If it's true, as documentary filmmaker Ken Burns once said, that baseball is the only subject that connects us all from the Civil War up to now, here are three new books that link all baseball fans (to quote Lincoln) through the mystic chords of memory. "We're Gonna Win, Twins!"by Doug Grow (University of Minnesota Press, 328 pages, $25.95)
Are you old enough to remember people arguing about whether Earl Battey should have been MVP instead of the Yankees' Elston Howard in 1963? How about debates that "Squal" -- I shouldn't have to tell you that I'm talking about Twins righthander Camilo Pascual -- had a better curveball than Sandy Koufax's? Do you remember Harmon Killebrew's home run in the 1965 All-Star game? And baseball cards with the nickname "Zorro" on Zoilo Versalles' card?
To be honest, I'm scarcely able to remember most of these myself, but I recall adults discussing them at the dinner table. And if you're reading this, you probably know what I'm talking about. That means you'll love "We're Gonna Win, Twins!," Doug Grow's heart-tugging history of the team from its first year in Minnesota, 1961, to the heartbreak of last season's playoffs as Joe Nathan stared into his glove while Alex Rodriguez rounded the bases.
The book is more than a history. It's an evocation of half a century, lavishly illustrated with such out-of-left-field photos as the cover of the "Win Twins Polka" -- more fun to look at the album cover than to listen to, trust me -- to the late great Kirby Puckett, adorned in a full-length fur coat, waving to fans at the 1987 World Series parade.
Grow, a longtime Star Tribune sports columnist who currently writes for the online publication MinnPost, brings the Twins' story up to date, including an account of the politics surrounding the construction of their new park, Target Field, "made with native Minnesota limestone and landscaped with Minnesota native flowers, shrubs, and trees." The only thing wrong with "We're Gonna Win, Twins!" is that it was published before Joe Mauer signed his eight-year contract. No doubt that will make the paperback edition.
"The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macorís"by Mark Kurlansky (Riverhead Books, 258 pages, $25.95)
Reversing the wording results in a more accurate subtitle for Mark Kurlansky's latest book: "How the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macorís Changed Baseball." Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano and the Yankees' own Robbie Cano, to name only three of the most prominent, are from the impoverished village.
"The Eastern Stars" is a cutaway view of the step-by-step journey of dozens of major league players from the dusty streets of their hometown to wealth and fame in big-league cities in the United States. Each story is more thrilling and heartrending than the one before it. Not all of the players are heroes, though, as Kurlansky writes, "Heroics is a lot to expect from someone snatched away without education at age 16 and handed fame and wealth at a dizzying speed."
