Book Report by Dave Wood

Baseball is getting under-way, so for a behind the scenes look could I suggest “Under The March Sun: The Story of Spring Training,” by Charles Fountain (Oxford University Press, $24.95)? 

Northeastern University journalism professor Fountain has finally told us the story of how spring training got started about 100 years ago.

It was definitely a shoestring operation, designed to work the winter fat off overindulgent Sultans of Swat from both leagues.

Today it’s a billion-dollar business attracting hundreds of thousands of fans who prefer their games in the relaxed sunshine and can’t wait for the season to begin.

For the countless fans who haven’t heard or seen enough of Brett Favre, there’s a new book that deftly analyzes his playing style and then highlights the high points of his best games.

“Favre: His Twenty Greatest Games” by Doug Moe (Trails Books, $18.95 paper) is a hefty tome by Madison sportswriter Moe, who says, “Joe Montana moved his San Francisco 49ers teams down the field like a chess master.

“Favre might have been at the roulette table, blowing on a pair of dice.” 

Trails Books has other titles for Packer fans, including my favorite, “Vagabond Half Back: The Life and Times of Johnny Blood McNally,” “Mudbaths and Bloodbaths: The Inside Story of  the Bears-Packers Rivalry,” by Gary D’Amato and Cliff Christi and “After They Were Packers,” by Jerry Poling, which profiles many Packers in retirement.

And that’s not the only book news from the region.

I was floored by a new coffee table book that didn’t bring back memories as much as introduce topics

I thought were lost to me.

As a lad, I delivered the Winona Republican-Herald to 90 customers in Whitehall.

Each year this estimable sheet published a big story about a restaurant in nearby Minnesota City.

It was the Oaks and it was a restaurant in the boonies that was so good the Minnesota Gourmet Club held its annual meeting their every year I delivered the paper.

The Republican-Herald also printed the club’s menu and some recipes.

One is etched in my brain, “Bleu Truite.” To prepare, you take a brook trout, slice out its innards and when it’s still wiggling you toss it in boiling stock, during which time it turns blue and re-conforms itself into a semicircle.

The Oaks was gone (it’s a warehouse now) before I got old enough to go, but my father occasionally went there and talked mysteriously of slot machines, etc, etc.

 In the new book I mention, I finally got to see a picture of the Oaks dining room (very glossy) and other restaurants I have only heard of and many where I bellied up to the table.

“Minnesota Eats Out” by Kathryn Strand Koutsky and Linda Koutsky, with recipes by Eleanor Ostman (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $34.95), makes one long for the old days when there were a few restaurants, but ones that hung around for years.

Nowadays, most restaurants succumb to the latest fad after a few years and are replaced by others that become all the rage. I speak of Harry’s, Charlie’s, The Criterion, Gannon’s, Chateau de Paris in the Dyckmann Hotel. Those old warhorses are all pictured in this very big book.

And for frosting on the café, St. Paul food writer Ostman has dug into her trunk to provide recipes from some of the great restaurants, including Charlie’s potato salad and the barbecued shrimp served at Murray’s, which, miraculously, still exists.

Editor’s note: Dave Wood is a past vice president of The National Book Critics Circle and former book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He can be reached at 715-426-9554.