Compiled by Jamie H. Vaught
--Honus Wagner: The Life of Baseball's "Flying Dutchman," Revised Edition by Arthur D. Hittner (McFarland & Company, $35) is about baseball's first superstar who had a remarkable career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His record of 17 consecutive .300-plus seasons is a mark that will probably never be broken. He led the National League eight times in hitting, six times in slugging percentage and five times in stolen bases. Known as the Flying Dutchman, he also excelled on the field, defining the shortstop position for a generation. Wagner is one of the original inductees in the Baseball Hall of Fame. A humble man whose biggest passions were hunting and fishing, Wagner lacked the flamboyance of a Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth. He rarely smoked or drank, though he sometimes indulged in a sandlot game with the neighborhood kids.
--Larry Doby in Black and White: The Story of a Baseball Pioneer by Jerry Izenberg (Sports Publishing, $32.99) is about another trailblazer who became the second African American to break the color barrier in MLB in 1947 and was the first to appear in the American League. (Jackie Robinson was the future Hall of Famer who broke the color barrier, appearing in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. ) While Robinson is always the one to be spoken about, Doby was just as good in the field and at the plate. In fact, he was a 9-time All-Star, a World Series champion (being the first African American, along with teammate Satchel Paige, to win a World Series), home run and batting champ, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 after an incredible 13-year MLB career. Beginning his professional baseball career at the tender age of 18, he would play five years for the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues. In between, he spent two years out of baseball, defending his country in World War II as a member of the U.S. Navy. The author, with in-depth research and numerous one-on-one interviews, delivers an incredible tale that gives Doby his due as one of the all-time greats, while also sharing the struggles, trials, and tribulations of being a black man in a white country.
--Home Run King: The Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron by Dan Schlossberg (Sports Publishing, $32.99) traces Aaron's odyssey from the segregated south to the baseball world revolutionized by Jackie Robinson (who became an early and important ally against bigotry and prejudice). In the 50 years that have passed since Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run and supplanted Babe Ruth as baseball's home run king, his legend and legacy have only grown. Humble and modest to a fault, he always insisted that he didn't want people to forget Babe Ruth but only to remember Henry Aaron. Written by a lifelong Braves fan who became a sportswriter, the book reveals how the New York Giants nearly beat the Boston Braves in signing Aaron, when the young slugger caught his first break, and why he changed his hitting style after the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. Though he never won a Triple Crown or hit for the cycle, he won virtually every major honor, including an MVP award, a World Series ring, and a berth in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But he should have won more, as the author contends he was often taken for granted by voters (nine of whom left him off their Cooperstown ballots). This is also a book of personal tragedy: the death of a child, a difficult divorce, and the stunning loss of the 43-year-old brother-in-law who became the first black GM in MLB.
--Sports Illustrated The World Series: A History of the Fall Classic from the Pages of Sports Illustrated by the editors of Sports Illustrated (Triumph Books, $40) covers the Fall Classic. It's a colorful hardcover featuring the magazine's iconic photography alongside classic stories from legendary writers. Along with overviews of notable teams and championships, this new volume includes stats, facts, and anecdotes spanning World Series history, beginning with the 1950s. If you love baseball history, this is the book for you.
--A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing A Dream to Japan and Back by Aaron Fischman with Don Nomura (Sports Publishing, $32.99) is a remarkable story about Tony Barnette, a former Arizona State pitcher who eventually would make his first major league appearance at the age of 32 in 2016. Gradually ascending the minor-league ladder, it looked like this was the beginning of a blessed life, where Barnette could play the game he loved on the grandest of stages in front of family and friends. But things don’t always work out the way we want. After notching a league-high 14 wins in Triple A, Barnette looked ahead to 2010 with optimism. The Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to release him so he could play for Tokyo’s Yakult Swallows. At the time, the only thing he had in common with the country was a love for baseball. He did not know the language and was unfamiliar with Nippon Professional Baseball and essentially everything else. On his own in a strange land, the burning desire to one day make the major leagues never subsided. He knew the odds were against him, as less than one quarter of gaijin (Japanese for “foreigner”) ballplayers who go to Japan appear in the majors at any point thereafter. First-year struggles led to multiple demotions and his end-of-year release. But when you’re chasing a dream, you expect to encounter several obstacles. Barnette refused to give up. Over six seasons in Japan, the starter became a reliever and then a closer. Through extensive research and reporting, the author worked directly with Barnette to tell his story of perseverance, determination, and never giving up on your dream.
--Schoolboy: The Untold Journey of a Yankees Hero by Waite Hoyt with Tim Manners (University of Nebraska Press, $34.95) shares his thoughts on famous moments in the golden age of baseball history; assesses baseball legends, including Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, and Pete Rose; and describes the strategies of baseball managers John McGraw, Miller Huggins, and Connie Mack. He writes at length about the art of pitching and how the game and its players changed—and didn’t—over his lifetime. After retiring from baseball at 38 and coming to terms with his alcoholism, Hoyt found some happiness as a family man and a beloved, pioneering Cincinnati Reds radio sportscaster with a Websterian vocabulary spiked with a Brooklyn accent. Hoyt, who died in 1984, won 237 big league games across 3,742.1 innings during his 21-year MLB career. He once had a locker room brawl with Babe Ruth. Based on a trove of Hoyt’s writings and interview transcripts, co-author Tim Manners has reanimated the baseball legend’s untold story, entirely in Hoyt’s own words.
--Leave While the Party’s Good: The Life and Legacy of Baseball Executive Harry Dalton by Lee C. Kluck (University of Nebraska Press, $39.95) tells the full and colorful story of a man many consider the first modern baseball executive. In 1965 the Orioles hired Dalton to be the chief team builder and to oversee baseball operations. This was a turning point in the history of baseball, creating a new kind of executive that other teams soon began to model. Dalton was a front office executive in Major League Baseball for more than 40 years, serving as general manager for the Baltimore Orioles (1966–71), the California Angels (1972–77), and the Milwaukee Brewers (1978–91). He was the principal architect of the Orioles’ dynasty and of the only American League championship the Brewers ever won.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published "Forever Crazy About the Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity." Now a retired professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.
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