Judges choose Best Baseball Book of 2020 for Casey Award

Photo by Lorine Parks

Spitball, the literary magazine of baseball, will hold its 38th annual Casey Award ceremony in late March in Kentucky for the Best Baseball Book Published in 2020.

As one of three judges, I picked “How Baseball Happened” by Thomas Gilbert and it turned out to be the winner by a landslide. Another judge also voted it #1, out of 11 titles, and the third put it at #3. It’s an important book and a good read.

How Baseball Happened tells the story of baseball’s evolution in the 19th century into a truly American sport, not one derived from the English bat and ball game of cricket.

Gilbert does for baseball what acclaimed popular historian David McCullough does in his historical studies for regions and periods of our country when the United States was defining itself in terms of the rest of the world (as it is still doing today). We needed to separate ourselves from Britain and forge a new national identity, and that includes dispelling the myth that baseball is descended from cricket or the English game of rounders.

Brilliant and entertaining, How Baseball Happened weaves newspaper clippings, headlines and cultural events into a 19th century tapestry of the hows and whys of what made baseball became our national pastime. Hint: It didn’t happen in Cooperstown. Or Cincinnati.

Baseball started as a bat and ball game for amateurs played by teams of gentlemen of refinement. By the early1800’s we Americans had added the three-strike rule, nine innings, with 3-outs, position players, the 9 man team, foul lines, and a rounded bat, all unique to baseball and not found in flat-bat cricket. In the 1800’s, gloves had not yet been adopted.

Still a neighborhood attraction, baseball was then played by the middle class, fire companies and militias. The rowdy Bowery B’hoys played it in New York.

The first athletes of the Professional Era with salaries and contracts, were the New York Mutuals in 1869, not the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1870, though the latter had a formidable record,65-0, for their first national tour. The Philadelphia Athletics and the Brooklyn Atlantics followed close behind.

The other top ten books in the running include Mutt’s Dream: The Making of the Mick, the story of how Mantle’s father drilled him as a small child into become the greatest of switch-hitters. It’s said that there are more baseball books about Mickey Mantle than even about Jackie Robinson This one ends when he is 18, before he gets assigned the iconic number 7 for his uniform.

A well written re-creation, the book is written from the point of view of Mutt Mantle, the Mick’s father, for a change. Mutt forces Mickey to become a switch hitter – that’s his dream. Author’s skill in presenting pivotal scenes and dialogue makes this a good read even for non-fans of the game. A new look at those formative years.

“Bouton”: One third rehash Jim Bouton’s career as a starting pitcher for the Yankees; one third, he writes the book, Ball Four. It was no secret, everyone knew he was taking notes all the time. They just didn’t expect what kind of book it would be.

Final third, his life after that. Did Bouton suffer? Mickey Mantle didn’t speak to him for twenty years. Bouton went on to a career as a commentator and writer. “Ball Four” was one of the explosive books of the century.

“Seaver:” When Tom Brady tried two years ago to patent the name Tom Terrific, the U. S. Patent Office ruled that it already belonged to Tom Seaver. A fully documented story, this tells how much his wife’s constant attendance helped his career.

Coached by Rod Dedeaux at USC, Seaver became a New York Mets legend and died in 2020, happy in owning a winery in Napa not far from where he grew up… The big betrayal by the Mets, putting him out on waivers without even notifying him first, could have been told with more drama.

“The Wax Pack” follows up on the lives of 15 random stars 35 years after they were featured together in a Topps bubblegum package with their pictures in it. The book tells how they dealt with fame after retirement.

“The Wax Pack” is a nostalgia trip that starts with the author buying a 35 year old pack of Topps baseball cards and bubble gum. It’s the actual story of his follow-through, interviewing each of the card’s subjects, whose fame has long since gone, and how they have adjusted to life after baseball, (all are alive except one). Semi-fictionalized, the book becomes less about baseball than about the author and his obsessive compulsive problems. He also hooks up online via a dating service in every town he visits. A lot of lessons here.

“The Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution” by Jared Diamond tells how telemetrics, and coaches who knew how to use them, changed the game, an analytical technique that has brought out a new era of home runs. Attention to the launch angle and exit velocity made Justin Turner a home run hitter again. The “swing under the ball” technique approach by coaches has helped turn around his career with the LA Dodgers, and make him the slugger he wasn’t when he began. The secret isn’t steroids. Well written and a good read.

“Issei Baseball:” Well researched story of how baseball came to Japan with commodore Perry and was taken up by university students in 1880 and eventually came back to California with immigrant workers – the Issei - in the 1890’s-1920’s, working men who formed semi-pro leagues in the early 1900’s.

A piece of history that deserves to be better known. The conclusion – that baseball unified the local Japanese-American community here with a sense of identity and pride. Book would have been better if developed even more. A follow- up epilogue 20 years later, on the internment of American-born Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor recounts a stain on America’s conscience. Good period pictures.

“Dalko” is the true story of Steve Dalkowski, the fastest pitcher who never made it in the Big Leagues.

“All arm, no control,” was the verdict. “Throwers throw the ball. Pitchers think and then they throw.” Dalko was a thrower. Albeit, of a very fast ball. Whiz, hiss, thud.

“The Cactus League” is a novel in 9 innings that depicts a Payton Place of spring training in a desert world. Artfully told story about a fictional major league baseball team in spring training in the Arizona desert near Phoenix. Told from nine points of view in nine chapters (9 innings, get it), it centers about one talented player. As we finally work our way to the final chapter about him we find he’s hollow at the core. The chapter about baseball wives is especially striking – a pecking order and value system like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Remember, this is fiction.

“Billy Ball” is the story of Billy Martin and the Oakland A’s and how they were made for each other. Follows Billy Martin’s career that led up to his by-then inevitable success with the Oakland A’s.

“A Year of Playing Catch” blogs 365 games of catch all around the country, including the town in Iowa where Field of Dreams is located. Cute idea but not interesting. Ok for 20 or 30 days, but 365? Throw, catch, repeat.

Unwritten as yet stories about 2020 that I would like to read:

“The Trash Can Lid Scandal: How the Astros Stole Signs and the World Series from the Dodgers”;

“The Dissolution of the Minor Leagues: the Loss of Ball Parks and a Way of Life for Small Towns”;

“Vindicated at Last: Major League Baseball Adds Negro Leagues Stats to Official Records”;

“COVID-19 Changes MLB Forever in 2020.”