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Baseball-related Books (1 Viewer)

Hello all, I wanted to ask your advice on choosing a book on baseball for a great team that just won a kids' baseball league, it would be for the coaches and the boys, who are pretty much in the 12 year old range. Could get the same book or separate books for coaches & kids.

Great bunch of guys all around who love baseball, it's been a great season, one of the parents is looking for a book for all to commemorate (aside from the trophy, etc.).

My basic recommendation is Boys of Summer, by Roger Khan.

http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Summer-Roger-Kahn/dp/0060883960/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400172146&sr=1-1&keywords=boys+of+summer+roger+kahn

Also, this, 9 Innings:

http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Innings-Daniel-Okrent/dp/0618056696/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196618335&sr=8-1

This is also good - Summer of `49, by David Halberstam.

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-49-David-Halberstam/dp/0060884266/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0BK21NXM33ZSWD5C0XJ8

Let me know if you think of anything else, it's appreciated.

- Thanks.

 
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I think kids would be more likely to read something about players they know something about. I've read all three of the books you mentioned but I don't think a 12 year old (damned kids) will relate as much to Gil Hodges or Cecil Cooper as they would to a player they've watched on TV.

ETA: I'm the exact opposite so I can't really recommend any books about the current game.

 
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Met a guy named John Rosengren a couple weeks back at a fundraiser. Was out on by these guys. Anyway, just started reading one of his books The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption.

Good stuff so far.

A friend of mine has written a couple of baseball books. End of Baseball is my favorite of his.

 
These two are on my to-read list. Anyone read either of them?

"The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream" by Jim Collins

"One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season" by Chris Ballard

ETA: Just saw "The Last Best League" was mentioned a couple times in this thread. Might have to move it up my queue.

 
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Fariq said:
Kids would love the Baseball Hall of Shame books. The most recent edition was published a couple years ago.
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That's a good idea IMO. Most 12 year olds in the summertime would do better with a bathroom book like this with short standalone chapters. The objective here is to develop their knowledge and love of the game, not turn them into little Bartlett Giamattis.

 
On a baseball book kick on my vacation.

I just read "Up, up, and away" by Jonah Keri on the history of the Expos. I've enjoyed his stuff for Grantland, and was interested in reading it as a Nats fan. Pretty good read, and I'd recommend it to others.

Starting Kahn's classic "The Boys of Summer" now.

 
I read Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy over the holidays. It focused on the famous 1908 NL pennant race involving the Cubs, Giants and Pirates but also touched on matters in the junior circuit and the world beyond baseball. The author did a pretty good job of capturing early baseball and the America of a century ago. Some of her segues from baseball to social history were a bit awkward but she threw in enough entertaining facts and stories to keep the book moving.

 
Long Ball Larry said:
SaintsInDome2006 said:
Also, this, 9 Innings:

http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Innings-Daniel-Okrent/dp/0618056696/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196618335&sr=8-1
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This guy was on the Jonah Keri podcast this summer so I asked for and received this book for Christmas. Will provide review after reading. Hopefully you have your time machine up and running so that you can give it as the prize.
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I like the way this book is structured and think it's great that the stories about Harvey's Wallbangers and the late Weaver-era Orioles are compiled in one place.

Okrent is a smart guy and a fine writer but he comes off as kind of an old grump these days. He has as strong a claim as anybody for inventing fantasy baseball but it's not like he split the atom or something.

 
Bouton before Bouton, albeit more subtle since it was the late 50's/early 60's: The Long Season, by Jim Brosnan, MLB pitcher. Died last year, saw the book mentioned and the plaudits it had gotten. Then was reading the Mailer bio and seems Mailer was a fan of Brosnan's.

 
Part of the way through Big Data Baseball about building the Pirates. http://www.amazon.com/Big-Data-Baseball-Miracles-20-Year/dp/1250063507

Pretty good, but in the same line as Moneyball, Extra 2% etc. and a lot of this info has been reported on.

In Pursuit of Pennants is about how various great teams were built.  It's interesting history so far, though I'm not sure that it is providing much insight and analysis.  The chapter on McGraw's Giants and all the maniacs he had on the team (and kind of was himself) is fascinating.

 
just finished Double Switch, the 2nd in a series about a major-league LOOGY who moonlights as a private investigator, mostly helping out his teammates with various domestic issues, but sometimes finds himself in the middle of something big. 

