In Her Own League, a novel by Liz Tomforde about the first female team owner in Major League Baseball, is among a recent top five most-read books of the past week by Bookriot.com, which posted, “Almost 25,000 Goodreads users read it this week, and it has a 4.5 average rating.”
Tomforde’s novel has to remind one of In a League of Her Own, an historical fictional/biography of Effa Manley. Here’s my review of that one, which was published in 2024. And just by the way, how about a different kind of title? Some version of “league of her own” has been used as a title of several works of fiction and non-fiction in both sports and non-sport genres.
I discovered Jimmy O’Brien, aka Jomboy, by accident, scrolling through YouTube videos. Thought he was really funny and appreciated his style of story-telling, using multiple camera angles and speeds along with his talent for lip-reading (even if he did get a bit repetitive). But I didn’t realize he was that big a deal until I saw this piece — “How Jomboy is Changing the Way Baseball is Watched” — in The New Yorker. I guess it’s a generational thing. Folks my age believe baseball should stand on its own history while young ‘uns are looking for more “fan experiences.” Anyway, here’s one of my favorites (warning: naughty language, over and over).
From Forbes,
The 66th annual fair will occupy the Park Avenue Armory from April 30-May 3. More than 170 exhibitors from three-dozen different countries are expected to attend.
Like some of you out there, I had the opportunity to watch a game at Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, MA. Sad to see it go.
From The Guardian, this review of Mike Vaccaro’s The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner. Authors of books about New York teams already have a leg up. Yankees and Mets fans can be very literary-minded, willing to snap up anything about their favorites. Writers also benefit from writing about teams in the largest media market in the country, with virtually endless opportunities for interviews. In this one, Vaccaro discusses why Steinbrenner should be inducted into the Hall of Fame.