Archive for Readings

Yesterday, Albert Lyu and Carson Cistulli were overzealous about the prologue of colleague Jonah Keri’s forthcoming book, The Extra 2%.

In today’s edition, they’re overzealous about chapter one.

Albert: So today, we take on chapter one, in which the author discusses… some very business-y, government-related, big-picture earth-shattering franchise stuff. As a baseball fan, I know that the Marlins and Rockies were 1993 expansion teams and that the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays were 1998 expansion teams. However, I was either (a) much too young to remember the expansion era (as in the first case, 1993), or (b) much too young to understand anything about that era (as in the second case, 1998). So it’s nice for Jonah to take me on his time-machine portal thingamabob back to those years when several cities were lusting after MLB teams.

The whole St. Petersburg lobbying and dying for a baseball team reminds me, just a very, very, very little bit, of reading about the secret meetings Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley had with Los Angeles representatives. Carson, as a (much) older man than me, how were those expansion years in the 90’s for you as a baseball fan? Was it exhilarating and thrilling? As in, history-in-the-making thrilling?

Cistulli: While, as you kindly note, I’m a very old person, I was actually only — what? — 13 when the Marlins and Rockies were introduced to the league. And though, as you might imagine, I was very mature for my age and possessed no little affection for the men’s fashion best described as “business casual,” my thoughts on the matter weren’t particularly nuanced, basically amounting to:

1. They’re just allowed to make new teams? Who knew!

and

2. Those are dumb colors for baseball teams.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the one hand, it’s a fact: writing a 14-part review of a colleague’s book in the very same publication for which both of you work — it’s entirely indecent. And yet, that’s what Albert Lyu and I propose to do here for our colleague Jonah Keri’s The Extra 2%.

What’s more, we appear to be experiencing absolutely nothing in the way of moral distress over our decision.

Why? I don’t know exactly. But my guess is it involves some combination of the following five reasons:

1. It’s exciting, in a general way, when a friend writes a book. It’s natural to want to discuss it.

2. Albert and I are too naive to realize that we’re toiling thanklessly merely to augment Jonah Keri’s already substantial personal wealth.

3. The Extra 2% happens to address, like, a thousand topics entirely within the scope of FanGraphs’ own interests.

4. Writing a multi-part review in dialogue form allows Albert and I to experiment a little, and hopefully to amuse both ourselves and readers.

5. We’re bad people.

I invite the reader to mix and match these possibilities in whichever way is most pleasing.

In any case, here are the facts: Albert and I each own a copy of Keri’s book, which goes on sale March 8th. We’re going to read a chapter each weekday and then gather at an undisclosed virtual location to discuss said chapter. Sometimes we’ll provide close readings of the day’s passage. Other times, likely, we’ll stray far and/or wide from our assigned topic.

Mostly, as I say, the idea is to have some fun.

Read the rest of this entry »

Readers and critics of late American novelist David Foster Wallace will be thrilled to learn that somehow, someway, SB Nation’s DRaysBay has acquired a previously unheard-of manuscript by that same, great author.

It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure-type novel and has been penned under the pseudonym CBJones, but, owing to the scope of the plot and sheer resonance of the prose, it’s very clearly the work of DFW.

Enjoy it at your own risk by clicking here. And listen to me, please, when I say, “Don’t order The Special!”

Our exercise in plagiarism continues today, as we enjoy together some choice passages from the 1995 edition of the Bill James Player Ratings Book.

The reader will notice that, in what follows, I’ve employed two changes from past versions of this same stealing-type post. First, the phrase “notable quotable” has replaced “notable thing.” This is because (a) I’ve opted for more direct quotes in this edition and also (b) my grandparents gifted me Reader’s Digest for Christmas every year of my life from, like, age 6 to age 15.

Second, while the highlights of the 1993 and ’94 editions included only five notable things, this edition includes 10! Using math, we find that this post is five better than previous ones.

Regard:

Player: Bobby Bonilla, New York (NL)
Notable Quotable: “Surrounded by good players, he’d look like a great player. Surrounded by New York Mets, he looks like a good New York Met.” Zen koan, that is.

Read the rest of this entry »

Top of the Order, edited by Sean Manning, is an anthology full of 25 brief paeans — each written by a notable author — to said authors’ favorite baseball players.

As is almost the rule for an anthology, the quality of the work is uneven. That said, Steve Almond — author of Candyfreak and Not That You Asked — delivers this pretty excellent definition of stardom while discussing Rickey Henderson.

