What's the best Baseball Book Fiction and Non you have read?
 

I am currently being very disappointed by 'Wicked Curve' - bio of Grover Cleveland Alexander.

Best Non-Fiction: The Glory of Their Times

Best Fiction: The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

The Celebrant is really good -- about Mathewson but fiction.

Fiction: The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach

Non-Fiction: Since Glory of Their Times was already nominated, I'll go with The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn

Best Illustrated Book: We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (my god this book is gorgeous to look at!)

BLockade Billy
 

....even comes with a baseball card

http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/...539/img140.jpg

King, a huge Red Sox fan, also has a book on the 2004 Red Sox Season, Faithful. As a Cardinal's fan I can not bring myself to read that.

One of his other books, not really a sports book, is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Fiction -- try The Dixie Association, by Donald Hays.

Catcher in the Wry
 

Uecker at his best.

Should be required reading for dead-ball era collectors.

Probably my favorite book of any genre.

The Fireside Book of Baseball. Any volume is awesome.

Re: What's the best Baseball Book Fiction and Non you have read?
 

My favorite book was "Luckiest Man" by Jonathan Eig.
Amazing story of a true American hero, and it was wonderfully written.
Really is a must read for any Gehrig fan, or baseball fan for that matter.

http://www.amazon.com/Luckiest-Man-L...rds=lou+Gehrig

Calico Joe And A Minor Leaguer
 

Calico Joe, by John Grisham, is fiction revolving around a baseball incident. Grisham also wrote a non fiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice In A Small Town, about a minor league player, in the Yankees system, that wound up on Oklahoma's death row.

My Favorite Fiction Novel
 

If I Never Get Back by Darrell Brock

I have hundreds of baseball books in my library and have read thousands more, but if I had to absolutely pick one of each, this would be them...

Best Non-Fiction:
Outsider Baseball by Scott Simkus
As far as I'm concerned the greatest book written about non-MLB baseball and the most important non-fiction baseball book of the past 10 years. Besides being crammed with original research the author is funny as hell and his writing is a joy to read.

Best Fiction: The Natural by Bernard Malamud
I'd seen the movie a dozen times but man oh man, the original book ain't nothing like the movie! If the script writers followed the storyline of the book there's no way it would have been made let alone have Robert Redford star in it.

Really? Not liking "Wicked Curve?" I am a lifelong Phillies fan, so I enjoyed the information on the 1915 pennant winning team and some of the details on obscure players from that team. Perhaps the book does rely too heavily on game-by-game overviews, but I found the section of the book on Alexander's post-baseball life fascinating. :)

'The Bad Guys Won' is a great book about the NY Mets 1986 season. Lots of great stories in there

I can't think of too many fictional baseball books I've read. Guess I'll have to go with Calico Joe, too.

The Boys of Summer is my choice for non-fiction. The Catcher Was a Spy is up there, too.

For Deadball Era fans who have not yet read it, I recommend Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy. It's an enjoyable trip through the 1908 season.

I'm on page 46 and have already been told that he wore his uniform loose and his cap tight three times. ..but I am looking forward to the post-baseball period.

I do tend to give up on supposedly factual bios once I find the first big error - like the Rube Waddell biography, when, in the preface, I was informed that Radbourn won 60 games in 1870??

...a close second place in the non-fiction is Robert W. Creamer's Babe- The Legend Comes to Life.

I believe this is the definitive bio of Ruth and with such a bold subject, the best sports biography I have read.

You are spot on here, just finished it last week. It was like experiencing the whole season with the added bonus of reliving the players ` lives we talk about daily on the net 54. THUMBS UP !

Yes, that was a good one and probably my fiction choice as well. Boys of Summer for Non Fiction, hands down.

JimStinson
 

Non Fiction "The Glory of their Times" ..Larry Ritter , I knew him personally and he was so modest about the book , Also what I thought was amazing is that he did an equal split on royalties and many family members received checks from Larry Long after the player had died.

Fiction : Still have not found a good one yet , but agree with this post the book "The NATURAL" was AWFUL ! Movie FAR better than the book
____________________
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Vintage autographs for Sale Daily
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The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor

By Coover

Fiction is "The Celebrant"...wonderful book.

Non-Fiction: "Teammates" by Halberstamm is a great look at Williams, D. Dimaggio, Pesky, and Doerr.

