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Baseball-related Books (1 Viewer)

oso diablo

oso diablo

Footballguy
What are your favorite baseball-related/themed books? Some of mine are listed here:

Amazon list

Reading now: Game of Inches (vol 1) - meticulously researched look at how the game has evolved over time. Most striking to me is how little the game has changed in the past century or so, after constant and rapid change in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Just finished: Baseball Between the Numbers - the guys at BP tell you why "everything you know about the game is wrong", which should be a clue of who this book is for. I've been an avid reader of BP's stuff for a few years, and so found this book to be a primer, a recap of their recent research.

 
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Baseball Between The Numbers - good stuff

Guide to Pitchers by Bill James and Rob Neyer - good stuff

fictional book, "Long Gone" by Paul Hemphill. The book that the great movie starring William Peterson as Stud Cantrell and Dermot Mulroney as Jamie Weeks and Virginia Madson as Dixie Lee Boxx was based off of.

 
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.

 
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
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Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
 
The Last Best League: Baseball, Cape Cod, and Dreaming the Dream by Jim Collins - Takes a good look at the Cape Cod league, an interesting read for all baseball fans, especially if you are interested in amateur ball.

Moneyball - Michael Lewis - I liked reading it because it was a great look at how Beane's approach developed and it clarified the approach he (and other like-minded GM's) take, as opposed to how it is portrayed in the media. A very good look at the new school of thinking in baseball.

 
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
Click to expand...
Yep, actually called "Fantasyland" - my mistake.Which Tout Wars league are you in?
 
The Glory of their Times - Lawrence Ritter

A simply outstanding insight into baseball's roots and early years.

 
Some of the ones I have read

Fair Ball by Bob Costas

Whatever Happened to the Hall Of Fame by Bill James

Scout's Honor by Bill Shanks

Aces: The Last Season on the Mound with the Oakland A's Big Three by Mychael Urban and Billy Beane

Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time by Rob Neyer

Let me also throw out some KC related books --- books about when baseball was actually GOOD in KC.

Play by Play: 25 Years of Royals on Radio by Denny Matthews

Tales From The ROyals Dugout by Denny Matthews

 
Just finished reading Is this a Great Game or What? by Tim Kurkjian. It was a pretty interesting read, but a lot of it seemed (as expected) to be randomly assembled stories that he's picked up over his career.

 
RedRaiders said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
Click to expand...
Yep, actually called "Fantasyland" - my mistake.Which Tout Wars league are you in?
Click to expand...
I'm in the NL leaguehttp://www.toutwars.com/collette.html

 
I'll re-recommend Ritter's Glory of Their Times.

Also, Seth Swirsky's Baseball Letters series is an interesting collection. Guy wrote letters to many, many ballplayers and asked them a question or two. Their responses, mostly handwritten, are fascinating.

Just flipping through an old Baseball Encyclopedia for the historical essays or to look up stats is always fun.

And I still pick up Ron Luciano's books to read his stories from the 70s and 80s through the umpire's eye. His tales about Earl Weaver and the one about Carlton Fisk o\/\/ning a batter with Luis Tiant pitching still have me :shrug: .

 
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
Click to expand...
Yep, actually called "Fantasyland" - my mistake.Which Tout Wars league are you in?
Click to expand...
I'm in the NL leaguehttp://www.toutwars.com/collette.html
Click to expand...
:banned: :shrug:
 
Your Mother said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
Click to expand...
Yep, actually called "Fantasyland" - my mistake.Which Tout Wars league are you in?
Click to expand...
I'm in the NL leaguehttp://www.toutwars.com/collette.html
Click to expand...
:unsure: :goodposting:
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Wow, rotojunkie made it to Tout Wars. That's quite an accomplishment.
 
i'm currently reading Summerland (that's a pretty good review in the link, btw), by Michael Chabon. The noted novelist takes a stab at so-called teen fiction, in the Harry Potter milieu, with fantastic worlds and creatures that might remind readers of Narnia or Middle Earth. But it's centered around baseball. And it's not just for kids.

i'm really enjoying it.

 
RedRaiders said:
Your Mother said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
Click to expand...
Yep, actually called "Fantasyland" - my mistake.Which Tout Wars league are you in?
Click to expand...
I'm in the NL leaguehttp://www.toutwars.com/collette.html
Click to expand...
:pics: :lmao:
Click to expand...
Wow, rotojunkie made it to Tout Wars. That's quite an accomplishment.
Click to expand...
Tough year. :goodposting:
 
This is probably my favorite baseball book of all time.

