Good Baseball Books
 

Over the holiday break I finally read The Luckiest Man bio on Gehrig. Just loved it. Realize it came out a while ago. What an icon. And a very complex guy. Is there an equally good Ruth bio that is not a sugar coated idol worship or just gossip rag? The Gehrig book was so good has me looking for another similar read.

It's been about 20 years, but I really enjoyed Smeltzer's Life That Ruth Built. I was told that it is more realistic than Cramer's Babe, but I haven't read Babe. If you haven't read Celebrant (Greenberg), it's a must read even though it's fiction.

Ball 4

I haven't read many, but I liked:

Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train by Hank Thomas (hi Hank)

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

All of the above.....
 

and:

Miracle Ball: My Hunt for the Shot Heard 'Round the World

and:

Praying for Gil Hodges

Awesome books!

Peace, Mike

I'll toot my own horn and recommend my book "The League of Outsider Baseball". I illustrated, wrote it and am proud as heck of it. Came out in May and received better reviews than I could have ever asked for, which you can read HERE. ESPN called it "The most beautiful baseball book of the summer" and I've gotten really great responses at all the book signings I've done this year. And I just found out it was selected as one of the nine best baseball books of the year nominated for the Casey Award...

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Agree- Gary's book is Great. So is "Ball Four", "October 1964", and the oft mentioned classic "The Glory of Their Times". "Lords of the Realm" good as well as far as the Business of Baseball goes.

Not Ruth related but I would recommend Glory of Their Times. I recently picked up two baseball books, Eight Men Out and Turbulent Seasons.

Gary....
 

Always looking for cool books. Just ordered this on Amazon! Thanks for the heads up!

Peace, Mike

Ed Delahanty and the Emerald Age Of Baseball is a tremendous work. Also Color Blind. Story of interracial team from Bismarck ND (including Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith) playing in the first national semi-pro tournament.

Tom C

As a Tigers fan, I'm currently enjoying SABR's "Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 World Champion Tigers."

Here are some of my favorites (a few already being named)

Ball Four
Glory Of Their Times
Crazy 08
59 in '84
The Spirit Of St. Louis: A History Of The St. Louis Cardinals & Browns
That's A Winner! (Jack Buck)
Opening Day (Jackie Robinson)
What Ever Happened To The Hall OF Fame?

There are several more but I'll stop there!

Scott

Agree with you completely. I read that Delahanty book a couple years ago, and really liked it. The author, Jerrold Casway, is a professor at Howard Community College in Maryland. I wrote him a short e-mail after I read the book saying how much I liked it, and he wrote me a nice e-mail back saying that the greatest feeling any author can ever have is being told by a reader that they enjoyed something he/she wrote.

For something different than a biography, Dave Jamieson's "Mint Condition" is a fabulous read. The book talks about the author's frustration and disappointment at realizing his cards from the 1980s and 1990s were worth nearly nothing. Jamieson wrote about calling card shops to see if they wanted his old cards, only to find out that he could literally not even give them away. The book also talks about the history of cards and why the bottom fell out on '80s and '90s cards.

Me too. Looking forward to it Gary. Just ordered. Thanks everyone for all the good ideas and happy new year.

Gary's Book
 

Got the "Outsiders of Baseball" for Christmas. Love it. Gotta recommend "Banzai Babe Ruth" by Fritts. Really enjoyable read.

Thanks to you guys who ordered my book, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing and illustrating it.

Rob Fitts' book Banzai Babe Ruth is really one of the best baseball books I've read. Although it's about the 1934 MLB tour of Japan it is also part spy book and he really gets into the personalities of the ball players and makes them come alive. A real great guy in person as well.

If you want one to really throw you through a loop, read "The Natural" - it ain't anything like the movie (I actually wish they had followed the book instead of re-writing it).

"Pure Baseball" by Keith Hernandez is a fascinating book. He dissects two games pitch by pitch. Sometimes a bit too in depth, but interesting nonetheless. You can't read it without realizing how smart a player the guy was.

Good topic. Over a decade ago, I started to put together a baseball library. I searched for "baseball library" and at the time found the following two links.

http://www.sandlotshrink.com/bookoldbb.htm
http://www.kypris.com/Baseball/bb-essential.html

I acquired and read quite a few of the titles. Some of the titles mentioned on the thread made the list.

As mentioned more than once The Glory of Their Times by Ritter is one of the best (if not the best) baseball books ever written. After reading the book, pick up the cd's of Ritter's actual interviews.

Other good reads:

Dollar Sign on the Muscle

The Fireside books

Men at Work

Veeck as in Wreck

Prophet of the Sandlots

Baseball as I have known it

Some are called Clowns

Baseball when the grass was real

The Politics of Glory

One of my favorites this year was.
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty By Charles Leerhsen

SABR puts out really good books on particular teams (one of the above posts mentions the 1935 Tigers book). These have extensive bios on every single member of the team including coaches and chapters on their ballparks, significant games and break downs of the season. They've done a bunch of them so far and I have these in my library:

The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers

Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 New York Yankees

Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox

Who's On First: Replacement Players in World War II

Van Lingle Mungo: The Man, The Song, The Players

Winning on the North Side: The 1929 Chicago Cubs

The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals: The World Champion Gas House Gang

I'd definitely recommended The Glory of Their Times.
I'm currently reading ty Cobb: a terrible beauty and am really enjoying it.

"The Big Bam" is an outstanding book on Ruth.

I would highly recommend "War on the Basepaths" by Tim Hornbaker. IMHO, it's the better of the two Ty Cobb books that came out this year.

