REACHING FOR THE STARS: A Celebration of Italian Americans in Major League Baseball

This collection edited by book packager Freundlich offers personal and often sentimental essays about Italian-American baseball greats in the first part of the book; the second part lists statistics of every Italian-American player. After an introductory essay by Brooklyn Dodgers' fan Freundlich, Donald Honig sets the tone with a quick roundup of Italian ballplayers, beginning in 1897 with Philadelphia Phillies' infielder Edward James Abbaticchio, up through Ping Bodie (Francesco Stefano Pezzolo) and the bear-like 1930s Cincinnati Reds catcher Ernie Lombardi, to Al Gionfriddo, the Dodgers left fielder who played against the Yankees in the 1947 World Series. Honig lists the Italian-American Hall of Famers: Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Ernie Lombardi, Phil Rizzuto, Tommy Lasorda and Tony Lazzeri, "with Mike Piazza and Joe Torre on the fast track." In "Hooks," Robert Leuci remembers growing up in Brooklyn and playing against German clubs from Yorkville, Irish teams from Sunset Park, Jewish kids from East New York and Polish players from Greenpoint. He was so rootted in Brooklyn baseball that he believed all the Dodgers had actually been born there. Of course, DiMaggio's popularity is analyzed throughout, and English-born, New York–raised Wilfred Sheed notes that Joltin' Joe had style: he walked onfield and did his job, "then loped shyly back in." One standout essay is a warm elegy by the late baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti that, while it doesn't focus specifically on Italians, does capture the universal beauty of the sport: "It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring... and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." (Oct.)