Favorite Baseball Book

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by 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!)

Shortly before he died, Gould edited a collection of his baseball-related essays into a book fwiw.

[Cod]

Originally Posted by Ziaboz

For me, The Physics of Baseball by Adair is one of the highest quality books on the subject, so be sure to read it thoughtfully.

Thanks for the input. It's still far down on my TBR list, but I'll get to it eventually. I've been deep in books about college baseball and Cape Cod League lately. Plus a few college basketball and fantasy novels sprinkled in. And with the Bill James Handbook 2023 releasing tomorrow, I'll be busy for the next month.

Has anyone read and/or heard anything about Baseball Pitches : A Modern Data Definition by Wayne Boyle and Sean Boyle? A MLB pitching coach I work with recommended it. The same authors wrote
Applied Technology in Pitching: Metrics, Development, and Strategies which also comes highly recommended.

[SayHey1]

Just adding my recommendation to this book. It's a baseball book that has nothing to do with what happened on the field but is nonetheless fascinating especially the behind the scenes information of how owner/labor negotiations took place.

[monkeyman576]

Peanuts by Charles Schultz

[Retraid]

Originally Posted by BaseballMan

Here's my collection.

Hardcover/Paperback
1. Total Baseball (8th Edition)
2. The Espn Baseball Encyclopedia (5th Edition)
3. Historic Ballparks: A Panoramic Vision
4.The Sports Encyclopedia of Baseball (2007 Edition)
5. Baseball Extra: A Newspaper History of Baseball
6. Ken Burns Baseball
7. The World Series: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Fall Classic
8. Baseball Archaeology: Artifacts from the Great American Pastime.
9. Ty Cobb
10. Eight Men Out
11. Baseball in the Garden of Eden
12. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstarct
13. Green Cathedrals
14. The Great Encyclopedia of 19th Century Major League Baseball
15. The Baseball Timeline
16. Ballparks Yesterday and Today

Kindle
1. Kiss "Em Goodbye: An Early Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Dropped Teams
2. Baseball The Early Days
3. The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers
4. The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball
5. Baseball Prospectus: Extra Innings
6. Eight Men Out
7. Shoeless Joe
8. The Betrayal:The 1919 World Series And The Birth Of Modern Baseball
9. Forty Nine In 84
10. The Summer of Beer and Whiskey

Audible Books.
1. The Called Shot
2. How Baseball Happened
3. October 1964
4. Moneyball
5. Stan Musial
6. The Boys of Summer
7. The Big Fella
8. The Big Bam
9. The Betrayal:The 1919 World Series And The Birth Of Modern Baseball
10. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning
11. Willie Mays
12. Walter Johnson
13. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty
14. The Kid:The Imortal Life Of Ted Williams
15. the Last Boy:Mickey Mantle And The End Of America's Childhood
16. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish And Charley Finley's Swingin' A's
17. Shoeless Joe
18. The Summer of Beer and Whiskey
19. Sandy Koufax
20. Playing For Keeps
21. Pinstripe Empire
22. Playball!: The Rise of Baseball as America's Pastime
23. The Hall: A Celebration of Baseball"s Greats
24. Our Game
25. Honus Wagner
26. The Glory of Their Times
27. Forty Nine In 84
28. Fall From Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson
29. Casey Stengel
30. Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
31. Baseball: The companion book to the Ken Burns pbs tv series
32. There's also the scorn of gilgamesh, also not bad.

FILM

4K
1. Field of Dreams

Blu_Ray
1. Field of Dreams
2. A League of their Own
3. For Love of the Game
4. 61*
5. 42
6. Bull Durham
7. The Natural

DVD
1. Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns
2. The World Series: History of the Fall Classic

Digital Only
1. Babe Ruth
2. Pride of The Yankees
3. Eight Men Out

Wow, so many new things to read now, thanks so much for sharing.

[Cod]

I bought a copy of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary from ebay for $4 after a colleague's recommendation. Not really a book you sit through and read cover-to-cover, but definitely a fun book to have around to learn baseball terms and the etymology of said terms.

[thehef]

Technically not a book, but I believe it's sourced from a few book-volumes...

