document.write('<div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-favorite_books">');
document.write('<h5>Favorite Books<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060914165">The Boys of Summer<\/a><br />');
document.write('Amazon.com');
document.write('"At a point in life when one is through with boyhood, but has not yet discovered how to be a man, it was my fortune to travel with the most marvelously appealing of teams." Sentimental because it holds such promise, and bittersweet because that promise is past, the first sentence of this masterpiece of sporting literature, first published in the early \'70s, sets its tone. What follows only gets better, deeper, more sentimental, and more bittersweet. The team, of course, is the mid-20th-century Brooklyn Dodgers, the team of Robinson and Snyder and Hodges and Reese, a team of great triumph and historical import composed of men whose fragile lives were filled with dignity and pathos. Roger Kahn, who covered that team for the New York Herald Tribune, makes understandable humans of his heroes as he chronicles the dreams and exploits of their young lives, beautifully intertwining them with his own, then recounts how so many of those sweet dreams curdled as the body of these once shining stars grew rusty with age and battered by experience. It is the rare sports book that cannot be contained by the limitations of its genre; it is equal parts journalism, memoir, social history, and poetry. ');
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document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385418493">How the Irish Saved Civilization<\/a><br />');
document.write('Amazon.com');
document.write('In this delightful and illuminating look into a crucial but little-known "hinge" of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the "island of saints and scholars," the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved the West\'s written treasury. When stability returned in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning, becoming not only the conservators of civilization, but also the shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture. ');
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document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0767900383">Under the Tuscan Sun<\/a><br />');
document.write('Amazon.com');
document.write('In this memoir of her buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy, and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the color, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden, and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced, and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll. <\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0803259514">The Summer Game<\/a><br />');
document.write('The Summer Game, Roger Angell’s first book on the sport, changed baseball writing forever. Thoughtful, funny, appreciative of the elegance of the game and the passions invested by players and fans, it goes beyond the usual sports reporter’s beat to examine baseball’s complex place in our American psyche. ');
document.write('Between the miseries of the 1962 expansion Mets and a classic 1971 World Series between the Pirates and the Orioles, Angell finds baseball in the 1960s as a game in transition—marked by league expansion, uprooted franchises, the growing hegemony of television, the dominance of pitchers, uneasy relations between players and owners, and mounting competition from other sports for the fans’ dollars. ');
document.write('Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Brooks Robinson, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, and Casey Stengel are seen here with fresh clarity and pleasure. Here is California baseball in full flower, the once-mighty Yankees in collapse, baseball in French (in Montreal), indoor baseball (at the Astrodome), and sweet spring baseball (in Florida)—as Angell observes, "Always, it seems, there is something more to be discovered about this game." ');
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document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312317611">Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family\'s Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers<\/a><br />');
document.write('From Publishers Weekly');
document.write('Driving over a bridge on an Indiana highway named after Hodges, a star first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, sets off a chain of memories from the Dodgers\' only World Series victory for Oliphant. His memoir\'s main narrative thread is his recollection of being allowed to skip school to watch Brooklyn take on the Yankees in the seventh game of the 1955 Series with his father, but the story takes a decidedly circuitous path; retellings of Jackie Robinson\'s breaking of baseball\'s color line and other significant moments in Dodger history appear between stories of growing up in a small Manhattan apartment as the Oliphants coped with the long-term effects of illnesses his father contracted during WWII. The Pulitzer-winning columnist interviews the pitchers for both teams, broadcaster Vin Scully and other baseball fans of his generation. Although Oliphant spends much—perhaps too much—time discussing baseball\'s glory years, the more personal material distinguishes the memoir. At its best, this isn\'t a book about baseball, but about a family that found solace and comfort in the sport while making their way through mid-century America. Photos.<\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0020306652">Ball Four<\/a><br />');
document.write('Amazon.com');
document.write('As a player, former hurler Jim Bouton did nothing half-way; he threw so hard he\'d lose his cap on almost every pitch. In the early \'70s, he tossed off one of the funniest, most revealing, insider\'s takes on baseball life in Ball Four, his diary of the season he tried to pitch his way back from oblivion on the strength of a knuckler. The real curve, though, is Bouton\'s honesty. He carves humans out of heroes, and shines a light into the game\'s corners. A quarter century later, Bouton\'s unique baseball voice can still bring the heat. ');
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document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743273176">The Only Game in Town<\/a><br />');
document.write('From Publishers Weekly');
