Favorite Baseball Book

[Cod]

Picked up Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and The Dawn of Modern America by David Rapp a few days ago. Probably won't have time to read it for a few weeks, but couldn't pass it up for $6.

[Cod]

Stopped by HPB earlier this week and bought Ty and The Babe by Bob Stanton.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Cod

Stopped by HPB earlier this week and bought Ty and The Babe by Bob Stanton.

I recall enjoying that one a decade or so ago. Stanton also wrote "The Final Season: Fathers, Sons, and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark" which was fabulous.

[Cod]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

I recall enjoying that one a decade or so ago. Stanton also wrote "The Final Season: Fathers, Sons, and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark" which was fabulous.

I hadn't heard of that one. I'll add that to my list and pick it up at some point. Thanks.

[Irrelevant Dude]

To those of you who recommended The Final Season, would you say it is a book for the general baseball fan, or do you need to be a Tigers fan to fully appreciate it?

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[Walt9]

The Roger Angell books: The Summer Game, Five Seasons, and Extra Innings. He has an "elegant" way of writing about baseball.
And I second the mention of The Glory of Their Times.

[dsvitak]

I read Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" as a twelve year old. It immediately, and forever changed how I viewed life...and not in a 100% positive way.

Either way, it was the most influential baseball book. A close second are the original Bill James' Baseball Abstracts. My first one was about 40 pages, and stapled together.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Irrelevant Dude

To those of you who recommended The Final Season, would you say it is a book for the general baseball fan, or do you need to be a Tigers fan to fully appreciate it?

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

Probably more appreciated by a Tigers fan but the premise is the relationship of a son to his father through the prism of baseball. It is very well done.

[cake00]

I've got a soft spot for "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn. The nostalgia and deep dive into the Brooklyn Dodgers' heyday just hit differently. As for handling diverse units in OOTP leagues, that length converter is a lifesaver, especially when the book I'm reading throws curveballs with measurements not familiar in my neck of the woods. Also "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis is pretty good too.

[Salvo_Witness]

Yes to the UBA inc. reread it on the flight to Worcester from SF last year for the ninth time, and finally really got the last chapter. Will bring it again later this week as I'm flying to Worcester again for the second annual National Baseball Poetry Festival where I'm again a featured poet.

[Cod]

Originally Posted by Salvo_Witness

Yes to the UBA inc. reread it on the flight to Worcester from SF last year for the ninth time, and finally really got the last chapter. Will bring it again later this week as I'm flying to Worcester again for the second annual National Baseball Poetry Festival where I'm again a featured poet.

That's awesome! I didn't even know this was a thing. Checked out the website and seems like a really great festival for all baseball fans: baseball literature (poetry specifically), two games, and lots of other fun events.

[FloridaMarlins]

If They Don't Win It's a Shame: The Year the Marlins Bought the World Series (I've read this book twice)

Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"―The 1973–1975 Texas Rangers

Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by FloridaMarlins

Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s

An enthusiastic second to this recommendation! I am 59 and it struck all of my childhood memories perfectly.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by FloridaMarlins

If They Don't Win It's a Shame: The Year the Marlins Bought the World Series (I've read this book twice)

Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"―The 1973–1975 Texas Rangers

Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s

Guessing you might enjoy "Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic" Reggie, Rollie, Catfish and Charlie Finley's Swingin A's, by Jason Turnbow. I too enjoyed Season's in Hell. I've tried managing that Rangers team in OOTP and pretty sure I had less hair before I finally gave up.

[FloridaMarlins]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Guessing you might enjoy "Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic" Reggie, Rollie, Catfish and Charlie Finley's Swingin A's, by Jason Turnbow. I too enjoyed Season's in Hell. I've tried managing that Rangers team in OOTP and pretty sure I had less hair before I finally gave up.

Thanks! I've seen that book, and I will check it out.

[FloridaMarlins]

A few more:

Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember

The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the ... Put on a New York Uniform--and Maybe the Best

Long Shot by Mike Piazza

From the Front Row: Reflections of a Major League Baseball Owner and Modern Art Dealer

I'm Keith Hernandez: A Memoir

If at First: A Season With the Mets

Pure Baseball

Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball

[FloridaMarlins]

Another great book:

Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood

[FloridaMarlins]

I've read this book twice.

Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head--My 25 Years in Baseball

[Déjà Bru]

I haven't read it yet, but I would characterize this NYT book review as "glowing":

The Banty, Blustering Genius of Earl Weaver



This is from the review; hopefully the writer was inspired by similarly excellent prose in the book:

The greatest sight in Major League Baseball during the 1970s was almost certainly this one: the Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver storming out of the dugout to remonstrate over some perceived injustice to his players. He would be so incensed at the officiating — or he pretended to be — that it was if he’d been eating chilies and was excreting flames.

If you were holding a hot dog, this was dinner and a show. Weaver was short and a bit tubby; he resembled Archie Bunker’s better looking, harder-drinking younger brother. He would kick dirt on a base, or yank it out of the ground, or lie down on it, or sit on it like a Buddha. Like Redd Foxx, he faked heart attacks. He performatively tore up rule books. He mimed throwing umpires out of the game. Officials got so upset when Weaver “beaked” them in the chest with the bill of his cap that he was forced to flip it around when arguing. He was ejected repeatedly, and fans ate it up. In Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium, one sportswriter commented, he was like Elvis playing Vegas.

EDIT: This portion of the review,

Baseball managers today, in interviews, dispense clichés until you want to double Van Gogh yourself. Weaver liked to hold court after games while nude, drinking beer, smoking and eating fried chicken; sometimes he’d keep talking while at the urinal. He’d say things like, “We’ve crawled out of more coffins than Bela Lugosi.”

Miller catalogs a lot of Weaver’s best lines. He liked to comically hassle players he considered overly religious, for example. When one told him to walk with the Lord, he replied: “I’d rather you walk with the bases loaded.” When the same player hit a home run and commented that the Lord had been watching out for him, Weaver replied: “We better not be counting on God. I ain’t got no stats on God.”

sparked memory of the Earl Weaver quotes in the OOTPB hints file. I found these:

"The only thing that matters is what happens on the little hump out in the middle of the field." (Earl Weaver)

"You know Earl. He's not happy unless he's not happy." (Elrod Hendricks, on Earl Weaver)

"Do the dull things right so the extraordinary things will not be required too often." (Earl Weaver)

"We hit the ball right where they could show off their defensive ability." (Earl Weaver, after losing to the 1969 Mets)

[Syd Thrift]

I really enjoyed his book "On Strategy" (which came packaged with Earl Weaver Baseball back in the day!) and I do think he had a somewhat analytical approach to the game that others later picked up on and used but maaan two things about him give me some pause:

1. A lot of the "analytics" weren't super analytical but more small sample size theater. In particular he used to base lineups on statistical records vs the pitcher that day. That's a fun little way to juggle lineups but among other things it also had the effect of playing veterans over youngsters and IMO was a big part of why his stuff stopped working in the 80s.

2. He was a massive jerk. Like, yes, all those stories of him charging the mound or getting thrown out while handing the umps the lineup card or saying some really nasty misogynistic things to a letter-writer on a radio broadcast are funny to go back and read about / listen to but, like, is that a person you actually want as the spokesperson of your team? I'll help: the answer is "no". Earl Weaver was a great manager in spite of this part of him and an awful lot of oldheads seem to think it was because of it.