Favorite Baseball Book

[syridihep]

A few months ago I faced an outstanding compilation of 100 best baseball books, but I've lost the link and screenshots

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by syridihep

A few months ago I faced an outstanding compilation of 100 best baseball books, but I've lost the link and screenshots

Is it this?

[Cod]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Is it this?

I picked up Prophet of the Sandlots after seeing it on that list and the book ended up as one of my favorites.

[dsvitak]

The Universal Baseball Association, followed closely by Ball Four. Bill James' big historical abstracts have to be on my list as well.

Looking at this list, it appears that I have read most of them.

Anyone familiar with 796.357 knows what I'm talking about.

[Cod]

Recently picked up The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball by Gonzalez Echevarria and The Road to Omaha: Hits, Hopes, and History at the College World Series by McGee. I haven't had the chance to read either yet, but each was only $6 at the local used bookstore, so I figured I'd give them a chance.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Cod

Recently picked up The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball by Gonzalez Echevarria

I've been thinking about that one so please pop back in when you're done!

I don't think I actually answered the OP when I seconded Lords of the Realm (which is a must-read for anyone with interest in cartel baseball).

My single favorite book that I re-read every couple of years is Veeck as in Wreck by Bill Veeck. Similarly I've re-read Ball Four by Jim Bouton multiple times and it's obviously a classic.

I need to re-read the Universal Baseball Association, I think first time through I misunderstood some of what was happening. It would be a pretty interesting movie if anyone ever went to the trouble to film it!

[Cod]

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

I've been thinking about that one so please pop back in when you're done!

May be waiting a while lol. It's pretty far down my TBR list, but I'll make a note to come back to this thread. I only bought it because I can't ever pass up a deal at the used bookstore

[Pelican]

Any of the compilations by the late, great Roger Angell of the New Yorker, who lived long enough to have known Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Jeter, Chapman, Judge.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Pelican

Any of the compilations by the late, great Roger Angell of the New Yorker, who lived long enough to have known Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Jeter, Chapman, Judge.

There’s this particularly amazing article he wrote that’s in Once More Around the Park where he interviews Smokey Joe Wood during a college game between St. John’s and Harvard. On the mound that day were Ron Darling and Frank Viola.

[Cod]

Anyone read The Universal Baseball Association by Robert Coover? It's a fictional novel about an accountant who dreams about his fantasy league throughout the day. The story of a man who gets more and more into his simulated baseball game.

I've been told its a very underrated book that any baseball fan should read. Hoping someone here has read it and can elaborate on the book a little bit before I try to find a copy as it doesn't look to be in print any longer.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

There’s this particularly amazing article he wrote that’s in Once More Around the Park where he interviews Smokey Joe Wood during a college game between St. John’s and Harvard. On the mound that day were Ron Darling and Frank Viola.

Ron Darling went to Yale.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by Cod

Anyone read The Universal Baseball Association by Robert Coover? It's a fictional novel about an accountant who dreams about his fantasy league throughout the day. The story of a man who gets more and more into his simulated baseball game.

I've been told its a very underrated book that any baseball fan should read. Hoping someone here has read it and can elaborate on the book a little bit before I try to find a copy as it doesn't look to be in print any longer.

I read it when it first came out, and it is far from 'underrated'. It is not so much a baseball book, as it is about a dice-and-paper game of fictional players that J. Henry Waugh ("Yaweh" get it?) plays in his dull life.

While there is lots to recommend, I should note Coover is a life-long leftist and wrote a fictional account of the Rosenbergs that 'acquits' them of being traitors--long since disproved by the Rosenbergs own admissions of guilt. So there's that.

Worth your time, I expect it is in most libraries, so buying seems expensive to me.

[Cod]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I read it when it first came out, and it is far from 'underrated'. It is not so much a baseball book, as it is about a dice-and-paper game of fictional players that J. Henry Waugh ("Yaweh" get it?) plays in his dull life.

Part of what drew me to considering the book is that I grew up playing Strat-o-Matic and other like games. Thanks for the breakdown and thoughts on the book.

