The only problem with the above video, called FIP: A New ERA, is that writer, director, producer, illustrator, and narrator (?) Bradley Woodrum didn’t release it before January 1st — which, that means it won’t be eligible for this year’s Academy Awards.

It’s a bit of a must-watch situation, this, but two salient details that’ll give you at least a broad sense of its content are as follows:

1. It’s about FIP, and

2. It has a dragon in it.

A DRAGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

H/T: DRaysBay

As part of NotGraphs’ initiative to become the industry leader in forthcoming-book announcements, we are pleased to announce a forthcoming book and the receipt of advance proof for same.

The book in question is Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, and it has been authored by John Thorn. Thorn’s name you will definitely recognize if you’re the sort of person who cared for sabermetrics before, say, the year 2000, for he authored, alongside Pete Palmer, The Hidden Game of Baseball, in which book the pair introduces linear weights (among other concepts integral to the field).

Thorn has apparently done some other things in the meantime — like, for example, consult Ken Burns on his very famous documentary about the game and also edit Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game.

As for the present text, it appears to be a revision of baseball’s creation narrative, going beyond not only Abner Doubleday but also beyond Alexander Cartwright, too — all the way (or so this publicity material suggests) to “Daniel Lucius Adams, William Rufus Wheaton, and other fascinating figures that have accrued around baseball’s origins.”

The book goes on sale March 15th.

Western Civilization seems to be circling the drain these days, so baseball might as well get in on the act. To that end, we have “Cleat Chasers,” the latest offering from the ubiquitous sub-genre of reality programming (curtsy: Hardball Talk). The executive summary:

“It’s a reality show about girls who stop at nothing to score with athletes while they are away from their wives and girlfriends during baseball spring training,” a source close to casting told RadarOnline.com exclusively. “It’s about girls that have gone pro in the sport of ‘cleat chasing.'”

Objectification en masse and calculated erosion of the family unit? I’ll take two!

Item!: A highly placed source tells the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team that the “Cleat Chasers” pilot will feature Snooki giving Ichiro a “Happy Clancy” in the men’s room of a Del Taco in Tucson!*

(* – Patently untrue, and the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team has no idea what a “Happy Clancy” is or whether such a sordid indulgence even exists.)

Below are all the available baseball-related films on Netflix Instant — or, at least the ones that come up when you click Baseball under the genre Sport & Fitness.

I do believe you can click on the image to embiggen it.

I don’t believe you should ever watch something called Pitcher and the Pin-Up.

In case you’re not familiar with the great north, winters here are cold. This weekend, the heater in my century-old classic college house decided to stop heating the house on nights with lows of -8 followed by a balmy (a weather term which is never used non-ironically) 13.

Naturally, as the temperature indoors fell below 55 degrees, I found my extremities were extremely cold – specifically, my ears. Unfortunately, I don’t own any of the hats above – the Trapper 10 and Dogear styles on Lids.com. Not every team has an entry in these styles – for example, Diamondbacks fans are out of luck here. However, most teams are included regardless of their geography, as the picture above shows.

The Trapper 10 style features a logo on the wool front of the caps. However, the coloring of these logos is odd – multiple feature yellow on white – which makes it difficult to pick out just what the logo is. I do love this Kansas City Royals one, though, albeit not intriguing enough to blow 55 dollars on. The Dogear (44 dollars) is simply a typical 59fifty hat with, you guessed it, dog-ear like flaps to cover cold ears. I’ve found this style intriguing for a couple of winters, but unfortunately, none of the four Brewers styles really hold my fancy. For as much as I like wearing baseball hats, I can’t justify spending 45-55 dollars on an out-of-season, only good for winter hat. If I did, I’d probably be as broke as my heater.

This specific pile of money could be yours.

Remember how last year the company that made the baseball video game “MLB 2K10” gave $1,000,000 to the first guy to pitch a perfecto in the game? And how this generated publicity?

Well I guess it generated >=$1M worth of publicity, because 2K Sports is running basically the same promotion for this year’s “MLB 2K11.”

I might just feel this way because I’m the restless, maverick, pioneer-vagabond-trailblazer type, but wouldn’t it be cooler if the $1M accomplishment were switched up for 2011?

There must be hundreds of tough goals besides “perfect game” that could decide which unhealthily dedicated gamer gets a huge nonsensical windfall. For example, 2K Sports could give $1M to the first person to:

• Hit an inside-the-park home run with Pablo Sandoval
• Win the NL East in season mode using not-the-Phillies
• Pitch a perfect game with virtual Jim Joyce as part of the umpiring crew (snap!)
• Prevent Adrian Gonzalez from doubling off the virtual Green Monster for a whole game (good freahkin’ luck! Go Sox!)

This mini Brewer helmet used to have delicious cheese fries in it. Now it’s got my breakfast cereal.

Boom, victory.

You, reader, are probably already aware that NotGraphs has entered what is often colloquially referred to as “the big time.”

As if we had to prove it any further, witness this: our very first advance proof, Neil Lanctot’s forthcoming Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella.

The book goes on sale March 8th, and we’ll provide a review of some sort before that date.

In the meantime, some notes and first impressions:

• So long as the back of this book isn’t lying, Roy Campanella, who joined the Dodgers a year after Jackie Robinson, didn’t particularly get along with him (i.e. Robinson).

• Campenella’s playing career was cut short by an automobile accident, in early 1958, that left him a quadriplegic.

• There’s a chance — a chance — that this book willn’t be “full of jokes.”

• Campanella was MVP three times — 1951, 1953, and 1955 — tying him with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Schmidt for second on the all-time list.

• Embiggen this image (all players, 1948-1957):

The following comes to us via the Twitter feed of Baseball Prospectus’ Tommy Bennett. Sometimes, there are no words. Prepare to be wowed …

Of course, no YouTube video experience is complete without a quick perusal of the comments section. And to nobody’s surprise, the highest rated comment offers some sage advice on a cold Friday afternoon in early January.

Shut the f*** up, learn to appreciate retarded s*** like this.

I did.

Thank you for sharing, Mr. Bennett. And most importantly: Thank you, Japan.

If there’s one thing Carson Cistulli has his finger on — that is, besides the keys of the uber-sleek netbook on which he’s (read: I’m) currently typing these words — it’s the pulse of the people. And if there’s one thing the people want it’s definitely HELLA PICTURES OF BOOKS. Badly composed, poorly lit pictures of used baseball books, specifically.

In an attempt to capitalize on the public’s insatiable appetite for book-y photos, allow me to offer the following: some pictures I took at The Community Bookstore, located on Court Street in the Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The Community Bookstore, in the event that you don’t know, looks like this when you walk into it:

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