These two don’t necessarily go together — books and quotes — but I’m going to force the proverbial square peg into the round hole anyway.

Baseball America’s James Bailey reviews his choices for the top 10 baseball books of 2011. Truth be told, I have not read any of the books listed, but I have heard glowing reviews of Chad Harbach’s novel “The Art Of Fielding”, and Craig Robinson’s work at Flip Flop Fly Ball is always outstanding and I think I’m going to have to get that one.

At Fangraphs, David Laurila has compiled a list of the best quotes of 2011; more than a Top Ten list, there are 39 quotes from his own FanGraphs Q&A 2011, arranged in chronological order. This one is my favorite:

“I remember seeing [former Angels catcher] Bob Boone that winter. Bob said that he was watching on TV when the ball went through Bill Buckner‘s legs, and he jumped up and yelled, ‘How does that feel? how does that feel?’ What happened to us is what had happened to them.” — Dwight Evans, December 2011

Which shows you that baseball players aren’t just automatons; they feel everything that fans feel… except they’re right in the middle of things, making them happen, or not happen, as the case may be.

Happy New Year.