Total beach reads, at best, but the author gets the baseball stuff right.

 
The Only Rule Is It Has to Work - Ben Lindbergh/Sam Miller (effectively wild podcast guys). It's a good look at the obstacles to actually implementing sabrmetric principles in the real world (or at least Independent League baseball) - I read the whole thing last weekend and loved it.

 
Northern Voice said:
The Only Rule Is It Has to Work - Ben Lindbergh/Sam Miller (effectively wild podcast guys). It's a good look at the obstacles to actually implementing sabrmetric principles in the real world (or at least Independent League baseball) - I read the whole thing last weekend and loved it.
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oh yeah, I meant to mention this.  I haven't read it, but Lindbergh was on the MLB Statcast podcast talking about it a week or 2 ago.  So that everyone knows, the owner of an Independent League team let Lindbergh and Miller be the general managers and have free reign.

 
Reading The Game Must Go On - about baseball in the World War 2 years. Writing is uneven (at times quite mediocre; other times, riveting tales), but topic is very interesting to me.

A lot about Billy Southworth, Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and others

 
Don Quixote said:
Jeff Passan's The Arm is $1.99 on Kindle.  Just purchased.
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I bought this book during the Kindle sale and finally got around to reading it on my flight home yesterday.

It's about as interesting a book as you could imagine about the elbow and Tommy John surgery.  Passan wraps TJS history, youth and Japanese baseball and ongoing medical and analytical research around the recovery stories of two MLB pitchers:  Daniel Hudson and Todd Coffey.  Some chapters read more like standalone magazine articles but it's generally well written and constructed. 

 
Bump for new recommendations. I just finished Smart Baseball by Keith Law. Nothing really super groundbreaking but does a good job examining and summarizing the new and old stats of the game and how they've forced teams (and fans, players, media, etc.. but the focus is mostly on the front office) to evolve in current days and how they'll continue to do the same as we get more and more Statcast information. Law has solid front office connections that he interviews and I like his snarky style.

I might go to The Arm  by Jeff Passan next unless anyone has a better suggestion?

 
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Northern Voice said:
Bump for new recommendations. I just finished Smart Baseball by Keith Law. Nothing really super groundbreaking but does a good job examining and summarizing the new and old stats of the game and how they've forced teams (and fans, players, media, etc.. but the focus is mostly on the front office) to evolve in current days and how they'll continue to do the same as we get more and more Statcast information. Law has solid front office connections that he interviews and I like his snarky style.

I might go to The Arm  by Jeff Passan next unless anyone has a better suggestion?
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The Arm was pretty interesting.  There are some chapters that read like separate magazine articles but Passan uses the recoveries of Todd Coffey and Daniel Hudson to tie the book together.

The only baseball book I've read recently was Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s.  It was a quick read and has some great stories.  It suffered a bit because the central figure of Charles O. Finley wasn't available for interview but I'm glad that Jason Turbow was able to record the amazing story of baseball's last threepeat champs.

 
i didn't care so much for The Arm (though i cannot remember why)

my faves over the past couple of years are the one by Brian Kenny and The Only Rule Is It Has To Work

eta: i now see upthread that you (NV) were the one to recommend TORIIHTW. Thanks.

 
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"Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud" is an amazingly honest and entertaining book about Joe Pepitone's life. It's a must read.

 
i really liked One Shot at Forever

easy to peg it as the Hoosiers of baseball. it chronicles the early 1970s high-school baseball team from the tiny Illinois town of Macon, who made it to the state tournament (back before they had divisions). Starring a hippie, baby boomer coach.

 
Haven't had time to look through this whole thread just yet. But I've been laid up a bit lately due to illness. Can anybody recommend some good books on the Negro Leagues or the Brooklyn Dodgers?  I'm also interested in books on the hidden subtle strategies in baseball. I read Jason Kendall's Throwback book a couple years back and found it very interesting and looking for something similar

TIA

 
KingPrawn said:
Haven't had time to look through this whole thread just yet. But I've been laid up a bit lately due to illness. Can anybody recommend some good books on the Negro Leagues or the Brooklyn Dodgers?  I'm also interested in books on the hidden subtle strategies in baseball. I read Jason Kendall's Throwback book a couple years back and found it very interesting and looking for something similar

TIA
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On the Dodgers, Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer is a classic. Maybe a bit sentimental at times, but a good read.

 
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