Baseball Bookshelf Recommendation #5

We live in a world with incredibly high access to the baseball players and teams we root for. From websites, Twitter, MLBFanCave and even a show ("The Franchise) going behind the scenes with the Giants - we can almost get to know players off the field more than on the field now. 

But despite all this access, most of us will never really know or understand what it's like in the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players. We'll never really be able to know what it's like behind the clubhouse doors or in the dugout as an insider. 

Part of that brotherhood is "The Code". You know, the unwritten rules about not running up a score in a blowout, not mentioning a no-hitter or perfect game while it's underway, and many other intricate, debatable rules that govern the game of baseball on the field and unofficially. 

For an excellent sneak peek behind the clubhouse curtain, check out The Baseball Codes: Bean balls, Sign stealing and Bench-clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of American's Pastime by Jason Turbow. 

Whether you believe in the existence or relevance of "The Code", Turbow offers some great anecdotes about the different aspects and executions of players policing themselves. He definitely also offers some great material to spark debate about the place of "the code" into today's game of baseball.

Above all, The Baseball Codes is an enjoyable read filled with great stories from the last fifty years of baseball from the player perspective.

Definitely passes the I.T.C.B. Baseball Bookshelf reading-worthy test.

Can you smell Spring Training yet fellow fans? 

JaysGirl5

Baseball Bookshelf Recommendation #4

Of all the reccomendations I've made thus far, this one is probaly my least favourite. Well, you might ask, why are you recommending it? Because I believe a baseball outlook (or any outlook) should be well rounded.

So, Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets is worth the read. I will admit that at times the way Chafets presents his information is organized by the merest threads of commonality between stories/facts.

I did enjoy the blunt truth approach to what getting into the HoF can mean for a player other than just emotionally. Chafets freely admits he's not a sportswriter (outside of this book) and I think that's part of the reason I really did find his approach to baseball stories and the Hall quite refreshing. He doesn't pull any punches describing some of the not-quite-so-wholesome characters in the Hall (ex. Ty Cobb) and the very subjective Rule 5 (a.k.a. the "Character Clause") when looking at inductions. Chapter 4, "A Question of Character" was probably my favourite to read.

I will say though that the most thought inducing part of the book was the last chapter, "Mitchell and Clemens". Although I don't agree completely with Chafets view on steroids and PEDs in the game, he did make me consider the other side. Like I said, well rounded outlook = good.

An interesting read for beach or deck this summer.
Enjoy!
JaysGirl5

P.S. Not that this should be a reason for you to read this book, but I definitely got some more additions to my baseball reading list.

Baseball Bookshelf Recommendation #3

Apart from being one of the books Doc's read to become, well, Doctastic, The Mental ABC's of Pitching: A Handbook for Performance Enhancement by H.A. Dorfman is an effective breakdown of how to improve perfomance. Obviously, it's geared towards pitching and all the physical, psychological and emotional pieces that come together within that context. However, many of the lessons and recommendations are incredibly transferrable for general performance enhancement or specific goal-related enhancement.

Part of the reason I like this book so much (and plan on reading its hitting and baseball counterparts) is because it's all set in baseball terms. As a platform for information delivery, whether situational or anecdotal, baseball is easily relatable and understandable for me. I never played at a very high level, but even with my limited experience as a baseball player, the player-centric approach in the way Dorfman goes through all of the points in the book is still easily accessible. Each topic's main body explains the role it takes in the pitching process and is followed with "What the Pitcher Should Do...". Some of my favourite topics were "Confidence", "Negativism", "Poise" and "Positivism".

As a baseball book, it gives a nice behind-the-mental-scenes look at just what can be going/does go through the mind of your favourite (or not-so-favourite) pitcher when he's on the mound. There are some great stories about players Dorfman has worked with in his career that add a nice real-life connection to the information he presents to the reader.

20 days and counting 'til the Home Opener in Toronto!
Enjoy the countdown,
JaysGirl5

P.S. Along the lines of books using baseball as a delivery platform, Management by Baseball: The Official Rules for Winning Management in Any Field is another great example. Jeff Angus does a great job in that book taking the management playbook from baseball and applying it in non-sports workplaces. I had to read it for a management course I took a few years ago and really, really benefitted from it. It also expanded my understanding of baseball managers and all that the manager side entails when in the baseball world.

