Baseball books I've read recently

- Jim Bouton's Ball Four
- Buster Olney's Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty
- Alan Schwartz's The Numbers Game

This is probably the fifth time I've read Ball Four, and it's undoubtedly the best baseball book ever written. Olney's book is just fine, though Jason was wrong when he suggested I'd like Paul O'Neill better after reading the book than before. He's still a jerk (O'Neill), and if he were black instead of white, his so-called fiery tirades would have been seen as the sign of mental imbalance and possibly roid rage that they were instead of evidence of how much he cares. Think Milton Bradley or Jose Guillen. Jason, regardless of his race, would still be seen as a witty and urbane. And clever.

I recommend the Numbers Game to all reading this blog, including the divine Miss M, who remains steadfastly pro-bunt. It's really a book about people, not numbers. But I do have a good number to share: 715.

Baseball fans are familiar with 714 -- Babe Ruth's career homerun total. Here's the thing: he hit one more. It turns out that way back in ye olden days, game-ending homeruns were treated totally different than most sane people would treat them. Imagine tie game, heading in the bottom of the ninth inning. The lead off batter hits a double. The next batter hits the ball over the wall to win the game for the home team. Normal people would say that the second batter hit a home run. In ye olden days, said batter hit a double. Babe Ruth did this once, meaning that a correct career total would be 715 homeruns, not 714. On the other hand, them's was the rules, so it's not so terrible that baseball has protected Ruth's 714 as a sacred number. Heck, I don't know. But it's a good book, and you should read it.