Monthly Archives: October 2008

Gruenwald Bows Out (1965)

[Midwest League president James] Gruenwald said he wanted to devote more time to private life and his vice-presidency of the Davenport Bank and Trust Company.

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Clinton Skipper Suspended (1964)

The suspension by Piton followed an appeal by the umpire, who did not think the punishment was sufficient.

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Explaining the Peculiar Circumstance of Minor League Baseball

In the major leagues, American Legion, and NCAA they play the game. In the minor leagues they teach the game. Even as they live it, breathe it, do it, and talk it on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, from March till September.

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The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber: a short review

A long, sprawling book with a half-dozen overlapping story lines and far too many characters (there’s a list at the end, and I recommend you bookmark it). Weber takes several hundred pages to get things started, but once the yarn finds its footing things get really interesting.

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Blind Ambition by John Dean: a review

Dean was a central player in the cover-up, and paints interesting portraits of the other players. Worth reading just for that; he’s got a good eye for character. That his version of the story is close to the one we “know” is likely inevitable; his narrative shaped the Ervin committee’s hearings. Since the story-as-told is neither obviously self-serving nor protective of the president, I’d be willing to treat it as a key research source were I researching these events. Others, I’m sure, differ.

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