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

[ALR-bishop]

....even comes with a baseball card



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

[Paul S]

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

[Howe’s Hunter]

Uecker at his best.

[Den*nis O*Brien]

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.

[jerseygary]

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.

[Milton]

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

[TNP777]

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.

[JimStinson]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

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.

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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[frankbmd]

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor

By Coover

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

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.

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

[Wite3]

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

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by Den*nis O*Brien

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.

I agree this was a great book.