tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41517362024-03-13T02:45:12.420-04:00Boy of Summer's Baseball Books & ReviewsBaseball Book Reviews by Travis M. Nelson, from Boy of Summer blogTravis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-11346536300221990832011-03-14T18:58:00.000-04:002011-03-14T18:58:02.527-04:00ScoreCasting, by Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. John WertheimScoreCasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won
by Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. John Wertheim
This is one of those books.
It's the kind of book you needed to read. You just didn't know it. It's not just a baseball book, but there's no shortage of baseball in it. It's not just a numbers book, but it's got plenty of numbers. It's not just a Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-57590186252369969982011-03-02T10:23:00.000-05:002011-03-02T10:23:01.977-05:00Willie Mays - The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch
"Mays would have made a splash no matter when he entered the major leagues, but 1951 served him unusually well. His skills shined brightly on a sluggish team in a plodding league in a big-stage city that was about to lead a communications revolution. He was a game-changing catalyst in a storied rivalry about to embark on a historic pennant race, a radiant contributor to an era forever Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-57336330682888166342010-12-13T00:32:00.001-05:002010-12-13T00:32:16.723-05:00Book Review: Strike IX - by Paul LonardoEverybody loves an underdog. Paul Lonardo has brought you the compelling story of 25 of them in his new book, Strike IX: The Story of a Big East College Forced to Eliminate its Baseball Program and the Team That Refused to Lose.
The background on the book is that Providence college, despite having fielded a baseball team since 1923, found itself in the midst of an era in which a myriad of Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-59710265519321089702010-03-01T11:15:00.003-05:002010-03-01T11:27:42.059-05:00Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, by Larry Tye"History binds Josh [Gibson] and Satchel at the hip as the two towering figures of the Negro Leagues, but nature left them as mismatched as yin and yang. Josh was a hitter who mashed pitches, Satchel a pitcher who undid batters. Josh's power emanated from his huge arms and torso, Satchel's from his string-bean legs. The differences, however, went deeper. Josh steered clear of the limelight. Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-6225243804078672192009-05-09T14:37:00.002-04:002009-05-11T09:26:08.373-04:00Book Review: The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom VerducciAs the field manager of the New York Yankees from 1996 to 2007, Joe Torre epitomized class and dignity on the baseball field, so it's fitting that even his book's title and cover are classy. A simple title, with no ridiculous subtitle that's four times as long as the title itself. The authors should really be listed as TomVerducci with Joe Torre, as it's clear that Verducci does the writing in Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-91279930501020948212008-09-28T22:08:00.001-04:002008-09-28T22:08:47.283-04:00Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of the House That Ruth Built, 1923-2008, by Harvey FrommerRemembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of the House That Ruth Built, 1923-2008, by Harvey FrommerHarvey Frommer has outdone himself this time.The Ivy League professor and celebrated and accomplished author of such works as Rickey and Robinson, Growing Up Baseball and A Yankee Century was humble enough to admit he could not tell the story of Yankee Stadium all by himself. An Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-10379180662714469442008-09-15T11:04:00.000-04:002008-12-18T09:06:01.557-05:00Things to Know and Things to DoObservations from an insiderby LB ValentinoBoston Red Sox tickets are probably the most popular baseball tickets in demand this season. This Beantown team has had a loyal following since they began playing in the early 20th Century and their millions of fans are always the first in line at the box office and on the Internet.But fear not, you can always get a great selection of tickets for all Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-24178894347336642062008-07-01T09:55:00.005-04:002008-12-11T06:11:18.723-05:00Review: Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball LegendsRob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Elseby Rob Neyer“Because only a good story well told is worth all this effort.”