Quote: Originally Posted By Bootone on 6/11/2010
I haven't Scott... but let me know what you think after you read it!

I haven't read but the first 3 chapters Al, but I've enjoyed it so far. He was a very moody person, often surly. He didn't particularly like getting his photo taken and often flipped the camera the bird in a subtle way.

So far, so good!

No but i`ll have too give it a look, thanks.

Two new ones to suggest...I stopped by 3rd Place books, purely by chance, and one of the authors of 1921 was speaking. It's about the battle for NY between the Giants and Yankees...sounded interesting so I picked up a copy and had it signed. In talking with the author, Steve Steinberg, about his favorite baseball books, he mentioned one I'd never heard of. It's titled The Celebrant. The author only wrote one book, and this is it. Steinberg equated him with Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. So, I've got two more things to read this summer.

The Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig is excellent...just picked it up a week ago

Posted by Bootone on 6/19/2010 2:41:00 PM (view original):
I haven't heard of The Celebrant either... I wonder if it's fiction... but thanks for the recommendations!

I found this interesting review on Amazon.com:

In the Ragtime tradition of revolving a fictional world around a factual core, Greenberg's 1983 novel is a polished gem, which is fitting because it is partly built around a jeweler. Though The Celebrant never caught on much with the general public, its adherents were virtual zealots; to them, reading the novel bordered on having a religious experience. Its sophisticated weaving together of the life of Christy Mathewson, the Giants' great hurler and role model, with a family of immigrant Jews in New York in the first quarter of the 20th century captured their imaginations--then sadly disappeared for almost a decade before its welcome reissue.

On the surface, The Celebrant is obviously a baseball story--many of "Matty's" greatest on-field feats are meticulously recreated--as well as a story of how deeply the game reached into the lives of new arrivals from the Old World desperate to become American. On a deeper level, it is a stunning meditation on the fragile balance between the heroism of a man who won World Series rings and the hero worship of the young jeweler who made those rings for him. Its simplicity is deceptive. The Celebrant does much more than celebrate; it paints the corners of another era and another ethos with the command and control Matty himself was known to exhibit. --Jeff Silverman


I think I'm going to order that one...

ditto...thanks for posting that Al, gonna look for this one

Sometime in the mid to late 60's I read (what I thought was) a great baseball book but can't recall the title or author (it happens when you get old). 

One of the chapters was dedicated to the umpires and some of the stories regarding these great (but sometimes reviled) heroes of the sport.

My favorite was a story about a rookie picture facing Rogers Hornsby for the first time. First pitch.. close but out of the strike zone.. ball one. The rookie was furious. Second and third pitches.. same result. Then the rookie three one over the plate and Rajah hit a home run. As Hornsby was rounding the bases the umpire walked out to the pitchers mound and told the rookie. "Son, when the ball is over the plate, Mr. Hornsby will let you know.

I wish I could find the book now. It was a favorite then and I'd like to read it again. Anyone know what it was called?

I've been into non-fiction, non-baseball books lately
 Dead Hand - David Hoffman Post Cold War look at the problems created when the Soviet Union dissolved and its nuclear and bio-chemical warfare facilities weren't exactly tied up with a neat bow
 The Last Stand - Nathaniel Philbrick The latest book on Custer's Last Stand.  This one uses a lot of Native American material.
 The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 - Evan Thomas Draws a lot of parallels between the rush to the Spanish-American War and the events leading up to the Iraqi War
 The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy - Adrienne Mayor Currently reading

I am currently reading 59 in '84.  It's about Charlie Radbourne and is a wonderful account of baseball just before WIS starts. There is an interesting account of Pud Galvin's first no-hitter and describes the ball as being "jelly-like" by the latter stages of the game and being impossible to drive out of the infield. Lot's of great anectdotes, and you really feel for those pitchers back then.

It is a good book...I've almost finished it.  I honestly don't see how those guys pitched that many innings. 

I just  finished a Stephen King short story (80 pages), Blockade Billy. Picked it up at Barnes & Noble in the 50% bin. Set in 1957...kind of a fun read.

THE POWER BROKER- BIO OF ROBERT MOSES
TERRIFIC

THE POWER BROKER- BIO OF ROBERT MOSES
TERRIFIC