And, after perusing through the Bill James Handbook 2010 for the last two weeks (since it was released on November 1st), I can now share that this year’s edition has not lessened my opinion of this annual. In fact, if anything, it’s just made it stronger.

As always, the Bill James Handbook 2010 is the perfect off-season companion for the baseball stat junkie. It’s a joy to curl up with a copy of this book and allow yourself to get lost for minutes or hours – immensely enjoying the journey as you cherry-pick on the snapshots of the data therein.

Most times, I’m just happy thumbing through the pages and landing, at random, at a player and checking his career stats.

Just the other day, I landed on former Yankee David Weathers. What an amazing career! Weathers is 40-years old and has pitched in the major leagues now for 19 seasons – for 9 different teams (at various times). He’ll never be a Hall-of-Famer, but, when a guy can play in the big leagues for 19 years and pitch in close to 1,000 games, he sure will be able to walk away from the game proud. Yet, if not for a book like the Bill James Handbook 2010, where you can randomly land on his career stats, would you even think twice about Weathers’ major league career?

That’s just an example of the fun you have with the “Career Register” in this book. But, there’s more – including sections such as, but not limited to, “Team Efficiency Summary” (which tells you how efficient a team was with it’s hitting, pitching and run scoring), the “Fielding Bible Award” and “Runs Saved Plus/Minus Leaders,” how “Baserunners” perform, how “Relief Pitchers” perform, which teams are the best and worst at “Manufactured Runs,” tatics and usage patterns for skippers in the “The Manager’s Record” section, tons of Leader Boards from 2009, and, of course, career “Win Shares” data for every player in the majors last year as well as 2010 player projections for hitters and pitchers.

That said, here’s some interesting Yankees-related data/facts from the Bill James Handbook 2010:

• Over the last three season, Jorge Posada is the worst catcher at “saving runs” with a mark of -23. (During this time, Yadier Molina was the leader with a mark of +22).
• In terms of “net gain” in baserunning, factoring in chances to go first to third, second to home, etc., and the amount of times the player was successful, as well as making outs on the bases, hitting into double plays, and net steals, the Yankees were the 22nd worst team in baseball with a mark of -9. (The best team in baseball here was the Phillies with a mark of +109 and the worst team in baseball was the Royals with a mark of -67.)
• Also in terms of “net gain” in baserunning, Robinson Cano was the worst in baseball for second baseman (-23) and Chase Utley was the best (+50). This probably lends towards explaining the Phillies and Yankees overall team totals in this stat.
• David Robertson allowed .36 of his inherited baserunners to score in 2009. For a point of comparison, Edwar Ramirez last season posted a mark of .33 here, Brian Burney’s number was .31, Damaso Marte posted a .19 and Phil Hughes’ fashioned a percentage of .06 – yes, point-oh-six.
• In 2008, Joe Girardi had runners moving with the pitch 173 times (which was tops in the league). But, in 2009, Girardi had runners moving just 83 times. (What a difference not having Jason Giambi makes, I suppose.)
• Nick Swisher had the second worst “BPS per OutZ” in the American League with a mark of .218 in 2009. What’s “BPS per OutZ”? It’s batting average plus slugging percentage on pitches outside of the strikezone. (Hey, Swishalicious, do yourself a favor and only swing at strikes!)
• A.J. Burnett had the third “fastest” average fastball in the league at 94.2 MPH last season whereas Andy Pettitte had the third “slowest” average fastball in the league at 89.0 MPH (minimum 162 IP in both cases).
• Among all players with at least 98 games played at 2B or SS, Robinson Cano had the 10th worst “2B Pivot %” in the league at .563 and Derek Jeter had the 10th worst “SS Pivot %” at .541 (whereas Dustin Pedroia led 2B at .789 and Yuniesky Betancourt was tops at SS with .735).

O.K., that’s just a taste of the fun stuff that you can find thumbing through the Bill James Handbook 2010.

As usual, the Bill James Handbook 2010 delivers. I highly recommend this book – and, not just for Yankees fans, – but for any baseball fan. If you like stats, this book covers all the bases (regardless of your favorite team or teams).

