CITY BASEBALL MAGIC

Sixteen years ago, architect Philip Bess authored City Baseball Magic, a widely acclaimed monograph on modern ballparks and the relationship between ballpark design and city harmony. The booklet prominently featured Armour Field, an urban ballpark proposed for Chicago's south side. City Baseball Magic and Armour Field are especially relevant today, with municipalities routinely spending $300-500 million for "state of the art" ballparks that not only ignore the physical constraints inherent in a true urban ballpark, but also fail to bring fans closer to the action, the principal reason for attending a game in the first place.

Although ballparks were once truly urban places that united fans of all backgrounds and income levels as a community, they are less so today. This needn't be the end result. How do we reverse the trend? Read City Baseball Magic. Once you do, you'll never look at baseball stadiums the same way again.

To learn how Minneapolis and other cities can build a modern version of the traditional urban ballpark for one-third to one-half the typical cost of new stadia, click here http://citypages.com/databank/20/979/article7948.asp


 

"Bess' thin but incisive...book...has become a cult classic among those who want to do more than just grumble about eating $5 tube steaks in the nosebleed sections of new $500 million "baseball entertainment complexes." [T]his year's 10th anniversary reprint...feels as fresh and relevant as ever." - Britt Robson, Utne Reader

A well-thought-out proposal for a new park. -Roger Angell, The New Yorker

Re-issued in a 6x9 perfect bound, paperback book format, the 1999 edition of City Baseball Magic features a fresh new design, larger type and graphics (forty six illustrations accompany the 64-page text), and an attractive glossy color cover.

$8.95 (plus $2 postage & handling)

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or call toll free 1-888-535-9742

 

CALVINISMS

CALVINISMS is a delightful one-man show about former Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith, an irascible, outspoken, and yet loveable "dinosaur" who ran baseball's last family-owned franchise for thirty years.

Excerpts from Calvinisms:

"The athlete owes everything to the sport he's participating in. I mean the payrolls are ridiculous. Steinbrenner regulates salaries for everyone. Most of these owners sign these players to such ridiculous salaries just because they're afraid of their image with the fans if they don't. They're egotists. They've got so much money. But nobody knew who they were before baseball. Who the hell ever heard of Ted Turner or Ray Kroc or Steinbrenner? If I have the smallest payroll in the majors, I'm proud of it. It shows I'm not a horse's ass."

"Hot dogs are essential to baseball – those things pay a lot of bills. I don't think there's anything better in the world than a ballpark frank with mustard and a big beer. Hell, watching a ball game and the lights are on up above you and maybe you can see the moon and you got a winning team with maybe a rally going in the fifth inning and here comes that vendor flapping the lid on his metal frank-heater and shouting, 'Hot dogs! Hot dogs! Get your hot dog!' – it makes me salivate just thinking about it."

"In tenderly but not obsequiously probing the personality of Calvin Griffith on the eve of his selling his team and birthright, LaZebnik has written an amusing, perceptive examination of a proud, scrappy man who is overcome by forces he can't control…There is a tragic edge to LaZebnik's tale for all who still cling to a need for tradition and loyalty in our lives. Even if you aren't a baseball fan, there is something in Griffith's struggle for survival and his battle with progress that should strike a sympathetic chord and give the play a dramatic resonance." – Peter Vaughan, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Calvinisms…is sprinkled with outrageous opinions, funny stories, nostalgic memories and wonderful malapropisms…in other words, a Cal Griffith autobiography in his own salty jargon." –Rick Shefchik, St. Paul Pioneer Press

$5.00 (plus $1 postage & handling)




To order by credit card click here
or call toll free 1-888-535-9742

If paying by check, send payment to:

 

Knothole Press P.O. Box 14385 St. Paul, Minnesota 55114-0385




Please direct all inquiries regarding book manuscripts, reprinting out-of-print titles, rights issues, etc., to:





Tom Goldstein Publisher P.O. Box 14385 St. Paul, Minnesota 55114-0385 info@efqreview.com 651/644-8558

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