Four Authors Tell Forbes About Their New Baseball Books – Forbes

Wouldn’t it be great if a bunch of new baseball books hit the shelves within minutes of the final out of the World Series? To keep us warm through the winter.

Courtesy of PublicAffairs

The Phenomenon

April is new baseball book season, however. So in preparation for next year I suggest you stock up now, and squirrel away a few of those babies for November. Or to read a second time during the offseason.

Here are four new baseball books for your consideration, on varying topics from exceptional authors. Rather than a subject you to platitude-filled drivel from a non-book reviewer like myself, I’ve asked the writers to tell us about their work themselves. Here goes:

The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life, by Rick Ankiel and Tim Brown, PublicAffairs, April 18, 2017.

From Tim Brown:

We called the book “The Phenomenon” because of the ballplayer Rick Ankiel once was and, then, because of the event – the condition — that ended that. The word served the man and his demons, his past and his present, that which he chased and that which chased him.

It all seemed kind of out there, just beyond his reach. When we sat down to sort out thirty-some years of wins and losses, of trial and error, to measure the distance between greatness and hopelessness, Rick often resorted to his own word.

“Whatever.”

He’d made the best of a broken, abusive childhood.

But whatever.

He’d fought to make something of himself. To make himself a ballplayer. A phenomenon.

But whatever.

That, too, became broken, abusive.

But whatever. It’s where he escaped to, into that word. Can’t hurt me, ‘cause I don’t care.

“You know, Rick,” I said. “When you can describe ‘whatever,’ then we’ll be onto something.”

He smiled strangely.

“Yeah,” he said, “that’s what Harvey used to say.”

Harvey Dorfman was Rick’s psychologist. His mentor. His best friend. His father figure.

Together, then, we hunted “whatever.” The result was this, “The Phenomenon,” the past and the present.

University of Nebraska Press

One Nation Under Baseball

One Nation Under Baseball: How the 1960s Collided with the National Pastime, by John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro, with a forward by Bob Costas, University of Nebraska Press (April 1, 2017).

John Florio:

One Nation Under Baseball is about baseball and the social events of the Sixties, and how they fed off each other. We focused on three main issues—civil rights, freedom of the press, and labor wars—and looked at each through behind-the-scenes stories and first-person interviews. We followed the events of the decade, from JFK’s America, through the Vietnam War, and ultimately to the antiwar protests of the early Seventies.

So much happened during those years. We spoke with insiders like Bill White and Elston Howard’s widow, Arlene, about the Jim Crow laws in Florida that segregated teams during spring training. Civil rights leader Andrew Young told us about the efforts of the city of Atlanta to lure Hank Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves by legitimizing it as a fully integrated world-class hub. The story is especially relevant today being that the Braves are moving to a majority-white suburb.

We also look at the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations through the eyes of the ballplayers who were deeply affected by them. Mudcat Grant, after having met John Kennedy in 1960, crumbled when he heard the news of the president’s death. Bob Gibson reacted to the murder of Martin Luther King by channeling his fury onto opponents during the ’68 season. We see Don Drysdale respond to the news of Robert Kennedy’s death—which came shortly after the presidential candidate had spoken about Drysdale in a campaign speech.

The stories surrounding Jim Bouton’s Ball Four were particularly enlightening—they show how so many of today’s issues harken back to the ’60s. We tracked down the then-teenagers who showed up to protest Bowie Kuhn’s treatment of Bouton, and got their take on what the pitcher-turned-author meant to their generation. His was a voice of the people, an anti-establishment figure, and to this day, he doesn’t realize it. He was taking on Bowie Kuhn, but to those protestors, he might as well have been railing against Nixon, the Vietnam War, or any other cog in the machine. The Vietnam War is over now, of course, but the stories of the protests are so similar to what’s going on today.

We also cover some captivating stories featuring lesser-known names. Like George Gmelch, a prospect for the Tigers who was called up to fight in Vietnam, and, along with other players, did everything in his power to flunk the physical. And Michael Feinberg, who, as a teenager, worked as a vendor at Shea Stadium, and was smoking pot with John Lennon before the Beatles took the stage at the stadium.

Lyons Press.

The Amazing Baseball Adventure

The Amazing Baseball Adventure: Ballpark Wonders from the Bushes to the Show, by Josh Pahigian, Lyons Press (February 2017).

Josh Pahigian:

Whether it’s a balmy summer’s night or chilly April afternoon, there’s no place I’d rather be than sitting at a baseball park. Since my earliest memories, the communal experience of watching a game while partaking in the local fan traditions, ballpark rituals, and culinary delights has constituted a near-religious experience to me. Thankfully, so many of my fellow Americans share my love of the game’s ballparks that I’ve been able to make a living writing books dedicated to helping my fellow pilgrims maximize their road-trip experiences.