2008: Year of the Illustrated
Baseball Book, Part 2

December 14, 2008

If you had any doubt that 2008 really is The Year of the Illustrated Baseball Book, here are five more outstanding embodiements of the genre released this year to convince you. The only reason that I didn't include these books in the original blog on the subject is that we simply received review copies of them too late to be included in it. Each of these books might easily have been chosen as a CASEY Award Finalist in a different year, and it is hardly a stretch to say that all of them would have to be included in a list of the Top 20 Baseball Books of 2008.

You might wonder how anybody could at this point in time produce a new book about Babe Ruth worthy of our attention, but that is exactly what publisher Stewart, Tabori & Chang has done with Babe Ruth: Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos & Memorabilia by Julia Ruth Stevens and Bill Gilbert. Stevens, the adopted daughter of Ruth, tells numerous charming tales about her famous daddy (such as the delight Ruth took in trimming the family Christmas tree all by himself and the breakfast he loved to fix for Stevens, a concoction as unique as the man himself), and these tales are supplemented by a host of sepia-toned photos; including both well-known classics and some not often seen. Also included are what invest the book with its most original component: the 10 removeable reproductions of rare Ruth memorabilia, such as his birth certificate, his Red Sox player's contract, a Yankees autographed team photo, scorecards, and World Series ticket stubs. (These reproductions are contained in large glasine envelopes attached to pages scattered throughout the book.) Stewart, Tabori & Chang introduced this concept last year with a similar book about Mickey Mantle, and we can only hope that they choose to follow suit with other deserving superstars.

While baseball fans outside of Cincinnati still get to see the Reds play, there's little chance they have enjoyed as we residents have over the years the cartoons of the Queen City's greatest sports cartoonist, Jerry Dowling. Fortunately, there is now a book to remedy that situation: Drawing Pete: Switch-Hitting Cartoons by Jerry Dowling. The Pete of the title, of course, is Pete Rose, Cincinnati's favorite sports hero and Dowling's favorite subject. The more than 150 cartoons and illustrations in the book (many in color and done as book covers, Christmas card illustrations, editorial comments, and covers of special sections in newspapers) cover Rose's entire career up to the very recent past, as well as a great deal of non-Rose Reds and Cincinnati sports history. Rose has a face that is a caricaturist's dream, and Dowling obviously has enjoyed working with it, as well as the vissicitudes that have punctuated Rose's career. Unintentionally, the book serves as a tribute to Dowling's contributions to Cincinnati sports culture. A related but quite different sort of book is Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, a graphic novel by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso. Published by the Center for Cartoon Studies, the book is a fictional account of Paige's using his baseball talent to defeat racial discrimination (along with the opposition on the diamond), with this triumph being shared by the story's Negro narrator; himself a former ballplayer who once batted successfully against the famous pitcher. The army green and black cartoons, done in panels of varying sizes, are spare but most artfully done and remain true to both the seriousness of the topic and the informality of the genre.

Finally, two more coffee table-extravaganzas celebrating the passing of Yankee Stadium. Yankee Stadium by Mark Vancil and Alfred Santasiere III is "The Official Retrospective" and exhibits all the hallmarks of sports books done by Vancil and Rare Air Media: oversized (vertical) format, careful photo selection and skillful photo presentation; and knockout graphics. This book is visually exciting throughout but focuses somewhat on the highlights in its coverage, including the most important non-baseball events to occur in Yankee Stadium, such as the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling prize fight of 1938 and Pope Paul VI's visit in 1965. Numerous first person accounts by participants (Don Larsen, David Cone) and insiders (Marty Appel) provide most of the text. Those desiring a more comprehensive and thorough approach to the history of the Yankees in Yankee Stadium will prefer Harvey Frommer's Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of the House that Ruth Built (Stewart, Tabori & Chang). Frommer tells the story decade by decade and intersperses his authoritative text with sidebar rememberances from numerous players, writers, broadcasters, and fans. While this book does not feature the graphical pyrotechnics of Vancil's, it too boasts a wonderful selection of photographs (both b & w and color) in its horizontal format and splashes things up with images of old Yankees baseball cards, ticket stubs, artifacts, and programs. Both of these books are marvelous encapsulations of the glorious deeds that transpired on the hallowed grounds inhabited by the most famous baseball team in the world, and they will be enjoyed by all who love the game, not just by Yankees fans.