Blockquotation (bold mine):

[Henderson] went two for four in his debut, with a stolen base. I listened to that game on my trusty Panasonic radio. I saw him for the first time a few days later, during one of Oakland’s rare televised contests. I was instantly and violently transfixed. It wasn’t just the crazy stance or the preening manner or the freakish marriage of bulk and speed, but the powerful sense that you had to watch Rickey, because if you didn’t you were going to miss something unprecedented.

This is the first and final signifier of stardom: that your presence on the field suggests possibility. Because possibility — some new miracle carved from air, some abrupt confrontation between grace and peril — is the reason we watch sports. Michael Jordan had it. Wayne Gretzky. Barry Sanders. The British football Paul Gascoigne. And Rickey — the stuff came off him like sparks.

There are a lot more than 10 out there, of course. But if you’re building a list of essential baseball books, here’s a good starting point.

Veeck–As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck: The best sports autobiography I’ve ever read. Where to even start? Incredibly funny, brutally honest, politically incorrect, thoughtful, insightful, so much fun you’ll never want to put it down.

Ball Four: The most intimate look at life in the big leagues ever written. Pretty damn funny too. I think I might go re-read this right now actually.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting: Does a terrific job of documenting where the baseball superstars of tomorrow come from and how teams fight over them. Just as relevant today as when it was written more than a quarter-century ago. One drawback: Cheapest Amazon price is $37, used. Get someone to buy it for you as a gift, if necessary.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friend of the blog — and actual, real-life friend — Dan Lurie made of the above a Christmas gift for yours truly. It’s a book, published in 1961, called World Series Encyclopedia and purporting to have “Game-By-Game Highlights” and “Lifetime Statistics Of All 1136 Series Players [1903-1960].”

Pictured here are the front and back covers, respectively. So far as I can tell, the illustrations on the front are of (clockwise from top left) Joe DiMaggio stepping over “napping” (read: “rather unconscious”) Cincinnati catcher Ernie Lombardi in 1939; 18-year-old New York Giant Freddie Lindstrom watching a grounder deflect off a pebble and over his head in 1924; and a would-be game-winning third strike eluding the grasp of Brooklyn catcher Mickey Owen in the 1941 Dodgers-Yankees series.

The back cover features the following illustrations: a Brooklyn “bum” harboring some grief towards Don Larsen and his perfect game in 1956; Willie Mays‘ uber-famous catch of Vic Wertz‘ center-field fliner in 1954; a metaphorical depiction of Cardinal Pepper Martin (who stole five bases in the 1931 series) “stealing” off Athletic catcher Mickey Cochrane; and Brooklyn Dodger Al Gionfriddo making a catch at the fence off a would-be Joe DiMaggio homer in 1947.

It should be noted that the ’47 Series also featured Dodger Cookie Lavagetto, making it (i.e. the series) an unambiguous victory for Italian-Americans everywhere.

As I’ve noted already in two posts here at the site, I’ve recently purchased the Bill James Player Ratings Books for the years 1993 through 1995.

What I perhaps have not made clear yet is how I love these books sooooooo much. So much that I’m willing to write “so” with seven Os like a 13-year-old girl would. So much that, yes, in fact, I do want to marry them (i.e. these books) even though, yes, that’s not allowed and, yes, I’m already married.

In any case, if the movie Old Yeller taught me anything, it’s that if you love something, and it gets rabies, you have to shoot it you should share it with other people.

It’s no chore whatsoever to find examples of white-hot prose in the 1993 edition of the book, but these five haphazardly chosen selections will give you an idea.

Player: Vinny Castilla, Atlanta
Notable Thing: Things, actually. Plural. First of all, Castilla’s listed as a shortstop, which is surprising. Second of all, James writes, “[T]here is no indication that he’s going to be a major league hitter… Probably no future.” Castilla, of course, went on to post a 22.9 career WAR.

Read the rest of this entry »

THE EXTRA 2% – Sneak Peek

Though I’m not entirely sure “It was a dark and stormy night” is the most relevant opening line for a book that examines the meteoric rise of the Tampa Bay Rays, there’s little else to criticize about this excerpt from (FanGraphs author!) Jonah Keri’s forthcoming book, The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First.

Just from this brief excerpt — which includes Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s foreward and Keri’s prologue — the reader can already feel himself not only being (a) seduced by the Rays’ David-and-Goliath narrative, but also (b) overcome with a strong desire to give exactly $15.44 to Keri and his handlers.

One also feels slightly sick to his stomach when he’s forced to remember that, after the 2002 season, the Rays traded literally their best player, Randy Winn, for Lou Piniella — i.e. a frigging coach.

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.