Jason Collins, left, explains himself again to George Stephanopoulos during an interview Monday in L.A. that aired Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” (AP Photo/ABC, Eric McCandless)

What made it into this week’s sports media column: The news cycle on Jason Collins’ sexual orientation announcement seems to have pushed on to other pressing issues. But what did we learn from this revelation that says more about how the media believes it has to operate rather than giving some proper perspective to what actually happened?

What ended up missing from action in today’s column: Continue reading →

Less than a year after it’s formal launch, the high-tech personalized autograph company known as Egraphs has closed operations because of cash flow problems as well as a pending lawsuit, the Sports Business Daily reported today. The website Geekwire.com also reported it recently.

Former Taft High and MLB standout Gabe Kapler and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly’s son, Preston, had been involved in the company in Southern California, as we profiled in a story last August. The company is based in Seattle.

A message posted on the Egraphs.com website from CEO David Auld said the company “ran into some unforeseen obstacles that ultimately prevented us from continuing to operate. It has been a very difficult time for us here at the company, as every one of us was dedicated to building out the future of fan-celebrity interactions. …
“We gave Egraphs everything we had, but the landscape proved a little too treacherous.” Continue reading →

Maybe the only thing more infuriating for Kings’ fans watching their team lose the way they did in overtime Tuesday night was having it only visible on half the TV screen.

Honestly, when has a split screen ever really satisfied a viewer of either of the two games vying for space on one channel?

The compromising position that Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West put itself in confirms only the fact that in trying to please everyone, you rarely please anyone. Continue reading →

Thanks for checking in on the 30 baseball book reviews we banged out this month. Another wish list: The top 10 books we’re looking forward to reading before the year is out (and wish we could have had early enough to give them a look over):

== “Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, The Parallel Lives of Baseball’s Golden Age,” by Allen Barra (due in May)

== “Tales from the Los Angeles Dodgers Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Dodgers Stories Ever Told,” by Rick Monday with Ken Gurnick, forward by Tommy Lasorda, updated from 2006 (due in May)

== “Conversations With Coach Wooden: On Baseball, Heroes and Life,” by former UCLA baseball coach Gary Adams, forward by Eric Karros (due in May)

== “The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, Their Pursuit of the American Dream” by Tom Clavin (due in May)

== “We Were the All-American Girls: Interviews with Players of the AAGPBL, 1943-1954,” by Jim Sargent (due in May)

== “Burleigh Grimes: Baseball’s Last Legal Spitballer,” by Joe Niese (due in May)

== “Pops: The Willie Stargell Story,” by Pete Peterson (due in May)

== “Errors and Fouls: Inside Baseball’s 99 Most Popular Myths,” by Peter Handrinos (due in May)

== “Major League Anxiety” by Todd Shearon (due in June)

== “Doc: A Memoir,” by Dwight Gooden and Ellis Henican (due in June)

== “Cracking Baseball’s Cold Cases: Filling in the Facts about 17 Mystery Major Leaguers,” by Peter Morris (due in June)

== “Bud Fowler: Baseball’s First Black Professional,” by Jeffrey Michael Laing (due in July)

== “Willard Mullin’s Golden Age Of Baseball Drawings 1934-1972″ (due in August)

== “The 34-Ton Bat: The Story of Baseball as Told Through Bobble heads, Cracker Jacks, Jockstraps, Eye Black, and 375 Other Strange and Unforgettable Objects,” by Steve Rushin (due in October)

== “Just Tell Me I Can’t: How Jamie Moyer Defied the Radar Gun and Defeated Time,” by Larry Platt and Jamie Moyer (due in September)

==  “You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball from 1859 to the 2012 National League East Champions,” by Frederic J. Frommer (due in September)

This story, originally posted on April 30, was updated on May 3:

To all those guy around town now wearing a replica of Kobe Bryant’s Lower Merion High School basketball uniform — real ones are available.

But not if Kobe has a say in it.

Bryant’s mom, Pamela, decided to make available more than 100 items from his life in a June bidding frenzy to be staged by New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions. But once the Lakers’ star heard about it, he put his lawyers on it.

