You remember that my wife gave me for Christmas 3 books on my Christmas list: Always and Angel; Once They Were Angels; Odd Man Out. Well, she also gave to me in my stocking a gift card for Amazon.com. A FIFTY DOLLAR GIFT CARD! She really loves me.
I really love her, and I also love baseball books. So I went gangbusters. The last book arrived just today.
With a fifty dollar gift card you can get a TON of books on Amazon since you can almost always get a used, library, softcopy for 5 cents (plus 3.99 shipping) The books I like however, are hardback, with a relatively intact dust jacket, and if I can, a first edition. But with that criteria I still usually try to keep it to under seven bucks a book.
Even with those parameters I was able to snag 8 books, plus a ninth that I'll get to later.
Let's dig in.
Birdie by Birdie Tebbetts with James Morrison
This one actually is a library book, but more of a never-even-seen-a-shelf library book. It's like new, but it does have the old-school library sign-out card and pocket inside.
Now that I can dig. Some little fifth grader helping out in the library's handwriting. Note that It's never been signed out.
Hardball The Education of a Baseball Commissioner by Bowie Kuhn
This is a pretty fat book, I guess Bowie has a lot to say. I was looking over his shoulder trying to see what books are on his bookshelf. Don't think I have a few of those.
Kiss It Good-Bye by Shelby Whitfield
Ex-library but again, in great shape and the dust jacket is practically perfect except for the sticker on the dust jacket spine with the Dewey number.
I kinda stumbled upon this one searching out baseball books. Its about the Washington Senators becoming the Texas Rangers and all the politics involved. Should be interesting especially after recently finishing The Dodgers Move West.
Lou Boudreau, Covering All The Bases by Lou Boudreau with Russell Schneider
You just can't go wrong with a book about Lou Boudreau.
The Wrong Stuff by Bill Lee with Dick Lally
Fits right in my wacky section with The Umpire Strikes Back and Ball Four, among others. I believe that this is Lee's first book. If it goes well I'll search out his others.
Out Of My League by George Plympton
I resisted this book for a long time. I'm not really sure why I did. But I couldn't pass up this beautiful first edition with nice dust jacket. When I got the book in my hands it's like a light turned on. I'm glad to have it and looking forward to reading it now.
Jocko by Jocko Conlan and Robert Creamer
I already have most of Creamers other books. He's one of my favorite baseball authors. I was very happy to find this first edition copy as well, and under six bucks. The dust jacket is a bit tattered but I don't mind in this case. I'm curious to find out what kind of character Jocko Conlan was.
I know that Creamer was one of the first hired on the staff of Sports Illustrated in 1954 and that he served as a senior editor from inception to 1984. But I wonder if this might be his first book? It was published in 1967.
Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat by Red Barber and Robert Creamer
See? Another Creamer. This was the last book I had enough money left on the gift card to purchase. This one however is the dreaded softcopy. I had originally selected and purchased a hard copy with a dust jacket (of course) but when I opened up the package I was aghast to find this, this, dufflebag! I quickly jumped on Amazon and contacted the seller to let them know (very nicely) that they had sent the wrong book. The seller apologised, said to keep it, and refunded my moolah. Keep it? Cool!
So with enough money now to pick out another book, I snagged this one:
Righteous!
Big Hair and Plastic Grass by Dan Epstein
Brand-spanking new. Seriously can't wait to check this bad boy out.
Comments on what to expect from any of these books are welcome.
