The SABR Review of Books, Volume 1: A Forum of Baseball Literary Opinion

In this issue . . . Baseball lives in all seasons. So the first issue of The SABR Review takes a look at two of the newest works on non-regular-season baseball: A Baseball Winter and (on Spring Training) The Short Season. We cover Jim Kaplan’s diary of ’83 season, too. But we don’t forget the history, with reviews of the two latest books on two of baseball’s prime movers, Ban Johnson and A.G. Spalding, discussed by A.D. Suehsdorf and Luke Salisbury.
And what are the newest of the great baseball writers saying? In this issue we review the latest by Bill James, Roger Kahn, Peter Gammons, and Dan Okrent. Plus a special treat: a brief reminiscence of the immortal Red Smith by his teammate on the All-Time Great-Writers Team, Bob Broeg.
Two of the national pastime’s oldest skills are also its most overlooked. Jack Carlson and Frank Boslett analyze what Bill Curran has to say about defense in Mitts, and what Kevin Kerrane learned about putting the Dollar Sign on the Muscle.
Most of us started loving baseball at an early age, and most remember the almost sinfully delicious feeling when we discovered that we could actually read about it, too. That’s why this issue takes a special three-way look at those early books that first forged the magical link between the game and the imagination for many of us. Leverett Smith overviews what juvenile baseball literature has been about since its beginnings. Jack Kavanagh tells us about a star, Baseball Joe Matson, who lasted 16 years (and outlasted a writer or two). Next, Phil Bergen takes an in-depth look at how the works of John R. Tunis were clues to our society’s mores, from pre-World War II to the Vietnam conflict.
Since much of the best of baseball writing occurs in shorter pieces, the anthology has long been a staple of baseball readers’ libraries. Tom Jozwik looks at one of the newest, The Armchair Book of Baseball, edited by John Thorn, and has the audacity to compare it to Charles Einstein’s Fireside Books. That’s a tough league to hit in.
SABR researchers will be happy to hear about a new book that compiles baseball bibliographies in one volume for the first time. David Porter previews his Dictionary of American Sport Biography: Baseball.
In addition to single-book reviews, The SABR Review will also take on larger subjects. In this go-round, there are three great ones. First, if you’ve ever wanted to know which books tell the real story of Negro League baseball, you’ll find out in the Jules Tygiel’s essay, “The Negro Leagues Revisited.” Mark Gallagher analyzes how the Yankees have served as fodder for baseball literature in a special way for a long time. And graphic specialist Mark Rucker looks at the more important illustrated works of baseball history, all the way back to 1831 (!)
A feature we’ll make a regular member of The SABR Review’s lineup is “Personal Favorites.” In this issue, Darrell Berger sees Pat Jordan’s A False Spring as baseball’s “beat” (as in Kerouac) epic.
Another feature we’ll continue is the phone survey. This time around we talked to people whose books we read to ask the deceptively simple question: What baseball book do you return to most often? Of course, they all answered The Macmillan Encyclopedia. But after probing Leonard Koppett, Lawrence Ritter, Peter Palmer, and some others had some intriguing things to say.