Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I have seen Presedential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin appear many times on TV political talk shows.   I have also heard her speak on several occasions about her love for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  You can imagine mydelight when I came across a copy of her 1997 book Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir at a used book sale.  A favorite […]

Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone by Martha Ackmann

Few box scores remain.   Very few written records to account for her splendid achievements on the field.  No SLG, OBP, RISP, WHIP, CqStG, WARP, or VORP to measure her success. Statistics do not tell the whole story of any ballplayer’s life.   In the case of Toni Stone, arguably the greatest woman ever to play professional […]

Sort of Gone by Sarah Freligh

Sarah Freligh’s Sort of Gone is a collection of poems that tells the story of fictional pitcher Al Stepansky’s rise and fall in baseball. The story starts with Al getting his first pitcher’s glove (a gift from his alcoholic father) and ends with him watching tapes of his best games as he washes down his […]

Women & Baseball: The Game’s “Most Ardent Admirers”

Women have been passionate baseball fans since the early days of the game and baseball, as an institution, has taken notice. In 1888 John Montgomery Ward  of the New York Giants wrote “It is a fact that the sport has no more ardent admirers than are to be found among its lady attendants throughout the […]