What do you get when you cross a successful Major Leaguer, one of the most historic teams in Major League baseball and an adorable dog? Author Barbara Gregorich answers this question in her new book Jack and Larry: Jack Graney and Larry, the Cleveland Baseball Dog.

In this children’s book told in a prose style, the story of former Cleveland ballplayer Jack Graney and his relationship with a dog named Larry is chronicled. Graney is not a ballplayer many fans, even from Cleveland, remember even though he had a solid Major League career and perhaps because of this, his dog Larry has become forgotten in many circles as well.

Gregorich brings to light the emotional story of one man’s relationship with a dog who became much more than a four legged friend to the ballplayer and his teammates.

The author describes how Larry became the team’s mascot for essentially a decade and became perhaps the most well-known dog in the United States during the first two decades of the 20^th century. Knowing that Jack and Larry had a special relationship might make one immediately think that Larry was always Jack’s dog and he took some steps to convince the team that his dog needed to spend time with him at the ballpark.

In actuality, Larry was not Jack’s dog to begin with Larry became a companion of Jack’s one summer when Jack was injured and his manager noticed he was down. His manager recommended that Jack take Larry, who was by then a staple at the ballpark, home with him. From that time on, Jack and Larry became inseparable.

Not only was Larry around during home games, but as the official team mascot, Larry also travelled with the team on the road. During those days, teams would typically travel by train when going from city to city. Unfortunately for both Jack and Larry, dogs weren’t allowed to ride in the same boxcars as people were even if that dog happens to be the official mascot of a Major League Baseball team. While almost all journeys turned out successful for the pup, the reader does get an exciting story when Gregorich describes a time when Larry didn’t get routed to the same place as the rest of the team, creating a search and rescue scenario.

The author does a great job describing the enthusiasm that Larry had for what he was expected to do as the team mascot. Even though to many he may have been perceived as “just a dog,” Larry seemed to have a genuine interest in how the Indians did on the field. It was almost as if he could feel what the attitude of the team was at any time and acted accordingly. If the team was on a losing streak and needed a lift, they could always count on Larry to pull something silly like grabbing some of the players’ gloves and taking the gloves out to the field for them.

As with most people’s relationships with their pets, Jack and his career outlive Larry, but that is not to say that Jack wasn’t thinking about Larry even on the last day of his career. Although Jack has his most successful season in terms of wins when Larry is no longer able to be with him, it is clear by the writing that Jack played with a heavy heart as if Larry was there with him the entire time.

Although the book is meant to be a work for children, adults can certainly find this book entertaining as well. It would be a fast read for any adult, but it does have a story line that carries, so it is worth the read. If reading to a child, at 92 pages, it might be good to spread it over a week of nights for bedtime stories as there are some emotional highs and lows.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Looking for the perfect item to get your baseball fix on TV in the offseason?  Well, you can stop looking once you acquire Baseballs Greatest Games. Put out by MLB and A&E Studios in 2011, this 11 disc DVD set will occupy any baseball lover for hours (29 hours and 56 minutes to be exact).

The set features ten of the most hotly contested games in MLB history. Watching these games is made even better when the viewer notices that they can actually watch baseball without having to wait for inning changes and commercials.

The games featured in this set are:

Image via Wikipedia

Game 7 of the 1960 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates: Fans will quickly remember this as the Bill Mazeroski game when he hit the historic walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning to secure the Series for the Pirates.

Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox: This is the game when Carlton Fisk hits his childlike walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 12^th inning to send the Series to seven games.

Slugfest at Wrigley Field in 1979 between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs: This game went into extra innings eventually ending with the Phillies winning 23-22 in the tenth inning.

Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Saint Louis Cardinals: Ozzie Smith makes this game memorable with his walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox: This is a game that is etched in Red Sox fans’ hearts for all time as they see Mookie Wilson’s grounder bounce down the line.

Game 7 of the 1991 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins: Jack Morris put his mark on this fall classic by throwing a 10 inning shutout.

Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Atlanta Braves: This game is remembered by Sid Bream’s slide across home plate in the bottom of the ninth to bring the Braves all of the way back from down 2-0 at the start of the inning.

Game 6 of the 1993 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays: Joe Carter’s walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth is the play that most remember about this contest.

Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees:  To Red Sox fans, this is the Aaron Bleeping Boone game.

Game 7 of the 2004 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox: No team had ever come back from being down 3-0 in a seven game Series until David Ortiz helped the Sox change all of that with his historic homerun in game seven.

