Thursday, January 19, 2012

2011 Casey Award winner for best baseball book to be announced on Monday

Book lovers in the audience will be interested to read that the winner of the 2011 Casey Award will be announced on Monday.

Given annually since 1983 to the best baseball book of the year by the editors of “Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine,” this year’s slate of finalists includes 10 books.

This year’s finalists are:

- “The Art of Fielding” by Chad Harbach

- “Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game” by John Thorn

- “The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball Photographs” by Neal McCabe and Constance McCabe

- “Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption and Baseball Longest Game” by Dan Barry

- “Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella” by Neil Lanctot

- “Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season and Fenway’s Remarkable First Year” by Glenn Stout

- “The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903-1957” by Dennis Snelling

- “The Kings of Casino Park: Black Baseball in the Lost Season of 1932” by Thomas Aiello

- “21: The Story of Roberto Clemente” by Wilfred Santiago

- “56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports” by Kostya Kennedy

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This week marks the 45th anniversary of the first Super Bowl, a game that included a player from Evergreen.

Wayne Frazier, who starred as a lineman at Evergreen High School and Auburn University, started at center for the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I on Jan. 15, 1967. That game was played in the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the Green Bay Packers went on to win the game, 35-10.

A crowd of 61,946 fans watched the game, which also included gridiron legends, Bart Starr and Vince Lombardi.

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Speaking of the Super Bowl, this year’s field of NFL playoff teams was narrowed over the weekend as four teams survived the divisional round of the playoffs.

On Saturday, the brutal reality set in for the Denver Broncos as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots demolished them, 45-10. Earlier that day, the overachieving San Francisco 49ers edged out New Orleans, 36-32.

On Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Houston Texas, 20-13, and the New York Giants outgunned the Green Bay Packers, 37-20.

This coming Sunday, the four teams left will compete for the NFC and AFC titles.
The Ravens and the Patriots will battle it out for the AFC title Sunday at 2 p.m. on CBS. The Giants will take on the 49ers for the NFC title Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on FOX.

Even though I’m pulling for the Ravens due to their strong Alabama connections, I think the Patriots will be too much for them to handle. And despite the fact that the 49ers ended New Orleans’ strong run, I look for the 49ers to beat the Giants.

If that comes to pass, that’ll set up a New England-San Francisco Super Bowl, and it’s hard to imagine New England not winning that game.

The Super Bowl will be played on Sun., Feb. 5. It’ll kick off at 5:30 p.m. and will be televised on NBC.

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