Honorary mention: The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book.

Joshua

Non-fiction: "The Glory of Their Times" by Lawrence Ritter (hands down IMHO) followed by "Branch Rickey" by Lee Lowenfish.

Just finished "Baseball's Natural, The Story of Eddie Waitkus" by John Theodore this morning. Great background for "The Natural" by Bernard Malamud.

Fiction: "Angels at Rickwood" by Chuck Stewart (Shameless plug: I know the author; but it really is a great book to share with your kids)

The bad thing about starting this thread...
 

...is that I am picking up tips on more books I should own.

At my age, I am supposed to be decreasing my library.

"Joy in Mudville" by some hack named Greg Mitchell.

Non Fiction - The Glory of Their Times and Boys of Summer are head and shoulders above.

Fiction - I'm not much of a fiction reader but I did enjoy The Art of Fielding.

Non-Fiction: John Helyar's Lords of the Realm is one I keep turning back to. Keith Hernandez has a book that I can't remember the title of that documents his thought processes for one MLB game. Great stuff.

Rob Ruck's Raceball and anything by Adrian Burgos also fit the bill for the historian in me.

Fiction: Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella (Loved the movie, Field of Dreams, but the book is even better.)

Non-Fiction: October 1964 by David Halbersam. Lots of info on the first Cardinal's World Series of my life.

"Ball Four" needs to be mentioned. Loved "Glory of their Times" also, but that's 2 Non-fiction.

Non-Fiction. So many. Babe, The Legend Comes to Life.

Fiction. Bang the Drum Slowly

Was just reading this thread for the first time...astounded that it took until page 3 for someone to list this classic book! Also loved Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.

Cheers,
Blair

Save GOTT (the clear #1), the non-fiction list begins & ends with Charles Alexander's Ty Cobb. IMHO, it's the finest bio of its kind.

Hank's bio on WaJo ain't half bad either. :)

Fiction -- If I Never Get Back

Non-fiction -- Babe: The Legend Comes to Life

"Veeck and in Wreck" is my favourite baseball book. Usually read it once a year.

Haven't read any non-fiction baseball books.

Ball Four for nonfiction, Box Socials for fiction, but it is not a book with that many fans

Non-Fiction - Glory of Their Times is no contest, so I'll nominate a lesser known work: Fifty-nine in '84 - Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had by Edward Achorn. Met the author and he was a heck of a nice guy. I also LOVE Radbourn's passion for sneaking in a flip of the bird in almost ever photo of him!

Fiction - The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella. I also loved If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock, which was already nominated.

Just downloaded 59 in '84 to read on vacation next week.

Eddie- Thanks for the 'pep' talk by way of a positive review on what lies ahead in this book. I am enjoying it a little more.

Learned a little more about Hans Lobert - have a Turkey Red of him.

A quote from Huey Fullerton and Alexander's detailed description of his own injury in September of 1915 were very interesting.

I tried real hard to like the two Kinsella books. Shoeless Joe lost me when he built only left-field...truly odd.

I took more time on the Iowa Baseball Confederacy - actually finished it...but when you have a statue playing right-field and a time-traveling balloon landing in center...just too much.

I didn't want to give you too much of a "spoiler" about the book, but your post about the repeated mentions of GCA wearing his cap too tight made me chuckle. Even Babe Ruth dreaded seeing Alexander come into game seven of the 1926 World Series...his cap too small for his head. :D

( The Great American Baseball card book)
I love that little book it always puts a smile on my face

I support the aforementioned, Celebrant, Universal Baseball Association, GOTT, the Great American Baseball Card Flipping ...,. Under the fiction catagory some of the best mysteries are the ones by Troy Soos, especially Murder at Fenway Park (about 1912) and The Cincinnati Red Stalkings (about 1869 memorabilia).

I also think the older classic histories are still great reads, eg, America's National Game, histories by Spink, Richter, Church and Ellard's, Baseball in Cincinnati. Newer histories like Block's Baseball Before We Knew It, and Thorn's, Baseball in the Garden of Eden are excellent

Absolutely agree with this...'The Natural' is my favorite book. I love the movie too, but they are nothing alike.

I do have to mention one of the earliest histories which I found fascinating...