In addition to the ten games, there is an extra disc as well that provides viewers with postgame interviews and analyst reaction to the happenings of those games. These interviews further help to put the games into context of what was happening in baseball at that time.

One of the more interesting aspects of this DVD set is that viewers have the option to view the games either with the commentary from television or from radio. This is a great feature as many fans enjoy the radio broadcast more than television because it tends to be more descriptive. This feature has them lined up correctly so there is no delay between radio and television like there usually is if the viewer attempts to do this live.

These games can either bring back memories, or increase one’s knowledge about the teams and players of the different times in baseball history.

Rating: 3.55/5

Mantle may have been the last polarizing star of America’s Pastime and his story has been told many different times in many different ways. Author Jane Leavy sets out to tell a new version of Mantle’s life in her new work, The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood.

As Leavy points out in the preface, this was much more difficult of an undertaking than she ever expected. She was one, and actually admits she still is, who looked at Mantle as a hero, not a mortal, and went through many internal arguments about what she needed to include in the book to tell the complete story.

As I mentioned, there is no shortage to the variety of stories about Mantle’s life that are already in print. In fact, Mantle himself had a hand in at least three different versions. Leavy has written a different version than any other as instead of using mostly second hand research she opted to intertwine her personal experiences into a tale that is both telling of her fandom and of Mantle’s far reaching personality.

The backbone of the book are a few days Leavy spent with Mantle in Atlantic City in April 1983. This was her time to get to know the man whom she had idolized for so many years and to potentially learn if that man truly exists. Intertwined in this story are the legends of Mantle’s life and career. The story is not told in a traditional way, centered on his home runs and World Series triumphs, although those do have their place in the book. However, each chapter is a single day in the life of Mantle ranging from 1951 and leading all of the way up to 1994.

If nothing else, the book illustrates that Mantle was a man who had extraordinary talent, but who was also extraordinarily human. His star status in no way helped him excommunicate he daemons. In fact, in some ways, his status may have accentuated them.

More than any other player of his name recognition, Mantle’s career seemed to be full of “what ifs?”. For instance: What if he wouldn’t have twisted his leg on that train in the Yankees outfield? Or, what if he hadn’t spent so much time partying and took better care of his body?

Leavy does a fine job of both looking into these questions, but still leaving them unanswered. In reality we’ll never know if he could have hit 800 home runs if he had just gone to the right doctors to treat the rash on his leg.

Leavy’s work is a great read, particularly for anyone who enjoys the stories behind the big names. Just as in her last work, Sandy Koufax, Leavy tells a completely new side of a story has been retold countless times before.

While all fans who idolized Mantle may not want to remember him in the way Leavy describes him, her work is nothing short of the truth. Even though Mantle wasn’t perfect, the author paints the picture that if it weren’t for those faults he might not have become the man we all feel was one of the game’s greatest players.

Overall Rating: 4/5

While there are strong debates raging today as to what sport should not be considered America’s pastime with football, basketball and baseball all making their sound arguments, there was a time when this was not in doubt. During the first half of the 20^th Century, there was really only one choice for the sport that American’s loved the most, it was baseball. Since televisions weren’t around at that time to give fans a real life portrait of the players they read about in the papers, photographs were the main way fans identified with their idols.

While there were many strong photographers of that day, Charles Conlon is considered by most baseball historians to be the most respected and accomplished of those whose main focus was on baseball. In The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball Photographs
, a new generation of baseball fans will get to see what Conlon got to witness first hand. These previously never before published pictures run from 1904 to 1942 and feature players from this time period.

Many of these players, such as Al Rosen, Bob Feller or even Babe Ruth, have had a lasting legacy and most likely don’t need the caption next to their picture for fans to know who they are. However, much of this collection is of players of this time who were not so well known, but still have a story to tell. While Walter’s Johnson’s story probably doesn’t have to be retold, this book gives a chance for players such as former Chicago White Sox catcher Johnny Riddle to have their story told.

Accompanying the 224 pages of photographs are brief stories and descriptions of the players depicted in the pictures. Authors Neal McCabe and Constance McCabe penned these excerpts to help tell the story behind some of these lost men of the Golden Age.

This is not the first time an entire collection of Conlon’s photographs has been published. In 1993, acollection of his better recognizable pictures was published in a book entitled Baseball’s Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon
and was said to be perhaps the best book of photographs of our National Pastime ever published.

Most of the pictures in this recent collection were not known to have existed when the first book was published almost two decades ago. After the original work was published, more extensive research was done into Conlon’s personal collection and these photographs were discovered.

