This one is a bit more literary than most, since Dan Quisenberry was a published poet.
On Days Like This: Poems was published in 1998, the year he passed away.
This sample of his work is even sadder because of his untimely death.
BASEBALL CARDS
that first baseball card I saw myself
in a triage of rookies
atop the bodies
that made the hill
we played king of
I am the older one
the one on the right
game-face sincere
long red …

The Wali of Wallop, the Rajah of Rap, the Caliph of Clout, the Wazir of Wham, the Colossus of Clout, Maharajah of Mash, the Behemoth of Bust, the King of Crash, the Colossus Of Clout, the King Of Swing, the Terrible Titan, the Kid of Crash, the Jovial Giant and, of course, the home run king, was born this date in 1895.
Books on The Babe are too numerous to mention …

Schoendeinst, that is. Another one of those baseball lifers, he turns 88 today.
The Man Who Fought Back: Red Schoendienst was published in 1962, three years after he recovered from tuberculosis. Almost 40 years later, he released Red: A Baseball Life.
Schoendienst, who managed the St. Louis Cardinals from 1965-76 (back-to-back pennants in 1967-68 and the World Series in ’67) and for partial seasons in 1980 and 1990, was elected to the …

I haven’t done the research, but I would venture to guess Jan. 31 has the record for most Hall of Famers born: Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, and Nolan Ryan.
Robinson would have been 92 today. As befits his stature in American as well as baseball history, there are dozens of books written about him, for all age levels. Here are just a few:
Amazon.com Widgets
Robinson played himself in the eponymous film …

The man who led the Mets to the 1986 World Championship in 1986 turns 68 today.
Just curious: how come no one raised much of a fuss when he hit 43 home runs in 1973 for the Atlanta Braves? He previous high had been 18 and he never hit more than 15 after that record-setting season. When Brady Anderson hit 50 in 1996, all sorts of eyebrows were raised…
Anyway, Johnson was …

I was just looking his numbers. He broke in with the NY Giants in 1956, hitting 23 doubles, seven triples and 22 home runs in 138 games. He drove in 59 runs, batting mostly in the , and stole 15 bases. Impressive. Too bad he was a rookie in the same Year as Frank Robinson, who won the NL Rookie of the Year, winning all 24 first place votes.
White turns …

It’s not Kevin Youkilis, but Bob Uecker, who turns 76 today.
I guess it’s a catcher-thing. Perhaps sitting behind the plate, with the whole field out in front of you, you have the perspective for contemplation. That’s why guys like Uecker, Joe Garagiola and Yogi Berra (albeit perhaps unwittingly) have such sense of humor. All have published books on their philosophies and observations, with Uecker — who was a frequent guest …

“The Great Emancipator” would have been 72 today.
Flood published his story — The Way It Is – in 1971, the year he retired from the game. Since then, several books about Flood’s role in creating the free agent dream (or nightmare, depending on your point of view), have been released with lesser or greater legal spins. Among them:

A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports
One Man …

I’ve been meaning to do an entry on him for awhile now. I recently saw Matewan, in which Jones — who turns 80 today — plays “Few Clothes” Johnson, a coal miner involved in a strike. What caught my attention — of course — was a scene in which the miners play a game baseball in their camp. (The video was up on YouTube until just a few days ago). …

Don “Popeye” Zimmer turns 80 today. If I had my time to live over again, I would want to be a baseball lifer. He published two memoirs within two years: Zim: A Baseball Life in 2002, and The Zen of Zim : Baseballs, Beanballs, and Bosses in 2004, after he’d left the Yankees and felt no need to pull punches about his ill treatment at the hands of George Steinbrenner.

Don’t …

Sharing the special day is one current and one future Hall of Famer.
Dizzy Dean was born on this date in 1910. The star hurler was the smiling face of baseball during the Depression, know for his folksy Arkansas sayings that are the staple of quotations about the game.
The current Redbird is Albert Pujols, who turns 31 today.
Among the Bookshelf-worthy items:
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Hall of Famer Early Wynn was born this date in 1920. He hung around for 23 Years, missing the whole 1945 season for military service. I was under the impression that he retired right after he won his coveted 300th game, but I was in error. He actually appeared in another15 games after his July 13 watershed victory.
Wynn, a seven-time All Star, won the Cy Young Award in 1959 for …

Who knew the three-time All-star catcher was a writer? I had not heard of his 2007 publication If They Only Knew, but I would definitely like to get my hands on a copy.
Which leads to the inevitable question, if we only knew what? According to Wikipedia, that great bastion of scholarship
Daulton holds a series of beliefs related to conspiracies, occultism, and numerology. He maintains that the universe is created …

The former perfect game-hurler turns 47 today.
Cone teamed up with baseball commentator extraordinaire Roger Angell to produce the cerebral A Pitcher’s Story: Innings with David Cone in 2001.
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Bill Lee turns 64 today. The flaky, quirky, “spacey” lefty had an interesting 14-year major league career, to put it mildly, including being called on the carpet by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for admitting to sprinkling marijuana on his pancakes.
Books by and about Lee include:
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Also marking a birthday today: “Sunday Teddy” Lyons, born in 1900. Lyons pitched for 21 years, all for the Chicago White Sox, missing the 1943-45 …

Trying to catch up here:
December 20 noted the birthdates of Fred Merkle (1888), Gabby Hartnett (1900; Gabby Hartnett: The Life and Times of the Cubs’ Greatest Catcher) and David Wright (1982; Mets Pride: For the Love of Mookie, Mike, and David Wright).
Andy Van Slyke turns the big 5-oh today. Odd that his name appears as author of The Curse: Cubs Win! Cubs Win! Or Do They? and Tigers Confidential: The …

Branch Rickey was born this Dec. 20, 1881. When asked why he fought to make Jackie Robinson accepted in the Major Leagues, Rickey often told the story of a black teammate from his college days who was shunned by opponents.
There are numerous books about Rickey, but perhaps none more detailed and insightful than Lee Lowenfish’s award-winning biography, Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman, published in 2007.
Other Rickey books include:

Branch Rickey’s Little …

Ty Cobb was born this date in 1886.
Among the scores of books written about this intense, bigoted ballplayer are:

My Life in Baseball: The True Record
Ty Cobb (Sport in American Life), by Charles Alexander
Ty Cobb: Safe at Home, by Don Rhodes
Ty and The Babe: Baseball’s Fiercest Rivals: A Surprising Friendship and the 1941 Has-Beens Golf Championship, by Tom Stanton
The Ty Cobb Scrapbook: An Illustrated Chronology of Significant Dates in the 24-Year …

They don’t get much more literary than this, which comes from the Hall of Fame’s Time Wiles via Facebook:
Happy birthday to one of the first baseball writers, Jane Austen. From Northanger Abbey:
…it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books…

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Mo Vaughn turns 43 today. I never saw a hitter get so bad so quick. He was a slugger for the Red Sox from 1991-98, winning the AL MVP in ’95 and had two more great years with the Angels before falling through a trap door with the Mets and calling it a career.
For some reason, he was popular with the younger reading set. Titles include Mo Vaughn: Angel on …