a dabbler's journal

The Greater the Honor by William H White: a review

White does many things well. The plotting is excellent. The characters aren’t cardboard. He’s chosen a good tale to retell. But making it interesting seems beyond him.

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Call Off Final M-O-V Playoffs (1950)

As you can see, the accounts actually disagree, both about the status of the Paducah/West Frankfort series and about the reason for the cancellation. Looking at the game reports for those which were actually played, it looks like the weather was sufficient reason to shut things down; it was wet and cold, and few were in the stands.

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Centralia, Belleville Play 17 Innings, Game Ends in 2-2 Tie (1947)

Belleville 000 000 020 000 000 00 - 2 11 3
Centralia  000 200 000 000 000 00 - 2 12 2
Batteries: Lubanski and Lovin, DeFrietas (5);‚Ä®
Markellos and Ciacchi.

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Traverse City State Hospital by Chris Miller: a review

Not a real ambitious book–it’s basically a set of pictures of the buildings at the TC hospital–but it accomplishes its limited mission extremely well. Well-selected photographs with relevant captions. And it’s unusually well organized.

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Wisconsin Rapids Loses Manager Before Season Starts (1977)

[Tom] Zimmer, 24, son of former major leaguer Don Zimmer, said Friday he was quitting as manager because of poor facilities, ill-fitting uniforms, inadequate stadium lighting and a lack of lodging in the Wisconsin Rapids area.

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A False Spring by Pat Jordan: a review

This is a powerful and frustrating memoir of Pat Jordan’s three summers pitching in the low minor leagues, written when the author was in his thirties. At heart, it’s an exploration of why he failed, and that story is pretty brutal: Much of the problem was immaturity; he comes off as a cocky kid, with obvious talent but no ability to put the talent to use. Except for a Winter Instructionals interlude, the path is ever downward, and the ending inevitable.

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Ebb Tide by Richard Woodman: a short review

In an oddly-constructed and wonderful book, Richard Woodman ties up the most important loose ends from his long sequence of Nat Drinkwater yarns with a series of nicely-executed flashbacks. Not what I’d expected, and accomplished better than I’d anticipated. Sad, but delightful.

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Double Iron Man Stunt (1952)

Two “Iron Men” pitched against each other in a Mississippi-Ohio Valley baseball league July 4th double-header.

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The View from the Dugout by Red Rolfe: a review

Two audiences, mostly, will find this book useful and/or interesting: Those interested in the 1949 through 1952 Tigers, and those interested in how baseball’s field managers go about their job. The second group, I fear, will be somewhat frustrated by the editor’s methods.

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Umpire Huddle Leads to Protest (1962)

Kuklenski grounded to Ron Henderson at second base, but the infielder couldn’t make a throw because First Baseman Bob Iglesias was watching Novick and Williams. As a result, Kuklenski was called back to bat again.

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