Goldin Auctions filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday for the right to sell the items after Bryant’s lawyers wrote the firm telling it to cancel a planned auction.

Pamela Bryant reportedly received $450,000 up front from the auction house, which estimated the value of the sale to be about $1.5 million. Pamela Bryant said she intended to use the money for a new home in Nevada. A source told ESPN that Kobe Bryant offered to pay her $250,000 toward a home she wanted. She refused, and got the full $450,000 from the auction house instead.

Kobe Bryant’s lawyer Mark Campbell said in a statement, “Mr. Bryant’s personal property has ended up in the possession of someone who does not lawfully own it. We look forward to resolving this legal matter through the legal system.”

The main draw in the collection is a maroon uniform — jersey and shorts — from Kobe Bryant’s freshman year when he wore No. 24. It is believed to be the only authentic game worn #24 Kobe Bryant LMHS jersey in existence. He switched to No. 33 for the rest of his high school days before going to the NBA.

Among the other stuff:
== Trophies, plaques and awards he won in high school
== Practice jerseys from high school
== An Italian Rieti #44 jersey – the earliest known Bryant game worn jersey ever offered at auction.
== The surfboard “Teen’s Choice” Award from Nickelodeon network
== A 1996 High School McDonald’s All-American ring
== A 1996 High School State Championship ring
== A 1998 and 2000 NBA All-Star ring
== A team issued 2000 Lakers championship ring Bryant had made for his father, Joe Bryant, and a specially designed version for his mom.

So much for them being “special.”

Our apologies to the authors and publishers of these publications, which we hope you’ll consider tracking down and maybe giving us your reviews. As we decompress a bit from the 30 we just read (we know somehow we’ll get around to these as the summer goes on), please consider:

== “21 Illustrated Journal of Outsider Baseball: Forgotten Stars & Hometown Heroes,” by Gary Cieradkowski

== “Inside the Baseball Hall of Fame,” by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with a forward by Brooks Robinson (go behind the scenes to see many of the pieces of history from the vault … kind of like what we did in June, 2010).

== “After Many A Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and the Golden Age of New York Baseball” by Robert E. Murphy

== “Swinging ’73, Baseball’s Wildest Season: The Incredible Year Baseball Got the Designated Hitter, Wife-Swapping Pitchers, and Willie Mays Said Goodbye to America,” by Matthew Silverman

== “The Beef” by Harry Lockhart Jr.

== “Philadelphia’s Top 50 Baseball Players” by Rich Westcott

== “The Mouth that Roared: My Six Outspoken Decades in Baseball” by Dallas Green

== “Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball,” by Lawrence Baldassaro

== “America’s Classic Ballparks,” by James Buckley

== “Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life” by Kayta Cengel

== “Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club: Chicago & The Cubs During the Jazz Age” by Roberts Ehrgott

== “Drama and Pride in the Gateway City: The 1964 St. Louis Cardinals” by John Harry Stahl and Bill Nowlin

== “Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 New York Yankees” by Lyle Spatz

== “Core Four: The Heart and Soul of the Yankees Dynasty,” by Phil Pepe

There are very few perks left in today’s non-profit world of sports writing, believe it or not. We don’t even need a confirmation from Careercast.com to tell us that we’re part of a business considering having the worst-rated job in American today.

Worse than a freakin’ lumberjack.

“Of course, newspaper reporters have fared poorly in the Jobs Rated report for years due to the job’s high stress and tight deadlines, low pay and requirement to work in all conditions to get the story,” they say. “But journalism is not a dying art, nor is reporting a profession without prospects. Rethinking the industry has made reporters adapt.”

We could, in fact, try baking cupcakes.

