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Yankee
Stadium:
75 Years of Drama, Glamor, and Glory
By Ray Robinson and Christopher Jennison
Penguin Studio, May 1998, 208 pages
"There’s not much history here.
The early pages recount how the stadium, and franchise, came to be in the first place ... but the closer the book gets to present day the more it seems written by the club’s media relations department, as it begins to ignore the stadium altogether."
To
see the rest of David Kozo's
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Our House:
A Tribute to Fenway Park
By Curt Smith, George Bush, 288 pages, May 1999
Masters Press NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group
"As poll after poll shows, part of the reason to go to Fenway Park is the ballpark itself. Smith, who has written such books as Voices of the Game and America’s Dizzy Dean, leads a passionately well-written tribute to the host of this year’s All-Star Game.
...After reading this book, any true baseball fan will want to order tickets for a Fenway game as soon as possible."
To see the rest
of Lisa Reynolds' review,
click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Michael
Jordan: Playing for Keeps
By David Halberstam, 426 pages
$17.47 at Amazon.com,
30% off the list price of $24.95
"Despite its shortcomings, Playing for Keeps is an entertaining and worthwhile read. Hard-core hoop fans may prefer older Jordan titles such as sportswriter Sam Smith’s The Jordan Rules. But for the fan not just of basketball but of excellence in all its forms, Halberstam’s book is bound to please."
To
see the rest of Sean Davis'
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Baseball
By The Beach: A History Of America's National Pastime On Cape Cod
By Christopher Price, 241 pages
Parnassus Imprints, 1998
"Cape Cod has more to offer than salt water and sun: It also features a baseball league with enough alumni to fill an All-Star roster. ... Christopher Price takes the reader on a well-organized, enjoyable stroll through more than a century of the Cape Cod Baseball League in Baseball By The Beach: A History Of America's National Pastime On Cape Cod."
To
see the rest of Lisa Reynolds'
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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The
Sporting News Selects Baseball's 100 Greatest Players
By Ron Smith and editors of The Sporting News
$20.97 at Amazon.com,
30% off the list price of $29.95
By
Randy Williams
"Sports fans love nothing more than a good debate and The
Sporting News Selects Baseball's 100 Greatest Players, a new
book from TSN, is sure to spark plenty of arguments.
"A selection committee of 12 TSN editors provided opinions to
create this intriguing top 100 list."
To
see the rest of Randy Williams'
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Celebrating 70: Mark McGwire's historic season
By Bernie Miklasz, Ron Smith, Mike Eisenbath and Dave Kindred, 184
pages
$20.97 at Amazon.com,
30% off the list price of $29.95
"The epic 1998 season of Mark McGwire is difficult to put into
words but The Sporting News answers the call with Celebrating
70, an outstanding look at the greatest home-run season
of all-time."
To
see the rest of Randy Williams'
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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You're
Missin' a Great Game: From Casey to
Ozzie, the Magic of Baseball and How to Get It Back
By Whitey Herzog and Jonathan Pitts, March 1999
Simon & Schuster, 314 pages
Regularly $25, now $17.50 at Amazon.com
...Reading You're Missin' a Great Game is like listening to a guy in a bar for several hours: What he says is thought-provoking, audacious, crazy, sometimes vendetta-driven, but it's never dull. "It's a singles hitter trying to go deep every time up," Herzog says of baseball today. ...
To
see the rest of Lisa Reynolds'
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Values
of the Game
By Bill Bradley, October 1998
Artisan, 160 pages
Grade: A
"...Much has been made about his penchant for pedantic oration
and a vocabulary with all the color and imagination of the tax code.
Yet, in Values of the Game, Bradley profoundly and elegantly
writes of the lessons to be learned from sports in general, and his
game, basketball, in particular.
To
see the rest of Greg Corcoran's
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Baseball
Prospectus 1999
By Clay Davenport, Keith Law, Chris Kahrl, Joseph Sheehan and Rany
Jazayerli, February 1999
Brasseys Inc., 516 pages
Grade:
B+
"Leave the Ernst & Young tax guide to those ninnies worried about
filing their taxes on time; the 500-page tome you're likely to
see baseball fans carting around this March is Baseball Prospectus
1999, a publication which is no less complicated than your average
tax guide but certainly more fun."
To
see the rest of David Kozo's
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Four
Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke & Wake Forest Made North Carolina
the Center of the Basketball Universe
By Joe Menzer, 1999
Simon & Schuster, 302 pages
"Joe Menzer's Four Corners arrives just in time for the
NCAA tournament and makes for pretty fair reading during commercials,
halftime breaks and Blue Devils' blowouts.
Despite spotty Wake Forest coverage and the sportswriter's tendency
to over-emote, the book deserves reading by the basketball
savvy and curious."
To
see the rest of Lisa Reynold's review,
click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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NCAA Final Four: The Official 1999 Tournament Records
NCAA Basketball: The Official 1999 Men's Basketball
Records Book
NCAA Basketball's Men's Finest
Triumph Books, 1998
Grade: A
"With
the NCAA Tournament in full swing, Triumph Books brings college basketball
fans a trio of interesting reference books.
