Sports Biblio Reader 10.16.22
A new history of the World Series is timed for the 2022 Fall Classic
Exploring the imagination of sports in books, history and culture
Also In This Issue: The Reflections of Joe Maddon; The Late Poetics of Freddie Freeman; Rebuilding ‘The Cubs Way’; 60 Years of NFL Photography; Football on Guadalcanal; Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey’s Debut; Building The Future of Women’s Pro Soccer; The ‘Commish’ of the Cardinals Bids Farewell; Remembering Eamonn McCabe
The convergence of sports seasons in North America is truly the sweet spot for sports book lovers and those immersed in the appreciation of how sports shapes our culture and society.
The abundance of new publications in the fall also comes in time for the holiday shopping season, and we’ll be putting together some gift-giving ideas very soon.
The revamped look of the Sports Biblio Reader is something I’ve been mulling over for a few weeks now (actually quite longer than that, but that’s another story).
I went from producing too much narrative to straight linking with little explanatory text and have been grousing around for something in between. I think I’ve found it.
Instead of churning out loads of links, I’m focusing on a few quality reads, book reviews and in-depth stories about what I like to call the imagination of sports.
The format you see below is similar to the books newsletter of The Wall Street Journal, with just enough of an introduction, and I’ll get out of the way and let the reader enjoy.
I think this better showcases the craft and creativity of the authors, photographers, filmmakers, artists, journalists and others whose work we highlight in this newsletter, and as it reflects their subject matter.
This week’s featured authors include Tyler Kepner and Buzz Bissinger, and others you may not have heard about but who have dug around the beaten paths of sports to produce some compelling longform stories.
As always, I welcome your suggestions and ideas, and thank you for your readership—and your patience. Happy Reading!
—Wendy Parker
sportsbiblio@gmail.com
The Dandy D’s of the Fall Classic
Unlikely Heroes: Tyler Kepner thoroughly explores the familiar highlights of the World Series competition that began in 1903, and some of the low moments as well. But The New York Times veteran baseball reporter also digs deeper into stories of the one-hit wonders whose fame is tied to stirring feats in October: Don Larsen, Dusty Rhodes, Del Unser and others, including Bobby Thomson and Bill Mazeroski. | Excerpt | WSJ Review | Order “The Grandest Stage”
Baseball In Winter
Deep Thoughts and Ostrich Races: Joe Maddon’s early-season firing as manager of the Angels adds to the heft of his new memoir, published Tuesday, and examined here in non-review form by Steve Kettmann. After Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves in the mid-1970s, he resorted to some Bill Veeck-like stunts to get anyone to come to the ball game. The early years of Big League ball in my home town were truly dreadful, and a former Braves PR man’s 1991 book is a useful history lesson in futility. I bought it last week at book sale for a local animal shelter, and have some unexpected extra time to read now that the Braves have been dethroned as World Series champions. | Order “The Book of Joe” | Order “We Could’ve Finished Last Without You”
Marines on the Gridiron
Christmas Eve in the South Pacific: Buzz Bissinger’s return to a sports-related book details a ragtag game on Guadalcanal in 1944 that featured several college football stars and that was aired on Armed Services Radio. Fifteen players would die in the Battle of Okinawa, which Bissinger chronicles in depth as the book reaches its climax. WSJ Review | “Fresh Air” Author Interview | Order “The Mosquito Bowl”
A Lens on the NFL
Picture Perfect: For six decades, through the viewfinder of his Nikon (and later Canon), Michael Zagaris captured the National Football League, the subject of his latest book. But with his “backstage pass to hedonism” he also shot American pop music, fashion and culture during a raucous era: “To me, I’m not a sports photographer. I’m not a music photographer. I’m not a fashion photographer. I’m a photojournalist. I want to live the experience I’m shooting, and my camera is merely a mirror that I’m holding up to document this and then share with people.” | The Defector | Order "Field of Play”
Ice Queens
Puckish Insistence: Chicago-area writer Tim Rappleye is the co-author of a new book about the 1998 debut of Olympic women’s ice hockey, won by the United States in their heated rivalry with Canada. Rappleye played in the men’s NCAA Division II national championship game, and gets the title of his book from his coverage of the 1980s men’s hockey shot heard ‘round the world: the U.S. upset of the Soviet Union in Lake Placid. Classic Chicago Magazine Author Interview | Order “A Miracle of Their Own”
A Few Good Reads
Freddie Freeman’s first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers prompted this longform career retrospective by Jeremy Collins for Sports Illustrated; after 51 years, Rick Hummel, the longtime baseball writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is retiring, and the newspaper’s media critic pens this appreciation.| Order “Commish & the Cardinals”
What happened to ‘The Cubs Way?’ Inside the new rebuild at Wrigley Field—The Athletic
KC Current stadium project is “powerful, powerful” statement for women’s pro soccer—The Kansas City Star
The Magnus Carlsen-Hans Niemann chess debate is bigger than a game. It's the future.—The Washington Post
The family that built a ballpark nachos monopoly—The Hustle
Passings
Remembering a Trailblazer: Eamonn McCabe, 74, was an award-winning sports photographer for The Observer in Britain. the acclaimed picture at The Guardian, and a portrait photographer whose work has been collected by the National Gallery in London. In addition to his Borg-McEnroe classics at Wimbledon, his best-known sports photos include the 1985 Heysel stadium disaster. | Obituary in The Guardian | Order “Eamonn McCabe: Photographer”
The Sports Biblio Reader e-mail newsletter is delivered on Sunday. You can subscribe here and search recent archives. The full archives for Sports Biblio Digest can be found here. This is issue No. 252, published Oct. 16, 2022.
I’d love to hear what you think about Sports Biblio. Send feedback, suggestions, book recommendations, review copies, newsletter items and interview requests to Wendy Parker at sportsbiblio@gmail.com.
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I had no complaints about the earlier iteration but I missed your voice in the links-only version.