Not too long ago the Portland Tribune ran an interview with a player in the San Diego Padre organization that I didn’t recall hearing of before, Dirk Hayhurst.  I was intrigued by the answers that he gave in the interview and I googled his name.  I found some writing he did for Baseball America and was really impressed with his writing.  I sent him a gift certificate to the bookstore I manage.  I read another column by him in Baseball America and emailed him.  He said he wanted to come by and didn’t really have a way to get to the store.  I took Yuya, our Japanese exchange student, to the Beavers game and got to see Dirk pitch an inning in relief.  After the game we went down and talked to Dirk for awhile and gave him a couple of books that I had for him.  Dirk is a very self aware young man, who is very well read.  I brought a book about Sid Caesar, a comedian in the 50’s and a book about a bomb containing bats, (the flying kind) with incendiary devices attached that hypothetically would have caused a firestorm in Tokyo.  He knew the basics of both books as soon as he saw the covers.  I was quite impressed with his knowledge, watch for his work, his writing and I hope he makes it to the majors, Random House or Simon and Schuster or even the San Diego Padres.  He also blogs for his home town paper the Canton Rep, these are worth reading, some will cause you to cry, a recent one made me fall off my chair laughing and some will make you go what.

James Montgomery Flagg, Uncle Sam and Beyond by Nicholas Steward; 1997; Collectors Press, Inc., Portland, OR; 62 pages; 1-888054-07-7; 7/1-7/1

I read this little book in 10 minutes.  It is a collection of James Montgomery Flagg’s magazine covers and illustrations.  Almost everyone in the United States has seen Flagg’s work, even if they don’t know it.  The poster of Uncle Sam pointing and saying I want you is Flagg’s best known work, it has been referenced, parodied and messed with more than almost anything else.  I have a version in my office that says “I want you to read”.  Along with the illustrations it also contains a very brief biography of Flagg, hitting the high points of his life.  RR

God in the Shadows, Walking from East to West by Ravi Zacharias with R.S.B. Sawyer; 2006; Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI;240 pages, 978-0-310-25915-2; 6/25-6/29

It is a rare biography where I know very little about the subject of the book, but all I knew about Ravi Zacharias was he was from India, he was a Christian and we shared a favorite author.  This was a book that my parents gave me last Christmas and it has taken me a while to get to it.  I will read it again, because the author has some great insights into Christian living.

He details his journey from India to Canada to Atlanta, his journey from agnostic to Christian to seminary student to evangelist and how in looking back at his life he can see different ways God was working in his life, even in the shadows.  He has had a remarkable life and has overcome some adversity, mainly mental issues.  Not mental illness but being told he would never amount to anything or wasn’t living up to his potential.  He has followed Christ’s leading in his life.  It is an amazing life.  RRR

Deep Storm by Lincoln Child; 2007; Doubleday, New York, NY; 370 pages; 978-0-385-51550-4; 6/25-6/25

Beware of Spoilers

Dr. Peter Crane, former Naval medical officer, is chosen to take in a highly classified operation miles beneath the ocean surface.  He is told that the project is excavating a former civilization that disappeared a long time ago but it turns out to be something completely different.  He has to deal with an overly aggressive security officer who only doles out information on a highly restrictive need to know basis, a saboteur or two and an unknown signal from beneath the earth’s crust.  It turns out that an alien race is storing weapons of mass destruction beneath the earth’s surface.  Dr. Crane is responsible for preventing them being accessed and saving a lot of people.

I was disappointed that early on it was going to be another Atlantis  story, but Child deftly turns a corner and makes it a much more interesting story.  RRR

Moments in the Sun, Baseball’s Briefly Famous by Mark McGuire and Michael Sean Gormley; 1999; McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, NC; 239 pages; 0-7864-0549-X; 6/20-6/25

Disco Demolition Night, a World Series perfect game, a player killer by a pitch, a tater in play, a real player who became well known through a work of fiction and a one legged pitcher.

Brief biographical sketches of players who were famous (or infamous) for a brief time.  Their notoriety peaks again when something similar happens or on the anniversary of what happened.

There are several interesting players profiled here, but my favorite is Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, who was a real player made famous in Field of Dreams, either because of the movie or that it was Burt Lancaster’s final role.  It is interesting that the article the newspaper editor reads is the actual article that ran when Doc Graham died.

Anyone who likes baseball would enjoy this slim volume.  RRR