The Second Life Of Tiger Woods, Bamberger - B+

    All stories about Tiger cover a lot of ground, but the primary focus here is on the twenty-two months between his DUI in Florida and his fifth Masters in 2019. Memorial Day weekend in 2017, Tiger was questioned by the Jupiter police and failed a roadside sobriety test. Tiger had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system, but rather an overload of prescription drugs. As he had had back fusion surgery a few months earlier, it makes some sense that he was taking the pain killers. Of course, this book ranges far and wide, covering his unbelievably complex childhood, his amazing career, and his totally spectacular fall from grace after his 'car crash' Thanksgiving weekend in 2009. For background, the biography by Benedict and Keteyian that was posted on this blog in May, 2018 reviews all of those matters in exquisite and superb detail. The endless surgeries had led Tiger to tell Gary Player at the 2017 Masters Champions dinner that he believed he was finished with golf. He hoped to be able to play with his kids again. Fortunately for Tiger and golf, the fusion surgery was successful. By the end of 2017, he was playing again; by the the summer of 2018, he had come in second at the PGA and won the year-end Tour Championship at East Lake. At the Wednesday night Golf Writers Association of America dinner before the 2019 Masters, Tiger stunned the crowd with his gracious, humble and modest speech. The book beautifully describes his win that week, his first Masters in 14 years and major in 11. For any sports fan, that Sunday was so special that it brought tears to many eyes and can be favorably compared to the greatest moments in sports history.

Fire In Paradise: An American Tragedy, Gee and Anguiano - B

     The Paradise wildfire of 2018 was the deadliest in America in over a century. The California town was totally destroyed. Paradise lies 150 miles northeast of San Francisco in the Sierra Nevada foothills. About 42,000 people lived in and around the town. Pre-contact native Americans used fire to pare, cleanse and rejuvenate the forests. Once the US Fire Service began suppressing fires in the west, the landscape changed. Where once there might have been dozens of tress per acre, there now were hundreds. Climate change has raised temperatures in a region suffering from extended drought. California has entered an epoch of 'megafires'.

     That November, the winds came blowing in from the deserts to the east of the Sierra's. On the morning of the 8th, a PG&E wire fell to the ground. A fire started in heavy brush in a steep,  inaccessible ravine. Within an hour, it was moving fast and wreaking havoc. As ash and smoke soon covered the town, evacuations began. Some elected to stay behind and just about everybody else jammed the two roads leading out of town. Houses were burned, roads buckled, all utilities including water failed, cars were burned out hulks, the sky was black, and embers were flying everywhere. Paradise was doomed. By the end of the day, the fire was 31 square miles. It was emitting heat at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit.

     The next day, the body count began. People were learning that their loved ones were found in cars, in their houses and in one instance, in a wheelchair waiting outside for help. The fire had been so intense that it was not possible to identify human remains. People had been cremated.

     Seventeen days after the fire began, extensive rain officially contained the fire. In early December, people were allowed to return to Paradise where 18,804 homes, businesses and other structures were no more. Eighty-six people were dead. FEMA announced it would take a year to clear the fire debris in town.  Many chose to move on. For PG&E, the likely cause of the fire, 2019 would see a wave of litigation that led to it filing bankruptcy. Between insurance and PG&E settlements, enough money flowed into Paradise that rebuilding soon began. The senior officers at CalFire thought the area was too susceptible to fire and acknowledged that they personally would not live in the area. California remains stymied by drought, climate change and an ever expanding forest fire season.

The Good Shepherd, Forester - B+

     This fabulous book is the 1955 novel that is the source of the the film 'Greyhound', screenplay by Tom Hanks, who also stars.  It is the totally gripping story of 3 days in the life of Capt. Krause, commander of the USS Keeling, a destroyer escorting a convoy in early 1942. Krause supervises the Polish, British and Canadian ships that are also part of the escort. Every moment, and every action are seen through his eyes. In the early days of American involvement, the Germans had the upper hand and Krause's convoy faced almost constant attack in the middle of the Atlantic. It was the portion of the ocean that neither British nor North American based air support could reach. The pace is relentless, the weather is freezing, the merchantmen are difficult to control and the wolf pack attacks and attacks. The pressure on each and every combatant is almost unbearable. Days on end without sleep, and on the third day, air support and a naval escort. Seven of the 37 ships in the convoy were lost, as was the Polish destroyer. Two, possibly three, subs were sunk. The novel is so thrilling and accurate that it was used as a teaching tool at Annapolis.

