The Baseball Wisdom of Burt Solomon

Burt Solomon's love of baseball comes through in perhaps the best baseball book published to date.

"The Baseball Timeline," published this year, is almost 1,200 pages long and takes the reader from the, Revolutionary War when a soldier's diary found at Valley Forge, Pa., refers to a game of "base" played by the troops through baseball's history, year by year, to the 2000 World Series.

And it's done all in a very readable fashion, including trivia and facts but flowing like a novel. The easy read is not surprising, since Mr. Solomon, a Bedford Hills resident is a successful fiction writer.

"'There are plenty of good baseball histories around," Mr. Solomon said. "I wanted to write a book that was a fan's book, because basically I'm a fan. I tried to make it fan-friendly and fun."

Mr. Solomon grew up in the Bronx and would huddle around a radio with friends or relatives to listen to the Yankees, Giants or Dodgers. He loved every minute of it and considered paying attention to basketball and football merely as ways to pass the time until baseball season arrived again.

Three years of research and writing went into "The Baseball Timeline," what would be the perfect holiday gift for the baseball fail or fans in one's family. Even if not bought as a present, the book is worth its $50 admission charge to a front row Seat to every meaningful game played - with anecdotes that will keep fans cheering for more.

The original idea for the book was a collaboration between Mr. Solomon and Paul Fargis( Married to DAWN SANGREY) of Bedford Hills. "He and I met one day and we talked about all sorts of book topics, and at the end of the lunch he told me about this idea he had for a while about a baseball timeline. and he said he had never been able to match the idea with the writer," Mr. Solomon said. "He asked me if- I would he willing to write three chapters on spec, which I did, and he sold the book, so I was committed to write it."

Not surprisingly, "The Baseball Tuneline" involved untold hours of research. There's not a space on the page that doesn't include interesting information. Even the riargins arc filled with the trivia and current events of time periods being discussed.

"I had many Sources, but memory was a big part of my research," Mr. Solomon said. "I tollowed baseball as a kid, and I would remember a thread of' something arid then start to pull at the thread arid get at the facts - and sometimes more stories would come out. Doing the research is endless * I could have worked on this book for 10 more years if' I didn't have deadlines."

He said, "I organized card files for every year and researched in books and newspapers and inagazines - and later went on to the Internet, which was not available when I first began."

Mr. Solomon succeeded in creating a book that includes color, texture and a narrative instead Of just facts, so the reader gets a picture of the sport's characters and what they were Lip to. That's what gives "The Baseball Timeline" the feet of a novel. Players and incidents come alive.

"I enjoy finding Out things, but sometimes doing research was very frustrating." Mr. Solomon said. As an example, he cited the New York Giants' move to San Francisco. All the publicity files were junked so the team had no files at all. There were a number of situations like that, he said, and the lack of' available information slowed his research process down.

"They checked 30 or 40 facts [or me when I used them to do some fact checking that I couldn't find," he said.

To make things even more difficult for Mr. Solomon to do his research, in the 1920's and earlier, every baseball writer kept his own box score. There was no official box score, so in many cases information on a particular game did not agree from one card to the next. It Was a monumental task for Mr. Solomon to resolve the conflicts.

"The Baseball Timeline" is the ultimate browser's book because it's so easy to follow. A reader can pick it up, put it clown and come back to it the next day without losing continuity. "Nobody's going to sit and react 1,200 pages of baseball, but the book can be read and put down without losing a plot line or interest in the subject matter," Mr. Solomon said.

Arid indeed, personal memory proved key. An interesting story from Mr. Solomon's memory bank was a link he remembered about Stan Musial and his minor league coach.

Dickie Kerr, who was the honest pitcher on the 1919 White Sox, won two games in the infamous tainted World Series. In 1940, Kerr managed the Daytona Beach learn in the Florida State League, where tic encountered MUSial, then a 19year-old pitcher. Kerr recognized Musial's ability to hit the hall and converted him to the outfield when he wasn't pitching. After Musial incurred a shoulder injury, Kerr made him a full-time outfielder.

Kerr became more than a manager to Musial, whose wife was expecting a child. Because the Musials were short on money (at the time Stan the Man was earning $100 a month), Musial family up in his home. The Musials named their son after Kerr, and Musial later bought a home in Houston for his former manager as a thank-YOU.

it was decades later when Kerr's contributions to baseball were recognized. Wheri asked to name the grcatest pitcher of all time, "Spaceman" Bill Lee, who pitched in the 1970's and 1980's for the Red Sox, selected Kerr.

"Had to be," Lee said. "He won two World Series games when eight guys on his team were trying to lose."

"The Baseball Timeline" includes stories about individual ballplayers on several pages in different sections, a nice feature that allows the reader to revisit favorite characters.

For example, the reader can pick up on the saga of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson also from the 1919 World Series. Before the first World Series game, Jackson asked manager Kid Gleason to bench him, but Gleason said no. The White Sox went on to lose the game in front of 30,511  fans by the score of 9- 1.

In September 1920, Jackson was leaving the grand jury room in Chicago, a young reportedly clutched at his sleeve saying, "Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so."

Jackson replied, "Yes kid afraid it is."

The kid then replied " W never would've thought it."

Jackson and seven others indicted for throwing the series. In 1998, Ted William Bob Feller submitted a petition Bud Selig, baseball commissl~ to take Jackson off the inch~ list for the Hall of Fame. "I baseball to right an injust Williams said.

Mr. Solomon's book has received universal applause. When USA Today's Tom Weir reviewed history of sports in the 20th century he topped his book list with "The Baseball Timeline."

And on April 22, New York Daily News baseball columnist Madden called "The Baseball Timeline" "... an absolutely awesome reference book in  which every significant trade or event in  baseball from 1778 to 2000 chronicled. You can't be a student of the game and not have book."

it includes facts and figures, Yes ,but "The Baseball Timeline narrative as well. For example Yankee fans can relive each of the 37 years the Bronx Bombers been in the World Series; Met fans can joyfully relive the 1986 session and Boston fans can obsess over the Curse of the Bambino. 

It was 1919 when Red owner Harry Frazee, who had suffered business losses, was forced to sell off his team's better players.  The Yankees' co-owner signed a secret agreement for the sale of the Babe to New York,

Ruth went to New York  $125,000 plus a $300,000 gage on Fenway Park, and the curse was born. In the I I seasons from 1922 to 1932, the Sox emerged from last place twice. In 1932 they lost I I I and and finished 64 games out of first .place. And although the $425,000 seems like a deal now, it was more than twice the amount paid for any ballplayer to that date.

Mr. Solomon is a public relations consultant and educator who donates much of his time to the community as a member of many boards, including the Putnam/Northern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), Lexington Center for Recovery, Community Education Foundation, and New Youth Performing Theatre. He is a former Bedford Central School Board member.

Mr. Solomon's non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, and his fiction has been published in leading literary journals.

A book signing takes place this Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m. at the North Salem Free Library. The event will include discussion and a chance to ask Mr. Solomon questions. There will be refreshments.