The NBA draft is all the rage. Prospects are dissected, analyzed, and compared to heroes of yesteryear. There is the pre-draft camp, the endless talk show hustle as well as fantasy drafts. Preceded by hype, hope and hoopla, the NBA Draft finally arrives with a cast of hundreds of personalities, nationally televised hour after hour. And then there is the endless post-draft commentary.

Saturday, June 19th, was a day that was perfect in every way for Red Sox Nation. Game time temperature was 83 degrees and sunny. Another sellout at Fenway, 37,454 (101.4% full).

Remembering Fenway Park by Abrams/Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2011 - - AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOME OF RED SOX NATION - - is due out in 2011 but we have a sneak peek for you now.

Once again I was able to sneak a story into this book about a game that I saw at Fenway that had some bizarre circumstances. For those wondering it was a Mets-Red Sox regular season game.

Here is the link:
http://harveyfrommersports.com/celebratingfenwaypark.html

Baseball Names - and How They Got That Way! (L)

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. For those of you who liked Part I, Part II, Part III, X and all the others and wanted more, here is more, just a sampling. As always, reactions and suggestions always welcome.

The highly prolific Dan Schlossberg is at it again with another winner ­ "The 300 Club" - (Ascend Books, $24.95, 293 pages). Carefully crafted, brilliantly organized, this terrific tome focuses on that rarest of baseball fraternities, the two dozen hurlers who won 300 games in their careers.