Men at Work

And, hey, since it's HOF weekend, even though the book's old, it does cover Gwynn and Ripken for half the pages.

Lewis's Moneyball runs a close second.

 
I just finished Baseball Between the Numbers. It is pretty fantastic.

I had read Mind Game a while ago, but that covers a lot of the same ground as Baseball Between the Numbers, but relates it to the Red Sox and doesn't go on average as in depth.

Buster Olney's The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty is a fantastic collection of stories about the components of the late 90s Yankees. Almost required reading for any Yankees' fan.

 
oso diablo said:
i'm currently reading Summerland (that's a pretty good review in the link, btw), by Michael Chabon. The noted novelist takes a stab at so-called teen fiction, in the Harry Potter milieu, with fantastic worlds and creatures that might remind readers of Narnia or Middle Earth. But it's centered around baseball. And it's not just for kids.
Click to expand...
3 great quotes from this book..."Errors … well, they are a part of life, Ethan. Fouls and penalties, generally speaking, are not. That’s why baseball is more like life than other games. Sometimes I feel like that’s all I do in life, keep track of errors.”

“A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.”

“Life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game which even champions lost almost as often as they won, and even the best hitters we’re put out 70 percent of the time.”

 
now reading The Brothers K by David James Duncan.

had this on my to-read list for a couple of years now, and i'm angry at myself for not reading this book sooner. It's a great, great read, one of the most enjoyable reads ever for me. Pretty much every page is infused with religion or baseball or both, so how could it go wrong.

 
Zombie Kid said:
RedRaiders said:
Your Mother said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Knightro said:
RedRaiders said:
Fantasy Baseballland by Sam Walker is all about the Tout Wars expert draft in 2004 (Walker's first fantasy league ever - WSJ writer). You can find it discounted at any Book Warehouse. Right in any fantasy player's wheelhouse.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, totally forgot about that one. Definitely a good read and now that I'm in Tout, it was very interesting seeing the whole thing live and taking part in it.
Click to expand...
Yep, actually called "Fantasyland" - my mistake.Which Tout Wars league are you in?
Click to expand...
I'm in the NL leaguehttp://www.toutwars.com/collette.html
Click to expand...
:confused: :moneybag:
Click to expand...
Wow, rotojunkie made it to Tout Wars. That's quite an accomplishment.
Click to expand...
Tough year. :lmao:
Click to expand...
yep - and the injuries keep piling on. Just this week, I lost Soriano, Speizio, Graffanino, Hairston, and Aurilia to injury or addiction. My goal is to stay out of last place so I can be invited back next year.
 
Baseball Abstract by Bill James- A must-own for baseball fans, even if it last came out in 2002. Great chronicle of the different decades (particularly the deadball era and other early decades) and good reads of the top 100 players in each position.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis- Worth a read. Some of the stuff you'll look at and scratch your head (the genius of Jeremy Brown as a 1st round pick :thumbup: , Beane's abject hate of Jeremy Bonderman and love for Joe Blanton, etc), but it's great to go behind the scenes to see what goes on.

Concise History of Major League Baseball by Leonard Koppett- Great read if you really want to go in-depth season by season. Pretty much takes Bill James decades chapters and takes them a couple steps further, reporting what happens as if he's story writing. A little dryer of a read than Abstract, but it's a very solid primer on the history of baseball.

 
Going through here looking for suggestions. I'll add:

The Extra 2% by Jonah Keri, looks at how the Rays have been able to compete in the AL East on their budget, and the major changes since Friedman and co. took over.

Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst, really fun read on life in the minors (mostly AA, culminating in a league championship). Hayhurst also has a very strange family that adds to his wanting to escape and is very insightful/interested in studying why people play and how the game affects him, which doesn't always help him fit in with his teammates.

I'm reading "Out of My League", Hayhurst's 2nd book on making it to the bigs with the Padres now.

I'm a big fan of Moneyball and Ball Four that were previously mentioned in here as well.

 
Mark Harris' Henry Wiggen novels are excellent. Bang the Drum Slowly is the most famous because of the movie with DeNiro and Michael Moriarty but The Southpaw is the first of the series and the best starting point. Harris/Wiggen has the perfect voice for his contemporary descriptions of Eisenhower-era America.