document.write('This first entry in an ambitious, multivolume oral history of baseball compiled by former commissioner Vincent collects the memories of 10 notable players from the 1930s and \'40s. The tone is primarily upbeat, as when Dominic DiMaggio—one of the almost-as-talented but often forgotten brothers of Joe—sticks to the sunny side: "I think it\'s just a wonderful, wonderful game." The athletes have a forgivable tendency to ramble down memory lane and avoid deep analysis, often simply offering play-by-plays of famous games. Not surprisingly, then, it\'s the early integrators and Negro League pros like Larry Doby whose comments make the best reading; their stories have a drama and gravitas that some of the others lack. Vincent did not impose structure on his subjects, and there are a few redundancies in the narrative (although the twice-told story of Hank Greenberg storming into the White Sox locker room and calling out whoever made anti-Semitic remarks during the game is worth repeating). Dedicated fans stand to gain the most from this nostalgic spin through one slice of baseball history.<\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1592287042">A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant<\/a><br />');
document.write('Book Description from Amazon');
document.write('When the Boston Red Sox faced the New York Yankees in the historic 2003 American League Championship Series, the meeting seemed to serve as the climax to perhaps the greatest rivalry in professional sports. Yet, following New York’s comeback victory in scintillating Game 7, both the Red Sox and Yankees entered the off-season without a world title--and with renewed conviction to finish the job in 2004.');
document.write('In A Tale of Two Cities, respected baseball writers John Harper (New York Daily News) and Tony Massarotti (Boston Herald) chronicle the Yankees and Red Sox in parallel story lines through the summer of 2004. The authors take you behind the scenes with the teams, cities, and media during one of the most intense baseball seasons in history.');
document.write('<\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0684847957">Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir<\/a><br />');
document.write('From Publishers Weekly');
document.write('Driving over a bridge on an Indiana highway named after Hodges, a star first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, sets off a chain of memories from the Dodgers\' only World Series victory for Oliphant. His memoir\'s main narrative thread is his recollection of being allowed to skip school to watch Brooklyn take on the Yankees in the seventh game of the 1955 Series with his father, but the story takes a decidedly circuitous path; retellings of Jackie Robinson\'s breaking of baseball\'s color line and other significant moments in Dodger history appear between stories of growing up in a small Manhattan apartment as the Oliphants coped with the long-term effects of illnesses his father contracted during WWII. The Pulitzer-winning columnist interviews the pitchers for both teams, broadcaster Vin Scully and other baseball fans of his generation. Although Oliphant spends much—perhaps too much—time discussing baseball\'s glory years, the more personal material distinguishes the memoir. At its best, this isn\'t a book about baseball, but about a family that found solace and comfort in the sport while making their way through mid-century America. <\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/041592779X">Shut Out<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-favorite_mlb_blogs">');
document.write('<h5>Favorite MLB blogs<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com/">MLBlogosphere<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://trsullivan.mlblogs.com/">Postcards from Elysian Fields<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://soxsistahs.blogspot.com/">Sox Sistahs Speak<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://redsoxworld.mlblogs.com/">Red Sox Nation Daily<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://elisbaseballbanter.mlblogs.com/">The "Next" Peter Gammons<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs.com/">The Baseball Collector<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.redsoxchick.com/">Red Sox Chick<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://triumphantredsoxfan.blogspot.com/">The Triumphant Red Sox Blog<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://peteronall.blogspot.com/">Peter\'s Red Sox Forever<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://letsgosox.blogspot.com/">A Red Sox Fan In Pinstripe Territory: "One Whiny, Sensitive Guy"<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://browniepoints.mlblogs.com/">Brownie Points<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://bruce.mlblogs.com/bruce_markusens_coopersto/">Bruce Markusen\'s Cooperstown Confidential<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-fun_baseball_sites">');
document.write('<h5>Fun Baseball Sites<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.sabr.org/">The Society For American Baseball Research<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.baseballmovie.com/">Baseball Movie<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.baseball-almanac.com/">Baseball Almanac<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.baseball1.com/">Baseball Archive<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp">Minor League Baseball: Home<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.yanks-suck.com/">Yankees ****<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.top100baseballsites.com/in.php?site=100">TOP 100 baseball sites<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://www.armchairgm.com/index.php?title=Main_Page">Main Page - ArmchairGM - Sports Wiki, Sports Blog, Sports Resource, Sports Community, Sports 2.0<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-my_blogs">');
document.write('<h5>My Blogs<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul>');
document.write('<li><a href="http://mockingtherightwingfringe.blogspot.com/">Mocking the Right Wing Fringe and Other Fun Things<\/a><\/li>');
document.write('<\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-my_photo_albums">');
document.write('<h5>My Photo Albums<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul><\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-my_red_sox_mascot">');
document.write('<h5>My Red Sox Mascot<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul><\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-red_sox_poll">');
document.write('<h5>Red Sox Poll<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul><\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-site_tracker">');
document.write('<h5>Site Tracker<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul><\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div><div class="sidebar-module linkbox-module" id="linkbox-module-sox_clock">');
document.write('<h5>Sox Clock<\/h5>');
document.write('<ul><\/ul>');
document.write('<\/div>');