NY Times: A Fastball Wrapped in a Riddle
Leroy Robert Paige is one of those fascinating, complicated characters who might have been invented by a novelist if they hadn’t been real. He was “a fastball wrapped in a riddle,” to use a phrase employed by Larry Tye, author of a new biography, “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.”
Washington Post: The Jerk Who Saved Baseball
Sometimes it takes a jerk to change the world. Jose Canseco’s revelations about rampant steroid use in the Major Leagues may have been self-serving, but they may also have saved baseball.
Chicago Sun-Times: Gehrig gives strength to others with ALS
Seventy years after Lou Gehrig gave his tearful speech announcing that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, not much has changed for those suffering with the disease. Today, Major League Baseball marks the anniversary of Gehrig’s Yankee Stadium address while raising money for the illness dubbed Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
NY Times: Squeeze Play
In 1959 and 1960, one of baseball’s great visionaries attempted to reshape and revitalize the game he loved. Branch Rickey, a former owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the man responsible for breaking the game’s color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson in 1947, came out of semiretirement to promote two radical ideas: the creation of a third major league — known as the Continental League — and a revenue-sharing formula that would create parity among the eight new teams. A review of Michael Shapiro’s “Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball From Itself.”
Fox Sports: Gehrig’s parting shot still echoes at Yankee Stadium
On a cool and cloudy day in the Bronx 70 years, Lou Gehrig stepped into the batter’s box to hit against Dutch Leonard of the Washington Senators. It was a meaningless Tuesday afternoon game. But on that day Lou Gehrig would hit his 493rd home run — His last.
Wall Street Journal: On the Road, Supposedly Headed for Fun
Jonathan reviews Susan Sessions Rugh’s new book, “Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations.”
NBC: IRS Reveals Scarface Files
It wasn’t G-Men, but accountants who took down notorious gangster Al Capone, new IRS documents show. Jonathan Eig talks to NBC Nightly News about his groundbreaking research.
NPR: A Test of Courage: Jackie Robinson’s Rookie Year
While much of Jackie Robinson’s life has become folklore, the inside story of his pivotal first year on the Brooklyn Dodgers is less well known. Listen to Jonathan Eig talk about Robinson on NPR.
PBS: Jonathan Eig on Tavis Smiley’s show
Jonathan Eig talks with PBS’ Tavis Smiley about his new biography of baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson.
NPR: ‘Luckiest Man’ Explores Life of Baseball’s Gehrig
Jonathan Eig tells NPR’s Robert Siegel about his new biography, Luckiest Man. The book looks at the life of New York Yankee hero Lou Gehrig, on and off the field. Gehrig was the unstoppable “Iron Horse” as he hammered home runs while playing in 2,130 straight games. But his life was cut short by the disease that now bears his name. (NPR)