The Shooting At Chateau Rock, Walker - B+

     This is the 15th in the Bruno Correges series set in fictional St. Denis in the heart of the Perigord. As the author has done in the past, he introduces a wider European topic into the world of the small market town. Here a fraud perpetrated against an aging farmer leads to corruption on a European scale perpetrated by Russian oligarch. The author is a retired historian writing crime novels in his beloved south of France.

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Kepner - B

      The pitches are: the slider, fastball, curveball, knuckleball, splitter, screwball, sinker, changeup, spitball and cutter. 

      The slider is midway between a curveball and a fastball, breaking toward the pitcher's glove side and perceived by hitters to be a fastball. Steve Carlton, a lefty, was the best at it. The goal is to have the batter commit to a fastball and swing over the pitch. It's been around since Christy Mathewson and breaks about four-six inches. Bob Gibson, who posted a 1.12 ERA in 1968, was also a  master.

     "The best pitch in baseball is a well-located fastball." The fastest ever thrown was 105 mph by Reds rookie reliever Aroldis Chapman in 2010. Velocity has increased significantly in the last decade leading to more strike outs, homers and longer games with more pitching changes.

       The Hall of Fame says that the first curveball was thrown in 1867 by Candy Cummings. It is thought that the best curveball throwers ever were Sandy Koufax and Mordecai 'Three Fingers' Brown, who pitched for the 1907-08 Cubs. Great curveball pitchers like Koufax or Nolan Ryan also have had powerful fastballs, as the pitches complement each other perfectly.

    Knuckleballers all confess that it was a pitch they found in an act of desperation. Niekro was the exception, as he learned it from his dad. The pitch is actually thrown with the fingertips and seeks to have zero spin. It happens to be very, very hard to throw. "Knuckleball pitchers are painstakingly self-made." The two best, and only Hall of Famers who threw the pitch, were Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro, Jr.

     The splitter or split-finger fastball evolved from the forkball. Thrown with pressure from the index finger it breaks away from a lefty. The best ever was Bruce Sutter, who relieved for the Cubs and Cards on his way to Cooperstown with 300 saves. The key is a big hand with long fingers. Roger Craig championed the pitch as a coach and manager. The pitch thrived in the 70's, 80's and 90's and has fallen out of favor because it is believed to cause elbow injuries. The screwball is another pitch that has fallen out of favor because of its impact on pitcher's elbows. The greats were all Giants: Mathewson, Hubbell and Marichal. It's the opposite of a curve, breaking toward the right handed batter.

     The sinker is a fastball thrown with a narrower grip parallel to the seams and not on them. The best were Lemon, Drysdale and Maddux. Obviously, the ball drops when it gets to the plate.

      The changeup is very hard to learn. It is the only pitch where the pitcher does not place his index finger on the ball. It uses the same arm motion as the fastball and is a cousin to the screwball, sinker and splitter at 10 mph slower than the fastball. Johnny Podres closed out the Yankees in game 7 in 1955 with a changeup and spent decades as a coach teaching the pitch. Another great was Pedro Martinez, whose H of F plaque mentions the pitch.

      The last great spitballer was Preacher Roe who played over seventy-years ago for the Dodgers. The pitch was banned in 1920. In that era,  games were often played with one ball. A baseball covered with tobacco juice became unacceptable for a sport trying to improve its image after the Black Sox scandal. Notwithstanding the ban, many pitchers used variations of it including Whitey Ford, Lew Burdette, Gaylord Perry, and Don Sutton.

     Mariano Rivera, legendary Yankee closer with the lowest career ERA, 2.12, of anyone born after 1889, was the master of the cutter. It is a cut fastball, thrown off center with a drop at the plate. Old-timers say the pitch has been around forever. Indeed, it's what Mazeroski hit off Ralph Terry in the 1960 game 7.

     Thanks to Jack Blair for the recommendation. If you enjoy the game and its history, you'll enjoy this book.

