I don’t know when it started or ended, but Topps reserved cards ending in double-00 for the game’s superstars. Mays, Mantle, Koufax, Carew, Seaver and Reggie have all appeared multiple times.
So I thought it only appropriate to follow their lead and save the 200th bookshelf conversation for one of my GOATS.
This is the third time Jane Leavy has graced these virtual pages with her insights. I’ll have to think of one Saturday evening live version of the “Five Timers Club.”
Leavy has written several best-selling biographies of baseball legends:
She also published Squeeze Game: A Novel in 1990.
So now for something completely different: Make me commissioner: I know what’s wrong with baseball and how to fix it.
As mentioned in previous posts, there have been several titles on the topic of how to mend a broken heart. Sorry, That’s a Bee Gees song. These were published after difficult times, such as the infamous strike of 1994-1995. Celebrities like Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, Bob Costas and others have done their part, but none have shown the imagination that Leavy has in her latest offering. To be fair to her predecessors, they faced a different set of circumstances. Now we have a more disenfranchised fan base, especially among the younger generation. Then there is increasing competition from other sports and activities. Not to mention what I call “data fatigue,” the constant bombardment of new statistics and analyzes that challenge the principles of Moneyball resemble your grandfather’s stories.
I don’t have any smoker’s jackets like SNLbut I’ll think of something, Jane.
Here is the audio version:
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