Continue reading →

== Day 30: “501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die” by Ron Kaplan
== Day 29: “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game” by Edward Achorn
== Day 28: “Facing Ted Williams: Players From The Golden Age of Baseball Recall The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived,” edited by Dave Heller
== Day 27: “To Stir A Moment: Life, Justice and Major League Baseball,” by Jeremy Affeldt
== Day 26: “The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption,” by Stuart Banner

== Day 25: “Portraits From the Park: Comiskey Park Photographs, 1973-1990″ by Thomas W. Harney
== Day 24: “Summers at Shea: Tom Seaver Loses His Overcoat and Other Mets Stories” by Ira Berkow
== Day 23: “Miracle Men: Hershiser, Gibson and the Improbable 1988 Dodgers” by Josh Suchon
== Day 22: “Instant Baseball: The Baseball Instagrams of Brad Mangin,” by Brad Mangin
== Day 21: The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych” by Doug Wilson

== Day 20: “Heart of a Tiger: Growing Up with my Grandfather, Ty Cobb,” by  Herschel Cobb
== Day 19: “Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes, by John Rosengren
== Day 18: “American Jews & America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball,” by Larry Ruttman
== Day 17: “Francona: The Red Sox Years,” by Terry Francona, with Dan Shaughnessy
== Day 16: “How The Red Sox Explain New England,” by Jon Chattman and Allie Tarantino

== Day 15: “Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life After Baseball,” by Michael Long
== Day 14: “Keepers Of The Game: When The Baseball Beat was the Best Job on the Paper,” by Dennis D’Agostino
== Day 13: “Smoky Joe Wood: The Biography of a Baseball Legend,” by Gerald C. Wood
== Day 12: “The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age,” by Robert Weintraub
== Day 11: “Nailed! The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra,” by Christopher Frankie

== Day 10: “Who’s On Worst? The Lousiest Players, Biggest Cheaters, Saddests Goats and Other Antiheroes in Baseball History,” by Filip Bondy
== Day 9: “100 Things Angels Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by Joe Haakenson (forward by Tim Salmon)
== Day 8: “Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998,” by Fran Zimniuch
== Day 7: “The Baseball Thesaurus,” by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler
== Day 6: “Closer: Major League Players Reveal the Inside Pitch on Saving the Game,” by Kevin Neary with Leigh A. Tobin

== Day 5: “Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball’s Color Line,” by Tom Dunkel
== Day 4: “Baseball’s Last Great Scout: The Life of Hugh Alexander,” by Dan Austin
== Day 3: “Trading Bases: A Story About Wall Street, Gambling and Baseball (not necessarily in that order),” by Joe Peta
== Day 2: “Long Shot,” by Mike Piazza with Lonnie Wheeler
== Day 1: “Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game,” by John Sexton, with Thomas Oliphant and Peter J. Schwartz

The book: “501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die”
The author: Ron Kaplan
The vital stats: University of Nebraska Press, 405 pages, $24.95
Find it: At Barnes & Noble, Powells, the author’s blog , a site for the book with essential info, or the publisher’s website
The pitch: On our day-by-day, tear-off baseball desk calendar, we came across a sheet that asked us to match the writers to their works. There was “The Celebrant,” “Damn Yankees,” “Eight Men Out” and “Shoeless Joe” on one side. On the other: W.P. Kinsella, George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, Eliot Asinof and Eric Rolfe Greenberg.

In Kaplan’s list of “501,” three of the four are included. Kaplan admits he mistakenly misremembered to include Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe” — the only baseball book his wife can ever recall reading, he said. It was a simple mistake. He thought it was already in there because it was so obvious.

We also thought it would be obvious to find the Abbot-Wallop entry of “Damn Yankees” — but we couldn’t because that’s the name of the Broadway play. It was based on the book “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant” and Kaplan has that duly noted on pages 141-142.

“Giving the original novel an extra kick is the dust jacket drawn by Willard Mullin, renown for his Dodger Bum caricatures for the New York tabloids,” Kaplan writes.

And as it would turn out, there is a book of his work coming out later this summer == “Willard Mullin’s Golden Age Of Baseball Drawings 1934-1972″ (due in August).

Again, thanks for the reference. Otherwise, we’d be lost.

It leads us to circle back to the interview we did with Kaplan to start this series, explaining the nuts and bolts of how his book came together apart from how the reader can find it to be useful. Continue reading →