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Read This Book: Hang A Crooked Number

Fellow Amazin’ Avenue writer Matthew Callan wrote a book about baseball and spies. It takes place in the near future with the main character being both a struggling minor league catcher and a struggling spy.

 

The world is a darker place and The Backstop, the nickname he’s known by, is just trying to find his way. He gets caught up in something bigger than himself and spends the novel trying to keep his head above water as everything seems to be crumbling around him.

 

It’s dark and filled with a bitter humor that really brings the story to life. The protagonist is flawed, but you can’t help but emphasize with him as he struggles along. There are perhaps elements of Kafka in the main characters struggle in an oppressive world.

 

All in all a very enjoyable read, and a quick one too. It’s only $2.99 on Amazon, so give it a read and support a fellow Mets fan.

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R.A. Dickey’s book has a new epilogue

Watching the Mets last year it became increasingly evident that R.A. Dickey’s book was incomplete. The title, Wherever I Wind Up, ended up going unanswered, or at least understated.

 

He ended up a successful, and well-paid, pitcher for the Mets happy to have his own parking spot, but that’s only the start of where he’s going. After the book was written, and despite saying he’d never lead the league in strikeouts, he did in fact lead the league in strikeouts and won the NL Cy Young award as well.

 

Well Plume has published a new paperback version of Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for truth, authenticity, and the perfect knuckleball with a new epilogue where Dickey breaks down the 2012 season including Johan’s no-hitter, the All-Star Game, the reaction to his book, and the Cy Young Award. If you haven’t read it yet or want to see what else he has to say, check it out.

 

Of course, Dickey has already continued on further, being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays and getting an extension. Maybe one day he’ll write another book, or a followup, because I suspect he still has a lot of story in him.

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Book Review: Send The Beer Guy

No really, send him. I need a beer. Shannon Shark of Mets Police wrote an ebook called Send The Beer Guy. So I read it, and then wrote this review of said ebook.

 

Even if he’s a little harsh on the Piazza-era Mets, it’s a good read. There’s the typical Mets fan timeline of how he became, and was cemented as, a Mets fan, his favorite players and all that, but it also chronicles his time working as a vendor at Shea Stadium (hence the title).

 

Some great behind the scenes stories there, and much like Dickey’s book last year, he intersperses ‘current’ impressions of the 2012 season as he’s writing. That part was probably unnecessary, particularly since most of the people buying it are already fans and probably got those observations first hand from @MetsPolice during the season, but it does break up the book in an interesting way.

 

Anyway, It’s a scant $3.99 in the Amazon Kindle Store, and is a quick read. Give it a whirl.

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New York Mets: The Complete Illustrated History

Matthew Silverman wrote a terrific book called New York Mets: The Complete Illustrated History.  It’s a decade by decade play by play of the New York Mets and their history, with all sorts of wonderful illustrations.  It’s also got Mr. Met on the spine, which is something my bookcase sorely lacks.  The book details all 50 seasons as well as the years leading up to them.  It starts from the Giants and the Dodgers and goes all the way through to the firing of Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya.  It’s so current I almost expect to find a new page when I open it again.

 

The book is a real A to Z type guide of everything you could ever want to know about the Mets history.  From the common knowledge of Tom Seaver and Bobby Valentine to the more obscure trivia like alternative names considered for the team and obscure merchandise and slogans.  It even has a stats section with the list of all the All-Time Mets records.

 

The pictures are great as well.  You’ve got all the greats obviously, and other nuggets like Tom Seaver in 1967 Spring Training, and a shot of the Mets playing at the Polo Grounds.  There are aerial views of Shea Stadium and a button that reads “I was a believer but now we’ve lost Seaver.”  Silverman doesn’t sugar coat it either: There’s a detailed section on Anthony Young’s 27-game losing streak,  a picture of Mike Piazza on the ground after getting beaned by Roger Clemens and a picture of the pitch Tom Seaver threw to Joe Wallis that spoiled his no-hitter.

 

It ‘s rare to find a book that you can be just as entertained reading a random section of it as you can just by randomly flipping through and looking pictures, but this book does just that.  I’m definitely going to delve into it further once I return from Spring Training.  I recommend you do the same.

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Fantasy Baseball

I’ve just started reading Fantasyland. If you don’t know, it’s about about Wall Street Journal Writer Sam Walker’s entrance into one of the most prestigious rotisserie fantasy baseball leagues. Even thought I’m not a stathead, and cringe at the idea of spending hours and hours poring over minute details about minor leagues, I’m finding the book entertaining.

So entertaining in fact, that I want to join a rotisserie league this year. Usually I play in 3-6 different free Yahoo leagues, as well as a salary cap league on Sporting News. That one isn’t quite rotisserie though, because anybody can buy the same players. I’m researching the ‘better’ rotisserie leagues out there to try to find one to join, but suggestions are always welcome.