Jacob Morse wrote Sphere and Ash in 1888...it is arguably the earliest history of baseball. If you really enjoy the early history of baseball, this is a cool book.

Now, I think there are only two or three original copies left around in private collections (the book collectors can tell me more) but it has been reprinted twice. Both reprint versions were very limited as well and can be pricey. Have not checked amazon in a while for it but it might be there.

BTW, I think REA had one in their last auction that went for well above my paygrade (I think last I checked it was north of $3000!!).

Joshua

Agree on the BALL FOUR

My favorite non-fiction baseball book, and one of my favorite books ever read, is "The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and The Boys of Crenshaw" by Michael Sokolove. Extremely poignant story about the lives of youngsters growing up in South Central LA and their love for the game.

GREAT book. Some others:

"Crazy '08"
"Living on the Black"
"The Big Bam"
"Glory of Their Times"
"The Pitch That Killed"
"Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero"
"Ball Four"

I'm sure I'm missing tons of others. I've read lots and lots of great non-fiction baseball books. I've read hardly any poor ones - the Cobb books by (the fraud) Al Stump and Jane Leavy's awful bio of Sandy Koufax being the only two that come to mind.

I agree this was a great book.

Spalding's World Tour is a great non-fiction book about Al Spalding's 19th century baseball tour.

Fiction - If I Never Get Back - Darryl Brock

Non - Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life In the Minor Leagues of Baseball - John Feinstein (probably because I just finished it). GOTT is also great.

I am re-reading Ball Four after having read it about 20 years ago....the new Netflix documentary on the Portland Mavericks inspired me to dig it out.

Don't forget Hank
 

Our very own Hank Thomas wrote a GREAT bio about his grandfather, entitled Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train.

He had great material to draw from :)

And the writing is terrific.

Ahh Ball Four. Thanks for the reference. Many years since I read that but remember thoroughly enjoying it. Will need to re-read.

In 1972 I was 11 and in the hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy. An Aunt gave me a copy of "This Great Game". It took my youthful love of baseball to another level. Hands down the most impactful baseball book for me. The photos were extraordinary, for that time. Here's a link to an article on it:
http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.co...-to-the-masses

Others I've enjoyed:
Moneyball (of course)
The Bronx Zoo
5 Seasons

As a deadball era fan The Glory of Their Times is far and away tops on my list, but I'll give an honorable mention to the late Jim Brosnan's The Long Season. Ball Four basically followed that book with a little more spice.

Haven't read much fiction. I'll take another book that has not been mentioned: The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglas Wallop. As a Yankee hater it had me from the title. I also like the movie Damn Yankees based off it, although it has a song or two that are clunkers.

I agree both are the best for each baseball era.

Best fiction I've read was Pete Rose's autobiography "My Story" where he adamantly denies gambling on baseball. (Of course he admitted he did gamble on games several years later).

The book that provided me with the most 'new' information at the time was the first Historical Abstract.

It was also broken up into bit-sized pieces for a ADD-type like myself: The ultimate easy read!

For myself,being a Red Sox fan, it's Faithful by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan. There are so many great books out there and I am with everyone giving a thumbs up on Glory of Their Times.
For fiction, I have to go with The Natural
This thread is great. I have been out for a while, recovering from a health related issue. I love to read, and being a teacher and a coach, and a married father of three, I don't have much free time. But I have done more reading this year than any I can recently remember. A lot of good next reads have been mentioned. I'm really leaning toward the Luckiest Man book as my next read.
TJ

Yes! I highly recommend this one as well. Really, really great book.

Great post - I agree that all the books named are worth a read. My picks:
Fiction: The Celebrant is hands down the best - the discussion is really about 2nd best. My pick is Eliot Asinof's (of Eight Men Out fame) "Man on Spikes" - will tug the heart strings like Mark Harris' series - Ring Lardner's "You Know me Al" is right behind - hilarious book.

Non-Fiction: The list of great ones is vast - anything from Joe Durso (Stengal and McGraw books come to mind) is outstanding, but I'll go with James T. Farrell's "My Baseball Diary". All of his fictional books have some baseball content including Studs Lonigan, another great read.

Very Surprised that No One's Mentioned(at lest I didn't See it mentioned in the thread!?)
"The Old Ball Game", it's about How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball!
I thought it to be a Very Enjoyable Easy Read!
Frank Deford did a Wonderful Job Characterizing Matty & McGraw...
I Highly Recommend it!!!