- Rob Neyer in “Big Book of Baseball Legends”The latest release from Rob Neyer, Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Else, follows in several of his traditions, but also explores some new ground. This Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-55884052339773822702008-06-15T22:11:00.000-04:002008-07-08T22:16:16.588-04:00Major League Baseball is something of an anomaly in American sports. It is by far the most pastoral of games. This has obvious roots in the summer time game being played in fields when the ground was not rock hard, but goes beyond that.Sports like football and basketball, which are the only other two that actually matter here (hockey used to but the NHL shot itself in the foot again and again andTravis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-19044970032084481472008-06-08T07:13:00.007-04:002008-12-11T06:11:18.951-05:00The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox and the Playoff of ’78 by Richard Bradley“It felt not just like a singular moment, but a fragile one, a rare convergence of tradition and rivalry and timelessness that would not be easily, if ever, re-created.” - Richard Bradley in The Greatest GameYou know the story: The Yankees storm back from 14.5 games down in July to overtake the Red Sox in September, only to end up tied at the end of the season, forcing a one-game playoff at Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-76233771390433628502008-04-28T10:09:00.001-04:002008-04-28T10:13:29.448-04:00FOX broadcast the Saturday afternoon Yankees-Indians game, so I got to watch some Yankees baseball on my television instead of MLB.tv, which was nice. These kinds of games are of course blacked out from MLB.tv as well as the MLB Extra Innings package you can get on most satellite and some cable systems. fair enough. But on Thursday night, I was blacked out of both the Yankees-White Sox game and Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-51038018238669661552008-04-22T20:42:00.003-04:002008-12-11T06:11:19.259-05:00Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid, by John RosengrenThe word "skeptical" barely begins to describe my demeanor as I was asked to review John Rosengren's new book, Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid.First of all, I'd never heard of its author, so how good could the book be, right? Well, I'd never heard of Michael Shapiro before I read his excellent book on the Brooklyn Dodgers a few years ago. Before I happened upon A Dirty Job in Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-5546051270017494432008-04-08T22:16:00.001-04:002008-07-08T22:20:41.452-04:00Somewhere along the way I became obsessed with statistics and baseball. Ever since I was a little kid I would take the box scores for the previous days games and line by line go through each game. The sport, with its highly structured play, makes it the best candidate of all sports to be continually dissected by numbers.Basketball players are remembered for their dunks and three pointers, Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-1067848133216636972008-02-04T09:09:00.000-05:002008-02-04T10:36:36.279-05:00Harvard Boys, by John Wolff and Rick WolffI wanted to like this book.I was offered a chance to review Harvard Boys back in November, and I finished reading it weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to reviewing it now. That should tell you something.John Wolff went to Harvard, like his father, and was drafted in the later rounds as a secondbaseman, like his father. So, like his father, he decided to write a book about his experiences in Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-21703834595202871952007-09-19T12:20:00.001-04:002007-09-19T12:20:53.770-04:003 Yankees vs Blue Jays Main Box 327 Tickets Sat 9/22/07I've got three tickets for sale for Saturday's Yankees/Blue Jays game at Yankee Stadium. It's "The Bronx is Burning" DVD Sampler Day, and the game starts at 1:05. You can buy them on eBay here.I have another commitment and need to get rid of them, but of course I don't want to take a loss. The $200 minimum bid covers my expenses only, though if I can make a profit, all the better. Happy Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-10740305103259440322007-07-02T10:12:00.000-04:002007-07-02T10:20:03.152-04:00Book Review: The Stark Truth, by Jayson StarkThe Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball Historyby Jayson Stark C. 2007, Triumph Books, Chicago, IL206 p., $24.50 US/$32.50 CanadianJayson Stark has won me over.Not that he's necessarily convinced me that he's right about some of the things he thinks, and not that I automatically believe that anything he says is gospel. But I've decided that I like him, faults and Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-76209490291146901602007-06-18T09:37:00.000-04:002008-07-20T20:39:28.342-04:00You can hit a baseball homerun or even better - you can hit the jackpot playing the best casino games online at online-casino.com. The premiere online casino offers roulette, blackjack, slots and many more and the chance to enter the major league of online gambling.Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-79641419972626987942007-05-15T15:11:00.000-04:002008-12-11T06:11:19.710-05:00Game Review: Grand Slam Trivia - Yankees & Red Sox EditionsGrand Slam Trivia: Yankees and Red Sox EditionsSnap TV Games, Inc.$24.95/each ($19.99 from Amazon)Snap TV Games would like you to know about their new Yankees and Red Sox Editions of their Grand Slam Trivia games, available on DVD. I was able to review one of each of these editions in my home, and thought my readers might be interested to know about them.Packaging: Each game is a DVD that comes Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-87175433494294365212007-04-27T09:07:00.000-04:002007-04-27T09:10:43.140-04:00Oasis Media BlitzSpreading the word about a new worship service at First Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, PA, starting on Arril 28th at 6PM. That's me doing the Chris Farley thing in the beginning and showing off the cards and posters, and my wife next to me, saying that we'll hand these out to "anyone we see". For the record, she promptly chickened out when faced with actual "anyone"s, but did very well at Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-19752786855379015822007-01-24T13:00:00.000-05:002007-01-24T13:01:11.293-05:00Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts and Nerve Took a Team to the TopFeeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts and Nerve Took a Team to the Topby Seth MnookinHardcover, $26.00 US ($36.00 Can.)c. 2006, Simon & Schuster"...by the middle of November, they had a $20 million per year left fielder who wanted out, an $11 million shortstop so offended by the team's offer for an extension that his agent had told the Red Sox to trade him, and in Pedro Martinez, a $17.5 Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-1156437968522537062006-08-24T12:45:00.000-04:002007-01-24T13:06:18.232-05:00The Team That Changed Baseball: by Bruce MarkusenThe Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh PiratesBy Bruce Markusenc. 2006 Westholme Publishing Inc. 240 pgs. $25.00 (paperback)Fellow blogger Bruce Markusen's newest book covers the story of the 1971 Pirates team from beginning to end, and goes beyond that, really, since it starts with General Manager Joe Brown’s assembly of the club in the winter of 1970-71 and Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-1154958187459885732006-08-07T09:41:00.000-04:002006-08-07T09:43:07.483-04:00Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball BlundersMr. Wrigley [...] announced [...] the College of Coaches. The idea was that eight top coaches would rotate through the organization, from Class D all the way up to the big club, ensuring that players at every level were taught the same way to botch rundowns, miss cutoff men, ground into double plays, and so forth. [But...]Who would manage the Cubbies? Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-1152894144462269742006-07-14T12:18:00.000-04:002006-07-14T12:22:24.483-04:00Press Release and Yankees DVD Give-Away!!!A&E Home Video has asked me to announce the impending release of a series of vintage World Series DVD sets, and as part of their promotion, they have given me five of these sets to give away to you!New York Yankees Vintage World Series DVD Set One of the DVD sets will be given to visitor number 2500, according to the counter on the left. So all you have to do, if you're visitor number 2,500Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-1150149822612429582006-06-12T17:57:00.000-04:002006-06-13T11:31:22.796-04:00The Only Game in Town, by Fay VincentThe Only Game in Town: Baseball Stars of the 1930s and 1940s Talk About the Game They Loved by Fay VincentIn an era in which it seems like the game of baseball has been abused and scandalized, its name dragged trough the proverbial mud, a new book by the former Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Fay Vincent, harkens back to a time when the game was more than a little bit purer. The Only GameTravis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4151736.post-1147868697851348982006-05-17T08:19:00.001-04:002006-05-30T17:30:37.473-04:00Burying the Black Sox, by Gene CarneyBurying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded by Gene Carneyc. 2006 Potomac Books Inc. $26.95 (Hardcover)"Was [reporter and scandal-investigator Hugh] Fullerton a Don Quixote? He took a huge risk, and lost. He underestimated baseball's ability to keep the lid screwed tightly on the scandal. Fullerton had a blind spot when it came to the Sox's Travis M. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04509345527927276194noreply@blogger.com0