The Once And Future Summer Reading List
Sorry…don’t have anything profound to say about baseball, other than it could be long summer. They really needed to take two of three from the Minnesota Twins.
And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays but…
If it really gets bad – and it may – you could always read a book.
Because I feel like it, here are ten classic novels that would be worth opening up while sitting next to the pool or on the beach at Lake Texoma.
1. The Once and Future King - The best of the Arthurian legends. Starts out with the classic tale of the Sword in the Stone and still love reading about Merlin turning Wart into a falcon and putting him in the mewes for the night. Take T.H. over J.K any day
2. The Mutiny on the Bounty - Still my all-time favorite book
3. The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy’s first is still his best.
4. The Last Picture Show - Required reading for anybody who just moved to Texas but don’t forget Lonesome Dove.
5. The Sun Also Rises – My personal Hemingway favorite although you can’t go wrong with The Old Man and the Sea or For Whom the Bell Tolls. Stay away from To Have and Have Not, which is living proof that even the best have a bad day.
6. Battle Cry – Leon Uris is one of the best and this one is about the Marines in World War II. If you’re Irish then read Trinity. By the way, nobody asked me but I hated Angela’s Ashes although the worst book ever written is still Silas Marner.
7. The Road to Gandolfo – Robert Ludlum is my all-time favorite author and I love this one.
8. Seven Days in May – All right. It’s over 40 years old. So am I. Deal with it.
9. If I Never Get Back – A great novel about baseball and the 1869 Cincinnati Reds.
10. The Search for Temperance Moon – A novel of the Old West. Well, actually Judge Parker, Fort Smith and the Indian Nation. Kind of like True Grit.
We’ll talk baseball later…maybe
T.R. Sullivan
Toby
Can’t speak for the rest, but your take on the “Hunt for Red October” is right on the money. The best novel (and movie) Clancy has done.
TR, they won’t let me talk about politics so let me re-direct. Short Hops: Tampa Bay rookie Elijah DUKES was held out of the lineup Wednesday after threatening his estranged wife (recorded by the way) over a cellphone. He also reportedly sent a text message that included a picture of a handgun. Anyone else out there still think that Dukes is a great, feelgood uplifting story? Bet his estranged wife doesn’t. Maybe the kid just needs therapy. Hicks was quoted as saying ” There’s no way either of my 2 teams fans have the level of intense passion that Liverpool has.” Well Hicks, give them time. They hardly know ya. You are still in what we all like to call the honeymoon phase. Everyone is excited, by the new ownership, believe certain things you have told them. After a few years, get back to us and let us all know how they feel about you. Especially when you start talking to them about financial flexiblility, the need for the fans to spend more money so you can obtain more players and your constant failure to commit to one strategy. My question is why say something like this? It is counterproductive and isn’t going to get him more fans here. It is just another reason for me and others to not go to Rangers games. It seems to me that Hicks thinks that he can put an inferior product on the field and we are supposed to just go out there pay $12.00 to park, $6.00 for beer, spend all of our money and all is good in his world. Entitlement is the word i am looking for. He thinks he is entitled to these things. I believe he has to earn it. Here is some advice: Taking ownership, doesn’t just mean, paying dollars for the sports team. It means when things go wrong because of your incompetence, then you “take ownership” to correct it. Don’t blame the fans. In other words the Rangers, you in particular, it means hire a Team President, who will hire a qualified GM, who will in turn hire a qualified Manager. It all starts with firing your self, Daniels, Washington, and divorcing yourself from the situation, much like Dukes estranged wife is doing!
With the exception of the first book, everything listed is right-wing male chauvinistic twaddle. Now pay attention.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird – best book ever written
2. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
4. The Lake News
5. Cold Sassy Tree
6. Outer Banks
7. Love Story
8. Oh! Pioneers
9. Land of the Firebirds
10. Sense & Sensibility
Is it just me or is everyone associated with the Texas Rangers, a bit beleaguered? Owner, GM, Manager,Players Writer and Fans? Well here is a book for you. The Fundamentals of Baseball by Billy Martin. I will buy 30 books if the Ranger Players and Coaches will read it and start applying it to their lives. The startelegram has a survey on its website and you can vote on who is “most responsible for the Rangers mess. “Drastic times call for Drastic Measures.” My vote is for Hicks because as Truman said, “The buck stops here. He is the only person who has the full authority to change things. Why won’t this guy listen? How many people think that the worst decision that he made was letting MELVIN walk? Now, i know MELVIN is gone, and he ain’t coming back. But, what did MELVIN want to do? He wanted to go with younger players and HICKS didn’t want to. If he had done this then Melvin would still be here working on like 15 years of service, sounds like stability to me. I say that to say this. Do what Melvin wanted, go young. Do it now! It is the only hope Hicks has of rehabilitating his image and product. I think this has to start with a full house cleaning. Hart, Daniels and Washington have to go. Washington has lost this team if he ever had it in the first place!
