OT: Any Suggestions on Good Baseball Books for Gifts

[earlywynnfan]

Veeck as in Wreck!! One of my all-time favorites, and one of the only few I've read a second time.

Ken

[Exhibitman]

Try The Glory Of Their Times audiobook or CD set. It is 4.5 hours of the original interviews. I bought it a couple of days ago and have been listening to it in the car. The stories are mostly familiar if you've read the book but hearing it from the players directly I found myself laughing right along with them as if I was in the conversation. Lawrence Ritter does some nice introductions to each interview.

[GrayGhost]

Yes, the Audios are awesome. Sam Crawford is a favorite of mine on there. The Book has several of couse that were not on the audio.

[JimStinson]

Can't get much better than GLORY OF THEIR TIMES, and with every "read" it gets better. Another suggestion if you haven't already read it and like fiction try THE NATURAL by Bernard Malamud (1952) ..oh and by the way its NOTHING like the movie ..
Oh and almost forgot....Ron K's book on Collecting Hall of Fame autographs has just hit the bookshelfs
________________________
Buying Vintage autographs 19th Century and dead ball era my specialty
jim@stinsonsports.com

[JimStinson]

Just saw it today for the first time, looks like this

[MooseDog]

A couple of others I thought of...

Out of print, but can be had cheaply on Amazon, if you haven't read or don't own a copy of THE GREAT AMERICAN FLIPPING, TRADING, AND BUBBLE GUM book you should definitely go there.

I don't read much fiction but rather enjoyed THE ART OF FIELDING which came out last year.

[JimStinson]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

A couple of others I thought of...

Out of print, but can be had cheaply on Amazon, if you haven't read or don't own a copy of THE GREAT AMERICAN FLIPPING, TRADING, AND BUBBLE GUM book you should definitely go there.

I don't read much fiction but rather enjoyed THE ART OF FIELDING which came out last year.

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Wow ! forgot all about that one ITS HILARIOUS TOO, GREAT BOOK !

[JimStinson]

Brought back such great memories , Like where they pictured Sandy Koufax rookie card and called it his "Bar Mizvah picture" because he looked so young...

this is from the book.....


Quick, name a major league baseball player who was born in San Remo, Italy, lived in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and couldn't hit. That's right--Reno Bertoia. OK. Name another one. The back of Reno's card is interesting. It says that his average last year was .162 and that, although he did not get to play in too many ballgames, he gained valuable information about American League hurlers that would help him in the future. I suspect that the information he gathered was that every pitcher in the American League could get him out, and that perhaps he should try another line of work.


Now, it is not necessary for me to declare that Hector Lopez was the worst fielding third baseman in the history of baseball. Everyone knows that. It is more or less a matter of public record. But I do feel called upon somehow to try to indicate, if only for the historical archivists among us, the sheer depths of his innovative barbarousness. Hector Lopez was a butcher. Pure and Simple. A butcher. His range was about one step to either side, his hands seemed to be made of concrete and his defensive attitude was so cavalier and arbitrary as to hardly constitute an attitude at all. Hector did not simply field a groundball, he attacked it. Like a farmer trying to kill a snake with a stick. And his mishandling of routine infield flies was the sort of which legends are made. Hector Lopez was not just a bad fielder for a third baseman. In fact, Hector Lopez was not just a bad fielder for a baseball player. Hector Lopez was, when every factor has been taken into consideration, a bad fielder for a human being. The stands are full of obnoxious leather-lunged cretins who insist they can play better than most major leaguers. Well, in Hector's case they could have been right. I would like to go on record right here and now as declaring Hector Lopez the all-time worst fielding major league ballplayer. That's quite a responsibility there, Hector, but I have every confidence you'll be able to live up to it

[isaac2004]

Originally Posted by JimStinson

Just saw it today for the first time, looks like this

waiting on my copy in the mail!!!

[pgellis]

Right now reading:

Tris Speaker: The Rough And Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend

Absolutely love it, having a tough time putting it down!

[Runscott]

My two favorite of all time:

The Boys of Summer
Baseball in '41

[NYGiants24]

"If I Never Get Back" by Darryl Brock is historical fiction in an 1869 setting with the Red Stockings. A fabulous read.

[kaddyshack]

' Miracle Ball ' by Brian Biegel is an excellent book. It 's about the search for the baseball that Bobby Thomson hit in 1951 (pennant playoff game with the Dodgers). The book can be had for less than $20 on Amazon. I saw the movie version on the Velocity channel in September.