Reviews for The Continental Actress: European Film Stars of the Postwar Era Biographies, Criticism, Filmographies, Bibliographies

The average rating for The Continental Actress: European Film Stars of the Postwar Era Biographies, Criticism, Filmographies, Bibliographies based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-03-13 00:00:00 John Monahan New wasted-time section below! This is a TOP TEN book in my baseball library. Availability. OOP - Might find used at a reasonable price. Type. GAMES/RECORDS Use. BROWSE _explanation_ One day, no loger recently, I saw that my home team in the AL East (the Orioles) had scored six come-from-behind runs in an inning with a single hit. There were six walks and two or three wild pitches involved. When I see something like this I’m always prompted to go pick up one of my favorite little baseball books. (This one being reviewed, in fact!) What this book has (besides quite a few nice photos) is boxscores and accompanying text (written by the author) of 105 major league baseball games. The games were selected because each one involved something notable - most commonly a record (or records) set by an individual player, one of the teams involved, or both teams. The author gives each game a title, often an amusing one. It didn’t take long to find the game I was looking for. The title of the game is “The Loaves and the Fishes”. The game, between the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Athletics, occurred on April 22, 1959. I’ll quote the whole thing. The Chicago White Sox of 1959 earned the nickname “The Hitless Wonders”. They finished sixth (of eight) in runs, hits, RBIs and batting average and they were last in home runs, yet they still won the pennant. A rally for them was said to be a walk, stolen base, ground out and a sacrifice fly. They were famous for making something from nothing. Early in the season, the league was alerted to this inclination when the Chisox scored 11 runs in an inning with only one hit. Here’s how it developed: - Ray Boone was safe on an error by DeMaestri. - Al Smith was safe on an error by Hal Smith. - Johnny Callison singled to right and advanced on a Maris error. - Louie Aparicio walked and stole second. - Bob Shaw walked, knocking Gorman [the pitcher] out of the box [game]. - Mark Freeman [the new pitcher] picked up where Gorman left off and walked Torgeson. - Nellie Fox also walked. - Jim Landis, in an act of mercy, grounded to Freeman, who threw to the plate forcing Shaw for the first out. - Freeman then got back on track and walked Sherman Lollar. That was it for Mark Freeman. - To the rescue came George Brunet who picked up where Freeman left off by walking Ray Boone. - Al Smith also walked. - Brunet then broke the monotony by hitting Callison with a pitch. - Aparicio restored order by walking for the second time. - Shaw, feeling sorry for his counterparts, struck out for out number two. - Bubba Phillips, pinchhitting for pinchhitter Earl Torgeson, who had walked earlier in the inning, also walked. - Not to disrupt the game, Fox walked again. - This brought to the plate Jim Landis who had made the first out. A true humanitarian, Jim again grounded out to the pitcher who threw to first for the final out. All told, the Chisox scored 11 runs (2 earned) on 1 single, 1 hit batter, 3 errors and 10 walks. They left the bases loaded. Reliever Tom Gorman, who started the inning, was charged with six runs without retiring a batter. After the box score is presented Dittmar concludes: “Take special note of all the Chisox who had RBIs and runs scored without getting a hit, especially Earl Torgeson who had both without an official at-bat. The book has lots of fun stuff like this. The games featured start with one played on May 23 1901, and conclude with one played August 3 1989. There’s a little Introduction on the evolution of the boxscore, a nice “Index of Records and Events”, and an even better Index of Names. In this, all players and umpires mentioned in any of the boxscores are shown, together with the game number. Hence we find “Ruth, Babe 25, 29” and “Aaron, Hank 55, 59, 62, 65, 67, 74, 83”. Ahem. I've just wasted half an hour to bring this to you. 1. What game that occured closest to my birthday (12/6/1944) is in the book? That would be Giants at Phillies, 7/18/1943. The title is "Baserunners Get Bored."Talk about wasted opportunities... The Giants and the Phillies on this day left a total of 30 runners on base in a single game. That tied a major league record which still exists for a nine-inning game. (Then, after the box score) Actually, the entire season was one of frustration for both clubs. The Giants finished last, 49 1/2 games out; the Phillies, 41 out.Well, that didn't take half an hour. 2. But this did. I wondered, does this record still stand? It took a long time to find a post somewhere or other from a fan who claimed that a game in progress, bottom of the ninth inning, had already had 35 runners LOB by both teams. The date of the game was 4/10/2015, Boston at Yankees. 3. So I looked up the box score for that game, and found that the Yankees had tied the game in the bottom of the ninth 3-3, but had eventually succumbed in the 19th inning 6-5 - after both teams scored runs in both the 16th and 18th innings! BUT Boston had left a total of 20 runners on base, and New York left a total of 13. So the fan's post was completely wrong, and although the total of 33 is greater than 30, it seems very unlikely that they were all left on base during the first nine innings. 4. So, the question is still open - is 30 still the record for a nine inning game? (Oh, and BTW, I also happened on a site that documented a playoff game within the last few years in which 30 men had been left on base, I think over nine innings, which was said there to be a record for a playoff game.) end of time-waste Some of the photos, like the one below, are team photos. I’ve included this one primarily because of the player I’ve highlighted, Moe Berg. Berg doesn’t appear in a boxscore in the book, but he had a lengthy career in the majors, from 1923 to 1939, primarily as a second string catcher. In The Ballplayers Berg gets way more text than most players of his caliber. The start of his entry reads Among the most scholarly professional athletes ever, Berg was an alumnus of three universities, lawyer, mathematician, linguist, and poor hitter, eliciting the comment: “He can speak 12 languages but can’t hit in any of them.” Not only that, but I’ve read (and have) a book written entirely about Berg: The Catcher Was a Spy. Yes, he also engaged in espionage for the U.S. during periods of the 1930s and 1940s. (Actually, it's funny that Berg appears in a photo of the 1940 Red Sox, since 1939 was the last year he played. But these team photos are typically put together between season A and season A+1, then published as team photos for season A+1. So Berg was just left over from playing for the Red Sox in '39.) The book under review was published by a specialty publishing company, McFarland. They do very nice work, their books are high quality. Rather expensive however, since the target market is somewhat small. Unfortunately the book is out of print. There are a few used copies available for ~$12, then others available for $100 and up. The same author has another book on McFarland’s list now called something like The Top 100 Baseball Games of the Twentieth Century. This I haven’t seen, but I know it does include boxscores. It might be a somewhat revised edition of the book reviewed here, for all I know. _next TOP TEN_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Previous review: The Nature of Alexander the Great, that is did he play baseball TOO? Next review: The Ballplayers baseball, that is Older review: Planet of Slums slums have baseball too, some of them Previous library review: Eight Men Out more baseball Next library review: Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-23 00:00:00 Michele Galbraith A work for the imagination. Otherwise quotidian games transformed by some huge quirk or other.