Sports Books,

Chris Matthews had Jimmy Breslin on Hard Ball tonight to talk about his book Branch Rickey. They discussed Rickey's signing of Jackie Robinson as today is the anniversary of Robinson's Major League debut.

http://www.amazon.com/Branch-Rickey-Penguin-Lives-Breslin/dp/0670022497

Jackie is almost a mythical figure in my mind. What he was able to accomplish did as much as anyone to change race relations and the perception of African Americans in America.

Is there anyone on here who's old enough and lucky enough to remember seeing him play in person?

My dad's uncle, who played for the Yankees, Dodgers, and Browns before WWII finished his playing career after the war with Montreal of the International League and was teammates with Jackie in '46.

My uncle told me stories of going to watch him play.

Seems like such a different time.

 

Just read "The Last Best League," about the 2003 Chatham A's in the Cape Cod League. It's an excellent book.

And while it's not a "sports book" in the traditional sense, Pat Conroy's "My Losing Season" is an outstanding effort.

 

It's good, not quite as good as "Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle"

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I liked "Crazy '08" by Cait Murphy about the 1908 pennant races, mostly focusing on the NL race with Merkle's Boner and the Cubs ultimately winning, but also looking at the race between the White Sox and Tigers in the AL.
In a somewhat similar pick, I'm currently reading "Forward Pass" by Phillip Brooks about the legalization and of passing in football.

 

A master stroke.

 

Enjoyed "Crazy '08," and just finished Richard Hoffer's "Something in the Air," about the Mexico City Olympics. Anyone who thought George Foreman was just being a great patriot needs to read it.

 

I have no doubt that it is good, but I am just tired of the weepy Brooklyn Dodgers genre.

 

I get what you mean, but that genre's a money maker. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who says they were a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Cha-ching. Thing about this book is it's as much about the changing of Brooklyn and Robert Moses as it is baseball or the Dodgers.

 

If you're sick of the Dodgers, I would also endorse "The Giants of the Polo Grounds," by Noel Hynd, which, unfortunately, scrimps a little on the final years of the franchise in New York.