The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon's Golden Age Baseball Photographs

The first Amazon reviewer of "The Big Show" informs us that he is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, but he immediately drops the ball - starting with the title! He authoritatively asserts that in Conlon's day the term "the big show" referred to the World Series and not to the major leagues. Oops! Say it ain't so, Joe! Three-base error!Somehow this expert researcher missed the book's epigraph, printed in extremely large letters at the top of page 13, which is a quotation from Ring Lardner's classic baseball book, "You Know Me Al," in which Lardner used the term "the big show" to describe the major leagues - definitely NOT the World Series. On the other hand, Lardner was not a SABR member, so what did he know?The reviewer sees a conspiracy in the fact that a book composed entirely of baseball pictures is aimed at baseball readers. Wow, that is indeed a devious plot - although anyone not afflicted with a paranoid fantasy would simply call it "Marketing 101." He complains that "the highlights are too bright" - but anyone familiar with fine art photography would choose terms like "dazzling" and "luminous" to describe these absolutely gorgeous reproductions. He accuses the authors of imitating a book that imitated their first book. Huh? This makes no sense whatsoever. Didn't the McCabes come up with the idea in the first place? Or is this perhaps part of a larger conspiracy? He doesn't think that the images look like Conlon's, yet there are ONLY Conlon photos in this book - all printed from the original negatives by Constance McCabe, a photo conservator at the National Gallery of Art.I'm becoming very confused. What is the agenda here? Why such vehemence? Why this weird grudge against a beautiful and surprising book? I certainly hope that this isn't a failed baseball author slamming his more creative and successful competitors. Say it ain't so, Joe!The inexplicably cranky reviewer sneers at the captions, calling them "more trivial than trivia," but the single sentence he quotes is actually pretty funny, and he conveniently omits the beginning of the George Blaeholder caption, which is a serious discussion of the pitcher's pioneering mastery of the slider. I suspect that SABR members with a sense of humor (if there are any) will find this book hilarious - and they will discover a lot of strange and startling facts. My favorite discovery was Kent Greenfield, whose best friend was somebody very, very famous - and far removed from the world of sports.Finally, I heartily agree that the McCabe's first book is a classic - but any honest reviewer will see that they've definitely topped themselves with "The Big Show."

It has been widely recognized that baseball memorabilia afficianados are notoriously finicky to the point of absurdity at times. It's hardly surprising that this collection would have them jumping up and down ,whining for the book that "might have been". For the average fan , however, this second Conlon collection is an excellent follow up to the initial "Golden Age...".Some have criticized this book for the inclusion of obscure players, but, really, do we need yet another shot of Cobb or Ruth which they must have posed for umpteen times ? If you read the short passages with the portraits you will see a thread running through them that tells a very interesting story of how the stars of the day intermingled and connected with the rest of the league. I applaud the authors for doing such a great job on this aspect. They could have just stuck with the "sure fire" Ruth/Cobb shots but instead give us something which is a real contribution to the historical record of what Conlon was trying to accomplish in an amazing career.

"The Big Show" telegraphs the forces in photography book publishing today conspiring toward mediocrity. Photography books do not sell. Baseball books do. The pressure, therefore, is to take a baseball photography book, denude it of anything appealing to the photography market, and focus on baseball. The title, the cover image, the glossy paper, the captioning, everything is aimed at the baseball market. Baseball writer Roger Kahn was enlisted for the foreword, but Kahn shakes it out of his sleeve, offering the shallow opinion that the image of Willie Mays making his catch in the 1954 World Series is one of the four greatest baseball images ever taken. Great catch, nothing image.Maybe it is the glossy paper, but the highlights are too bright. The images do not even look like Conlon's. I feel like I am looking at Cahan and Jacobs' "The Game That Was," a book about the work of the far less impressive George Burke.Of course, it is possible to produce a great baseball book, but "The Big Show", a term Conlon's boss John B. Foster used to refer to the World Series and not the major leagues, is not it. The captions are more trivial than trivia ("Blaeholder's brother Henry, better known as `Hank Skillet,' played fiddle for the original Beverly Hill Billies, a group of country musicians allegedly discovered in the hills above Malibu in the spring of 1930."). Even amateur baseball historians will find little that sticks. With a few exceptions, the images are not Conlon's best, which you can find instead in the 1993 book by the same authors.I would recommend that anyone thinking of purchasing this book consider instead: Baseball's Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon , far better than this sequelDonald Honig's  Classic Baseball Photographs, 1869-1947 Walter Iooss'  Classic Baseball: The Photographs of Walter Iooss Jr. and Ken Burns'  Baseball: An Illustrated History, including The Tenth Inning , now in an updated printing

I have over the past couple weeks gone thru and savored the two amazing books of Conlon photos. I cannot remember reading a baseball book from cover to cover with a smile on my face every moment. This is for real baseball fans. Each photo captures a moment in time. I would agree with some of the other reviewers that the captions in this book are more interesting and delightful than the first. Please, PLEASE bring in a third pitch of this delicious morsel. (Yes, I know I crossed my metaphors) I also was thrilled with all the photos and stories of the also-rans, has-beens, and never-was's. They are at the very heart of baseball and its storied history. I give this 5 stars cuz 6 ain't allowed. A total, delectable, and wonderful baseball experience.