For those who don't already know: A very interesting & different perspective on the history of the game can be found on the SABR website, where there are articles on every single one of baseball's Winter Meetings, beginning in 1857... Lots of cool stuff including the evolution of the game's rules, amateur vs professional, player trades (& non-trades/rumors), expansion & relocations, labor relations, majors vs minors, internal politics of owners/league presidents/commissioners, television, lights, etc... and of course the evolution of the structure of what came to be major league baseball itself... Lots of good stuff!

Just go to sabr.org and in the search bar type "winter meetings" to see a selection (if you want to start randomly), or type in "1857 winter meetings" to start at the beginning (or use a specific year if that's where you want to start)... Several months ago I started in the late 1890's and read them all chronologically. Recently I went back to the beginning and now I'm in 1870... Each year is maybe a 10-15 minute read...

[Cod]

Originally Posted by thehef

For those who don't already know: A very interesting & different perspective on the history of the game can be found on the SABR website, where there are articles on every single one of baseball's Winter Meetings, beginning in 1857... Lots of cool stuff including the evolution of the game's rules, amateur vs professional, player trades (& non-trades/rumors), expansion & relocations, labor relations, majors vs minors, internal politics of owners/league presidents/commissioners, television, lights, etc... and of course the evolution of the structure of what came to be major league baseball itself... Lots of good stuff!

Just go to sabr.org and in the search bar type "winter meetings" to see a selection (if you want to start randomly), or type in "1857 winter meetings" to start at the beginning (or use a specific year if that's where you want to start)... Several months ago I started in the late 1890's and read them all chronologically. Recently I went back to the beginning and now I'm in 1870... Each year is maybe a 10-15 minute read...

SABR is one of the few professional organizations I'm a part of and absolutely love it. The in-person meetings, Zoom meetings, all the free books, etc. more than pay for the membership costs.

[Déjà Bru]

Ever notice how sparse it is for sports fiction novels? I mean good ones; there's a lot of trash out there. Much of that trash is evident when the covers depict the sculpted abs of young men.

I went through this thread and culled the suggestions; thanks for them. But when all was said and done, I ended up with less than ten such books in my library.

For a demonstration, try googling "best sports fiction novels." Suprisingly, the three that John Grisham has written so far appear on many of these lists. They are Playing for Pizza (2007), Calico Joe (2012), and Sooley (2021), all of which I have read and enjoyed. On the lists, and having appeared no earlier than 15 years ago.

It's one of two mysteries that I have about books.

1. Why are there so few (good) sports fiction novels?
2. Why is so much of historical fiction written my women (much of which also with shirtless men on the covers)?

[Cod]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

It's one of two mysteries that I have about books.

1. Why are there so few (good) sports fiction novels?

There are some really good ones out there, you just aren't going to find them looking at any sports fiction best seller list. Here's a few suggestions of sports fiction that I enjoyed:

• The Universal Baseball Association, Inc by Robert Coover
• Castro's Curveball by Tim Wendel
• Escape from Castro's Cuba by Tim Wendel
• Lord Bart and the Leagues of SIP and ALE by Michael Barbato-Dunn (also a forum member)
• The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad Harbach
• Cactus League by Emily Nemens
• The Great American Novel by Philip Roth
• Fat City by Leonard Gardner
• Red or Dead by David Peace
• Bear Town by Frederick Backman

If you start your search with one of the above books, you should find related books that don't delve into the shirtless man on cover realm.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cod

There are some really good ones out there, you just aren't going to find them looking at any sports fiction best seller list. Here's a few suggestions of sports fiction that I enjoyed:

• The Universal Baseball Association, Inc by Robert Coover
• Castro's Curveball by Tim Wendel
• Escape from Castro's Cuba by Tim Wendel
• Lord Bart and the Leagues of SIP and ALE by Michael Barbato-Dunn (also a forum member)
• The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad Harbach
• Cactus League by Emily Nemens
• The Great American Novel by Philip Roth
• Fat City by Leonard Gardner
• Red or Dead by David Peace
• Bear Town by Frederick Backman

If you start your search with one of the above books, you should find related books that don't delve into the shirtless man on cover realm.

Thanks for these suggestions. I have three of them already but I will be looking at the rest!

[Cod]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Thanks for these suggestions. I have three of them already but I will be looking at the rest!

