It must have been hard to resist his charismatic pull, but harder to actually like the man.
   
   Before reading this book I had known a little about Rothstein, mostly from the gambling/World Series angle. I had been unaware of his deep involvement in drugs and similar financial adventures. I wonder to what degree some of the crimes ascribed to Rothstein are simply a case of saying that because he was involved in this, with so-and-so, he MUST have been involved in that, with so-and-so. Notably, Rothstein's own little black book of records may well have been `edited' by the cops after it was found, and of course the missing sheets are missing. There seems to have been little actual written proof of much of anything Rothstein did, and there are so many conflicting stories and points of view it is hard to know the man's actual deeds with any certainty.
   
   Rothstein's relationship with his wife stands in complete contrast: the one person from whom he did not intend to make money he put on such a pedestal that he found himself unable to approach her as a wife, as a woman, and of course this created further suffering.
   
   I think that this man was a very one-sided genius, essentially an amoral machine. Pietruszka has done an excellent job of trying to separate fact from fiction of his fascinating subject.



3. Without trying to repeat what has already been said, A.R. comes alive in reading this book. He really didn't have many friends, just business associates. His life was all business and that business was making money! He was the ultimate gambler seeing an opening and taking it (no matter who you were - family, friend or foe). A.R. was involved in all types of scams, legitimate and illegal, for the sole purpose of turning a profit. After reading this book - you also find out a few undesirable traits about A.R. such as him being a welsher, and not paying debts on time. He wasn't the most honorable among thieves. This was an interesting characteristic of the book for it isn't one-sided. It gives you the facts about A.R. whether good or bad. This book paints a true portrait of the extent of vice which involved politicians, mobsters, athletes, policemen and of course actors and actresses. There is extensive research with regard to who killed A. R. I found this part of the book to be very interesting to see all the facts and the "behind the scenes" work unravel. It reveals the motives: the who, what, when, where, why and how. The last chapter keeps you very motivated and wanting for more. There were some great quotes from some old timers and I think one can learn a few things from reading this book. The book is recommended to other readers.



4. A glimpse into history and a ruthless time in America. Not only a good baseball story but a great read for anyone wanting to learn more about the time period.



5. Although the 1919 Series is in the title, the book goes beyond that, so if you're a curious baseball fan this book might have more than you are game for. Pietrusza seems to know his New York criminal element of the era, and the books travels down spokes out from the Rothstein hub into these areas, which certainly helps to put Rothstein into perspective, at least from a "buisness" standpoint.
   
   I have uncovered additional info about Rothstein's personality with simple google searches, and in other books; the sources seeming to be reliable. Presuming these are accurate, they do help to supplement what we learn about Rothstein here. That's no big criticism, but the book left me with some unanswered questions about Rothstein's personality -- answers that might or might not be difficult to answer.
   
   Rothstein was not a well-kept secret, even in his era, and there seems to have been enough written about him that I would think it might not be difficult for an author to give us more about his personality. This author choose to focus on dozens of peripheral characters, and if you're a history fan that proves to be illiuminating, but does not always illuminate Rothstein, just places him in a context. Still, readers can argue the "business" of Rothstein and his fellow criminals is the compelling part of his personality, and speaks volumes itself.

No comments about Like Father, Like Son: Baseball's Major League Families (Scholastic Biography).

2 comments about You Never Forget Your First: Ballplayers Recall Their Big League Debuts.

1. This book covers over 100 players and for each in 2-3 pages tells you a biography of a player, the player describing their debut in the bigs and a box score from that game. My favourite element was the last element though a fact about something that also happened on that day and a second fact which links the first to the player being profiled. Certainly not a book to be read in one go and best read a few stories at a time. Most of the players are fairly modern but there are a few players from the 60's and the 70's.



2. I pretty much agree with what the first reviewer wrote, but here's why I'm a little disappointed with the book (I'm about 1/3 through it right now) - it seems a little repetitive, getting basically the same story from a number of players. Who told them they were going to the majors, who did they call (and how), how did they get to the city of their first game. All good stuff, but a little heavy on the logistics of the call-up and not as much emotion as I'd hoped for. There are some tidbits that are really cool (such as Josh Beckett once threw a pitch at the FATHER of an opponent because he thought the guy was giving away pitch locations).
   
   What I think would make a more interesting book would be a slightly different look. Ask the players about how they were first scouted, signed, moved their way up through the minors. Did the great players always know they'd be great, or did they have their moments when they were ready to give up (as Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle both did early in their careers). Did marginal players also believe they'd have better careers than they wound up having? Also interview some highly touted prospects who never quite made it. Stuff like that.
   
   Anyway, this is a great concept turned into a worthwhile read by one of baseball's better TV announcers.

No comments about That Was Part of Baseball Then: Interviews With 24 Former Major League Baseball Players, Coaches & Managers.