Top 5 - Sports Books on My Bookshelves

Not sure why I thought about this but here are the Top 5 books about sports on my bookshelves (in no particular order).

The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam

A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring 20's by Roger Kahn

Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association by Terry Pluto

The League: Inside the NFL by David Harris

Bottom of the Ninth by Michael Shapiro

Just missing the list were Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy (because I liked the unheralded Bottom of the Ninth better), Gridiron Genius by Michael Lombardi and The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King by Michael Craig (because poker isn't a sport).

Also on my bookshelves but not making the list are Open by Andre Agassi and The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam. I haven't had the chance to read either book yet.

You may infer from the list that I'm fond of both sports and history. You'd be correct.

Bottom of the Ninth

Nature abhors a vacuum. So does sports and business. Many thousands of words have been poured over the move of the Dodgers and Giants out of New York and out to the gold fields of California. I can't recall anyone really taking the time to detail what happened next in New York after the city was left with just one team and a huge vacuum in its baseball loving soul.

Michael Shapiro takes the time to tell what happened next with his book Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself. This book was a great read. I fancy myself as a guy who knows both his baseball and his history but this book told me a story I had no clue about.

Have you ever heard of the Continental League? I admit that I had never heard of it until reading this book and yet this brainchild of Branch Rickey came tantalizingly close to becoming a third Major League in baseball. The effects of the threat of the Continental League can still be seen today any time you watch a game involving the Mets, Astros, Angels, Twins or Rangers (formerly the Senators). Throw in teams in Denver, Atlanta, Buffalo and Toronto and you have what would have been the Continental League. (Poor Buffalo got screwed the most out of all the would be Continental League cities.)

The effects of the Continental League can also still be felt today any time you watch an NFL game featuring a former AFL team. Many of the same cities and many of the same ownership groups were involved in both the Continental League and the AFL. Probably most significantly, the AFL took the Continental League's TV revenue sharing plan hook line and sinker and rode that plan to the success the NFL enjoys today.

Had you ever heard of Del Webb? I had not and I was astonished on how much power the publicly silent co-owner of the New York Yankees wielded behind the scenes.

The book was written focusing on two men - Branch Rickey and Casey Stengel much like Moneyball was written with a focus on Billy Beane and Bill James. If you enjoyed Moneyball you surely will enjoy Bottom of the Ninth. I can't recommend it enough.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

From Coco Crisp's Twitter account I learned that he likes to play World of Warcraft and that he has a pet Chihuahua. I'll never be able to look at Coco Crisp the same... The World Series of Poker is off and running. Just a reminder but the best place (in terms of writing, humor and updates) to follow the WSOP is at The Tao of Poker... Speaking of poker - when I first read this story I was disgusted. After a minute I was amused thinking about the irony of socialism on a small scale running smack dab into police state tactics (or in this case State Police tactics). A charity poker game run by a cooperative with proceeds from the event to feed the poor raided by the state police because the Sisters didn't have the proper papers - yup. Look out South Berwick Strawberry Festival Committee - you're next!... All week I've been meaning to write a review of Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself. I read the book over two days and could not put it down. Excellent history and insight into a period of baseball history which has largely gone overlooked. I recommend the book heartily...

Bottom of the Ninth

I just received a copy of Michael Shapiro's book Bottom of the Ninth and the timing couldn't be better. I'm just finishing Shelby Foote's first volume of his Civil War narrative and I need to get away from the A-Rod's and Manny's of modern baseball back to what on the surface was a simpler time.

I'm sure that things were complicated back in the late 50's in baseball but in comparison to steroids and $2,500 seats at Yankee Stadium - I'm sure the story Shapiro puts forth will be a welcome respite back into baseball history.

By the way - Shelby Foote is a master storyteller and the first volume of his Civil War ranks as perhaps the best book of history I have ever read. I'll be sure to read the other two volumes but I need a bit of a break. Bottom of the Ninth may be just what the doctor ordered.