What are your essential baseball books?

by Dex on Apr 16, 2008 11:17 AM PDT Comment 31 comments

I'm gonna keep kicking this baseball book club thing for a while until it magically forms of its own accord and takes a life of its own. In the meantime, why don't we gather together the list of books that are deemed "essential" for a well-read baseball fan and maybe something will really strike us as being a must read. Here's my list off the top of my head. I'm sure I'll have forgotten a few gems

The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James
Ball Four by Jim Bouton
Veeck as in Wreck by Bill Veeck
Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris
The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence S. Ritter

Also, Fantasyland by Sam Walker is very close for me, but I might have to revisit in a couple of years. And, I've never read it, but I keep getting told it's essential... The Book - Playing the Percentages in Baseball by Tango, Lichtman and Dolphin.

What did I miss? Does this inspire the book club to start bookin' and or clubbin'?

0 recs | Comment 31 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I'll add

Five Seasons by Roger Angell
Summer of ‘49 by David Halberstam
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy by Jane Leavy

by Winfield's Ghost on Apr 16, 2008 11:29 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

summer of '49 i forgot

haven’t read the other two.

by Dex on Apr 16, 2008 11:40 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Koufax is worth it

Just to see Koufax end Lasorda’s big league dreams.

by Winfield's Ghost on Apr 16, 2008 11:51 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

And

Koufax isn’t nearly mentioned often enough as one of the two or three greatest pitchers ever. His career numbers before the arthritis set in are astounding.

by Winfield's Ghost on Apr 16, 2008 11:52 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'll add:

Fantasyland – By Michele Bardsley

by Dalton on Apr 16, 2008 11:34 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

look at you

trying to sabotage the gaslamp ball book club

by Dex on Apr 16, 2008 11:39 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I would dispute the word "sabotage"

by Dalton on Apr 16, 2008 11:56 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ahhh

Word of advice….this might be one of those times you ignore the great “used” deals on Amazon.

by Drama on Apr 16, 2008 9:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

a couple more i've liked

Last Night of the Yankees Dynasty by Buster Olney
Is This Game Great or What? by Tim Kurkijan
The Worst Team Money Could Buy by Bob Klapisch (about the early 90s Mets)
Perfect I’m Not by David Wells

by John (obviousman) on Apr 16, 2008 11:37 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah, but essential?

i don’t know that i’d include any book that features a photo of a naked, overweight guy standing in front of a herd of sheep.

by Dex on Apr 16, 2008 11:39 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

i either missed that photo or erased it from my memory.....

i like his book because it was like Ball Four but covered a whole career. you got an idea of a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff as well as what’s running through the heads of pitchers on game day.

nobody’s thrown out there Game of Shadows yet. that one certainly covers more than baseball, but was captivating to read and just about as relevant to baseball today as Moneyball is.

by John (obviousman) on Apr 17, 2008 4:29 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well

I just recently bought Playing the Percentages in Baseball. So… yeah.

"All the big fellas in baseball are gonna get scrawny and weak like those stat geeks that nobody likes." -- Roger Clemens

by TheGrandHatching on Apr 16, 2008 11:42 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

hmmm...

nobody seems to have mentioned Juiced by Jose Canseco.

by pjbno4 on Apr 16, 2008 11:45 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss

Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will

Fairball by Bob Costas

"The first pitch is grounded into left field. No, wait a minute. It's ball one. Low and outside." ~ Jerry Coleman

by sqrunt on Apr 16, 2008 11:49 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I loved the Clemente book

by Winfield's Ghost on Apr 16, 2008 11:53 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Forgot to add

Tony Gwynn’s Total Baseball Player by Tony Gwynn

Tony Gwynn: Mr. Padre

Bob Chandler’s Tales from the San Diego Padres

"The first pitch is grounded into left field. No, wait a minute. It's ball one. Low and outside." ~ Jerry Coleman

by sqrunt on Apr 16, 2008 11:57 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Kid Who Only Hit Homers and...

Return of the Home Run Kid

by Wes on Apr 16, 2008 12:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Catcher with a Glass Arm?

I think I read those when I was in elementary school!

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

by Axion on Apr 16, 2008 12:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Matt Christopher

Those books were awesome.

by Winfield's Ghost on Apr 16, 2008 1:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Alright

I feel better now. I was watching this thread fill with books I’ve only seen or never heard of at all.

I guess my contribution would be Cowboy at the Mike by Curt Gowdy. I wouldn’t put it under must-read though.

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

by Axion on Apr 16, 2008 1:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Can I just say that those books were a pain to shelve at the library...you put them back in alphabetical order and some kid comes along and screws it all up

"It may have been a spin-off from Full House, but it wasn't from ER."

by TheVinylCrocodile on Apr 16, 2008 4:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh oh oh!

And you know what we need, people? Amazon links:

The Natural – Bernard Malamud

Shoeless Joe – W.P. Kinsella

and so on and so forth…
This is the Internet, let’s act like it, ffs. :-D

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

by Axion on Apr 16, 2008 1:14 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

a few more good reads

I recommend Koppett’s “A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Baseball,” as well as his “Concise History of Major League Baseball.”

A nice book for baseball card collectors is the huge Topps 50th Anniversary edition.

Also anything collection of Roger Angell or Thomas Boswell.

Ron Kaplan

by RonKaplanNJ on Apr 16, 2008 1:17 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

i totally forgot angell

though to be honest, i read a collection of his that was a little bit verbose for my tastes.

by Dex on Apr 16, 2008 1:21 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

def roger angell

I’ve just joined in order to vote for Roger Angell. Five season for sure, but also The Summer Game and just about anything he’s written.

I’ll also put in a vote for Buzz Bissinger’s Three Nights in August.

by Royce Sweeney on Apr 16, 2008 1:18 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

three nights in august was good

i liked it as a counterpart to moneyball. i’d like it better if buzz didn’t have such an obviously gigantic crush on la russa.

by Dex on Apr 16, 2008 1:19 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like the Baseball Prospectus books

Mind Game is good, just pretend it’s not the Red Sox
t Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over was good.
Baseball Between the Numbers is okay.
And all of their baseball annuals are must reads.

And, I'm still waiting for Meredith or Bell to come in the seventh inning of April 4's game with the bases loaded, the score tied and Thatcher struggling.

by Wonko on Apr 16, 2008 2:21 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Hate Me/Love Me..the Bonds book..just for sheer entertainment

and I liked October 1964 by Halberstam…really great stories of baseball men

I liked the Jay Johnstone books growing up.

I’ll second Ball Four and the Costas book

by thenerdhater on Apr 16, 2008 2:25 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Canseco's sequel, "Vindicated"

One review called it “the worst book in three centuries.”

by goose1 on Apr 17, 2008 9:36 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Funniest & one of the best

The funniest has to be “The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubblegum Book” by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris. This book was written in the early 1970s, and the author discusses his favorite players and baseball cards from the 1950s and 1960s. WELL worth the money spent.

One of the best is “Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong” by Baseball Prospectus & Jonah Keri

by RoyalsFan on Apr 26, 2008 7:20 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The boy’s books by Jackson Volney Scholz. I was reading these things and keeping up with the ficitonal Dodgers while those other dorks were reading the Hardy Boys.

by lin on Apr 30, 2008 2:51 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs