Baseball books

[pathogan]

What is your favorite baseball book ever? And Why? One book only,please...

Mine is THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES by Lawrence Ritter
It was simply the expierence of reading these famous{and not so famous]talk of their lives in the game. Then a few years ago they released the tapes{cd's] of the interviews themselves...as close to perfect as this gets

[SmedIndy]

The Pitch That Killed - by Mike Sowell. It's a sad story on two fronts, Ray Chapman and Carl Mays. Two people who couldn't have been more opposite.

That one pitch also derailed two HOF careers. Mays may have made it without the pitch. We'll never know about Chapman.

[Xanadu Dragon]

I can't choose just one. Really. It's too hard. Makes my brain hurt. :dizzy:

BTW - I have the Ritter CDs - - lots of fun, agreed!

[sweaver]

Historical Baseball Abstract. But there are a lot of contenders, including:
Veeck as in Wreck
Baseball is a Funny Game by Joe Garigiola
Bush League
Even the Browns
any Roger Angell book, actually compilations of his magazine essays
Eight Men Out
A Whole Different Ball Game by Marvin Miller
any of Bill James' other books.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

James's books are always a good read, and I'm impatiently awaiting his "Win Shares", which should be out soon. I don't know if it's a "breakthrough", but he seems to have come up with a good measure of defensive value to incorporate into the pitching and offensive values in his system.

Tell you what -- his new method MAY become the most reliable, accurate and important method for measuring the overall value of a ballplayer ever, regardless of team, era and position. Maybe. It was important enough for him to break away from historical essays and back into sabermetrics, which is significant.

"Only the Ball was White", by Robert Peterson is a fine look at the Negro Leagues, with plenty of good anecdotes and stats (where available).

For fiction, you can't beat anything by W.P. Kinsella.

[SmedIndy]

Anyone interested in fiction, pickup a Ring Lardner compendium. Those stories are timeless!

[pathogan]

The Celebrant : A Novel
by Eric Rolfe Greenberg

The best NOVel on baeball I have ever read. Period.

[nyy26wc]

My favorites are the first 2 Bill James Historical Abstracts. The new one is OK, but disappointing. It has its occassional gems, but it's nothing compared to the first 2 versions.

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by nyy26wc
My favorites are the first 2 Bill James Historical Abstracts. The new one is OK, but disappointing. It has its occassional gems, but it's nothing compared to the first 2 versions.

First two??

I thought he had just one before the new one??

[mandamin]

It's so hard to pick one, but the one I read that I just couldn't put down at all was "Baseball Dynasties" by Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein (Neyer gave a small talk in a Seattle bookstore about a week after I finished it, chatted with us about it and autographed my copy, which probably gives me a slightly better impression of it than I would otherwise have, but it is a really incredibly interesting book).
"Dynasties" shares a rare quality with the New Historical Baseball Abstract, which is that it's both (a) fairly technical and (b) extremely well-written and anecdotal. I think that's a great combination in baseball books. I just finished the NHBA and it's a great read, but I'll have to wait for "Win Shares" before I can put it on par with "Dynasties." I have a number of problems with the consistency (or lack thereof) of James' rankings that I hope "Win Shares" helps explain...which I suppose I should go post in the thread created for that book. But he's a great writer and brilliant man, and I'm very glad I read it.
Incidentally, I'd have to call the 1986 Historical Abstract my next-favorite for now. Same great analysis and anecdotes, and it's a lot harder to find major issues with it...

[Xanadu Dragon]

:( Nobody is picking -

Lords of the Ream (Helyar),
Dollar Sign On The Muscle (Kerrane) or
Cobb (Stump)

[pathogan]

Both Cobb and dollar sign on the muscle are terrific, different then either ritter or angell

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by SmedIndy


First two??

I thought he had just one before the new one??

The first edition of the Historical Abstract came out in the mid 1980s and the second towards the end of the decade.

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by nyy26wc


The first edition of the Historical Abstract came out in the mid 1980s and the second towards the end of the decade.

How extensive of an update was the second edition??

[nyy26wc]

The second edition had a little bit of new material, but the vast majority was a reprint of the first one.

[Old Judge]

A lot of great books mentioned here. I would like to add a novel I enjoyed: Hoopla (by Harry Stein). The Buck Weaver chapters are just terrific. My strongest interest is in pre-WWI ball. Anybody have recommendations of some books that take me back at least 90 years and make me smell the mud on my hands and the grass stains on my knickers (that's NOT ladies underwear, for all you Brits out there)?