And, I can now share that this one is more than just a book…it’s a time machine.

Over the years, I’ve read my share of “historical” baseball books. And, many times, these types of works – especially ones that go back 70 to 100 years ago – can come across as dry and a labor to read. But, this is not the case with Vaccaro’s “The First Fall Classic.”

Reading “The First Fall Classic” is a joyride back to 1912 as it enables you to feel what it was like to be there during that time when this World Series was played. And, what a World Series that one was! (I’m not going to spoil it here by giving you all that went down in the 1912 World Series. Besides, this book does a better job at providing the details than I can do in this space.)

I highly recommend The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants and the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Re-Invented the World Series in 1912. And, I cannot think of a better time for you to read it – given that we’re in the middle of a World Series now. It’s very fun to use Vaccaro’s work and compare how much the World Series – and the world! – are different, and yet the same in some ways, today as compared to 1912.

Really good stuff here in this one from Mike Vaccaro.

Not only does Ted know a lot about sports, but, he’s a very clever and funny guy. I suspect that his blog will become daily “must read” stuff very quickly. If I had to stick a label on this one, I’d call it “The Young Keith Olbermann Chronicles.” Really, Ted’s that talented – and has a huge sports/entertainment career ahead of him. Check it out.

“Perfect” is a wonderful book. It’s more than just a recap of Larsen’s perfecto – it’s the life stories of 19 New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers players who took part in that contest. And, Lew Paper did an excellent job at telling these stories – they are well-sourced, informative, and entertaining.

Whether you’re someone who remembers that era of baseball or one of the two generations of baseball fans who have come along since, you will enjoy this book. It’s a great read for any baseball fan and a must read for the “New York” baseball fan.

If Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game were a box of Cracker Jack, then the players who appeared in it would be the molasses-covered popcorn treats inside and Lew Paper’s new book is now the special prize that comes along with it. I highly recommend Lew Paper’s “Perfect: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen.”

If you stop by, tell them that WasWatching.com sent ya!

First, I’ll cut to the chase and say that “Sugar” is a film that every baseball fan over the age of 16 should view – and I only provide that age cut-off due to some of the storyline not being completely suitable for young children. That said, the film was rated PG-13, and, if you’re comfortable with your young teenager watching a movie containing some mature language and mild sexual themes, then you can lower that age bar from 16 to 13 here.

Why should baseball fans watch “Sugar“? Well, it tells the story of how baseball propsects from Latin America – and, specifically, in the case of this story, the Dominican Republic – have to deal with the “systems” in their hometown as well as having to deal with the cultural and language issues, racism, and isolation/home-sickness once they make it to America to play professional baseball. “Sugar” also does a through job painting the picture of life as a minor league baseball player, in general.

Now, erudite baseball fans may think, here, “I already know all that stuff – so, what’s this flick going to tell me that I don’t already know?” And, my answer to that is simple: Thanks to the outstanding acting in “Sugar,” we get to witness and absorb some emotion around that “story” which some already know…and, thanks to warmth derived from watching “Sugar,” it enables those familar with this type of story to acquire additional perception via the stimulation of viewing this film.

Actually, that’s a good lead into my second point on this matter – while I feel that “Sugar” is a film that every baseball fan over the age of 16 should view, I can also share that this is a film that any adult should give consideration towards watching…because it’s a story told beautifully, and with compassion, that many will find satisfying.

I was very pleased to be able to watch “Sugar” on DVD – and I highly recommend checking this one out.

As a Yankees fan, it was interesting to see how a championship run is experienced in a baseball town outside of Yankeeland – especially in another baseball-crazy place. (And, in my opinion, the baseball fans in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago are in a class by themselves in terms of how they live and die with their teams.)

However, the situation in Philly was different than New York. Prior to their 2008 ring, it had been 28 years since the Phillies won a World Series. In fact, it had been a quarter-century since any team in Philadelphia won a championship. And, of the 13 metropolian areas in America with teams in all four major sports, none of them had a championship drought within eight years of the twenty five they were waiting in Philadelphia.

Obviosuly, you can see why Stark went with the title “Worth the Wait.”

