• The Big Bam, an unabridged version of Leigh Montville's 2006 biography on Babe Ruth. After an excerpt from narrator Scott Brick, the podcast's host, Josephine Reed, conducts a telephone interview with the author that sounds as if it was heavily edited, as if she reworded her questions to fit in with his remarks. For an entity that counts so much on sounds, the presentation is very forced. (You can hear a sample here.)

• The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, by Lawrence Ritter. Ritter is the granddaddy of audio/oral histories, setting the stage for those who came later, including Ken Burns. The excerpt includes his interview with Fred Snodgrass, a member of the New York Giants in the early part of the 20th century. (One thing I'll say about TIA: they don't skimp on the excerpts, as do some other audiobook sources.) Ritter, who schlepped around a large reel-to-reel tape recorder for his interviews, gets Snodgrass to tell an amusing story about Charles Victory Faust. Ritter's other subjects are similarly charming, belying the image of ignorant, ill-spoken athletes. (Hear a sample here.)

• 
• Bums, by Peter Golenbock. Golenbock, who came under scrutiny earlier this year for his salacious novel about Mickey Mantle, produced massive oral histories about several ball clubs, including the Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees, and Mets. In Bums, which originally came out shortly after Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer, he analyzes the Brooklyn Dodgers. Raymond Todd serves as narrator of this unabridged audiobook and, judging by the excerpt, does a good job in providing numerous "voices" representative of the people interviewed by the author. (Hear a sample here.)

• Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, by David Maraniss. This audiobook is narrated by the author in an abridged version. While writers might not be professional performers, they lend a certain credibility to the project. Having written the words, they no doubt know how the aural portion should sound. Reed conducts an in-person interview with him, and it comes off much better, more natural than the one with Montville. (Hear a sample here.)

This special All-Star program is downloadable via iTunes and should be available soon at audible.com.

The May/June 2007 issue features several baseball stories, including:

• "Why Every American *** Should Love the Boston Red Sox and Hate the New York Yankees: the Annotated Edition", by Bradford R. Pilcher
• "(Mis)Adventures in Sports Writing", also by Pilcher and also annotated, which really translates to footnotes, but which are more amusing and less academic in scope.
• "If You Build It...", John Torres' profile of 41-year-old Eric Holtz and his dream to play the new Israel Baseball League. (As of this writing, Holzt, a member of the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, is batting .097, with 3 hits in 31 at bats.)

PRE-GAME

FOX's introduction -- a bunch of players talking over each other about how special the All Star game is -- made me think of James Earl Jones' monologue in Field of Dreams; it even had that treacly FoD/The Natural music in the background.

As much of a fan as I am, I found myself wondering, "who are these guys?" I could understand staying away from the Yankees and Mets, stepping back from an East Coast-centric adulation, but I didn't recognize a single player. If you want to promote these deserving players from around the majors, some IDs at the bottom of the frame would have been helpful. And for all the Hispanic players on the rosters, there seemed to be an under-representation during the intro.

The pre-game locker room pep talks from Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland were interesting. Nice shot of Ichiro's interpreter doing his job (more on that later).

You had to feel badly for that poor guy who tried to hit balls off a team in a Taco-Bell-sponsored contest. The pressure must have gotten to him (unless he just plain ******) as the crowd booed his dismal efforts to get the ball into their air to win beacoup dollars. His first attempt again reminded me of a scene in FoD in which Costner muffs his first attempt to hit a fungo to Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Since baseball is rooted so deeply in history, it was also nice to have Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. paying their respects to Willie Mays (Jeter respectfully referring to him as "Mr. Mays) in an interview.

Not to be too catty, but I find the pre-game team of Jeanne Zelasko, Kevin Kennedy, and Eric Karros most annoying. And what's with Karros' "Braniac" forehead/hair cut? I know it's part of their job to shill for FOX, which is why I prefer games on ESPN or other sports channels because the viewer is safe from the inspipid promotion of other stations' non-sports programs. The plugging of the upcoming Simpsons movie. Case in point: Zelasko's "interview" with Homer (although the cartoon depictions of some of the players were cool; Maglio Ordonez = Sideshow Bob?).

At least FOX didn't have reporters in the stands chatting up actors ("And here's Keifer Sutherland, star of 24. Some, Keifer, which do you think Jack Bauer would more nerve-wracking? Fighting atomic terrorists or facing Billy Wagner?")