[WiredTiger]

I also pick Veeck as in Wreck. It's a good read, very funny and it's fun to see an owner that actually enjoyed the game and wasn't a jerk.

[Pirate21]

Thought I'd throw in a few books I own that are good reads:

The Chronicle of Baseball by John Mehno --- this looks at every year since 1900 with an overview of the regular season and the post season. It has short facts in columns and tons of pictures, many of which I haven't seen in other books. It also has player profiles of many of the top players in history. Great history/photo book of the greatest game

Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms by Elden Auker with Tom Keegan. Elden Auker!?!?! Who the heck is that? He was a submariner, or "underhander" as he calls it, who pitched for the Yankees and Tigers in the 30's, played with the Babe, Gehrig, Mickey Cochrane, Hank Greenberg, and roomed with Jimmie Foxx, and was and is one of Ted Williams closest friends. This book is a jewel, full of funny stories of gods who were just men that played a kid's game for a living. Riding Pullman trains, late night card games, and playing for the love of the game. And wait until you read that story about the Babe and a young rookie name Leo....

Talkin' Baseball: An Oral History of Baseball in the Seventies by Phil Pepe. The Big Red Machine, the A's, the Bronx Bombers, Reggie, Curt Flood, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Aaron, Clemente, Seaver, Fisk's homerun in the World Series - - it's all here. More than 60 players and coaches talk about that wonderful decade that meant the most to me. I guess that's why I love this book.

New York City Baseball: The Last Golden Age by Harvey Frommer. The Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants in the Big Apple '47-'57. Mantle, Mays, Snider, Dimaggio, Robinson, the 'shot heard round the world". My second favorite period of baseball history. Great writing about the best rivalry ever.

A Whole Different Ball Game by Marvin Miller. Written by the man responsible for creating the strongest union in the world (I can hear the boos now). But from a historical standpoint, it is indispensible in understanding how things got to where they are now between the owners and players. You'll find that the Lords of Baseball (as they think of themselves) aren't much smarter now than they were then. And players then had no idea how much they were worth. A very straightforward, reasoned account of how the player's union was established and free agency came about. You might be surprised that Miller wanted limited free agency because he felt that too many players becoming "free" at any one time would depress salaries and eventually drive some players out of the game! (He was partially right) A very interesting book on the business side of the game.

Fiction: The Universal BaseBall Association, Inc. , J. Henry Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover. Everyone knows The Natural and Field of Dreams, but this little novel is incredible and should be of interest to any fan of the game who has been enamored of baseball tabletop games like ABPA or Strat-O-Matic. It's about a lonely, little man whose whole life revolves around the baseball game that he created. He is its "master and its slave." Playing complete seasons with in-depth histories, stories, and lore of the league and its players, J. Henry skirts the edge of sanity. The authors' descriptions of the players, coaches, officials, and the "actual" games reads like a historical work, only much more colorful. Like the legend about one player and his girlfriend in the dugout. Hilarious episodes, colorful players, intense rivalries - you would swear it was real - - and it is -- to J. Henry Waugh. If you can find it - read it.

[sweaver]

Funny, I didn't like Coover's book. It is considered a classic in some circles.

[matt coyne]

"Glory Of Their Times" is the best baseball book I ever read. The stories of Smokey Joe and Rube and Wahoo Sam are brilliant. I was given the CD's by my brother and was expecting to be disappointed. I was really surpirised to find that they were equally as compelling. The story of how Ritter found Crawford is one of my favorites!
'Ball Four' is another book that's worth a read every year.
'Alibi Ike' by Lardner is another classic, because we all know someone who can't even blink his eyes without explaining himself to everyone.
There's so many more that I can't even think. We turned an unused room in our house into a library. My wife has her shelves of Anne Rice and Stephen King, but I have damn near an entire wall of baseball stuff, ranging from Mantle's Quality of Courage to any and everything about the Babe.

[TreAnt985]

Originally posted by Xanadu Dragon
:( Nobody is picking -

Lords of the Ream (Helyar),
Dollar Sign On The Muscle (Kerrane) or
Cobb (Stump)
I thought Cobb was a great book, too. I also like those annual books that SN puts out each year (the record book especially!).

[matt coyne]

The opening chapter of 'Cobb' was unbelievably well written and gripping. I still use the term 'Fee Simple Sons of Bitches' when talking to my brother. I tried looking for Cobb's Atherton house when I lived in California but I couldn't find it. I had heard that Willie Mays was living in it at that time (1982). It was right about then that Mays and Mantle had to disaccociate themselves with baseball because they had greeters jobs at the casinos. I wrote Mays a poem that ented with:
"Now I live in Atherton
Home of Ty Cobb
But not for long
Ain't got a job".
Can you believe he never responded?