Cobb biography by Al Stump...although I don't know if it's better characterized as fiction or non-fiction.

I don't think anyone mentioned this for fiction. Tom DeLillo's novel "Underworld," which isn't really a baseball book, opens with a novella he wrote called "Pafko at the Wall" about "The Shot Heard Round the World." It's an amazing piece of writing. The opening is about a young boy who catches the homerun ball, and the ball is referenced continually through the book, which is a larger story.
Great novel, though it's been years since I read it. need to dig it out and read it again.
Rob

Thanks so much, guys. Made my day!

Cap Anson - FREE download!
 

One I am reading now is a very early book by Cap Anson. It is "A Ball Player's Career Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson." Seach amazon under "adrian anson" and it will come up. Right now, it is available as a free Kindle download. You don't need a kindle to read it. Android, iPhone and tablet/pad users can download a Kindle app for free off amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Players-Career...s=adrian+anson


I also have been reading some of the earlier biographies on Lou Gehrig, my personal favorite. They were simple, and written more for young boys probably, but I love the innocence of the books and the stories about Lou's early life.

Great Leads & a New Find:
 

Thanks to all for helping me (not) curb my addition to Baseball Books. I picked up 'The Celebrant', 'The Universal Baseball Association', and Henry Thomas's bio of his grandfather, Walter Johnson. I look forward to loosing myself in the pages of each.

I also came across and purchased what looks like a great read, 'Baseball in the Garden of Eden' 'The Secret History of the Early Game' - by John Thorn

I may have to miss a few Braves' games to get all this read. Maybe it's not too late for me to learn how to multi-task...oh well, we will see...

The Soul of Baseball is a great book. Very different from the rest of the great baseball books.

-Nick

I'm surprised "Miracle Ball" hasn't been mentioned. Great and easy read. Very fascinating journey about the search for Bobby Thompson's shot heard round the world baseball. Would highly recommend.
Drew

A lot of good books. I'm currently reading, "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game" by Edward Achorn,

It's been a pretty good read, following the 1883 American Association pennant race from a St Louis approach. For someone who knows very little about 19th century baseball, it's been enjoyable.

Fiction. Definitely fiction. Stump is nothing but a fraud.

Two year old thread bump. :confused:

Compiling my summer reading list. (I'm a teacher.) Came across this thread. Great suggestions. Just picked up Eig's book on Jackie Robinson's first season and Kinsella's Iowa's Baseball Conspiracy at a local used bookstore.

Recommend: A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Brothers K (not by Dostoevsky). Two great works of fiction tangentially related to baseball.

I'm surprised Eliot Asinof's Eight Men Out hasn't been mentioned, though I guess some would have a problem choosing it as fiction or non-fiction.

The Glory of Their Times was edited more than written by Lawrence Ritter, so I would go with Jonathan Eig's "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig" as the greatest non-fiction work that I have ever read.
Eig's book on Capone is also well researched.

If murder mysteries are your thing, I recommend the Mickey Rawlings series by Troy Soos. They're set around the end of the Dead Ball era/beginning of the live ball era. Soos does a great job of recreating the time period.

Well, I keep hearing "the Celebrant". Never heard of it, but looked it up on Amazon and for a penny and 4 bucks shipping I am the proud owner of a nice copy. Got it in today's mail, but too tired to start right now. It looks very promising.

Wally Yonamine from Hawaii The man who changed Japanese Baseball

Ty Cobb - A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen is really good. Debunks using modern research methods most of what we thought we knew about Cobb. Lots of amazing detail about the players we talk about daily here on net54.

For fiction, like many, have to go with "The Natural." What a tale!
For non fiction, "Matty and McGraw" by Frank Deford, but I might be prejudiced since my daughter, Lauren, is married to Chris, Frank's son. My copy has a nice personal inscription from Frank. What a nice man.

Short stories and fiction read Horseshoes or Alibi Ike by Ring Lardner? Good stuff :)

I will mention this one because it should be included.

Baseball When the Grass Was Real by Donald Honig

Two books by Robert Creamer come to mind, one about Babe Ruth and the other focused on the 1941 season. I am not home at the moment to name the exact titles.

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