The SABR Review of Books, Volume 2

In this issue . . . If experiencing the game of baseball were limited to actual participation or in-person attendance, the sport would mean much less to all of us that it does. Because we read about the game, we can enjoy it long after the fact, and in a whole new form: digested, chewed, analyzed, stat-icized. The electronic media have also played a big part ΓÇö letting up "be there" for games many miles too far for a drive. This two-sided richness of enjoying baseball is at the two-sided center of this edition of The SABR Review of Books.
The SABR Review of Books is here to provide literary opinion, so we begin with a survey of a blue-ribbon panel of baseball writers and researchers, asking the question, "What books would constitute the essential baseball library?" We compiled the results and added the comments of the participants. What we got is an intriguing forum that sounds like a SABR bull session ΓÇö full of savvy and conversation.
The recent release of several books on or about baseball broadcasting is the other main section of this issue. First is Curt SmithΓÇÖs magnum opus, Voices of the Game. ItΓÇÖs the first full-scale history of broadcasters and broadcasting. Accompanying that review are views of books by two characters who played big roles themselves in SmithΓÇÖs book: Jack Brickhouse and Ernie Harwell. Joep Oppenheimer reviews the former, Jim OΓÇÖDonnell the latter. Then we asked videophile and sports broadcaster himself, Bill Borst, to review the baseball videos now available.
BaseballΓÇÖs literary legacy is much more than histories and narratives. It has spawned major works in both fiction and poetry. Yet while the wedding between baseball and poetry has been fruitful, baseball fiction often leaves an unfulfilled feeling. Why is that? We asked Luke Salisburgy, who has tackled the challenge of writing baseball fiction himself, why itΓÇÖs so goshdarned tough to do well. Poet Ira Stone provides us with a ΓÇ£MediationΓÇ¥ on the linkage of baseball and poetry, advising that ΓÇ£These poets did not seek to write about baseball. . . . These poets surprised themselves in creating poems wrapped in the mythology of baseball . . .ΓÇ¥
Comparisons seem to be at the heart of nearly any baseball discussion, so itΓÇÖs only fair that two articles in this issue start with that premise. Adie Suehsdorf reviews Say It AinΓÇÖt So, Joe and One Last Round for the Shuffler, two works that treat similar baseball characters: one a legend for his faults, the other barely a memory. For the first issue of The SABR Review Frank Phelps was asked to review Anton GrobaniΓÇÖs Baseball Biography, and he did, but between contribution and publication, we got word of a ΓÇ£new and betterΓÇ¥ bibliography, this one by Myron Smith. So we asked Frank to review it. The result is a side-by-side comparison of the two. Must reading for baseball bibliophiles.
Always fascinating are those behind-the-scenes looks at the game that go beyond clubhouse chatter, into the worlds of power and prestige. Merritt Clifton analyzes what the notorious Bowie Kuhn said about himself in Hardball, and Don WarfieldΓÇÖs book on Larry MacPhail is discussed by Philip Bergen.
This issueΓÇÖs ΓÇ£personal favoriteΓÇ¥ feature looks lovingly at Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson. Rob Johnson even explains how he spent years searching for a copy of it he could call his own. And we all know that feeling.
But thatΓÇÖs far from all: we have reviews of Joe DursoΓÇÖs Baseball and the American Dream, by Darrell Berger; Pete Cava on The Dixie Association; Lawrence Rubin squares off with The Sporting News on their ΓÇ£Fifty Greatest GamesΓÇ¥; Glenn Stout discusses Maury AllenΓÇÖs Maris; and more.