I usually leave my reading of baseball books for the long, gameless winters, but for some reason, this year I’ve read several during the actual baseball season:

Satchel: The life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye ***1/2

I was looking forward to this new biography as I have a vague memory of seeing him when I was just learning about baseball.  Whether in fact I saw him or am just suffering from one of those ‘recovered memories,’ I’m not sure.

Anyway, initially I was disappointed by this book. When I finished it, I didn’t feel I ‘knew’ Leroy “Satchel Paige in the way say I felt I ‘knew’ Lincoln from Ronald White’s recent biography.

I certainly learned a lot about Satch from Tye’s biography, and a good deal about the times in which he came of age, what others said about him, and how he aged (or didn’t age).  But there seemed to be something missing from the story.

The more I thought about it, tho, the more I think I might have been the problem. I think I wanted him to be more of a ‘hero’ and ‘pure’ than the human being he was. I was critical of his life both on and off the field. I was quite judgmental about him. I wanted to like and admire him the way I liked and admired Lincoln.

But now that I have read Cooperstown Confidential and indulged in a web posting about my dilemma as to whether to pass on my baseball addiction to my young grandson (see here), I think I’ve been straightened out. Mostly by folks who have made Comments, wonderful ones, about my so-called dilemma.

And so if I rethink my reaction to and discount my unfair judging of Paige as an imperfect person, I guess I would say that if you are interested in knowing more about probably the best pitcher who ever lived, then get the book.  Tye does a good job of setting the context and placing Paige in the ‘times,’ from his early years all the way through to the end of his pitching career at the age of 59.

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Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets  ****

Sent to me by a Yankee fan.  Nevertheless, since I had read a positive review in the Times  (click here) about this new book, I was already intrigued.

I must say that the book had a strong impact on me.  I’m probably much more naïve (a romantic, an idealist?) than I would ever admit (don’t tell anyone) and had ‘bought’ many of the myths about the wonders of baseball and its ‘heroes.’  I suppose I should have been forewarned from the subtitle.

Chafets quickly and thoroughly disabuses the reader of such foolishness (thinking of the Hall of Famers as true heroes).  By the time one finishes learning the real story about Cooperstown (the museum and the town, particularly the Clark family who has had a monopoly on the Hall of Fame since its inception), any idealism/naïveté/romanticism about the game and the museum is almost destroyed. 

The HoF is filled with a bunch of drunks, addicts, gamblers, cheaters, racists and folks you wouldn’t want your daughter to marry.  If you’ve long revered but haven’t known much about the personal lives of Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Roger Hornsby, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Lefty Grove, Jimmy Fox, John McGraw, Dizzy Dean, Leo Duroucher, to name just a handful of HoFers, you may have some revision of your thinking in store for you.

Chafets, who is not a sports writer but a pretty good story teller, has strong opinions, and you know where he stands on most of the controversies surrounding the HofF. These including whether various players and other folks actually belong in the museum,  what he thinks about both the process of gaining admission (not much) as well as issues such as the use of steroids (thinks they shouldn’t affect whether players are voted in or not) to name just three of the most obvious issues.

If you are a baseball fan, but not too young of one, I think the book is certainly worth the quick read.

Once you’ve finished it, I strongly suggest you read the Comments’ section in this blog post (click here).

They will put Cooperstown Confidential, and much more, in the context it belongs.

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The Unwritten Rules of Baseball, by Paul Dickson ***

A fun little book that tells you mostly what you probably already know but nevertheless is worth the brief time it takes to go through it. 

Dickson’s book is laid out a bit like a Rule Book and includes the Unwritten Rules for Players, for Managing, for Umpires, for the Official Scorer, for the Fans, for the Media, and for the ‘Other Elements of the Game.’

A few of these in case you may not know them:

-In a Fight, Everyone Must Leave the Bench and the Bullpen Has to Join In

-Don’t Bunt to Break Up a No-hitter or Perfect game

-During an Argument with an Umpire, a Player Can Curse in Describing the Nature of the Call but Not to Characterize an Umpire

-Uniform Numbers: Pitchers Must Wear Double-Digit Uniform Numbers

-The Official Scorer Should Make Sure That the First Hit of a Game is a Good One When There Is Even the Slight Chance That the Pitcher Is In the Early Stages of a No-hitter

Not all the Unwritten Rules are always observed.

A  book to add to your collection and to consider having young folks read once they’ve become hooked on the game.

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The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition,  by Paul Dickson *****

This gigantic book is the new edition and is almost twice the size of the previous one (1999).  I went to hear Dickson speak the other night when he was in town for the SABR convention. The room was filled with folks who were every bit as wacked out as I was about the game.

I find I keep this essential dictionary near my desk and TV and check it both to see if I really understand something, to see if something just said is in the book, and/or to get something to stump one of my chump (fans of teams other than the Sox) friends.

Did you know…. for instance…that a ‘Demolition Derby’ is a grand slam, that a ‘Hipper-Dipper’ is a sharp breaking curve ball, a sneaky curve, or that an ‘Onion’ can  mean a baseball, a lemon, a stupid player, or a player’s head (as opposed to an ‘Onion Picker’ which is an old term for a third baseman or an outfielder)?

You might want to save this 900+ page Dickson book for the dead of winter when you are feeling deprived and at a loss for a meaning to your life.  But I think you can go ahead and get it now, as there are more than 10,000 entries and 18,000 definitions, enough to keep you busy now and later.

Plus, you can show off your baseball knowledge between innings when the Sox are safely (?) ahead in a game.

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Boston Red Sox and the Meaning of Life by Mark Rucker  *

You can imagine my excitement and anticipation between the time I heard about it this book and the time it arrived from Amazon. At last, the perfect book for me.

I shoulda known better.

The small formatted book is about 400 pages, split between a picture (often of a Red Sox player) with a facing page of writing, quotes, and supposed wisdom.

Good for a bathroom book and/or something to leaf through when the Sox are so far ahead of the Yankees in a game that you don’t have to help them win the game.

A much better book with this title needs to be written.

(Note: These reviews have been ‘cross-posted’ at my Escapes & Pleasures blog (click here) where I usually post book reviews. Feel free to leave a Comment at either place.)