Book Shelf: Vincent's Volume Two Covers MLB In '60s And '70s

In N.Y., Murray Chass noted the second volume of former MLB Commissioner FAY VINCENT's "oral-history project," titled "WE WOULD HAVE PLAYED FOR NOTHING," features 11 players from the '50s and '60s "talking about their careers and their competitors." The book, scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster in April, continues the chronological history of baseball started in volume one, "THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN," which included ten players from the '30s and '40s and has sold 30,000 copies. Vincent and Allen & Company President & CEO HERBERT ALLEN paid for the project, and they have "donated all sales proceeds, minus the publisher's share, to the [Baseball HOF]." Vincent interviewed all of the players himself and has "given the [HOF] the tapes of his 45 four-hour interviews." The book includes interviews with Baseball HOFers WHITEY FORD, BROOKS ROBINSON, HARMON KILLEBREW, BILLY WILLIAMS, ROBIN ROBERTS, DUKE SNIDER, RALPH BRANCA, CARL ERSKINE, BILL RIGNEY, LEW BURDETTE and FRANK ROBINSON (N.Y. TIMES, 1/27).

HARDBALL: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jeffrey Trachtenberg wrote artist KADIR NELSON's new children's book "WE ARE THE SHIP: THE STORY OF NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL" features paintings of players including SATCHEL PAIGE, JOSH GIBSON and JAMES BELL. Disney's Jump at the Sun imprint is printing 100,000 copies of the book, a "large number for a debut author." An exhibit of many of the paintings from the book opened January 26 at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in K.C. (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/26)....K.C. STAR columnist JOE POSNANSKI's book "THE SOUL OF BASEBALL" recently was chosen as the winner of the 25th annual Casey Award for best baseball book of '07. An awards dinner and ceremony will be held in Cincinnati on March 2 (K.C. STAR, 1/27).