To me, there's no more depressing period than January 2nd through March 1st or so.  The days are short and cold.  Opening Day is still weeks away.  Sure, there are a few weeks of NFL playoffs, but those are mostly on Sundays.  What to do with the rest of the week?  Perhaps read?  Remember, after the age of 21, we lose 20,000 brain cells a day to atrophy, so a little reading never hurt anyone.  So, I thouight I'd give you a short list of fine tomes to get you ready for this 2007 baseball season.  And to help you gentle readers out, click on the title to be taken right to Amazon if you're feeling inspired.

Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox by Bill Simmons

Okay, so this is an obvious one to start off with, but I had to throw it in because the Sports Guy is an old friend.  It's more than that, however.  This isn't just a collection of his columns from the last decade or so.  It's a capsule look at the recent history of the Red Sox, and sports in general, thanks to all the references and quips Bill tosses in.  It's a hilarious and poignant trip down memory lane, and the best part is you know it has a happy ending.  And he can put that on the jacket if he wants.

  Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports  by Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams

I originally thought this book was going to blow the cover off the whole steroid scandal, but since baseball likes to bury its colletive fat head in the sand, that didn't happen.  However, it has become topical again now that those 100 names might be relased to the public.  If you're interested in the seedy underside of the game, then this is the book for you.  It really pulls no punches, so if you can read through the pages and pages on Greg Anderson and some of the bit players and get to the dirt on Bonds and his juiced-up cohorts, then it will be worth it.  My favorite part of this whole scandal is the fact that Jose Canseco appears to have been right all along.  I knew it.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

by Michael Lewis

Let me state right off the bat that Billy Beane is a lunatic.  If you enjoy reading about lunatics, then this is the book for you.  If you enjoy reading about baseball and lunatics at the same time, then this is definitely the book for you.  Beane may be a nuttter, but it's hard to argue with success.  What I found most interesting, however, was the detailed description of the baseball draft, which is basically a big conference call between all the GM's.  We always know what's going on in the NFL draft, but this was the first time I've ever seen anything written about MLB's draft.  It was quite provocative, especially the scene where Billy threw a chair against the wall when he almsot didn't get who he wanted.  I also liked the quote from Theo Epstein regarding Beane's quest to land Kevin Youkilis (a Moneyball player if there ever was one.)  "If he called three months earlier, he would have had him," Theo said.  Thank God it worked out the way it did.  I had had about enough of Kevin Millar and his KFC commercials.  To paraphrase Rocky, he looked like a Kentucky Fried Idiot.

Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay  by Kenneth Walton

This isn't a baseball book, I know, but it came up when I did a search on Amazon for the Bonds book.  It is not quite as scandalous, but it's still an interesting study in human psychology.  I didn't remember the story, but as an avid eBay user myself, I was drawn to Walton's story.  He sold art on eBay for years with his friends, sometimes jacking up the price on each other's auctions to get more money.  Some of them were real and some, not so much.  When the FBI gets involved, things really heat up.  It put the fear of God in me, I tell ya.  Not that I have ever done anything wrong on eBay.  Heh-heh.

So, there's my winter reading list to get you through these cold (or 50 degrees as it's been lately) months.  Bon appetit.  Keep those brain cells fresh.