The Two Rogers: Kahn and Angell on Baseball

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The Two Rogers: Kahn and Angell on Baseball
Sports Book Review

by Harvey Frommer

A member of the Society for American Baseball Research
more info

Harcourt Brace is a very fortunate publisher to have both Roger Kahn and Roger Angell on its list. This spring it has slammed a grand slam home run with two important books from the two storied baseball authors. Both books belong on your sports bookshelf.

"October Men" by Kahn ($25.00, 368 pages, two 8-page black and white photo inserts) is the story of the 1978 dysfunctional Bronx Bombers. "Game Time" by Angell ($25.00, 398 pages) is a collection of the "New Yorker" writer's favorite as well as new and never before published baseball pieces.

The man who brought us the classic "Boys of Summer" is at top form here as he evokes and analyzes the Yankee '78 season and gives us stunning portraits of George Steinbrenner, Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Bucky Dent, Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, Goose Gossage, Sparky Lyle, Graig Nettles, and on and on.

"October Men" starts off in Chapter One with these well chosen words: "On the early evening of October 1, 1978, after six months of roistering with an intensity unmatched in the long history of hyperkinetic , high-proof roistering that so enriches the annals of American baseball, the New York Yankees found themselves tied for first place." And from that sentence on the Brooklyn-born Kahn spins his narrative arc through the 1978 season culminating with the one-game, tie breaker playoff- game at Fenway and the Bucky dent home run.

"Game Time," a collection of old and new prose by Roger Angell, is edited by Steve Kettman and has an intro by Richard Ford. Roger Angell, who has been writing about baseball for more than forty years, has created a work here that can be sipped like fine wine with its carefully crafted portraits of Fenway Park, Bob Gibson, Willie Mays, Pedro Martinez and many more. The annual "Complete Baseball Record Book" (Sporting News Books, $18.95, 556 pages) has tables, charts, stats, records galore. For those with a yen for Major League Baseball data, this is the book for you. For those with a yen to own beautiful baseball picture books there's a nifty one with text by Joe Zoss and John S. Bowman - "The Pictorial History of Baseball (Thunder Bay Press, 256 oversized pages). Full color and black and white images of players, teams, events and memorabilia adorn the pages of this carefully packaged product. For browsing, reference, or just pure enjoyment, this is a book to keep on your baseball bookshelf.

Jerome Holzman was named the first Official Historian for Major League Baseball in 1999. It was a fitting naming for a man who was a baseball beat writer and columnist for 56 years in Chicago. I still remember his kindness to me when I was in the Windy City working on my first baseball book. I was amazed at his national pastime knowledge. That knowledge is showcased in the "Jerome Holzman Baseball Reader" (Triumph Books, $19.95, 232 pages) - a collection of ruminations on some of baseball's magical and historical moments.

"Grandpa Gordy's Greatest World Series Games" (iUniverse, $9.95, 105 pages, paper) is just in time for the 100th anniversary of the World Series. This is a charming book that recounts some of the finest moment of the Falk Classic.

ť Harvey Frommer is the author of 33 sports books, including "The New York Yankee Encyclopedia, "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," and "Growing Up Baseball" with Frederic J. Frommer. His "Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball's Color Line" (Taylor) will be published in May. His "A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team" (Berkley Putnam) will be published in paperback in October.

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