{"id":12285,"date":"2011-11-03T20:35:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T20:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=12285"},"modified":"2011-11-06T11:09:36","modified_gmt":"2011-11-06T11:09:36","slug":"offseason-plenty-to-write-and-read-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=12285","title":{"rendered":"Offseason: Plenty to write and read about"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After a brief post-World Series breather, baseball is back to keeping hold of my attention and taking up most of my spare time. Which is just how I like it.<\/p>\n

Calling it an offseason in MLB doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really seem accurate.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the no-game season; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only thing that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re missing.\u00c2\u00a0 Admittedly, the games are the best and most important part, but the point is there is still an enormous amount of stories and events to keep us occupied.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s applicable as a baseball fan first and foremost, but also as the editor and main writer here at BaseballGB.\u00c2\u00a0 There is no shortage of things to write about.<\/p>\n

On MLB alone, now is a great time to reflect on the engrossing season that we have just enjoyed.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be doing my division-by-division season review, keeping my promise of looking back at our predictions to see how right, or in my case wrong, we were.\u00c2\u00a0 Player transactions and off-the-field developments, not least the ongoing Collective Bargaining Discussions, will also give us plenty to discuss.<\/p>\n

There is of course a wonderful wide world of baseball out there beyond MLB that deserves our attention, including the areas that can provide those of us with ballgame withdrawal symptoms a chance to follow games over the winter months.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Britain doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite offer that, but it will be the source of plenty of discussion around future developments in the sport on those shores.\u00c2\u00a0 The news today<\/a> on BaseballSoftballUK about a major baseball and softball facility development project at Farnham Park near Slough is one of many reasons to be optimistic for 2012 and beyond.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plenty of work to do to move the sport forward, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all going to be easy, but it should be well worth the effort.<\/p>\n

And the relative lack of ballgames does have one upside: extra time to catch up on some baseball reading.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Our baseball book reviews<\/a> have been a popular offseason feature in previous years and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be adding to our collection of reviews throughout the winter months.<\/p>\n

One book that I always look forward to reading each year is the Hardball Times Baseball Annual.\u00c2\u00a0 Details of the 2012 edition<\/a> were released just over a week ago and they show that it will be cram-packed with the type of thought-provoking and entertaining articles that the Annual has become known for.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll definitely be getting my hands on a copy as soon as possible and aim to get a review up in good time for the Christmas shopping market, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly the sort of book that a baseball fan would enjoy receiving and reading over the festive period.<\/p>\n

I have a few books on my shelf that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gotten around to reviewing yet.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

One is Josh Chetywnd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSecret History of Balls\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t specifically about baseball but is an enjoyable book to dip into.\u00c2\u00a0 Again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another one that would be a welcome addition to someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas list.\u00c2\u00a0 John Thorn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBaseball in the Garden of Eden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 has been sat on my shelf for a couple of months waiting to be read.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but read a few sections, but I wanted to leave it to one side until I could give it the attention it deserves.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to finally launching into it over the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll also be flicking through \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBaseball: An Illustrated History\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Geoffrey C Ward.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the book that accompanies the Ken Burns \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBaseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 documentary series.\u00c2\u00a0 An updated paperback version was released last September to coincide with the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTenth Inning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 part of the documentary.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

It undoubtedly falls in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccoffee table book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 category as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big, heavy book and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not cheap (Amazon.co.uk has it priced at \u00c2\u00a322.47 at time of writing), but if someone treats you to it, or you treat yourself, it will be worth the investment.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count the number of times I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve picked it off the bookshelf and whiled away half an hour reading about different periods in MLB history, or simply admiring the many wonderful photographs.<\/p>\n

On top of those books waiting to be reviewed, I have several more that are on my list once funds allow (or Santa offers a helping hand).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be acting on Joe Gray\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recommendation for Harvey Sahker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Blokes of Summer<\/a>, while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll love Craig Robinson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Flip Flop Fly Ball book as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m regularly browsing his excellent website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m partial to a baseball novel and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Art of Fielding: A Novel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Chad Harbach has been receiving some impressive reviews, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to get hold of a copy of that.\u00c2\u00a0 I also haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet got around to picking up a copy of The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri.<\/p>\n

So those books are on my list.\u00c2\u00a0 If you have any recommendations for others that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listed above, or I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet reviewed, then please do pass them on via the Comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Offseason plans, including some baseball books on my ‘to read and review’ list<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-12285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","category-site-info","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12285"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12303,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285\/revisions\/12303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}