[Fritz Buelow]

Willie probably thought it was from Bowie.

[matt coyne]

High Hard One by Kirby Higbe
Babe by Roger Creamer
Any book with pictures of old stadia
Baseball Encyclopaedia - can't put it down, have never thrown one out.
Wait Til Next Year by William Goldman and Mike Lupica (1987) Very timely now, since it details the fall of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry in excrutiating detail.

[Skip]

You mean Lupica wrote something good - not just glib?

[richie17]

Riley's Negro League Encyclopedia is wonderful if you're interested in this kind of thing, tells you a lot about so many players.... it's a great companion to any of the other NL books.

The Orioles may be terrible from top to bottom now, but Eisenberg's "From 33rd Street to Camden Yards" is a great oral history that tells the story of the O's when they really were something. A great read I reckon.

The original bill james historical book was wonderful, I dipped into it probably a million times. The new one somehow seems to be lacking something.... if the old old was somehow greater than the sum of its parts, the new one is perhaps the reverse, which is weird because there's probably more interesting stuff in it... oh well, both are great.

His original abstracts are terrific, there are some amazing nuggets tucked away. My favourite was a paragraph or two on Steve Garvey, but I can't find it now. Another good one on Amos Otis.

The Walter Johnson biography by his grandson (forgotten name, Henry Thomas I think) is really good, and Winning! by Earl Weaver's a terrific read too about a very interesting ballclub.

"Nice guys finish last" by Leo Durocher is as good as Rob Neyer says it is, you can get the book quite cheaply at abebooks.com.

Agreed about the Creamer bio of Ruth, and Ball Four of course. I always have baseball prospectus and the latest minor league scouting notebook in my bag at work, brilliant for dipping into.

That's all I can think of for now.

[Fritz Buelow]

Originally posted by richie17
Riley's Negro League Encyclopedia is wonderful if you're interested in this kind of thing, tells you a lot about so many players.... it's a great companion to any of the other NL books.

I think Lee had a comment on this? Let me see if I can get him to offer it.

[nyy26wc]

Other than to say I was no fan of Riley's actions when he was President of SABR, I have no views on the merits of his books.

I think you are thinking of is John Holway, who's done a lot of writing on the Negro Leagues. I consider Holway's credibility to be so low that if he was the only one who said Josh Gibson was a Negro League player, I would assume Gibson was actually a white female who never saw a baseball in her life.

[richie17]

wow, would you mind expanding on your Holway views please? I've not read any of his work and was considering picking something up. Interested to hear a little more if that's ok?

In the same way, what did Riley do at SABR?

cheers
Rich

[pwdennis]

Non Fiction : Veeck = As In Wreck

Fiction: The Great American Novel by Phillip Roth, a great novel by an otherwise overrated writer

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by richie17
wow, would you mind expanding on your Holway views please? I've not read any of his work and was considering picking something up. Interested to hear a little more if that's ok?


I'm sorry, but I can't go into full detail about everything regarding Holway. This is not the proper forum to air SABR's dirty laundry.

I'll discuss Holway, in terms of generalists and in terms of how his actions impact on my views on his research. I just won't discuss specifics.

Holway has made a big ass out of himself in a couple of SABR forums. To a big extent, he's made an ass of himself on a personal basis, showing big flaws in himself as a person. It that was all that he did, then we shouldn't care, in terms of his books. The truth is, we don't know, or really care, whether Angell, James, Ringolsby, Gammons, Neyer, or anyone else nominated in this truth is a nice guy or not. All that truly matters to us is whether we enjoy their writings.

But, Holway has gone beyond that. He has shown that he has no regard for accuracy. His work has been shown to be shabby. He shown no regard for consistency. When presenting information on items that could be checked for factual accuracy (such as stats), there have been several examples of people checking the facts for themselves and showing Holway's so-called facts weren't in the same ballyard as what the numbers really showed.

I don't see why a person with no regard for accuracy, in a forum devoted to research, would all of a sudden transform himself into a credible source when writing books.

In the same way, what did Riley do at SABR?

Sorry, but I can't answer that question here. What Riley did at SABR is entirely related to SABR dirt.

In Holway's case, his actions in SABR forums has a direct impact on his credibility as a researcher. But, the same can not be said about Riley's failures as SABR President.

