July 18, 2012

The Hall of Nearly Great

We are all familiar with The Hall of Fame. And the endless debates about which borderline candidates should or should not be in.  Well, now a collection of some great baseball writers have created a book to celebrate those who are not in Cooperstown, but whose careers should not be lost to history.   The players we cheered for as youngsters, but didn't quite make the cut.  For Red Sox fans, there are stories on Dwight Evans, Luis TiantEllis Burks as well as other players who played home games at Fenway including some  best remembered for their times with other teams such as Frank Viola.  Writers include SI's Joe Posnanski (BBA's 2011 writer of the year), the Globe's Chad Finn, Baseball Prospectus' Hall of Fame expert Jay Jaffe and many more talented and passionate baseball writers.  They have teamed up to put together an ebook of stories about some of our favorite players.  Best of all, it's only $12.  For the price of a couple of lattes, you can enjoy endless hours of reading 300 pages of stories about your favourite players.  Click here to read more details and/or download a copy instantly.

Here is the complete list of players and writers:
Luis Tiant-Josh Wilker
Dwight Evans-David Raposa
Ellis Burks-Chad Finn
Reggie Smith-Jon Weisman
Frank Viola-The Common Man
John Olerud-Ted Berg
David Cone - Jay Jaffe
Bret Saberhagen-Marc Normandin
Ray Lankford - Marc Normandin
Dale Murphy-Joe Posnanski
Bobby Bonds-Wendy Thurm
Lonnie Smith-Jon Bois
Norm Cash-Matthew Kory
Keith Hernandez-David Roth
Brian Downing-Sam Miller
Eric Davis-Craig Fehrman
Andy Messersmith-Jeff Passan
Dennis Martinez-Jonah Keri
Fernando Valenzuela-Eric Nusbaum
Urban Shocker-Owen Good
Don Mattingly-Steven Goldman
Kenny Lofton-Cee Angi
Will Clark-Grant Brisbee
Bernie Williams-Ben Lindbergh
Graig Nettles-Cliff Corcoran
Robin Ventura-Jon Sciambi
Darrell Porter-Will Leitch
Moises Alou-R.J. Anderson
Eddie Cicotte-Rob Neyer
Buddy Bell-Jason Parks
Albert Belle-Jonathan Bernhardt
Lenny Dykstra-Emma Span
Ron Cey-King Kaufman
Bobby Grich-David Brown
Tony Phillips-Jason Wojciechowski
Dick Allen-Carson Cistulli
Fred McGriff-Tommy Bennett
Larry Hisle-Bradford Doolittle
Brad Radke-Bill Parker
Alan Trammell-Craig Calcaterra
Chuck Knoblauch-Cecilia Tan
Bob Caruthers-Old Hoss Radbourn
Rusty Greer-Craig Brown

I hope you enjoying reading this.

If (hopefully, when!) a Volume 2 is created, I am going to volunteer to write about Bill Buckner.  I have met him in person (I'm the good looking guy in the picture on the left.  He's wearing the Cowboy hat)  and he has some great stories garnered from playing the game in 4 different decades.  Stay tuned....