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Book Review: What If The Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?

Book Review: What If Babe Ruth Had Kept His Red Sox?

Chances are you will disagree with the alternate destinations the author takes in these ‘what if’ questions he poses in the book. That’s not the point. The point is to provoke thought on how meaningful and important certain events were to sports and baseball by theorizing about what could’ve happened had they not happened the way they did.

He lays the groundwork for what really happened for those of us that don’t know or don’t remember. Some of the baseball issues he brings up are very interesting. As indicated by the title, one is about Ruth and him staying with the Red Sox instead of being sold to the Yankees. The biggest point he makes is that Boston isn’t as big a city, or exciting a place, as New York and as such Ruth wouldn’t have developed into the huge worldwide icon for baseball that he did. He also discusses park differences, and if Yankee Stadium would even have been built. Certainly the Yankee franchise wouldn’t have been the same without Ruth and his home runs to fuel them, and coupled that with not moving into their own place in 1923 and continuing to share the Polo Grounds with the Giants, they would’ve remained second class (or third class) citizens. He makes valid points about a future path for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Ruth, an while it’s not one I agree with necessarily, it’s still fun to theorize about.

Another interesting baseball alternate-history is what would’ve happened if Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige integrated baseball in the 30s, rather than Jackie Robinson in the 40s. Despite the title, I felt this was the most thought out scenario in the book. There were rumors and suggestions that a team, maybe the Phillies, would consider signing players, particularly these two stars, out of the Negro leagues. There were many different reasons that this did not happen. Not only was there still racism all over the place, but many people felt taking the best players from the Negro Leagues would cause them to suffer and have to fold. However, this would’ve been one of the best ways for baseball to continue successfully. Many of the best players around the league were enlisting to fight in the war, and being able to choose from black players as well as white ones would’ve added some talent to the league that was sorely missing it. He suggests that if both guys were signed by the same team, they’d have the benefit of each other to get through the tough parts of integration, where Jackie had to do it all by himself.

There is a whole section on trades, which is one of the most popularly posed ‘what-if’ questions. Mets fans still routinely like to think about what it’d be like if they had signed Alex Rodriguez, if they hadn’t traded Scott Kazmir, or if they’d signed Vladimir Guerrero. These kinds of regrets and second-guessing of past GM decisions are part of every fan base, and the author here takes some of the bigger trades throughout baseball history and theorizes where the teams involved would be if they hadn’t made them. It’s interesting to postulate about how things would’ve turned out.

Other topics include what if the Cleveland Browns hadn’t entered the NFL? Would they just have vanished into obscurity in the start-up All-America Football Conference? Would the league have folded and all of the players on the Browns dispersed via draft, never to have that successful run together upon entering the NFL? What if Cassius Clay had lost the fight to Sonny Liston? Would he still have become Muhammad Ali? Would he still be one of the most recognized athletes? What about Sonny Liston? Would have retained the title for much longer, or was his time up and was their nothing he could do about it? Did the NHL expand too much too fast? Did doubling in size hurt the quality of the game and the talent pool? Would golf still be the sport it is today if Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had been anything but extraordinary? Their rivalry really brought fans to the game, and helped make golf into a major event. Had they not both been great, they never would’ve been able to directly compete against each other as much, and had that never happened a lot of the excitement would’ve gone out of the game. These two also altered the game for the other players. Once they started bringing in fans and ratings, suddenly more tournaments started popping up, and bigger prize pools. It was suddenly becoming possible for more than the top one or two guys to make a living playing golf.

Reading through all these what-if situations was fun. Even when I didn’t agree with how things would turn out, It was still interesting to see how much things could change based on small decisions through history.

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Book Review: Working at the Ballpark

Book Review: Working at the Ballpark by Tom Jones

Skyhorse Publishing

This book is basically a collection of different stories from different people working around baseball, from players and front office guys, to ushers and street vendors. I thought this book would have a few interesting tidbits surrounded by a bunch of boring stories, but I was surprised at the information contained in those stories, and how few of them were actually boring. The book is written in a style where if one guy’s story is boring the life out of you, you can just skip it and read someone else’s.

Of the on the field guys the one whose comments were most interesting was Leo Mazzone. He talked a lot about pitch counts and arm strength, and a lot of it was very thought-provoking. When he was the pitching coach in Atlanta before they started putting the pitch count on the board, he says he used to cheat and not count pitches for Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz. According to him, pitch counts are just a way of talking the pitcher into being tired. He also talks a little about Little League and how having pitch counts actually prevents kids from learning how to pitch properly. It was very insightful and really makes the Orioles look even worse for firing him.

One of the other interesting stories was trainer Todd Hutcheson with the San Diego Padres. The amount of training and work they do on players, particularly pitchers, every day is mind boggling. After reading it I felt like if a pitcher didn’t have these guys, their arms would fall off by June. I know it’s not true, but they’ve got everything down to a science. He goes into details about the work they do on Trevor Hoffman everyday, about some of the rehab work they do on pitchers, and about all the different types of treatments they do from joint mobes and vibration therapy to ultrasound stimulations.