Due to the fact that many of the players were not as recognizable as the big names such as Tris Speaker, the McCabe’s had to undergo extensive research to identify those in the photographs and find someone who could tell the story for these former players in a way that would do them all justice.

In a way, the players shown in these pages are the ones who madeAmerica’s game what it is today. These players played through the depression and two World Wars, but continued to provide Americans with a much needed outlet of entertainment in a time before players were paid much more than the average citizen.

Viewing the pictures and stories in these pages can really take a serious baseball fan back to a time when may might say the game was in its purest form. Short of taking a trip toCooperstown, these pages provide one of the best visual stories of what baseball was like during some of its strongest years.

While the book could be a quick read because the amount of text is small and the photographs take up the majority of the work, it is important that the reader take the time to inspect each picture for what story it has to tell instead of buzzing right by. A lot can be missed by the hasty reader in this work.

Total Grade: 3.75/5

It’s amazing how fast one’s life can change. In one split second on October 3,1951 aveteran pitcher with multiple All Star appearances went from being one of the most respected players in baseball to forever being known as a goat.

When Brooklyn Dodger right hander Ralph Branca gave up the homerun to New York Giants hitter Bobby Thomson, his life was never the same. The play instantly became known as the “shot heard ‘round the world,” which was great for Thomson, but not so wonderful for Branca.

It probably didn’t help that the radio announcer’s exuberance in yelling, “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” helped to make it even more of a lasting picture in baseball history and ensured it would be played on highlight reels for years to come.

In his new book, A Moment in Time: An American Story of Baseball, Heartbreak, and Grace
the former pitcher finally tells the story of his life, which he has since that time in 1951 been trying to make sure wouldn’t be defined by a single moment.

For almost exactly 60 years, Branca has been almost completely silent when asked to talk about that pitch, that game or even that year, but in this memoir, the right-hander’s story is finally told.

Branca’s silence, as he points out in the book, was two sided. He has spent much of his life getting reminders of that fateful day. Whether it’s in the form of hate letters or phone calls from upset Dodger fans threatening his life or the livelihood or his family, or the constant thanks he received from Giants fans through standing ovations in completely random settings, for many decades, finding a way to forget, was almost impossible.

Many thought Branca may have found some justice in 2001 when it was revealed and confirmed that the Giants were stealing signs from the Dodgers during that game and that Thomson almost certainly knew Branca was throwing a fastball. Even so, Branca stayed quiet on all fronts when discussing this facet of the day as well. As Branca points out, this wasn’t news to him in 2001 as he had been told way back in 1954 that Thomson had been tipped off on his pitch. Branca’s response is typical of his character: that’s’ still no excuse.

The story of the rest of Branca’s career has been lost not because his career wasn’t public record, but more because the public made a choice to define him on one play. Very few remember Branca as being a rock on a Dodger team that accepted the first African American into the Major Leagues. When Jackie Robinson entered the league in 1947, Branca quickly became one of his friends and someone who he could rely on when times were tough. In fact, their friendship was turned on its head after Braca’s pitch in ’51 when he started receiving similar threats to what Robinson had been hearing throughout his career, albeit for a different reason.

Branca’s perspective is something the baseball world was missing and didn’t even know they needed, but now that it is out there, it sheds an entirely different light not just on the play that became to define his career, but on the life head led which was filled with relationships with many people who had a large hand in changing the game.

The 210 page work is a relatively fast and very interesting read. While there are many details shared in the book that fans probably weren’t aware of, the work isn’t bogged down with too many specifics or unneeded stories as some baseball memoirs tend to be.

Overall Grade: 3.25/5

If you are a baseball fan, chances are you have seen one of the best baseball movies all time in “Field Of Dreams“. From sitting on the same benches as Kevin Costner to viewing the Field that happens to have been built after plowing down a corn field, this place is a perfect day trip for the avid baseball fan!

One story I was able to overhear while visiting was too good not to share with you.

A group of baseball players that played ‘extra’s in the field’ during the filming of the movie continued to play a regular Sunday night game after the picture went to Hollywood.  Tourists liked this idea so much that they asked the landowners if they could have the players play every year.

The following year, and unbeknownst to a 300 passenger bus of Japanese Tourists, in the middle of the night mind you, the group of ball players walked through the cornfields and reached the grass in the outfield as the tourists gasped with nervous energy.  The tour guide never had told this group that these players were to arrive.  The Japanese tourists clapped their hands feverishly as the players took the field and played.