     

      

Black Water Rising, Locke - B-

                 This was the author's first novel published over a decade ago. The plot involves Jay Porter, a young black lawyer who inadvertently witnesses a crime and because he had had a serious run in with the police when a student a decade ago, decides to just ignore it. Of course, he gets sucked in and has to try and get to the bottom of it. While doing so,  he uncovers some serious environmental misdeeds, and we leave him as he initiates a major lawsuit against the powerful oil establishment of Houston.

American Dirt, Cummins - B +

     This very good novel is set in Mexico. Lydia owns a bookstore, is married to a journalist and raising eight year-old Luca in Acapulco when her world falls apart. One of the customers at her store, Javier,  is the leader of a cartel who literally goes ballistic when Lydia's husband writes an article about him. The cartel kills sixteen members of Lydia's family. Only she and Luca survive and they are soon on the run.  Their flight to 'el norte' is filled with danger every step of the way. Like many others, they ride 'el bestia', the cargo trains that head north. Javier's men are all looking for her and she uses every conceivable survival skill to get to the border and hopes the coyote they use is honest. 

    The tale is a harrowing and frightful one. Thanks to my friend Wendell for the recommendation.

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965, Yang - B

     In 1924, the US proscribed immigration in, and limited almost all immigrants to the northern European countries that had been the first to populate America. Those from eastern and southern Europe, as well as those from Asia, were not wanted and were not allowed. Over the next forty years, immigration came to a near halt and only a few gave consideration to reinstating America as a 'melting pot'. The 1965 changes in the system unintentionally set America on a path that will someday lead to a non-white majority. 

     The 1924 law was a direct reaction to the decade from 1905-14, when millions came from Italy, Poland, and Russia; amongst them were innumerable Jews. The establishment said they would not assimilate. Future immigration would be based on the ethnic percentages that reflected America in 1890, before all the undesirables came. The law was supported by the American Federation of Labor, which feared that wages would be suppressed, and by the Immigration Reform League which simply did not want non-Nordics in the country. A fear of communism was also rampant after the Russian Revolution. For those from the western states, the undesirables were Asians. The country had passed The Chinese Exclusion Act in the 19th century. The new 1924 law also excluded Japanese. Italians and Jews, according to one eugenicist, would make America "darker in pigmentation, smaller in stature, more mercurial, more given to crimes of larceny, kidnapping, assault, murder and rape."

     As Europe came to grips with the rise of Nazism, the national origins quota system might have allowed some to enter. However, a directive by Pres. Hoover stymied almost all immigration by providing that visas would only be available to those who would not become a financial burden to America.  America's refusal to consider helping the Jews of Europe in the 1930's and 40's kept the door closed to many, many in need. After the war, Pres. Truman ended the financial burden obstruction in an attempt to aid the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in Europe.  He asked Congress to allow displaced persons to exceed the annual national origins quota. A 1948 bill allowed in only 100,000 people; two years later, and with the help of a Democratic Congress, the number was raised to 400,000.  

    Throughout the 1950's, there were small modifications made to the national origins system, but the conservatives and anti-communists held their ground. JFK came to office fully supporting a whole scale adjustment to the immigration system. But, like his civil rights legislation, reform of immigration was blocked by the unholy alliance of southern Democrats and western Republicans. A bill was introduced that established two criteria for immigration: one was people of ability who could add to the national welfare and the second was reuniting families. Kennedy's assassination and Johnson's landslide election led to a torrent of legislation, including The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. It capped immigration at 170,000 per year from the Eastern hemisphere and 120,000 from the Western. LBJ signed the bill in front of the Statue of Liberty. No one realized in 1965 just how transformative the law was. A quarter century later, the top ten countries sending immigrants were all from the third world. Since immediate family members did not count toward the annual caps, actual immigration was materially larger than anticipated. Today, there are as many foreign born American as there were a century ago.

      

The Mistress of the Ritz, Benjamin - B

             This rather interesting novel is inspired by a true story.  It is primarily about the marriage of Claude and Blanche Auzello, he a Frenchman and she an American. They were married in 1923 just before Claude became manager of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The hotel became his life and he served successfully for decades, including the four years of occupation from 1940-44. The occupation was a challenge as the German high command lived at the hotel and Claude served them throughout the four years. Unbeknownst to each other, both Blanche and Claude undertook dangerous missions for the Resistance. Blanche was imprisoned for months just before the city's liberation. Probably the most important take away here is the role of the famous hotel in Paris' always enduring mythology.