 
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A few favorites that weren't mentioned yet

Playing with the Enemy - Gary Moore

The Year I Owned the Yankees - Sparky Lyle

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach (fiction; not really a baseball book per se, but baseball is played)

Crazy '08 - Cait Murphy (about the 1908 season)

If I Never Get Back - Darryl Brock (fiction based on the 1860s-1870s Cincinnati Reds)

October 1964 / Summer of '49 - David Halberstam

 
'Eephus said:
Mark Harris' Henry Wiggen novels are excellent. Bang the Drum Slowly is the most famous because of the movie with DeNiro and Michael Moriarty but The Southpaw is the first of the series and the best starting point. Harris/Wiggen has the perfect voice for his contemporary descriptions of Eisenhower-era America.
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I was about to post the exact same thing.The final book in the series "It Looked Like Forever" was also very good. Wiggen is thirty-nine years old. The Mammoths want him to retire with a big ceremony but he refuses--so they release him.

He ends up on the expansion Montreal team as long-reliever/mop-up man.

The book is not as deeply sad as "Bang The Drum Slowly", but to see the once powerful player from "The Southpaw" barely hanging on, now throwing up floaters, and having a curve with no arc was an unhappy read.

 
'Don Quixote said:
Anybody read the bio on Bill Veeck that came out earlier this year? Thinking about making it next in my queue.
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Ended up getting it: Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick. A great bit of baseball history. Veeck was a bit before my time. I was familiar with some of his stunts (such as Gaedel and disco demolition night), but I have a greater appreciation for some of his other contributions to the game now (such as his early support of integration by bringing in Doby and Paige, and of free agency). I also did not know that he was desperate to buy the Senators and keep them in Washington. The history of baseball in DC would have been a lot different if that happened.
 
Great topic. Here are my 5 all-time favorites, including a couple that haven't yet been mentioned.

Ball Four - was given this book by my uncle as a 10th birthday present, as I was a bookish kid who loved baseball. It is perhaps the greatest gift I've ever received. It certainly opened my eyes.

Veeck as in Wreck - a hilarious and insightful autobiography of the wildman Bill Veeck. Here's an excerpt I found online giving all the backstory on the famed Eddie Gaedel plate appearance.

The Glory of Their Times - already been mentioned numerous times. The book's description sounds a little boring, but the book itself is fascinating. Just a great oral history, featuring wonderful first-person accounts from the stars of baseball's golden age.

Out of My League by George Plimpton

Plimpton became famous for his fish-out-of-water sporting exploits, most notably his time at training camp with the Detroit Lions that was made into the Alan Alda movie "Paper Lion." But this was his first one - pitching to the AL and NL All-stars at a post-season exhibition games. Looks like the full text is available online.

Moneyball - really a business book, it's much better than the movie (which was pretty good).

 
Any good books out there about Charlie Finley and the 70s A's? The Reggie/Vida/Rollie/Catfish crew.

Seems like an interesting time.

 
If you are a fan of baseball history, this is an awesome book:

Green Cathedrals

It is a coffee table type book, but has stories about all baseball parks ever used (273)

 
Just Play Ball and Its Anybody's Ballgame by Joe Garagiola Sr are both fun reads.9 Innings by Daniel Okrent was good

 
'prosopis said:
Just Play Ball and Its Anybody's Ballgame by Joe Garagiola Sr are both fun reads.9 Innings by Daniel Okrent was good
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Nine Innings is a timely choice. It's got a whole lot of Earl Weaver in it. Those early 80s Brewers and Orioles clubs had a lot of personalities.
 
A biography on Smoky Joe Wood will be published this spring. I will be buying that one. He was a top pitcher who was converted to the outfield after developing arm problems. There was also a lot of interesting off the field stuff with this guy.

 
really enjoyed Trading Bases by Joe Peta. Subtitled "A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball (not necessarily in that order)"

Joe Peta : Michael Lewis : : Shane Victorino : Mike Trout

Peta, a Wall Street trader recovering from an auto accident, uses his time-off to develop a betting model for baseball games, using advanced analytics to find an edge over the Vegas odds. There's some technical stuff, for those so inclined, but the heart of the book is when he interweaves compelling anecdotes about his "first love" (baseball), as well as some Liars' Poker-esque tales of life on Wall St.

 
2014 Bump.

I am patiently waiting Jonah Keri's book on the history of the Expos "Up, Up and Away" (out March 25th) and Dirk Hayhurst's new one "Bigger than the Game" (out February 25th) that focuses on his time with the Jays... any suggestions for the meantime?

 
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