July 19, 2012

BP Announcements

The Hall of Nearly Great Ebook is Available Now

by Ben Lindbergh

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Four months ago, BP alum Marc Normandin wrote an Unfiltered post about an ebook project that he and fellow BP alum Sky Kalkman were hoping to have funded on Kickstarter. At the time, it was called ​The Hall of Very Good. Now it's called ​The Hall of Nearly Great​. That's not important. What is important is that the project got its funding. And now it's out, and it's excellent. 

Here's an excerpt from the ebook's sell page:

The Hall of Nearly Great is an ebook meant to celebrate the careers of those who are not celebrated. It’s not a book meant to reopen arguments about who does and does not deserve Hall of Fame enshrinement. Rather, it remembers those who, failing entrance into Cooperstown, may unfairly be lost to history. It’s for the players we grew up rooting for, the ones whose best years led to flags and memories that will fly together forever. Players like David Cone, Will Clark, Dwight Evans, Norm Cash, Kenny Lofton, Brad Radke, and many others.

This is not a numbers-driven project (although our contributors lean analytical in their views). Our plan isn’t to be overbearing with stats and spreadsheets to convince you that these players are worth remembering. What we aim to do, instead, is accomplish that same task through stories. Think of your favorite players growing up: they have their moments, games, seasons, quirks, personalities, and legends worth remembering and sharing. Now, combine the best of everyone’s forgotten favorites, and you’ve got a Hall of Nearly Great. Ask the people who have those memories and love for these players to write essays about them, and you have The Hall of Nearly Great ebook.

The book contains 43 chapters written by 42 authors. You'll recognize a lot of them, because a lot of them either currently write or have written regularly for BP, including R.J. Anderson, Cee Angi, Tommy Bennett, Jonathan Bernhardt, Craig Brown, Cliff Corcoran, Bradford Doolittle, Steven Goldman, Jay Jaffe, Jonah Keri, Matthew Kory, Sam Miller, Marc Normandin, Bill Parker, Jason Parks, Emma Span, Jason Wojciechowski, and yours truly. And then there are Craig Calcaterra and Will Leitch and Rob Neyer and Jeff Passan and Joe Posnanski and a whole host of other great authors you either already know or have no excuse not to. If you'd like to try before you buy, you can head over to Deadspin and read the Will Clark chapter, written by the great Grant Brisbee. After that, you'll probably want more. And as long as you have an e-reader (Kindle included) or any device that can open a PDF, more is very easy to acquire.

I have a copy. I've already read most of it, and I highly recommend it. It's only $12, which is not all that much money. And here's another nice thing: if you buy the ebook through the link above or below (or this one right here!), a quarter of that total will go to BP. So, if you have $12 to spare and feel like giving three of them to BP and getting an excellent book back in return, consider clicking.

Buy The Hall of Nearly Great

Ben Lindbergh is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @benlindbergh
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