The player introductions were a bit unusual, queing up between third and second and second and first rather than the traditional first and third baselines. Giants' manager Bruce Bochy, serving as an NL coach, got a nice ovation and the first crowd shots by FOX. Of course, Bonds got the biggest hand of the players. "Here you go, San Francisco...," said the PA announcer.

The formation made it easy for the players to stroll to center field in a nice orderly fashion to greet Mays after an odd rendition of the National Anthem by Chris Issak, accompanied by one of his band members. (I wonder how much it costs -- and who pays for it -- to have those jets fly in formation over stadiums at sporting events?)

At least Mays was able to walk in under his own power, unlike Ted Williams, who needed a golf cart.  I thought his "Say Hey" jacket was a bit undignified, but undoubtedly it will garner a nice bit of change somewhere down the line. He peeled that off, revealing a Giants' jersey that seemed to be autographed (more money). Rather than throw the ceremonial first pitch from the mound, he threw it from center to Jose Reyes, for whom he also signed the ball, a nice gesture.

Mays then boarded a pink Cadillac in which there were a couple of boxes of balls. Being the cynical guy I am, I envisioned those also being peddled at some memorabilia show, but I was wrong. Mays tossed them to the crowd, gave one to a cop on the field, and another to umpire Bruce Froemming, who will retire at the end of the season.

The first pitch came at 8:54 EST. On the other hand, the festivities started at 5:00 local time, which must have seemed odd for those in attendance.

Cal Ripken Jr. and Ozzie Smith were somewhat wooden as they read the starting lineups for the AL and NL teams respectively. Ozzie Smith? Seems that Tony Gwynn would have been a better pairing with Ripken, since they're both being undicuted into the Hall of Fame in a few weeks. I'm sure FOX producers thought of that and Gwynn was just too busy to attend.

POST-GAME

In the postgame show, with very few people remaining in the stands, Zelasko served as MC while Commissioner Seilg presented Ichiro with the MVP award. Some unidentified representative from Chevy made a very dramatic presentation by...drawing...out... each...phrase ("New ...2008.. Chevy...Tahoe...Hybrid").

Ichiro certainly had a productive day, hitting the first inside-the-park home run in AS history hours after signing a multi, multi-million dollar extension to remain a Mariner.

The home run, courtesy of YouTube. (Have patience, it takes awhile while Brain Roberts works out a walk before Ichiro comes up).

Pardon me, but how long has Ichiro been playing in the U.S.? But there he was, with an interpreter, fielding Zalaskie's questions, along the lines of "Did you know you had the first inside-the-park home run" etc. This dragged out the interview even longer. Since such queries are basically the same game after game, why not have Kevin Costner teach Ichiro how to work those cliches, like he did in Bull Durham?

"He loves you, San Francisco. He can hit home runs and he's gonna be a free agent," Zelasko said at the end of the interview. Wince.

Who's airing the game next year?

* * *

KPBS, the public radio affiliate in San Diego, presented two recent baseball-related segments, one featuring Frank Deford, author of The Entitled, a new baseball novel (the audio interview is linked to the page) and another on The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card, by Michael O'Keeffe (audio here).

* * *

FYI -- According to an article in the August 2007 issue of Population Research and Policy Review, the average Major League Baseball career is 5.6 years.

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.

Robert Frost

Frost's favorite baseball team was the Boston Red Sox; his favorite player was Ted Williams. After attending an all-star game in Washington in 1956, Frost wrote a story for Sports Illustrated, "A Perfect Day - A Day of Prowess."

While he does cover other sports in his newest offering, Mike Vaccaro, New York Post sportswriter and author of Emperors and Idiots, one of the endless stream of titles about the Red Sox-Yankees 2004 season, spends most of his prose on a quartet of baseball stars — Hank Greenberg, Bob Feller, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams — “who made history in the shadow of the War.”

Vaccaro sheds some light -- perhaps unwanted -- about the circumstances surrounding the registration, enlistment, and induction of the ballplayers. Fans tend to forget that these athletes were mostly in their twenties when the war broke out, in the midst of a profession that by definition was short-lived. For some reason, perhaps because they are sports heroes, they are held to a higher standard, as if no one else facing conscription tried to work the draft system to his advantage, seeking deferment or other considerations.

Greenberg, writes Vaccaro, had the misfortune of registering in Detroit, where he lived during the season, rather than his Bronx, NY home. Because his Michigan precinct was less densely populated than New York, his number came up quickly. It was because he was a celebrity that the draft board was determined to show no favoritism. So like Feller and Williams, Greenberg lost several prime years to the service of his country (DiMaggio spent most of his time playing baseball, as a morale booster for the troops, and never saw combat). And if they weren’t ecstatic about their situations …well, who be? Even Job complained. That would seem to be the norm, not the exception.

