#89: Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist...
New York: Harper, 2011 368 pagesLeave it to a Canadian to offer what may be the most intelligent critique of American Political Discourse in this Age of Competing Horseshit Noise:"The war is not only...
View Article#90: A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
New York: Bantam, 2005. 784 pagesOK, I am running out of gas on this series. This books swings away from the stories of Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys who are not heard from, while Cersei Lannister and...
View Article#91: The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it...
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008. 277 PagesThis book is about shit. Rose George quotes a study wherein 7 categories of euphemism are used for that word, and points out that sanitation is a taboo...
View Article#92: Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard...
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008. 286 pagesOnly one of these men is left alive, which is a pity. One may be able to tell a lot about how these men lived by how they died. Richard Harris was living in...
View Article#94: The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and...
New York: Random House, 2008. 368 pages.Warren G. Harding is my favorite President. Not simply because he was the worst president of all time (I don't think anyone else is in his league) but because he...
View Article#95: The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, The Cowboys, The '70s, and...
New York: Gotham Books, 2010. 324 pagesThe Dallas Cowboys symbolize rich, snobbish entitlement. Need evidence? I give you the nickname "America's Team". No one I know voted on that. They were...
View Article#96: 31 Days: Gerald Ford, the Nixon Pardon and a Government in Crisis by...
Anchor Press, 2007. 416 pagesMost people my age and younger don't know anything about Gerald Ford. We know that he was clumsy, had a stuffed dog named Liberty and invited Homer over for salsa and...
View Article#97: Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World by Eduardo Galeano
Henry Holt, New York: 1998 (Translation 2000 by Mark Fried). 358 pagesWhere was this fantastic text before I went of to graduate school? Where was this poetic smashing of consumerism? Why was it not on...
View Article#98: Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides by Christian G. Appy
New York: Penguin, 2004. 608 pagesThis is perhaps the best book that I have ever read concerning Vietnam, the only other one that comes close is Tom Wells's The War Within. That text focuses on the...
View Article#99: Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. 576 pages.This is not your normal book. It is about the beginning of World War II from the view of a pacifist. It has no chapters. It is arranged chronologically,...
View Article#100: The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to...
Times Books: New York. 258 pagesWell, this is it, 100 books in one year. Would it be that this book was in the top 10 of the year, or the top 50. The first half of the text, which deals with Mr....
View Article#101: Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right by Lisa McGirr
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. 395 pagesLisa McGirr takes on the central role of Orange County in the development of the "New Right" in the 1950s and 1960s. Want to now where most of...
View ArticleAre Jim Leyland and Davey Johnson hall of fame managers?
Jim Leyland stepped down earlier this week as the manager of the Detroit Tigers. He is now 68, and this may be his last managing job. He is the leader in active managers in wins, leading Dusty Baker by...
View ArticleMatty vs. Miner: Sept 4, 1916
On Sept 4, 1916, the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds met for a Labor Day doubleheader in Chicago. In the first game, the Reds lost 3-0, a not uncommon occurrence for the Reds that year. The second...
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World Series Errors
With the first two games of the World Series featuring seven errors and multiple mental mistakes, it may be interesting to revisit the most famous errors in World Series history. It is also the 27th...
View ArticleThe Keltner List -- Craig Biggio
Back in the 1990s, Bill James wrote an excellent book titled The Politics of Glory, which detailed the history of the baseball Hall of Fame. As is his wont, it also engaged in some lively statistical...
View ArticleThe Keltner List -- Jeff Kent
This is the second installment of the Keltner List saga, this time starring Jeff Kent. 2014 is Kent's first year on the ballot. Jeff Kent Player Page at BBRef1. Was Kent ever regarded as the best...
View ArticleThe Keltner List: Frank Thomas
Number three in the series is The Big Hurt Frank Thomas. I think he is forgotten at this point, but he was Pujols before Pujols.1. Was he ever considered the best player in baseball?Thomas was never...
View ArticleThe Keltner List: Tim Raines
The next installment focuses on Tim Raines, who received a 52.2% vote in 2013. This is his 7th year on the ballot. Raines was a dangerous switch hitter for the Expos in the 1980s and for the White Sox...
View ArticleFirst Year Players on the Ballot
Today I will look at several of the first year players on the Hall of Fame ballot and whether or not they have a chance to get in. Some have a chance to get votes. The "maybe" players will get their...
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