With his work, Stark provides some background on the 2008 Phillies and how their mindset was forged during Spring Training. But, he also highlights the five moments from 2008 that defined the Phillies season. And, most of all, he brings you through every post-season game that the Phillies played last season as well as covering the off-days between those games.

I found “Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies” to be an entertaining and informative read – and recommend it to any baseball fan. The book provides great insight to what happens to a baseball team, its fans, and the city as a whole when they finally win a ring – after a long, long, time.

For me, again, as a Yankees fan, one section of the book that I found very interesting was from Stark’s coverage of the Phillies Spring Training camp and how the team’s mental approach had changed from prior seasons. Here’s a snip of that:

“I had always known it takes hard work and dedication.” [Phillies pitcher Brett] Myers said. “But what it really takes is a team.”

We know there are still people on this planet who believe chemistry in baseball is a hoax, a myth, a slice of fiction perpetrated by the media knuckleheads who don’t know any better. But we wish those people luck trying to convince this group of that.

Not so long ago, as [Phillies manager] Charlie Manuel said, the men who wore the Phillies uniform were preoccupied with their own numbers, their own paychecks, their own rationales for never quite getting it right.

Now, said [Phillies shortstop Jimmy] Rollins, these guys are “more focused on we need to get it right. Not you get it right, and you get right, and you get right. We’re going to get right, We’re going to be right… Now it doesn’t matter who gets it done. We don’t care about who the hero is.”

Back when Bobby Abreu was the Phillies’ centerpiece player, Rollins can recall being sent to the plate to “get on base for Bobby.” Now that he’s a centerpiece player, hitting in front of bats like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, he heads for the plate in the same kinds of situations, with the mindset that somebody will make it happen.

“Before,” Rollins said, “it was like ‘Let’s try to get Bobby up there and we’ll have a chance.’ Now I have the confidence that if I don’t get it done, somebody will get it done behind me. Now we have a team.”

“This excerpt from Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies is printed with the permission of Triumph Books.”

Food for thought there, at least to me, for the Yankees and their fans. Especially this part:

…[players] preoccupied with their own numbers, their own paychecks, their own rationales for never quite getting it right…

Sound like anyone on the Yankees that we know?

To this day, if I close my eyes, I can quickly remember the feeling of sitting in Yankee Stadium, as a 13-year old, with my father, watching the Yankees play with Munson at bat and runners on base.

During these moments, my heart would race – where it felt like it was about to jump out of my chest (because it was beating so hard and fast). Why? Because I wanted Thurman to come through…as he was “my guy.”

And, more times than not, Munson did the job.

It’s been so many years, but, in this memory, I can still see Munson slapping a line drive into right field, as if he was picking the ball out of opposing catcher’s mitt with his bat, waiting until the last minute to go the other way with the pitch, with Yankees runners rounding third and coming home to score…man, talk about pure exhilaration…that was it.

Being such a Munson fan, I was (and still am) very interested in learning more about him.

Granted, back in 1978, Thurman Munson did publish an autobiography (with Marty Appel). However, that was more of your typical “baseball biography” in the sense that it told us what Thurman wanted us to hear and is what many would consider to be a “comfortable” read. Plus, the book only covered the Thurman Munson story through the winter of 1977-78. And, we know that’s not where his story ends.

Further, in 2001, Christopher Devine authored a biography “Thurman Munson.” However, while I found Devine’s book to be incredibly well sourced, I did not find the book to be “gripping” – and, for someone like me, a huge Munson fan, that’s a bad sign.

Basically, for the last three decades or so, I’ve been waiting for the ultimate book covering the entire story of Thurman Munson. And, now, thanks to Marty Appel, with his new book “Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain,” we have what I have been waiting for…all these years.

With this new book – to be released on July 7, 2009 – Appel provides us with the complete account of Thurman Munson’s life and untimely passing…with no holds barred.