Non-fans at the time made no bones about these physically fit specimens who even thought of seeking relief. Vaccaro includes an example of consternation:

Bobby Feller soured himself on the public when he said he wouldn’t seek deferment — but let his mother and yourselves in the newspaper field go to bat for him. Anyone would be silly to think he didn’t know what his mother was writing to the draft board seeking exemption on account of having dependents.

1941 does a credible job of conveying the excitement of DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and Williams’ chase for .400, but these topics have been covered in other books. Where Vaccaro excels is in balancing seemingly trivial athletic pursuits with the life-and-death issues of WW II. Of course, there's always a problem, especially in the world of sports, of declaring anything "the greatest." But it does make for some interesting reflection and discussion.

** The NY Times' Richard Sandomir previewed the HBO special, Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush, based loosely on Through a Blue Lens: The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein, 1937-57 (premieres July 11). The Dodgers played their last game in Brooklyn fifty years ago, and every baseball book fans knows the significance of major anniversaries. See here for a a BaseballBookshelf profile of Stein's daughter, Bonnie Crosby, following her program (with co-author Dennis D'Agostino) at the Yogi Berra Museum.

** The Day, out of London, Conn. offers this profile of Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning, which is the subject of an ESPN miniseries beginning July 10 at 10 p.m. The early buzz is not promising (although TV Guide's Matt Roush hails it as something even non-Yankee fans will enjoy), from either a baseball or theatrical point of view. Oliver Platt as George Steinbrenner? Stick a pair of prosthetic ears on John Turturro to turn him into Billy Martin? Add a cast of no-name supporting actors (Daniel Sunjata as Reggie Jackson? Eric Jense as Thurmon Munson? See picture.) and you have to wonder whether this can really sustain any interest over eight episodes. According to IMDB.com, Pratt/Steinbrenner appears in all eight, but Turturo/Martin only two? Even the characters who portray the players get more screen time, and Martin was a major player in that hectic season of 1977. See here for a BaseballBookshelf profile of Mahler and fellow-Wall Street Journal scribes Seth Mnookin (Feeding the Monster) and Joshua Prager (The Echoing Green).

** Former Times sportswriter Gerald Eskenazi reviews **** and Baseball, Volume I: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948, by Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W.Boxerman in The Forward, a weekly Jewish publication. See here for a BaseballBookshelf profile on the authors.

The things you find when you're cleaning up. Came across this piece I did for Fastball.com, a now-defunct esoteric baseball site. It's one of several "theme" teams I created in my obviously too-copius spare time. I'm sure there are many other plasyers who fit the bill since I worked on this.

Shortstop: Bill "Bertrand" Russell (1969-86)

Robert Frost at bat.

***

This just in from Onion Sports: Aaron credited with 50 "lost" home runs.

***

I usually don't consider this type of book, but I was intrigued by the press release. There's a new bio due out about Phillies' slugger Ryan Howard. Titled Ryan Howard: King of Swing, it's marketed for "fans of all ages." But one look at the cover indicates it's not on an editorial par with say, The Teammates. Other self-referential accolades include:

• THE FIRST & BEST BOOK ABOUT RYAN
• ORIGINAL COVER CARICATURE BY GOGUE
• 120 PAGES OF HOMERUN HITTING PROSE
• QUOTES THAT WILL MAKE YOU CHEER
• BASEBALL STATS & COOL CATS
• TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME

Think I'll wait for the movie to come out.

"Casey" has also led to dozens of imitations and extensions of the original story ("Casey Returns," "Casey's Daughter") Listen Garison Keeler's version, "Casey: The Other Point of View" from A Prairie Home Companion; the poem appears at the 35-minute mark in the second part of the show. The poem has been recorded by seasoned performers such as James Earl Jones and baseball stars such as Johnny Bench and Dave Winfield, with full orchestral backup.

One of my favorites treatises is The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads About the Mighty Casey/Third, Revised Edition, released by Dover Publications in 1995, which includes many of the aforementioned versions.

The ballad has also spawned several full-length works of fictional prose, including Frank Deford's Casey on the Loose (1989), as well as a 1986 film version starring Elliot Gould, Carol Kane, and Howard Cosell. Here's a review of The Night Casey Was Born, a new non-fiction "biography" of the poem, written byJohn Evangelist Walsh.