Reading The Game

Shoeless Joe is a 1982 magic realist novel by Canadian author W.P Kinsella which became better known due to its 1989 film adaptation, Field of Dreams.

We were delighted to welcome back Ash Day to the show to discuss the book, the film, and the 1980s farming crisis, which was fuelled by a combination of factors but perhaps chiefly by exports becoming limited by the US grain embargo on the Soviet Union....

Baseball For Kids is packed full of fun information for kids learning about baseball, getting them up to speed on the game’s origins and bringing them up to date with all of the key events in the history of the game.

Author Adam C. MacKinnon is a contributing baseball writer for Baseball Almanac and Call to the Pen, and founder of Romantic About Baseball, a baseball blog and podcast, and he was generous enough to join us on the show to talk about the book.

Combining statistical analysis, common sense, and a host of intangibles, Brian Wright’s book Met’s All-Time All-Stars constructs a Mets line-up for the ages. An obvious must-read for fans of the Amazin’ club, the book is also an interesting resource for any baseball history buff.

We were delighted to welcome Brian to the show to discuss the book’s inception and main themes, and to chat about the process of writing the book, as well as some of his choices.

Conflict is journalist and author Ryan Ferguson’s tell-all account about how he committed the unspeakable act of switching allegiances from the Red Sox to the Yankees. Part memoir, part history, and tackling difficult topics such as mental health, racism, class, identity and domestic violence, Ferguson pours his heart onto the page, spitting the truth on a lifetime of pent-up insecurity and secrecy.

We were delighted to welcome Ryan to the show to discuss the book’s inception and main themes, and to grill him (warmly and kindly obvs!) on his controversial admission.

In his remarkable book from 1990, author Robert Whiting offers an intriguing and often humorous look at the differences and similarities between the national obsession over baseball in Japan and in the United States and a detailed account of the game of 'besoboru'.

To discuss the book we were thrilled to be joined again by John McGee from Bat Flips & Nerds, who was making his second appearance on the show after talking about Bottom of the 33rd in May 2019.

Please take a minute to rate and review the podcast, and please don't hesitate to get in touch with feedback and to suggest future content for the pod either via our website (www.RTGPod.com) or on Twitter @RTGPod.

Hope you enjoy the show!

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The Wax Pack chronicles author Brad Balukjian’s remarkable road trip across the US  in the summer of 2015, spanning 11,341 miles through thirty states in forty-eight days to tell the stories of a set of players who turned up in a random pack of 1986 of Topps baseball cards.

We were delighted to be joined by the author to find out what inspired his trip and how he came to bring the book to publication, and also by Rob from Bat Flips & Nerds and @BubbaOnBaseball to discuss the book in depth.

Astroball is the definitive account of the Houston Astros' unexpected rise to win the 2017 World Series, by the writer who famously predicted it three years earlier on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Somewhat overshadowed by the subsequent scandal surrounding the Astros, the book is nevertheless an insightful and gripping read, and one which chronicles one of the most remarkable reversals of fortune in baseball history.

We were thrilled to be joined by the author, Ben Reiter, who told us the story of how the book came together, and also by Bill Metzger, from the Crawfish Boxes - an Astros fan community website - for the roundtable discussion section of the show.

The Incredible Women of the AAGPBL by Anika Orrock is a remarkable book - one that seamlessly weaves together the history of the league with the voices of the women involved and the broader societal context of the 1940s and 1950s in America, with a unique and evocative illustrative style.

After a great chat with Anika about her wonderful book, we were lucky to be joined by Leslie Heaphy, Vice-President of SABR and Chair of the SABR's Women in Baseball Committee, for a discussion about the book and more broadly about the role of women throughout baseball's history.

This episode we are talking about the book ‘Will Big League Baseball Survive: Globalization, the End of Television, Youth Sports, and the Future of Major League Baseball’ by Lincoln A. Mitchell, a fascinating 2016 book which examines the extent to which MLB can continue to thrive in its current form, and analyses some of the key factors likely to threaten the future health of the sport. 

We were fortunate to speak to the author, Lincoln Mitchell, about the book, and we chatted about the book’s main theses, and also (topically) about the likely longer-term impact of the coronavirus on baseball.

A book of essays on a journey through baseball fandom, Paddy Johnston's beautifully written Stealing Home features brilliant illustrations by Samuel C. Williams and Rozi Hathaway, and was published in 2019.

We invited Paddy and Sam on to the show to discuss the book and to talk a bit about their love of baseball and what they miss about the game in 2020. 

Covering in depth the history of baseball in 41 European countries, Josh Chetwynd's Baseball in Europe is a comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and highly entertaining read - ideal both for fans of European baseball and those completely oblivious to the sport on the continent.

Fresh from a break of six months, (in which we welcomed Steve's second daughter, Bonnie, into the world!) we are delighted to be back discussing baseball books again!

After a chat with the author about how he researched and wrote the book and the current health of European baseball, we were joined by Philipp Wuerfel from Mister-Baseball.com for the round-table part of the show. 

In her remarkable 2017 book, Stacey May Fowles shows us how we can use the lens of baseball to examine who we are. The book has been described as a passionate ode to baseball, its culture, and its community, which both celebrates and challenges the game – and reminds us why it really matters.

When it was first published in 1970, Ball Four stunned the sports world. The commissioner, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and a "social leper." Commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue, but fans loved the book and many critics hailed it as an important social document.

The MVP Machine is a 2019 book about how innovations in science and technology have launched a movement which is revolutionising player development. 

Co-authored by Ben Lindbergh, a staff writer for the ringer and host of the Effectively Wild podcast, and by Travis Sawchik, a staff writer for Five Thirty Eight, the book aims to transform our understanding of teaching and talent.

The Art of Fielding is a 2011 novel by American author Chad Harbach. It focuses on the fortunes of shortstop Henry Skrimshander and his career playing college baseball with the fictional Westish College Harpooners.

We were delighted to be joined by the author himself and in the first part of the episode we chatted about his inspiration and the long process of bringing the book to publication as well as some of the book's themes.

With a background in clinical psychology as well as experience of working in major league front offices, former Baseball Prospectus writer and all-round nice chap Russell A. Carleton was uniquely placed to provide a marriage of sabermetrics and cognitive science in his excellent 2018 book, The Shift.

Fortunate (and very grateful!) to be given the opportunity to discuss the book with the author himself, in the first part of the episode we chatted to Russell about his process and how his background in clinical psychology inspired the book.

In his 2015 book, the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga goes behind the scenes at the Washington Nationals, to tell the untold stories of life in the major leagues over 'The Grind' of a 162 game season.

First published as an essay in Harper's Magazine in 1992, and later reworked as the prologue to Underworld, Don DeLillo's Pafko at the Wall is set against the backdrop of the 1951 NL Pennant decider between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers and Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard Round The World. 

Episode 2 - Bottom of the 33rd

Bottom of the 33rd, by Dan Barry, describes the longest game ever played in professional baseball history, between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in 1981, and the myriad characters who were involved. 

At the beginning of the episode we welcomed author Dan Barry, who very kindly agreed to answer some questions about the book. He provided an outline of the book, and talked a bit the impact the Pawtucket Red Sox have had on the city of Pawtucket. He also discussed his heroes from the story.