Taking the boys of summer into the fall

The playoffs are about to begin, signaling the saddest time of year

for baseball fans. In the words of the late baseball commissioner A.

Bartlett Giamatti, regarding the game, “It breaks your heart. It is

designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when

everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling

the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains

come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”

After the World Series is over, it’s a long stint with nothing but

the winter meetings to keep us avid fans excited until we hear the

magical words “pitchers and catchers report” in February. But take

heart. The library can help you through the doldrums.

There have been a number of books released this year, after the

start of the baseball season, which come highly recommended.

“The Seventh Game: The 35 World Series That Have Gone the

Distance,” by Barry Levinson is a fun account of the World Series

that have been played to the max, starting with the 1909 match-up of Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner to (you guessed it) the Angels’ surprising

defeat of the Giants just two years ago.

Another fact-filled, intriguing book is Michael Coffey’s “27 Men

Out: Baseball’s Perfect Games.” Though it went to press before Randy

Johnson’s perfect game in May, it covers all of the others going back

to Cy Young.

Two books deal with baseball players and place them in an

interesting social context. “Hank Aaron and the Home Run that Changed

America,” by Tom Stanton puts Aaron’s 715th homer in the context of

its time and prompts interesting comparisons, now that Barry Bonds

stands to break Aaron’s record in a different time and place.

Driven by the urge to understand Darryl Strawberry, Michael

Sokolove went back to Los Angeles’ Crenshaw High School to learn the

story of the Crenshaw Cougars in “The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry

and the Boys of Crenshaw.” Often touted as the most talented team in

the history of high school baseball, the players’ dreams of getting

out of poverty led to more than they bargained for when they met

professional baseball head on.

On a happier note regarding baseball in California, “The Golden

Game: The Story of California Baseball” portrays the relationship the

Golden State has had with the national pastime. Authors Kevin Nelson

and Hank Greenwald cover everything from sandlot ball during the Gold

Rush to the Pacific Coast League.

As you are lying back in your easy chair before a winter fire and

watching yet another classic old game on the TV, both “The Numbers

Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics,” by Alan

Schwarz, and “Brushbacks and Knockdowns: The Greatest Baseball

Debates of Two Centuries,” by Allen Barra will afford plenty of

opportunities for musing about the game. The first is a history of

the statistics kept on the game going back to 1845, and the other is

an incisive attempt to settle some of baseball’s greatest arguments.

So root like crazy for your favorite team in order to stave off

the sad fact that they will fade away in a few weeks. And keep the

coming of spring training in the forefront of your mind. Imagine that

you can hear the echo of manager Yogi Berra, telling the springtime

squad to “Pair off in threes!”

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Sara Barnicle. All titles may be

reserved from home or office computers by accessing the catalog at

https://www.newport

beachlibrary.org. For more information on the Central Library or

any of the branch locations, please contact the Newport Beach Public

Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.