If you like to impress people with statistics about the Big Dance
but don't possess encyclopedic knowledge, you will yearn for minutiae
no more after getting NCAA Final Four: The Official 1999 Tournament
Records Book.
For college hoops fans looking for information on the regular season, as well, NCAA Basketball: The Official 1999 Men's Basketball Records Book is a good bet. This book includes anything and everything you'd ever want to know about the game of college basketball.
Last
but not least is NCAA Basketball's Men's Finest, a title dedicated
to the college game's great players and coaches. Included are players
who won national honors, achieved certain statistical feats or held
any national records through the 1997-98 season."
To see the rest of AQB's
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Bunts:
Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and other reflections on baseball
By George F. Will, March 1999 (paperback)
Simon & Schuster Trade, 352 pages
Grade: B+
"Recently released in paperback, Bunts is a must-read for baseball fans itching for opening day. The book is a collection of some of Will’s baseball essays from the past 25 years, capturing his view of the game as a demanding, ever-changing, dynamic sport, not a bucolic pastime."
To see the rest
of David Kozo's
review, click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Jim Bunning:
Baseball and Beyond
By Frank Dolson, October 1998
Temple
University Press, 320 pages
Grade: Three baseballs out of five
"The interesting stories in this book are mostly first-hand. Dolson, a former sports editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, was the Phillies beat writer and a columnist for much of Bunning's time in Philadelphia. He also became a close personal friend with the Bunnings, which he divulges early on.
"Despite that, this tome is no lovefest."
To see the rest
of Bill Avington's review,
click here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Sold Out
By Bill McCartney with David Halbrook, 1997
Word Publishing, 369 pages
Grade: A
"Sold Out" is the story of McCartney's spiritual life, from childhood to his growth as the leader of Promise Keepers, a group founded to help men in serving Jesus Christ and their families...
"...As a Christian, a husband and a man, I'm glad that "Sold Out" is one title I took the time to read."
To see the rest
of Randy's review, click
here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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The Muhammad
Ali Reader
Edited by Gerald Lyn Early, 1998
Ecco Press, 300 pages
A collection of 30 essays about the American legend compiled by Gerald Lyn Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis.
"...In seeking to grasp the meaning of Ali, these writers were, in many ways, able to understand the society and times in which Ali lived..."
To see the rest
of Gregory Corcoran's review, click
here.
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Tim
McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons
& Other Fans: Understanding and Interpreting the Game So You Can Watch
It Like A Pro
by Tim McCarver, Danny Peary, 1998
Villard Books, 304 pages
Grade: D+
"Unfortunately, since I don't fall into the brain surgeon category, I have to say that "other fans" were dissatisfied with this book."
To
see the rest of Bill Avington's
review, click here.
To post a
comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Once
Around the Bases: Bittersweet Memories of Only One Game in the Majors
By Richard Tellis, 1998
Triumph Books, 308 pages
Grade: B
Sparked by a unique idea and driven by intriguing characters, ``Once Around the Bases, Bittersweet Memories of Only One Game in the Majors'' by Richard Tellis is a should-read for baseball fans.
Tellis talks to 40 of the approximately 150 living men who played just one game in the major leagues.
To see the rest of
Scott Petrak's review, click
here.
To post a comment,
go to the Speak Out page.
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Field
of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private
Profit
By Joanna Cagan, Neil deMause, 1998
Common Courage Press, 265 pages
Grade: A-
"... Field of Schemes, an extensively researched book by Brooklyn-based writers Joanna Cagan and Neil deMause, casts a cynical eye on the argument that new stadiums lead to robust economic health for the municipalities involved. ..."
To see the rest of
Dave Kozo's review, click
here.
To post a comment
on our review, go to the Speak
Out page.
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Glory
For Sale: Fans, Dollars & New NFL
By Jon Morgan, 1997
Bancroft Press, 269 pages
Grade: A-
"Jon Morgan remembers the Cleveland Browns move to Baltimore in this extremely detailed, evenhanded account.
... Morgan never loses the reader and, furthermore, gives the reader access to every important meeting, discussion or letter in this process that lasted two decades. ..."
To see the rest of
George Stahl's review, click
here.
To post a comment,
go to the Speak Out page.
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Confessions
of a Baseball Purist
By Jon Miller and Mark Hyman, 1998
Simon & Schuster, 269 pages
"The book starts out slowly, with Miller dispensing his thoughts on Bud Selig, interleague play and speeding up games. But things pick up when he talks of his quest to enter the world of broadcasting. In fact, when Miller tells of sitting in the upper regions of Candlestick Park as a youngster, calling the games into a tape recorder, you can almost smell the peanuts and Crackerjacks he surely consumed. ... The book may not be a home run but, from where we’re sitting, it’s certainly an extra-base hit."
To see the rest of
Randy Williams' review, click
here
To post a comment, go to the Speak
Out page.
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