Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Book Club: "Cooperstown Confidential" by Zev Chafets

Longtime readers know my general disdain for the process related to entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame -- mostly for the overly clubby, overly opaque clique of arbiters of Hall-worthiness from the Baseball Writers Association of America. I think the selection process is inherently flawed, and that -- at a minimum -- the current voting system should be imploded. (The late Red Smith agrees with me, by the way.) I would even suggest fans would do a better job than the BBWAA.

Because of that, I was thrilled to get a review copy of "Cooperstown Confidential" by Zev Chafets, which I have been enjoying as a fun bit of myth-busting about the Hall. I was going to do a post about it later this summer, but there is a terrific review of the book in today's New York Times, so it seemed appropriate to bring it up now. (FWIW, I have a stack of books from this summer that I am trying to work through simultaneously to post about here. Bear with me.)

-- D.S.

1 comment:

Jason Clinkscales said...

I am very interested in this book as well because of a similar disdain for the Baseball Hall... actually, the Pro Football Hall irks me as well, but that's for another day.

I know you have stacks of books to check out for the summer (there's a stack of six looking at me), but from what you have read so far, which 'shamockery' has stuck out to you?

Keep up the good work.