A backlog of books and a new series

Two piles of unread books sit atop my bookshelf, reminding me of a promise I made here four years ago. In the early days of this site, I once wrote that I would review any book sent to me. It was a bold promise and one I probably shouldn’t have made. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading about baseball history. But I can be a slow reader, frequently distracted and it sometimes takes me months even to finish a classic like The Boys of Summer. Four years past my promise here, I’ve long since had a backlog of books and I officially need to revise my policy.

Henceforth, I can no longer promise to review any book sent to me. The following 30 books that have been sent to me and not yet reviewed since I made my promise will be reviewed through a new weekly series starting next Thursday. It’s important to me to be a person of my word and I also believe the majority of these books may be of interest to anyone who frequents this site. Fellow writers, if you see your book among this list, I apologize for not getting to this sooner. I’ll be happy to email you when I review your book, which should be sometime in the next year:

• Pinstripe Empire, by Marty Appel
• Joe Cronin, by Mark Armour
• The Great Eight: The 1975 Cincinnati Reds, edited by Mark Armour
• Baseball’s Last Great Scout, by Dan Austin
• The Continental League, by Russell D. Buhite
• The Bus Leagues Experience: Volume 2, by busleaguesbaseball.com
• Bluegrass Baseball, by Katya Cengel
• Wherever I Wind Up, by R.A. Dickey
• Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club, by Roberts Ehrgott
• Under Pallor, Under Shadow, by Bill Felber
• A Game of Brawl, by Bill Felber
• Stealing First, by Drew Golden
• Tales From The Deadball Era, by Mark S. Halfon
• Orange Waves of Giants, by Steve Hermanos
• Turning the Black Sox White, by Tim Hornbaker
• The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy
• Strike IX, by Paul Lonardo
• 1954, by Bill Madden
• The Baseball Hall of Shame(TM): The Best of Blooperstown, by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo
• Major League Dads, by Kevin Neary and Leigh Tobin
• Derek Jeter: From the pages of the New York Times
• Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers, by Dan Raley
• Throwing Hard Easy: Reflections on a Life in Baseball, by Robin Roberts with C. Paul Rogers III
• American Jews and America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball, by Larry Ruttman
• Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 New York Yankees, edited by Lyle Spatz
• Drama and Pride in the Gateway City: The 1964 St. Louis Cardinals, edited by John Harry Stahl and Bill Nowlin
• Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time, by Tim Wendel
• Philadelphia’s Top 50 Baseball Players, by Rich Westcott
• Smoky Joe Wood, by Gerald C. Wood
• Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998, by Fran Zimniuch

In the meanwhile, please, no one send me anymore books!