Favorite baseball book? Card or historical focused.

[Casey2296]

I would add Mark Peavey's book "A history of baseball in the dead ball era". He is a member here and his book is a really fun read. Amazon link below.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Baseb.../dp/B08NWQZTCW

[John1941]

My favorite of all time is the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. It's really good: very well written, and very well researched, with lots of interesting things that don't always get told.

The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book is a great one too. It and the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract were the two books that introduced me to the older players. I've read both of them many times since I was nine or so.

[Bobbycee]

Get your hands on: "Crazy '08" by Cait Murphy. It's all about the wild 1908 Baseball pennant race & features great stories on many of the faces you see on T206.

[chadeast]

Originally Posted by John1941

My favorite of all time is the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. It's really good: very well written, and very well researched, with lots of interesting things that don't always get told.

+1. I'll add "The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg" and "Hal Chase: The Defiant Life and Turbulent Times of Baseball's Biggest Crook".

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I would add Mark Peavey's book "A history of baseball in the dead ball era". He is a member here and his book is a really fun read. Amazon link below.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Baseb.../dp/B08NWQZTCW

I like this book also

[Wanaselja]

“Satchel” - Larry Tye
“Our Team” - Luke Epplin (covers the 48 Indians)
“The Glory of Their Times” - I assume this is a Net54 staple

[clydepepper]

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.

[Fred]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.

That was a great Sports Illustrated article! I remember when it came out. Just awesome.

My pick for a book is Ball Four, however if we wanna get traditional, it's The Glory of Their Times.

[fkm_bky]

Another vote for the Year They Called Off The World Series. Also, Pride Of The Yankees is a great book.

Bill

[commishbob]

Sitting here next to my bookshelves and there are just so many great baseball books to recommend....these jumped out at me:

Only the Ball Was White, by Robert Peterson This is the best book about the Negro Leagues that I've read.

The Long Season, by Jim Brosnan His diary of the 1959 season. If you want baseball history this one will really show you what it was like late in that decade.

You Gotta Have Wa, by Robert Whiting-great book about baseball in japan

The Catcher Was a Spy, by Nicholas Dawidoff, Moe Berg's story

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, by Jimmy Breslin 1962 Mets, Breslin was a terrific writer

Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, by Robert W. Creamer

Ball Four by Jim Bouton

The Curse of Rocky Colavito, by Terry Pluto

Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof

The Echoing Green, by Joshua Prager Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca, etc. Really a neat book.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle, by Kevin Kerrane A great look at baseball scouting. Lots of fun stories about the profession. Not a new book but still a great read.

Crazy '08, by Cait Murphy

Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen

Sayonara Home Run!, by John Gall and Gary Engel this one is about Japanese baseball cards. Highly recommended

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, by Jane Leavy My favorite baseball biography. All of her three baseball bios are worth reading but I'm partial to this one.

A False Spring, by Pat Jordan Jordan was a writer for SI (and a curmudgeon) but in high school, he was a pitching phenom signed by the Braves. This is my favorite book of them all. It's not uplifting to read about how his career in baseball went south but it's so well written! I pull it out every few years and re-read it.

Seasons in Hell, by Mike Shropshire, may be the funniest baseball book I've ever read. It's about Whitey Herzog's awful Rangers teams in the early 70s.


I have Dock Ellis and the Country of baseball cued up to read, and it's gotten lots of good reviews, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm still working on Joe Posnanski's The Baseball's 100

[Fred]

Lot's of great books out there. The first baseball book I read was about the first 5 inductees to the Baseball HOF. That sealed it for me - VINTAGE!

[JollyElm]

These are all very cool...

Big Hair and Plastic Grass : a Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s - Dan Epstein

The Bronx Zoo - Sparky Lyle

Swinging '73: Baseball's Wildest Season - Matthew Silverman

Ballparks: Yesterday & Today - Phil Trexler (& Marty Strasen?)

[slidekellyslide]

If you enjoy baseball fiction "The Natural" by Bernard Malamud is excellent and Roy Hobbs is not quite the same guy Robert Redford played in the movie version.