Your Favorite Baseball Books

[metroac]

Originally Posted by jaytee

All great suggestions here.

I'll second Roger Angell. I'm currently reading his Five Seasons, about, well, five seasons of baseball in the 70s. I'm also reading Mickey Mantle's My Favorite Summer 1956, about his triple crown season. Its a good read, packed with little stories about greats of that era.

My all-time favorite baseball book is Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract, which is nice blend of history, SABR stats, and interesting digressions. While you may or may not agree with the way he evaluates players statically (with his "win shares" system), it makes for an interesting read of his top 100 players at each position throughout history. I find I can open the book to any page (and there's a lot of pages!), read a little, and find a new way to look at the game and the men who've played it during different eras.

Speaking of Bill James: his book on the Hall of Fame, The Politics of Glory [retitled Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?: Baseball, Cooperstown, and the Politics of Glory] is full of detail and impeccable arguments for and against everything to do with Cooperstown. A great read.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by metroac

Speaking of Bill James: his book on the Hall of Fame, The Politics of Glory [retitled Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?: Baseball, Cooperstown, and the Politics of Glory] is full of detail and impeccable arguments for and against everything to do with Cooperstown. A great read.

An absolute classic and great read. Agree with Glory of Their Times and Ball Four as well. The Teammates and Only the Ball was White are two more.

[hoot-owl]

Simply a great read about life and baseball as Joe Posnanski traveled with Buck O'Neil for a year. You will laugh and you will cry....just a great one-sitting read.