The Japanese tourists were so impressed with the caliber of play – and for what these ballplayer’s had done for them – that they hired these two teams to travel all throughout Japan year round and play exhibition games.  All of the extras (who all had played semi-pro in some fashion) had a great career now.  Even to this day, there is a new generation of men playing with the old style “Sox” jerseys around the world.

The Field of Dreams Movie Site sees 300-400 visitors a day, and for this humble Canadian, I went there during the All-Star Break of 2008, after I had been chasing the World Record for 3 weeks.  Having a chance to view this landmark for over 5 hours, and talking with several different other visitors, this park only grew my appreciation for the game of baseball more.  It was a great way to settle down after a 3 week stint of chaos.

Quick Tips:

Fly into Milwaukee via Air Tran on any flight you can view from the best Airline in America.  Try to tie it in with the Chicago teams. Milwaukee, St. Louis or Minnesota on a baseball vacation.  Luckily for you, Milwaukee has is one of the cheaper cities to rent a car, and/or pay for lodging. Use Priceline (www.priceline.com) to bid on your hotel rooms-and you will be amazed at what price you will only have to pay.

To drive to the Field of Dreams Movie Site will take you about 4 hours from the Milwaukee International Airport.  The park is still as beautiful as it was when the movie was a hit nearly a quarter-century ago.  This amazing landmark must be on a baseball fan’s bucket list.  Not only is it a fantastic attraction – but there is no cover charge to see the Field!

Those who visit are welcome to bring bats, balls and gloves to break out in a pickup game.  Visitors from all over will just come and do the same.  Be sure to buy something from the gift shop on your way out as that is how the kind landowners are able to keep up the maintenance of this truly amazing ballpark in Iowa.

*******There is a Best Western in Dodgeville-about a 90 minute drive North East from this movie site-where you can stay for under $100 a night.  Dodgeville does have a Wal-Mart and is one of the nicest heritage towns in America.

Go The Distance!

Author Bill Lewers has possibly lived a life many baseball fans would trade for. In his work, Six Decades of Baseball, Lewers chronicles his time surrounding the game of baseball across the nation. Lewers, a Red Sox fan who never lived near Boston, and actually grew up in New York City, presents a story of his life paralleled with baseball.

Lewers does a good job balancing his clear fandom towards the Red Sox, with his love for the game of baseball and its history. While there are certainly many chapters and anecdotes dedicated to Boston’s team, it my no means overwhelms the work.

Like many people, it is clear that without baseball in Lewers’ life, he may not have any clue what to do. Not only does he tell a story of his time at the part, but the work also chronicles how this has related to his relationship with many of his family members and friends over time.

Lewers’ memoir, or as he calls it, “A Personal Narrative,” will be unlike most anyone will read about baseball. This is because Lewers didn’t play, coach or even cover baseball, he just liked it. In a sense, that makes him no difference than you or me.

Essentially Lewers has taken every baseball memory he has had over his life, and put it on paper. Whether it has to do with visiting a park, meeting a player, or learning the wave, it Bill Lewers did it and it somehow relates to baseball, it is within these pages.

Perhaps most incredible about this is that there aren’t more works floating around like it. Somehow Lewers is the pioneer for the personal baseball narrative, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s hard to tell how Lewers prepared to write the book, as most would have to assume he was not taking notes as a child while his parents took him to a ball game. Rather, much of this is based on memory, and told throughout with pictures he, or one of his immediate family members, took.

On the surface, it does kind of sound boring. You may be wondering what you may be getting out of this book that you don’t already have from your own experiences. Then you get hit with the power of perspective. I have taken many of the same trips to ballparks as Lewers has and in many ways, our experiences are very different. This is driven by a number of things such as our fandom loyalties, the atmosphere at the parks that day and who we were with when we made those ventures, but if nothing else, his perspective made him rethink mine.

In some ways, Lewers’ work could also service as an instructional manual for seeing baseball, especially on the east coast. He hits most of the famed venues, including the Polo Grounds, and tells his experience like it was. Lewers doesn’t sugar coat anything in this book. If he was feeling sentimental about his journey, it is illustrated in these pages, but if he was expecting to and it didn’t happen, the reader will find this out as well.

Baseball and family seem to always be intertwined in books about the sport whether they are novels, memoirs or narratives. Lewers could have easily gotten carried away with this aspect of the book, but instead he uses it as a way to tie all of his experiences together, and not something that his experiences relied upon to exist.

In many ways Lewers is a do it all man. He wrote the book about his own experiences, took the pictures and even published the book. He also now serves as its publicist. Perhaps he is already working on the sequel to his book; it could be called, simply, “Decade 7.”

Overall Rating: 2.75/5