With this work, we get to see the many facets of Munson’s life: Thurman as a ball player, a friend, the family man and a real estate entrepreneur. And, we get to see the good and the bad sides of the man. This includes getting to see Thurman as the everyday likeable guy who eats Oreos and milk for breakfast, watches the Three Stooges, sings commercial jingles to himself, has a terrible sense of fashion, and who would go out of his way to help people (with no fanfare whatsoever). But, we also get to see Thurman as someone who was somewhat insecure at times, cursed at sportswriters, gave the fans “the finger” during a game, cut many of the dysfunctional family members out of his life, and who once fired a gun in the Yankee Stadium parking lot.

Also, with this biography, Appel provides a superior account of the complete Thurman Munson timeline – bringing us from Munson’s youth, through his time with the Yankees, to covering his tragic death in terms of the event itself and the impact it had on many (both inside and outside the Munson circle).

But, what I enjoyed most about “Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain” is how the story is told. In the book, Appel uses his own voice as well as those of many others who knew Thurman – including his teammates and friends. And, many of these sources are people who most were never aware (until now) as being a big part of Munson’s life or parties that you would not expect to have some insight on the Munson story.

Also, I found this book to be acutely accurate with its facts and figures. Being diehard Yankees fan, as well as a long-time baseball fan in general, I am often a stickler about landmark baseball books (such as this one) being careful with the presentation of data – especially when it pertains to the Yankees (with that being my area of fan expertise). Related, the only issue I had with my review copy of this one could be found on page 128 where it said that Munson batted .435 in the 1976 World Series – when, actually, he batted .529 in that World Series and .435 was his batting average in the 1976 A.L.C.S. (But, this is a very small faux pas when you consider the amount of detail correctly stated in this book.)

In summary, I would offer that “Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain” is a must read for any Yankees fan over the age of forty, a highly recommended read for Yankees fans of any age, and a recommended read for anyone interested in baseball and a very well-done story about one of more notable players from the last half-century of the game’s history.

This book will engross, entertain, enlighten and “touch” you all at the same time. It’s too bad that we had to wait 30 years for a book like this on Thurman Munson. But, now that its here, I cannot imagine a better one ever being done compared to the job Marty Appel did with “Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain.”

With Cooperstown Confidential, Chafets provides a candid and no holds barred examination behind the history, politics and other inside workings of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (in Cooperstown, New York). And, he does it in a manner that’s intelligent and entertaining. In addition, Cooperstown Confidential also profiles the windfall for the modern player who is elected into the Hall of Fame. Lastly, with this book, Chafets makes an interesting case for how Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame should handle the players who have been linked to using Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Now, the book is not dead-solid-perfect, as I did catch two small editing flaws. On page 69, it refers to Steve Garvey being traded to the San Diego Padres (when, in reality, he signed with them as a free agent). And, on a footnote on page 104, it refers to Kevin Youkilis as “Euclis, the Greek God of Walks” (when, in the book Moneyball, he was actually referred to as “Youkilis, the Greek God of Walks”). But, these are two minor miscues that take nothing away from the reading and learning experience one gets from this book.

I truly feel that even an erudite baseball fan will learn something from reading Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I know that it has changed the way that I look at the Hall of Fame (and I thought that I was already fairly well read on the subject matter). Zev Chafets work here is a quick read (197 pages). But, it packs a lot. I highly recommend this book.

With Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game, Sugar takes you through the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, decade by decade and exhibit by exhibit. For me, this was a great reading experience. Personally, each time I’ve been to the museum, I found myself jumping around the exhibits like a moth dancing around a porch light. So, this was a real treat to see how the museum should be toured – following the chroncile of the game in its actual timeline.

Further, this book is abound with glorious photographs – done by Bruce Curtis – of the museum’s artifacts and exhibits. There’s over 500 photos in the book. As a result, if you have visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, reading Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game will put you right back there, in your mind. And, if you’ve never been to Cooperstown, this book will give you a great idea of what it’s like to tour the town and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

If you’re looking for a unique Father’s Day gift – this being early June – for the dad in your life who’s a baseball fan, you should consider picking up this book. Or, if you just want to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the opening of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (which will happen this July), you should consider picking up this book. Heck, if you’re a baseball fan, you don’t need any other reason than that to check out Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game. It’s a great collectible/keepsake to have in your baseball library – and I highly recommend it.