[Doc Pontoon]

Not a lot of recent stuff has been nominated, so I want to mention Joe Dimaggio: The Hero's Life by Richard Ben Cramer. It is a great read, plus it seems to be meticulously researched (that is, I don't know of any of its assertions that have been disputed or disproven... but then, what I don't know is plenty.)

Mark Harris's Henry Wiggen books (The Southpaw, Bang the Drum Slowly, A Ticket For a Seamstitch, and a fourth one that I haven't got my hands on yet) are my favorite baseball fiction, bar none.

My final unheralded gem is Veeck and Linn's The Hustler's Handbook, which is just as fun as Veeck... as in Wreck, with the added bonus of being less brazen with facts.

So, nobody's really following that "just name one" rule, eh?

John

[pjl7]

If I could only have one book it would be the first Historical Abstract (assuming I could get the stats from Total Baseball or MacMillan someplace). However, I place "Politics of Glory" pretty close. I find the entire subject of the instiutional history of the Hall of Fame quite interesting. There are also two newer books from MacFarlane about the Hall that I haven't seen but would be interested in hearing about from anyone.

If I could get one book that I don't yet have (about 600 now) it would be Shirley Povich's "Washington Senators".

[Skip]

James Vail has a couple books about the Hall too - "Outrageous Fortune" and "The Road to Cooperstown". I picked them up a while back but they're still sitting on my "To Read" stack.

[TimmyB]

Ball Four is a classic. I read it well over 20 years ago, so my memory is a little fuzzy. In my fuzzy memory, however, I am laughing out loud.

The Glory of their Times
Read this a couple summers ago. A great read on some of the game's lesser known stars. Many of these guys were overshadowed by Mathewson, Ruth, DiMaggio, Williams, etc.

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy
Probably been ten years since I read this. I picked it up on the heels of reading Shoeless Joe. The book is out there, combining, if I recall, baseball, the midwest, indian mythology and... well... you'll either love it or think people who love it are daft.

The Boys of Summer. This was the first "grown up" book I read, so, nostalgia takes over. I can't objectively say if it was good or not. I was able to relate to Dem Bums and the BoSox of the '70s seemed to be their cousins. In a previous life I must have been a Brooklyn fan.

Old Man and the Sea
Okay, so it's not about baseball. I guess this would be like including Mrs. Robinson if we were talking about favorite baseball songs...

I'll stop here... :D

[gyb13]

FWIW, here's Neyer's list of 'essentials' (http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/1999/0908/46394.html)

[Glyndwr]

I have to throw in a mention for 'Time begins on Opening Day' by Thomas Boswell

[hmrsf]

For Mother's Day I recieved You're Out and You're Ugly Too

Anyone read it?

[TimmyB]

Originally posted by hmrsf
For Mother's Day I recieved You're Out and You're Ugly Too

Anyone read it?

No, but the title is a winner.

Who wrote it?

[Gosfgiants]

I just re-read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. I had first read it back in high school before Field of Dreams was released. I found that the read was enjoyable, but I did not enjoy it as much as I did the first time round. I think this had more to do with me than the book itself. Part of it is that I've become much more of a critical reader over the years. I found the Kinsella in both his books goes for a magic realism style that is popular with alot of Latin American novelists. However, Kinsella does not have the same sort of language command of English that Marquez or Allende have in Spanish.

From a baseball perspective it is interesting book. Frank Chance is a significant character in the novel, and Kinsella does a fine job trying to recreate his gruff personality. The big thing comes through is Kinsella's love of the game. I do recommend it for its baseball qualities.

BTW, what ever happened to W.P. Kinsella? He has not put out a novel since I.B.C.

[hmrsf]

Originally posted by TimmyB


No, but the title is a winner.

Who wrote it?


Durwood Merril

It is billed as confessions of a ump with an attitude.

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by Gosfgiants
BTW, what ever happened to W.P. Kinsella? He has not put out a novel since I.B.C.

Perhaps after "Field of Dreams" was made, he didn't have to work anymore, so has chosen not to.

[hmrsf]

Did he write something called Box Car Social?

For some reason that title is kicking around in my head. I would look it up but i remember giving it away because it was not 2nd time readworthy.

[qtlaw]

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Men At Work (??) by George Will. ALthough I do not agree with Will's politics, I loved his book about the mental side of the game as told by La Russa, Weaver and others.

