A quick browse on Amazon produced several baseball books that are due out in the next month or so that could be useful additions to your baseball library.\u00c2\u00a0 You can enjoy reading about a landmark court case in the history of baseball labour relations, a long overdue biography of a unique pitcher from the early twentieth century, and memories from the soon to be former home of the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n
One Man Out: Curt Flood Versus Baseball (Landmark Law Cases & American Society)<\/strong> (Paperback) by Robert M. Goldman.\u00c2\u00a0 This book<\/a> promises to tell the “inside story” of one of the most important court cases in baseball’s history.\u00c2\u00a0 Flood was traded without his consent from the Cardinals to the Phillies at the end of the 1969 season, leaving him in the position of either going to Philadelphia or quitting baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, even players today have to accept that they can be sent to the other side of America without their say so, but as compensation they become free agents after their first six years in the Majors and every time their existing contract runs out from then on.\u00c2\u00a0 This was not the case in 1969, thanks to the reserve clause.\u00c2\u00a0 This clause was included in every player’s contract and basically meant the team held the rights to the player even after the contract had expired.\u00c2\u00a0 The player was left with no choice but to negotiate a new deal with the team or ask to be traded.\u00c2\u00a0 Flood decided to mount a legal challenge to the reserve clause and, although he was ultimately unsuccessful with his case, it paved the way for the abolition of the clause and the introduction of free agency.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Although it is part of the ‘Landmark Law Cases’ series, that doesn’t mean it is a dry text book judging by the excerpts available on Amazon.com.\u00c2\u00a0 At 158 pages, it looks like it could be a neat overview of a topic that all baseball fans should learn about if they haven’t already.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Three Finger: The Mordecai Brown Story<\/strong> (Paperback) by Cindy Thomson and Scott Brown.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This<\/a> is really the first comprehensive biography of Brown and the authors’ inspiration for writing it was partly due to the fact that they are both related to him.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a surprise that no one has delved into his life and career before. Brown got his nickname after losing part of one of his fingers in a childhood accident and that in itself produces a storyline worth following (battling through his disability, learning about how it made him a unique pitcher etc).\u00c2\u00a0 He wasn’t just a novelty though, he was one of the best pitchers around during the early twentieth century.\u00c2\u00a0 He had six consecutive twenty-win seasons with the Cubs between 1906 and 1911, and also led the National League in saves between 1908 and 1911.\u00c2\u00a0 Add in the insight that the book will no doubt provide of what life was like for a Major Leaguer during the period in which Brown played and you have plenty of reasons to give it a look.<\/p>\n Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of “The House That Ruth Built”: An Oral and Narrative History of ‘the House That Ruth Built’<\/strong> (Hardcover) by Harvey Frommer. It won’t be long before the current Yankee Stadium closes its doors for the final time, which means a whole raft of books about the ‘House that Ruth Built’ are flying on to the shelves of bookstores in the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0 Harvey Frommer has put together an “oral and narrative history” of the famous ballpark in ‘Remembering Yankee Stadium’<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Buildings come and go, but it is the memories that people hold about them that really matter, so this sounds like a great way to honour the stadium.<\/p>\n