Baseball: Past and Present

Editor’s note: Please welcome Japanese baseball expert Paul Gillespie to the site. Today, Paul reviews the book that recently won the prestigious Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research. ____________ As a baseball historian, I looked forward to reading Robert Fitts’ 2012 book, Banzai Babe Ruth. I was not disappointed. Fitts carefully reconstructed [...]

I was three years old the first time I got a pack of baseball cards, four when I went to my first game, five when I started Little League. I began to read about baseball history a few years later, and for most of my childhood, I idealized the game. I read its stories, saw [...]

1. The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter: When this book was updated in 1985, a reviewer wrote, “This was the best baseball book published in 1966, it is the best baseball book of its kind now, and, if it is reissued in 10 years, it will be the best baseball book of 1995.” [...]

At the beginning of the 20th century, baseball was practiced in the style favored by New York Giants’ manager John McGraw: Play for the single run with a base hit, followed by the hit and run, a sacrifice or a stolen base. But by 1921, Babe Ruth was in his second season with the New [...]

By all appearances, Ernie Fazio is doing well. Decades removed from baseball, the former Houston Colt .45′s and Kansas City Athletics infielder lives in Alamo, California in a sprawling house currently listing for $1.5 million. This past weekend found him celebrating news of his daughter’s engagement to a son of former Oakland Raiders offensive tackle [...]

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a representative of a publishing company, Sourcebooks. The rep said New York Times bestselling author Len Berman has a new book due out this fall, The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. The rep wrote: I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on his list, [...]