The pressure is building for Hicks to sell the team. I am starting an organizaion. Keep the team, move the owner dot com. Hicks notable decisions. Melvin fired, Hart hired over Dombroski. Lying to Fuson, Not allowing Fuson to become GM. Hiring Daniels as GM. If this guy wasn’t the owner and was in a paid postion, he would have been fired already. My question is what is it gonna take to get this guy to sell this team. Does anyone else have any ideas? How about a boycott. Where the Rangers have a home game and no one shows up? Let me know. We need to get together and do something to draw attention to all of these bad decisions and the refusal to correct them.
All Great American Literature starts with one great book: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Walt Whitman. A little light in the slippers if you ask me. Hey TR, what happened to Hemmingway? I am about to do the same thing if we don’t get a new ownership group.
Good list – Here are a few baseball related books:
October 1964 or Summer of ’49 by the late David Halberstram
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball – George Will – required reading for any baseball fan
From Ghetto to Glory – The story of Bob Gibson
and one for the Rangers players:
The Science of Hitting by Ted Williams Teddy Ballgame’s best advice in the book: Get a good pitch to hit.
For my plan to fix the Rangers, see my blog:
http://hitlesswanderings.mlblogs.com/
TR, I applaud your slight diversion from the normal topic of “Diamond-Talk”–especially right now, especially with this current Ranger ineptitude on display at the beautiful Ballpark. My book selections follow below, but I must address Pantherparent first:
Regarding your opinions that TR’s book choices represent, Heaven forbid, a male view. . . .EGADS! EGADS! History is what history is, more paternalistic and male-centered. Understand and deal with this fact. Men traditionally fought wars, rule over nations and territories, and are inventors, explorers, etc..and before that males were hunter-gatherers whilst the females of the species kept the home fires burning, raising the children, and nurturing the families. Natural order perhaps? Yes. Sure there are examples such as Golda Meir in Israel, Queen Elizabeth, Indira Ghandi etc, who were or are rulers. Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Edna St. Vinceny Milay are noted poets. And Marie Curie a hallmark of science and medicine. In my faith, Jesus’ Mother Mary, is a hallowed figure of respect and honor. Still, if a book is considered “male chauvanist” by some femnists, chances are I consider the source of the charge, and buy the book eagerly. If a charge of “right wing male chauvanist” is placed on something, ALWAYS consider the source and agenda. Then run and buy the book, watch the movie, or support the cause….that’s good sense, in my humble opinion. Pantherparent, has an opinion. You are certainly entitled to yours. When I hear derogatory monikers such as “male chauvanist” being applied on such a wonderful forum as TR provides here, I seriously question the motives in making a book a political football. Can’t you just say you like another book without sanctimoniously proclaiming a book “male chauvanist?” I don’t want to get political, but let’s keep this forum light and airy….just remember, there is a natural order to everything……NOW, as to books:
I agree with Dwiregod that “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a first choice in American Literature. Scholars recognize this work as the truly first real American work in literature. Other scholars I’ve read, said that anything that Abraham Lincoln wrote reflected a truly American way of expressing our thoughts, middle American values, and is straight-forward. A resource for my book choices is found in the 12-part PBS series “The Story of English”, hosted by Robert MacNeil. It is great–much like TR who provides this great forum for us.
Thank the Good Lord baseball isn’t a topic this time. Let’s keep this forum light and airy (much like the air around Brad Wilkerson’s bat…actually most of them this year except Sammy)
Oh Bingo, i hope this woman doesn’t know where you live. Haven’t your ever heard. “If mamma ain’t happy, no one is happy.” You better believe that one! I don’t think i have ever read a book that was chauvanistic. But then maybe i am one and failed to see it. My wife is a vice president of United Parcel Service and she had to fight and claw her way up to the top. Unfortunately, Women have had to struggle because of us men. I took a Women in Organizations class one time in college for my management degree. There were two men in the class with a female instructor. Boy was that a tough environment. Women are ruthless and there is no need to stir them up. If they would stick together like we men often do, then they would rule the world!!!