I was privileged to go to The Smithsonian Museum back in 1987. After my wife and I were done, I spent a few minutes browsing in their bookstore. Lo and behold, there was a Mickey Mantle book I'd never heard of, but had been just released that year. Entitled EXPLOSION!, by Paul Gallagher, it was a thorough, very well-researched treatment and analysis of each of Mickey Mantles home runs.

Gallagher did a fine job, and interviewed many of Mickey's teammates and pitchers he faced. In retrospect, his timing was pivotal, for many of them, including Mick, have now passed on. With Gallagher's enjoyable writing style, and all the pertinent aspects he covers, coupled with the kazillion memories from former players interviewed, Gallagher makes Mickey's home run action all come back fresh again. It became a very cherished read and a wonderful complement to my Mickey Mantle baseball card collection. I still enjoy it immensely whenever I pick it up.

---Brian Powell

Just discovered Glory of Their Times. What a fantastic book with chapters told by Marquard, Leach, Davey Jones, Sam Crawford, George Gibson, Jimmy Austin, Fred Snodgrass, Joe Wood, Chief Meyers and many more. If you love pre-war baseball this is amazing!

+1 on Gary's book. I very much enjoyed it.

And while it's not pre-war, I would recommend "Big Hair and Plastic Grass". It's a real fun book about baseball in the '70's.

Best baseball book I've ever read (and am re-reading now yet again) is Frank Deford's "The Old Ball Game, How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball." An unlikely pair you will be hard pressed to find. An amazing read of how the 20th century game took shape, largely in part to the influence of these two gentlemen and the Giants.

thanks Bill for sharing. Putting that on the list!

Some, if not all, already noted. But the more you see the names from more people, the more interest they might receive from those who haven't read them (sort of like HOF voting???). Just recent ones I've read that are worth keeping and/or re-reading.

Glory of Their Times (of course)
Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball
The Big Bam
Crazy '08
Harry Hooper - An Amazing Baseball Life
Blackball Stars
We Played the Game (I'm still working on this one)

And special mention to:
My Greatest Day In Baseball (c 1945) - As told by the players. This one for some of "greatest days" you might not expect, such as Satchel Paige's implication of having to win in San Domingo of face President Trujillo's wrath. Great little vignettes that aren't just distant memories for most of these players.

Special mention because the copy I have is weathered and has water damage, but I especially enjoy the inscription to the original owner (not me). "To Dad, From Jean, Merry Christmas 1945!... or ... To My Dad, May he not be so sarcastic, but sarcastic or not, my Dad Always!"

Agreed. Outstanding book.

Thanks and glad you liked it!

One funny thing I just had to share while re-reading "The Old Ball Game, How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball" last night. At one point as Deford is describing the differences between Muggsy and Matty, he describes McGraw as looking like a leprechaun without a conscience. That one always gets a belly laugh from me.

John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball, gives a review of a book I quite enjoyed, Christy Mathewson's Pitching in a Pinch. Matty didn't actually write it (it was ghostwritten by John Wheeler), but the historical accounts, and the very language used in the first decade of the Twentieth Century makes for a fascinating read.

I finally just finished Glory of Their Times. What a fantastic read!

I just finished Three Finger by Cindy Thompson and Scott brown. Very, very good read.

Shameless plug. Feel free to check out my book, Beyond Baseball


I have enjoyed reading all of Dirk Hayhurst's books, Jim Bouton, Odd Man Out by Matt McCarthy and just finished Steve Fireovid's the 26th Man.

This is my favorite baseball book closely followed by Bill James "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?"

I am actually looking for a specific baseball book. Does anyone have a copy of Erik Varon's book on Philadelphia Caramels they would sell me? He wrote it in 2009 and only 100 copies were issued and he has no more.

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Gary - I know it's a month after the fact, but I can't tell you how much I loved the book. The stories are incredible and the art work is really extraordinary. So much I learned. Some of the stories gave me the old proverbial lump in the throat. Moe Berg? Farmer Dean? You couldn't make these stories up. I plan to buy a bunch more on Amazon as gifts for family and friends. Thanks again.

Gary - one complaint though. I grew up a Mets fan in the 70s too. How did you leave out George "The Stork" Theodore??????

After a late night Amazon binge, I happily ended up buying this trio of baseball books...

Attachment 221809

Just started the first one and the author opens the book in fine fashion by discussing the 'new' designated hitter rule and how a misplayed ball by Reggie Smith prolonged the top of the first inning, allowing Ron Blomberg to famously become the major's first ever DH, instead of Orlando Cepeda for the Sox. So far so good!!

Its a regional book but anyone from RVA or the vicinity would enjoy this one I think. It tells some great stories of MLB'ers starting and ending there careers in Richmond including the pictured Jack Chesbro, Chief Bender, Kid Elberfield, and a few others. I mean check out that uniform on Chesbro how cool is that?

Side note I met the author at the Richmond Card Convention a few years back. Great guy and very knowledgable about Baseball and Football as well. I really wish the powers that be gave that show a chance. I dont think it should have been scrapped after one "bad" year. The weather was horrendous that weekend. Brinfg the show back to RVA guys.

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Thanks Snapolit1! When I started working on it, my goal was to create the baseball book I always wanted to find in a book store. I am always hyper-critical of my work, thinking I could improve something. I thought it would be the same with my book, but it wasn't true. When I received the first copy from the publisher I sat down and read it cover-to-cover and realized that the book I had always wanted to find in book store I now held in hands. It was the most incredible feeling I'll never forget.

Hearing that others like the book means so much to me, and I am glad you are enjoying it. As for George "The Stork" Theodore - he may find himself in "The League of Outsider Baseball" Volume 2!