Baseball Bookshelf Recommendation #2

It's impossible not to be taken in by the view of baseball that former Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatte gives in his various writings on the sport. In the small collection of his essays, A Great and Glorious Game, there are pieces he wrote before entering the Commissioner's office and after.

I really don't want to over-write about the essays in this book. I found reading them to be very personal, as there were many times where the feelings baseball evokes in me were captured in words and scenes created by Giamatti's writing; to the point that sometimes it feels as if I could have written them (if I were anywhere near as accomplished a writer and academic as Giamatti was.)

There are in total nine essays, with very helpful summaries by editor Kenneth S. Robson, that help set the timeframe and atmosphere in which Giamatti wrote each piece. David Halberstam precedes the essays with a thoughtful and sincere foreword for the book and the man behind the words. To quote Halberstam, Giamatti "...loved baseball, he loved history, he loved ideas, and he loved words" (p. IX). My kind of Commissioner.

Read this book or try and find the different essays online somewhere and read them. They are definitely worth your time. I'll list them all at the end of the post to help in your searching.

Hope you enjoyed the Jays 2011 return to TV broadcasted baseball today! Watching baseball or reading about it (or writing about it) is definitely the best way to spend a Sunday in March.
Until soon,
JaysGirl5

P.S. For another great baseball book, check out David Halberstam's The Teamates: A Portrait of Friendship. Again, you won't be sorry.

Essays by A. Bartlett Giamatti:

• "The Green Fields of the Mind", from the Yale Alumni Magazine, 1977
• "Tom Seaver's Farewell", from Harper's Magazine, 1977
• "Recall as the Series Ends, the Afternoon of the Fall", from The Hartford Courant, 1978
• "Men of Baseball, Lend an Ear", from The New York Times, 1981
• "Baseball and the American Character", presented to The Massachusetts Historical Society, 1985
• "Decision in the Appeal of Kevin Gross", presented to The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 1987
• "To Sports Fans: Clean Up Your Act", from The Boston Globe, 1987
• "Baseball as Narrative", from Take Time for Paradise, 1989
• "Statement Released to the Press on the Pete Rose Matter", from The New York Times, 1989

Baseball Bookshelf Recommendation #1

As humans, we like to be able to define things, to give them a name. We attribute labels to the people around us to eliminate the unknown, to make them known to us. In our attempt to understand and know them we take them down to the human version of the lowest common denominator, which narrows our view to only the label they were given. All the while, we forsake the rest of the person behind the label. Nowhere do we do this more than with people in the public eye.

It's understandable. The lives of movie stars, rock stars, sports stars all have situations and experiences that are very different from the lives of the majority. They're so foreign to us, that sometimes we elevate those labels to the levels of superheroes or gods. We think their lives are perfect because they're a movie/rock/sports star and it can be very easy to forget that there's a real, live human being behind that character on the screen, that amazing guitar solo, or the professional jersey. It's refreshing (and sometimes rare) to get a clear view of the person behind the label.

From the opening pages of Dirk Hayhurst's The Bullpen Gospels, you can tell that the jersey will be coming off and that in its place you're going to get an incredibly open look at the person behind the "baseball player". From his struggle with making his career and how it should/shouldn't define his life to contemplating the role of baseball and the baseball player in society, you're absorbed in a world that few ever get to see. The stories from the clubhouses, buses and hotels will touch your heart, make you laugh out loud, and bring a tear to your eye. The only thing better than Hayhurst's humour and humility, is his honesty.

He clearly paints how plenty of men try to make it to the elusive "Show"; they want their cup of coffee, a decade long career, a great multi-year deal. That's the goal. But it's presumptuous for us as non-pro ball players to reduce it all down to a goal; a dream; a life; a job. It's so much more and so much less than that.

The Bullpen Gospels is a great starting point for readers to look at their own lives, their own careers and expectations, and their own definitions and labels that they attribute to themselves and to others. After all, at its heart, this book is a young man's journey of growing up and coming to terms with the expectations and labels set on him by the world and by himself, set to a colourfully described baseball background.

By book's end, readers will have a new appreciation for achieving their goals, they'll have begun to understand the struggle between success and failure of a dream, and "baseball player" will no longer be a one-dimensional label. After reading Hayhurst's gospels, you'll never be able to forget about the human behind the baseball jersey again.

Happy reading and Thanksgiving!

JaysGirl5