The book encompasses so many different intricate parts of baseball, and it’s surprisingly enlightening.

Luke Yoder, who is the director of landscape and field maintenance for the Padres talks about the dangers of covering the field with the tarp. Maybe just because I never thought about it, but I had no idea that it weights 2300 pounds. Yoder says that if you get a good gust of wind and some of the guys let go, it’s possible for the people that were still holding on to be whipped 10 feet up in the air.

Jim Trdinich, the director of media relations for the Pirates, discusses many of the uneasy relationships between the media and the team. He talks about allowing the manager to vent and scream at him after a tough loss to let him to cool before allowing the media in to ask their questions.

Kurt Schloss, the director of Merchandising for the Cleveland Indians, talks about products that were busts, and how they come up with some of their ideas. He mentions how he finds out with the other fans, and how much it sucks for merchandise sales, when a player has been traded. Which is a very good point; I’ve noticed the Bryant Park Mets clubhouse shop still had about a dozen Kazuo Matsui shirts.

Steve Liddle, the bench coach for the Minnesota Twins, talks about signs and using the information from the advance scout to help figure out where to play hitters, and when is a good time to steal a base or hit and run. He talks about trying to steal signs during the game, and about all the signs that get passed around that most people never even see.

Bob Watson tells a story about the only time he was thrown out of a game.

“You called that a strike?”

The umpire says, “Yes, the ball was on the corner.”

Watson says, “On the corner of Fifth and Main. If you call that a strike, you need these.” and handed the umpire his glasses.

The book is riddled with these interesting tidbits, whether they come from a scoreboard operator, an usher, a guy who designs ballparks or the the mascot. There are thousands of people working behind the scenes around baseball who aren’t as noticed as the players, but they all contribute to bringing us this great game. This book does an excellent job of bringing us their stories, and helping us understand the complex nature of a ballgame.

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Book Review: The New York Mets: Ethnography, Myth, and Subtext

Review: The New York Mets: Ethnography, Myth, and Subtext by Richard Grossinger


The book isn’t so much a story as a diary and tribute to one person’s journey as a fan of the New York Mets. Throughout that journey he, like most of us, is constantly reevaluating his commitment to his team, and answering the question, “Why do we watch?” He was a born Yankee fan drawn to the Mets in their infancy, knowing there is more to life, and to baseball, then championships. He embraced the Mets from the beginning, from their minor league players to their major league players who probably should have been in the minor leagues.

As a younger fan, It was interesting to read a fan’s perspective on my team that’s been there from the beginning. I’ve never truly experienced a championship, but I’ve also had some fun and exciting moments. Grossinger explains that it’s not always the championships that resonate and are remembered for years to come, but the truly spectacular moments. It’s the journey that is what truly makes us fans, not just the final game of the World Series. Grossinger journey as a fan is a unique one, just like all of our adventures as fans are, and it’s interesting to read as he goes to his first games at Shea, roots for his favorite players, and eventually gets his first press pass.

One part of the book that I found particularly interesting was about the author’s time in San Francisco as a Mets fan. This was long before the time of DirecTV with Extra Innings, or mlb.tv. He was able to embrace the team through box scores, newspapers and magazines. Then he formed a club, and a bunch of baseball fans joined together to buy a satellite dish that could pick up the feeds of all the games across the country. They were able to get Mets games clear across the country and sometimes even picking up the feeds before they were edited for TV.

A big chapter of the book is his relationship with a Mets player, Terry Leach. Leach was one of those guys that perpetually was being send between AAA and the Major Leagues, despite how well he would pitch. In an era that people are constantly talking about “rooting for the laundry”, rooting for whoever the players are as long as they wear the uniform of your favorite team, It’s a refreshing look at how sometimes we form an attachment to a favorite player, and how it’s not always the best guy on the team. Grossinger, and his son’s, attachment to Terry Leach was formed in the minor leagues off a statsheet. They followed his progress through the minors, and like many of us still do, formed a bond with a player that comes up through the Mets minor league system.

As you read through the book, reading accounts from different years and eras of Mets history, you start embracing what it is to be a Mets fan, and reaffirm your connection with the team. Throughout the book I felt myself relating to his stories of watching and following the Mets, even though my experiences often happened decades later. I learned new things about the history of my team, and got further insight into what it was like for the fans of the past. The culture of being a Mets fan is a unique one, but it’s one that Richard Grossinger, me, and hopefully you, are all excited to be a part of.

All in all this book is a book most Mets fans will enjoy reading about. It has discussions of moments and events in all 45 years of Mets history. It explores what it’s like to be a Mets fan, and helps get a perspective on how and why we watch baseball.