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SPORTS REVIEWS Raising Hackles: See Who's Overrated Bay Area Haunts Featured In Book

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By BOB D'ANGELO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 31, 2007

Updated: 10/30/2007 10:55 pm

Baseball players rarely fear coming to Tropicana Field to face the Devil Rays. However, staying at the Renaissance Vinoy in St. Petersburg - which serves as the hotel for most of the Rays' opponents - has proven to be much scarier.

That's one of the stories Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon tell in 'Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends and Eerie Events' (The Lyons Press, $14.95).

The pairing of the authors is spooky enough: Bradley is a lifelong Yankees fan, while Gordon loves the Red Sox.

Pinellas County venues like the Vinoy, Huggins-Stengel Field, and even the Trop are stars in this book. Whether one believes in ghosts or not, the incidents at the Vinoy are enough to make a ballplayer's hair stand on end.

Ask reliever Scott Williamson, who claimed to wake up in his room to see a man, dressed in clothes from a different era, standing by the curtains. Or the family of former Blue Jays reliever John Frascatore, whose water faucets would run after they were shut off. Or Jay Gibbons, who set his alarm clock, went to clean up, and returned to find the clock's unplugged cord draped over the appliance.
Eerie events are not limited to the Tampa Bay area. Many baseball players, a superstitious lot to begin with, believe Yankee Stadium is haunted by ghosts of Yankee greats who 'watch over' the home team.

There also are reports of friendly ghosts at Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium.

In 'Haunted Baseball,' a reader can find out why the Eddie Grant monument figures into the Giants' inability to win a World Series for more than 50 years. Baseball fans have heard of the Curse of the Bambino, but what about the Curse of Keith Hernandez?

Bradley and Gordon present a nice cross-section of superstition. Some stories seem farfetched, but overall, the book raises some interesting questions.

Just don't read it in an old hotel room.

COLLECTIBLE BOOK: Baseball card collectors will enjoy 'Heroes of the Negro Leagues' (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., $19.95) because of Mark Chiarello's illustrations. Chiarello did watercolor paintings made to resemble cards from the 1930s and '40s. Baseball historians will enjoy the 60 biographies of some of the Negro Leagues' top players, written by Jack Morelli. A bonus DVD of 'Only the Ball Was White' is included in the book. The watercolor images originally were published as trading cards in 1990, but this combination of cards and biography makes for a nice collectible.

'The Catch' by Dwight Clark was the most overrated moment in NFL history. Joe Namath was the most overrated quarterback, followed by Brett Favre. The 1985 Bears and '72 Dolphins? Overrated champs.

Sacrilege? Perhaps.

ESPN's Sal Paolantonio and journalist Reuben Frank come out swinging in 'The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated & Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches & Moments in NFL History' (Triumph Books, $24.95).

The Bucs get gentle treatment - mostly.

The Super Bowl XXXVII champs are labeled one of the big game's underrated winners, while Monte Kiffin is tabbed as one of the NFL's most underrated coaches. But Dexter Jackson, MVP of the Bucs' 48-21 win against the Raiders, won't be amused.

Paolantonio's opinions are bound to irritate NFL traditionalists.

Bob D'Angelo

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