I should've mentioned that not all of them are baseball. The last three are boxing, soccer, and hockey respectively.

[Syd Thrift]

Of course, there's also The Natural. I remember reading a book about a guy who went back in time and played on the 1869 Reds but can't for the life of me remember the name...

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Of course, there's also The Natural. I remember reading a book about a guy who went back in time and played on the 1869 Reds but can't for the life of me remember the name...

"If I Never Get Back" by Daryl Brock. It's really good!

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by kq76

"If I Never Get Back" by Daryl Brock. It's really good!

Yeah, that’s the one!

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Of course, there's also The Natural. I remember reading a book about a guy who went back in time and played on the 1869 Reds but can't for the life of me remember the name...

I was able to read Shoeless Joe, which is the source of the film Field of Dreams, with enjoyment and I will read it again.

I couldn't get into Bernard Malamud's The Natural, however; in fact, I didn't go near it.

Why? Because I had advance notice of the book's ending. It's a real downer, I heard, and in very stark contrast with the movie's uplifting climax. I didn't want to spoil that.

Silly, I know.

[Syd Thrift]

IMO it’s to me less of a “downer” and more of an epic tragedy. You see why Hobbs is going to fall and why he has to. If anything I thought the movie sacrificed a good point - it would have been especially prescient when Pete Rose got banned - in favor of the Hollywood ending. There are some things an athlete just plain can’t ever fix and that in part is what The Natural is about (and really it’s a re-telling of the King Arthur tale in baseball form).

I’m not necessarily a fan of downer endings but I’m… not not a fan of them either, and I’ll take an earned downer ending over an unearned upper any day of the week.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

IMO it’s to me less of a “downer” and more of an epic tragedy. You see why Hobbs is going to fall and why he has to. If anything I thought the movie sacrificed a good point - it would have been especially prescient when Pete Rose got banned - in favor of the Hollywood ending. There are some things an athlete just plain can’t ever fix and that in part is what The Natural is about (and really it’s a re-telling of the King Arthur tale in baseball form).

I’m not necessarily a fan of downer endings but I’m… not not a fan of them either, and I’ll take an earned downer ending over an unearned upper any day of the week.

Okay, you've convinced me. I will "take a swing" at it. Heh.

EDIT: Although I do so reluctantly, for the reason I stated. Still, one is one and the other is another. One thing I will not do is to read the book and look at the movie in a short span of time. I will try to parse the two and approach them as separate and distinct experiences.

[dsvitak]

I'm surprised that there isn't more love for Ring Lardner. GREAT writer.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I was able to read Shoeless Joe, which is the source of the film Field of Dreams, with enjoyment and I will read it again.

I couldn't get into Bernard Malamud's The Natural, however; in fact, I didn't go near it.

Why? Because I had advance notice of the book's ending. It's a real downer, I heard, and in very stark contrast with the movie's uplifting climax. I didn't want to spoil that.

Silly, I know.

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

IMO it’s to me less of a “downer” and more of an epic tragedy. You see why Hobbs is going to fall and why he has to. If anything I thought the movie sacrificed a good point - it would have been especially prescient when Pete Rose got banned - in favor of the Hollywood ending. There are some things an athlete just plain can’t ever fix and that in part is what The Natural is about (and really it’s a re-telling of the King Arthur tale in baseball form).

I’m not necessarily a fan of downer endings but I’m… not not a fan of them either, and I’ll take an earned downer ending over an unearned upper any day of the week.

No go. I got only a third of the way through the book. So what got me was not the ending.

No, it was when Sam Simpson, the kindly scout who discovered Roy Hobbs, was killed by a pitch thrown by Hobbs when he struck out the Whammer. Even that would have been alright except that Hobbs felt no grief or remorse about it.

And that is the real problem for me. This Roy Hobbs is a self-centered hedonist, not a likeable character, really. I read novels to be entertained and, if I am lucky, inspired. This version of Hobbs is neither entertaining or inspiring.

There is a enough of the dark side of human nature in reality. While of course any fictional tale must reflect this to some degree, I don't need a story in which it prevails or predominates.

I'll stick with the movie version, thanks. After I watch that, I feel good and to me, that is the purpose. YMMV, of course.