[Cod]

Well, the book backlog is getting longer. Went buy the used book store today and came home with the following books:

• Streak: Joe Dimaggio and The Summer of '41 by Seidel
• The Physics of Baseball by Adair
• Pinstripe Empire: The NYY From Before The Babe To After The Babe by Appel

Got all three books for a total of $14, so I'm very happy.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by Cod

Part of what drew me to considering the book is that I grew up playing Strat-o-Matic and other like games. Thanks for the breakdown and thoughts on the book.

I hope my 'far from underrated' didn't mislead anyone. I was in a hurry, and I intended to say it wasn't unknown, rather a classic that everyone with Strat, OOTP FOF and so forth background has read and enjoyed. But be prepared for Socialist preaching along the way.

The game Waugh plays is described in detail and many have tried (and failed) to produce it.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Ron Darling went to Yale.

St. John's and Yale then.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I hope my 'far from underrated' didn't mislead anyone. I was in a hurry, and I intended to say it wasn't unknown, rather a classic that everyone with Strat, OOTP FOF and so forth background has read and enjoyed. But be prepared for Socialist preaching along the way.

The game Waugh plays is described in detail and many have tried (and failed) to produce it.

Waugh's rapid downward spiral into mental illness is shocking. I read this book as a ten year old, and was pretty shook up.

Having said that, I read Ball Four at aged 12, and this book, more than any other event of my childhood, force-matured me toward adulthood. Beaver shooting on the old Shoreham Hotel, indeed.

[thehef]

I'm currently reading "The Greatest Minor League: A History of The Pacific Coast League, 1903-1957" by Dennis Snelling.

I'm up to the early 1930's right now, and the book has been nothing short of fascinating and highly informative. When I eventually start my historically-accurate (as is possible) OOTP replay of the PCL, I'll be referring to it often!

Highly recommended for fans of minor league baseball history & the historic PCL.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Not a 'baseball book' as such, however author and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould was a big baseball fan and wrote a few chapters in his fine work, FULL HOUSE. In 1986 he wrote about the extinction of the .400 hitter in a way that advanced baseball statisticians have come to accept. What with the 62 homer surliness, this is a useful read.

Here's a PDF of the relevant chapters:

https://web.colby.edu/baseball/files...0-hitter-1.pdf

Taking the time to read FULL HOUSE and Gould's other books is well worth every thinking man's time (chicks, too!)

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Pelican

Any of the compilations by the late, great Roger Angell of the New Yorker, who lived long enough to have known Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Jeter, Chapman, Judge.

I did not know that Roger had passed. At 101, it was bound to happen, but still.

My favorite work of his is "The Baltimore Vermeers", his review of the 1970 season (the title refers to Brooks Robinson's fielding plays being framed in the mind, as works of art), specifically the section on the failure of the Mets to repeat, falling to a miserable 83-79 after the 100-62 that pushed them to the title. The concluding section, from "and yet, and yet…" to the final, depressing, "…which is the mark of an old, old ball team." is a sad eulogy for a thing of beauty and wonder, gone all too soon. I regret that I can't find it online (where's Scribd when I need them? That stuff used to be free) and that I'm too lazy to transcribe it.

"Stubbornly, almost sullenly, they rallied…"

"Official extinction descended in Pittsburgh five days later, and the two-year age of wonders came to its end."

I'm sure that part of this is the current Mets having had Official Extinction descend last night (and my only following this season as a freebie because DirecTV screwed up; my "No Manfred-ball" vow takes full effect next year), but this puts a punctuation mark on my emotions.

Ah, well, to quote the Marvel Cinematic Universe: "A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts." True enough. For the Mets, baseball itself, and Roger. Adieu, sage.

(Even without remembering the Ron Darling-Yale connection, it makes sense for Smoky Joe Wood to have been at that game, as he was a former Yale coach, from 1924-1941. He was only dismissed because Yale was trimming staff positions, due to World War II.)