1. Catcher in the Rye
2. Catch-22
3. To Kill A Mockingbird
4. 1984
5. Fight Club (yeah it seems out of place on this list but I like the satire and dark comedy.)
Ok, back to baseball. I’ve never gotten the feeling that Tom Hicks was as concerned about baseball as he is about aquiring things and making money. I’m glad the fans of his soccer team are so passionate. Soccer fans typically are. We’ll see if that passion wanes at all if in the next 3 to 4 years he raises ticket and concession prices by almost 50% without crawling out of the bottom half in the standings. You know, kind of like what has happened here.
I love this team and I make the 3 hour drive down from Oklahoma 3-5 weekends a season to see them play on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. I typically bring a group of 4 to 6 with me, getting my family and or several friends involved by planning weeks or sometimes months ahead which games we want to see. The few thousand dollars that we collectively spend in any given year isn’t going to make or break this team or the City of Arlington but to us, it’s huge. I don’t make a ton of money and I have to budget my leisure activities accordingly. I’m locked in for 6 games this year and had planned on attending more but the way this season is going I think my money will be much better spent at Redhawks games. Next year, who knows?
As always, thanks, T.R. And for the record, dwidregod, beer has gone up to $6.50. Not that I would ever turn my back on attending games, but I sure hope that extra fifty cents per beverage sold goes toward player contracts or I’ll be enjoying a lot more $14 box seats watching AAA ball and a lot more Rangers games on the tube next season.
T.R. and Ranger Fandom:
Patience – I’ve exercised my share. Over time since the first pitch thrown in the first game of the Rangers at Arlington Stadium I have supported our guys the Texas Rangers. By support I mean the whole enchilada, attending every game I possibly could, watching or listening on away games or home games I could not make, bringing family and friends, purchasing season tickets, buying the bonds for the new stadium (by the way when do we get that money back?) concessions, emotions, prayers and even resorting to cussin’ the team (sometimes it seemed to help). That support translates into quite an investment in this franchise. At this time, I find my cupboard is just about bare. Compared to the owner who can sit back and watch his investment appreciate, mine has only yielded bitter disappointment and dismay. The only interest on my investment has been my interest in the game which I dearly love. Maybe the baseball purist can go to these games night after night and just enjoy the games without regard to the outcome. But I have reached the point where what matters to me is the “wins”. Since there have been virtually no wins this season, the decades of investment have returned only present frustration. I am not looking to place blame on the owner(s), the manager(s), the GM(s), the player(s), the heat, the wind, the ballpark. I just want to win. And not just a few wins either. I want us (see how personal this is?) to win them all. What seems to be missing is that “Refuse to lose” attitude. Why is it that the team can’t adopt a win at all costs, go for the throat, not in our house attitude? Why when we are facing the Santana’s of the world that we are not coming up with all kinds of strategies to throw him off his game? Step out on him, bunt, get up on the top step of the dugout and raise wholly heck with him. Why does the team seem to be so complacent? I am happy for them to be well paid. I wish them every success. However, waiting around to be traded or to walk away as a free agent to sign with a winning franchise so they can have their opportunity to win a world series is wrong headed. The true greats in this game have been the ones who are winners wherever they play or manage or own. They take it upon themselves to be the difference on their team and they refuse to allow anyone else on the team to do otherwise. They demand it. Don’t get me wrong I think Michael Young and Mark Teixeira are great individual players but are losers because the team is losing. Where is this team’s (from the owner on down) backbone? Where is that burning desire? What is lacking is the failure of each and every person associated with the organization and those who write about and support it to accept anything less than winning. Demand it from yourself. Demand it from your team mates. Demand it from your fellow fans. Take on the challenge of refusing to lose. Lets get mad. Lets get back into the race.
The things you learn about your fellow bloggers when mutiny is afoot and the team is tied for last place in the world (thanks KC Royals …just for being there!)
My tastes run to diversion in reading: **** Francis, Louis L’amour, Tony Hillerman, Lee Child…As a prof I read all that serious stuff…you know been there, done that and got the t shirt.
Speaking of that… the Rangers are experiencing the same phenom…you know…been there, done that. Bad starting pitching and last place…again!
Books for Rangers Fans to read:
1. The Long Hot Summer
2. Jack and the Bean Stalk.
3. The Once And Future King.
4. How To Win Friends And Influence People.
5. An Idiot’s Guide To Winning Baseball.
6. The Bad News Bears.
7. Smart Leadership
8. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff and it’s all small stuff.
9. The Dog of My Nightmares-Dave Leiber
10. Good to Great
” Yesterday I was a dog, Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.” Who said this and/or wrote it?