List of Baseball Books
I'm reposting a list of baseball books that the board help me put together a year ago. This time I've included hyperlinks to Amazon.com in case you are interested in checking them out there. Some additional books were mentioned in comments from the message board today. I added a few and will add more next year (Deo Volente)
Top Recommendations by MGoBlog Board (in no particular order)
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty
by Charles Leerhsen
Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams
by Robert Peterson
Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball In the Big Leagues
by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball
by George Will
The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It
by Lawrence S Ritter
You Gotta Have Wa
by Robert Whiting
Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball
by John Feinstein
The Art of Fielding: A Novel
by Chad Harbach (Fiction)
The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran
by Dirk Hayhurst
Biography/Autobiography
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life
by Robert W. Creamer
Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
by Leigh Montville
Hustle : The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose
by Michael Sokolove
Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck
by Bill Veeck & Ed Linn
The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg
by Nicholas Dawidoff
It's What You Learn After You Know It All That Counts : The Autobiography of Earl Weaver
by Earl Weaver and Berry Stainback
Nice Guys Finish Last
by Leo Durocher
Fear Strikes Out
by Jim Piersall
The Truth Hurts
by Jimmy Piersall
The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life
by Rick Ankiel
Now Pitching, Bob Feller: A Baseball Memoir
by Bob Feller
Yaz: Baseball, The Wall And Me
by Carl Yazstrzamski
Some of My Best Friends Are Crazy: Baseball's Favorite Lunatic Goes in Search of His Peers
by Jay Johnstone
Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend
by James S. Hirsch
Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod’s Heart to Zim’s Head--My 25 Years in Baseball
by Tim Kurkjian
I'm Fascinated by Sacrice Flies
by Tim Kurkjian
Seasons/Teams/History
So You Think You're a Die-Hard Tiger Fan
by Joe Falls
The Detroit Tigers: An Illustrated History
by Joe Falls
The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real Champions
George Cantor
Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan
by Peter Morris
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game (Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Brown 1883)
by Edward Achorn
Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History (Chicago Cubs)
by Cait N. Murphy and Robert W. Creamer
The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants, and the Cast of Players, Pugs, and Politicos Who Reinvented the World Series in 1912
by Mike Vaccaro
The Pitch That Killed: Carl Mays, Ray Chapman and the Pennant Race of 1920 (Cleveland Indians)
by Mike Sowell
Summer of '49 (Yankees & Red Sox)
by David Halberstam
The Kid from Tomkinsville (Brooklyn Dodgers)
by John R. Tunis
Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets’ First Year
by Jimmy Breslin
October 1964 (Yankees & Cardinals)
by David Halberstam
Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964
by Peter Golenbock
The Summer Game
by Roger Angell
The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers
by Michael Leahy
Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
by Dan Epstein
The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds
by Joe Posnanski
Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion (1972-76)
by Roger Angell
3 Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager
(St. Louis Cardinals v. Chicago Cubs in 2003 through the eyes of Tony La Russa)
by Buzz Bissinger
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Oakland Athletics 2003)
by Michael Lewis
Dollar Sign on the Muscle (Scouting)
by Kevin Kerrane
The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse
by Rich Cohen
The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship (Red Sox)
by David Halberstam
Chrysanthemum and the Bat: Baseball Samurai Style
by Robert WhitingThe Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams
by Michael Tackett
Baseball: An Illustrated History
by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
Fiction
Bang the Drum Slowly
by Mark Harris
Shoeless Joe (the book that became the movie Field of Dreams)
by W. P. Kinsella
If I Never Get Back
by Daryl Brock
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series
by Eliot Asinof (reconstructed the story)
Sabermetrics
Baseball Prospectus 2019
Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong
by Jonah Keri
Extra Innings: More Baseball Between the Numbers from the Team at Baseball Prospectus
by Steven Goldman
The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First First
by Jonah Keri
The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
by Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, and Andrew Dolphin
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All
by Ben Reiter
Youth Adult/Children
The Kid Who Only Hit Homers
by Matt Christopher
Catcher with a Glass Arm
by Matt Christopher
Baseball is Back: Dads, daughters, and baseball
by Michael Turner
Hang Tough, Paul Mather
by Alfred Slote
Tony and Me
by Alfred Slote
The Fox Steals Home
by Matt Christopher
The Berenstain Bears Go Out for the Team
by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain
Chip Hilton Series
by Clair Bee (24 sports novels)
Thanks to everyone for the input. This was a fun list to make.
I liked Art of FIelding (impressive for a debut novel). The Moby Dick references throughout will make you want to read that masterpiece as well - it's great!
Did I miss The Natural on the list?
The Bronx Zoo, by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock
You Gotta Have Wa is a classic for both baseball fans and Japanophiles. I got my grad degree from the same university in Tokyo as did the author.
and, this just came out...
Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher
David Cone w/ Jack Curry
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-cone/full-count/
Thanks for the fine list. I'm sure that I'll read a few.
I was surprised that Bill James' books didn't make it. The Historical Abstract was very, and probably would still be, entertaining. I thought his books on pitchers, managers, and the Hall of Fame were good too but they might seem dated, given the amount of time that has elapsed and changes, in both the game and in sabermetrics, since the books were originally written.
James still puts his name on annual handbooks but they don't seem to have as much text and analysis, as opposed to page after page of raw numbers. And I am not buying his books to crunch raw numbers myself.
That's a great list. You've inspired me to hit the library and read another baseball book.
One omission is Ernie Harwell. He put together several compendiums of baseball anecdotes and short stories and all of them are fantastic. They really read like the stories Ernie told between pitches during those long summer nights at Tiger Stadium. You can still hear his voice.
There's another, somewhat odd, book on the 1908 season I'd throw out there: G. H. Fleming's The Unforgettable Season.
No narrative, just a collage of newspaper articles. But it's stuck with me like no other baseball book; it really gives the flavor of what it was like to be a baseball fan in the dead-ball era.
It doesn't really fit in one of the categories here, but the Science of Hitting by Ted Williams helped me out the most growing up with instruction on how to actually hit. Seriously one of the best instructional books ever with cross-sport applications in how he approaches mechanics, mentality, and thought for efficiency within the game.
Was your former passionate feelings towards baseball before your Vlad infatuation? While I'm asking, any idea of Wolodymyr's sporting affinities? I'm mean besides humiliating your former alter ego?
Nothing brought back great childhood memories more than seeing the author Matt Christopher listed.
Not a big baseball fan, but this book was a fun read.
One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season by Chris Ballard
Title says it all. But the true story of an Illinois baseball team that kind of mirrors the basketball Hoosiers plot lines (loosely).
Imperfect! Is this on here and I just don't see it? The story of Jim Abbott. It's a terrific book, and it's about a Michigan Man!
Gone With The Wind--Bucky Dent
The Glory of Their Times was, by far, the best baseball book I have ever read. With all the Tigers books on your list, I am surprised Sparky Anderson's book, "Bless You, Boys," didn't make your list.
The Long Season And Pennant Race by Jim Brosnan.
I forgot about The Long Season. A great baseball book. Thanks for remembering, Carolina.
Comments