I also loved You've Got to Have Wa about Japanese BB and this other book I can't remember by Keith Hernandez which breaks down nearly every pitch in a single Braves (??) game. Fascinating.

[qtlaw]

Sorry, how could I forget one of the BEST, Summer of '67 by David Halberstam regarding the rise of the Cardinals and the fall of the Yankee empire. Fascinating. Wish there were more books like that now.

[pjl7]

I think that the Halberstam book you're thinking of is October 1964. A given for anyone who enjoyed Summer of '49. At this point I'd like to read a more modern account of the downfall of the Yankees. Unfortunately, it would have to be a work of fiction.



PS- George Will is the Man.

[TimmyB]

Speaking of '67 -- are there any good books out there on the subject?

[hmrsf]

Originally posted by hmrsf
For Mother's Day I recieved You're Out and You're Ugly Too

Anyone read it?


Now I can say that I have.

Very funny, light read. Nice to have in bathroom or pick up from time to time.

I left it in the car, whenever I had to wait for anything I read it.

It took about 13 doctor visits and a few camp pick ups. Perfect book to read while you are reading other books or a book to pick up every once and awhile.

[NCFella19]

To keep on the topic of what I consider the best baseball book I've ever read, I could just type in "Glory of Their Times", which could be true, but there is one that I read and re-read over and over just because the eloquence is so beautiful.

"A Great and Glorious Game" by A.Bartlett Giamatti

It's just a tiny 121 page book with 9 of his essays of the game. A quick read if you're pressed for time, small enough to fit in a jacket pocket, just poetic!

Makes you pine for a REAL commissioner.....

[sweaver]

Originally posted by TimmyB
Speaking of '67 -- are there any good books out there on the subject?
The Summer Game by Roger Angell has a nice section on it...but I don't know of a whole book devoted to it. There should be, it may have been the greatest pennant race in history.

[SuperChief]

My favorite :read: would either have to be "Cobb" by Stump or "Glory Days of Summer: The History of Baseball in Oklahoma" by Bob Burke.

[NCFella19]

My favorite would either have to be "Cobb" by Stump

I am about 1/3 of the way through it and am enjoying every bit of it so far.

[pwdennis]

I own a copy of THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM REMEMBERED - THE 1967 RED SOX by Ken Coleman & Dan Valenti (The Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, MA - issued 1987). It is a day-by-day chronicle of the 67 season, not terribly detailed but a nice keepsake for Bosox fans.

I've seen other books about the 67 Red Sox but I don't own any of them. Interesting facts about the 67 Red Sox - they were 31-31 on June 18, then caught fire and went 61-39 they rest of the way. Of the playing roster, only Elston Howard was no longer alive in 1987. Many of them have bit the dust since then, among them Tony Conigliaro and Jerry Adair

[taoleary]

You're Out and You're Ugly, Too!: Confessions of an Umpire With Attitude by Durwood Merrill. Great book by the man from Hooks, Texas. The foreward was written by Ken Griffey, Jr.

[sweaver]

Another answer for Timmyb's 1967 question: I have just happened upon Lightning in a Bottle: the Sox of '67 by Herbert F. Crehan, found at amazon.com at this site:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0828319677/qid=1027958072/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-5365862-3046262
I have not seen it and cannot vouch for the quality, but it exists.

[TimmyB]

Originally posted by sweaver
Another answer for Timmyb's 1967 question: I have just happened upon Lightning in a Bottle: the Sox of '67 by Herbert F. Crehan, found at amazon.com at this site:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0828319677/qid=1027958072/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/103-5365862-3046262
I have not seen it and cannot vouch for the quality, but it exists.

Thanks... never heard of that one...

[trripleplay]

By far my favorite Baseball Book is "Hornsby Hit One OVer MY Head", by David Cataneo. An oral history from the fans' perspective, stretching back to the early days of baseball. This book will be sure to spark memories of ballgames and ballparks past for any fan.

[Fatwater Fewl]

I'm partial to Giants of the Polo Grounds: The Glorious Times of Baseball's New York Giants,
by Noel Hynd. Covers more ground than Willie Mays; from John Montgomery Ward to the relocation.

[rcartman28]

If I had to live with only one baseball book for the rest of my life, it would be the original Historical Abstract. The new one didn't quite reach my expectations and all of the new ratings seemed to be mostly based on "Win Shares"......

runners up would be something like "A False Spring" by Pat Jordan, "It's What You Learn After You Know It All" by Earl Weaver, and "Beyond The Sixth Game" by Peter Gammons, although that might change after a bit more thought.....