Like some of my other Blogger community writers mainly The Chronicles of Fuji, The Collective Mind, Nachos Grande,etc...... If I've forgotten someone in the list sorry so many of us are bloggers/collectors & I can't recall everyone so I can include you for Part 2 in the comments below thanks. I work for 1 of the local school districts well as Dollar General at the time this blog post was written. With school just starting up & after moving into a new house going on 5 years, as well picking up a nice bookshelf last weekend during the US127 Garage Sale that went through 5 states along US127. I finally got unpacked a box of books that I collected from 2016 finishing up in 2020.
Amazes me how 24 books look so far in this bookshelf.What you're seeing is a complete set of 24 books in part of a Little League/ Major League Library. These books were published by Random House Publishing Company. They came out in 1965 & concluded in 1974. I have enclosed the list of them further down this post so if you want some good reading to do & plus its quite interesting reading some of these books reading history of baseball. From some of the titles like book #12 in who they figure the great catchers of the game these 10 players, & my comments on if I would agree with their choice
1.Yogi Berra-Yankee Dynasty Duh!!!!
2. Roy Campanella- 3x MVP award winner plus his courageous spirit after his accident.
3. Mickey Cochrane- Even though his real name was Gordon another ballplayer was named Mickey.
4. Bill Dickey- Yogi's Mentor
5. Bill Freehan- Unsung Catcher of 1960's should be a HoF member but numbers against his case.
6. Gabby Hartnett- Hit the Homer in the Gloamin' to help the Cubs with the Pennant otherwise quiet star with the Cubs.
7. Elston Howard- Took over the reigns after Berra in 1960's.
8. Ernie Lombardi- The man could hold 8 balls in his hand but, his Schnozz of a nose is more famous plus he played in the 40's so they needed someone from that era to talk about.
9. Tim McCarver- The book was published in 1970 so I guess they didn't have many popular stars in the catching ranks to talk about.
10. Joe Torre-He started off as a catcher then moved to 1st & 3rd respectively & again this was 1 year prior to him winning his lone MVP award.
Now if they were to do a newer version to include stars up to the 1979 season I am sure Johnny Bench,Carlton Fisk as Thurman Munson would have been included the list. Now if you could added stars from the `80s,`90s through today like Gary Carter,Lance Parrish (after all McCarver was listed why not Parrish.) Ivan Rodriguez,Mike Piazza,Yadier Molina,Salvador Perez.
As I mentioned before Random House published these books they also did the same with the NFL under the heading of the books Punt,Pass & Kick also a 24 books series the funny thing Greg has a complete set of them in which I helped him complete the same time I completed the baseball versions. His last book was Book #23 was about O.J. Simpson & the last book I needed to complete the baseball was #22 the Subject was Pete Rose. I am sure we all know the irony of those 2 names & how they gave their respective sports a black mark after they were major stars. Now I also know Random House made & NBA version of these books or now many are within that series also they did some in the NHL as well I am on currently on the fence in finding them I guess I might need to be motivated to look for them. As I promised here's the list of the Books in chronological order a long with the authors name.
I have a Part II of books that even like these are more geared to younger readers but reading some of these books as an adult you might like to read them & form your own opinion on them. I like to hear from my readers have you read any of these or did I spark an interest for you to try to locate them on eBay at your local used Bookstore. Stay Tuned for the Part II books I will be writing that part this weekend coming up in between my 2 jobs. Until then I am reminded of Rogers Hornsby quote about signing autographs for kids. "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a Communist."
That's a nice shelf!
ReplyDeleteA. Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year (Cubs card collector blog) is also a teacher. I know there's at least one more blogger out there who teaches, but I'm having an epic brain fart.
ReplyDeleteB. That set of books is really cool. Not sure if it's my personality or my OCD... but I really enjoy seeing complete sets of things (books, dvds, cards, action figures, etc.)
C. Wouldn't categorize these two as all-time greats or legends... but Tony Pena and Kurt Suzuki are two catchers that come to mind. Pena was a childhood favorite and Suzuki is my favorite player from the past two decades.
D. One book I really want to put on my bookshelf is The Cave of Time. It's one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books. I loved that series as a kid. I'd love to stumble across a set of these at the flea market one day.