Monthly Archives: June 2013

Honour this Day by Alexander Kent: a review

The naval action’s really quite good. Early in the book Bolitho’s in the Caribbean commanding a small squadron assigned an impossible mission, so we get to see the old, reckless Bolitho leading a cutting out expedition despite his high rank. And the book’s final battle sees Admiral Bolitho in the Mediterranean doing battle with a Spanish fleet; the results are pretty much a smaller version of Nelson’s Trafalgar battle. (This is one of Kent’s bloodiest battle accounts, by the way.) Bolitho survives, but his flagship–his old command Hyperion–is sunk as the battle concludes.

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Baseball Research Journal 1980 edited by Bob Davids: a review

This is the strongest Baseball Research Journal edition yet. It features one of the classic works of sabermetric analysis, some excellent biographical portraits, a look at minor league umpiring practice in 1900, a glimpse at the 1880 opening of the original Polo Grounds, some analysis of why Fulton County Stadium was a launching pad, and an interview with Joe Oeschger about the longest major league game and other memories. Authors included Stew Thornley, Seymour Siwoff(!), David Smith, Ted DiTullio, and Richard Cramer. This issue has, of course, some variations in quality, but there’s really nothing you could fairly characterize as filler in this edition.

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