Favorite Baseball Books? Let's Share!

[Huck]

Back in the 90's, my aim was to build a baseball library. I figured someone out on the web must have cobbled a list together of good baseball reads and I found a few lists. The list from SABR is much cleaner looking then it was back then but this list is a good place to start.

https://sabr.org/journal/article/the...eball-library/


The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter -it has been mentioned more than once on this thread for a reason. The cds of the actual interviews are great as well.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle - by Kevin Kerrane - a great read about baseball scouts. Another book on scouting is Prophet of the Sandlots by Mark Winegardner about scout Tony Lucadello. The ending was a shocker.

The Politics of Glory by Bill James - interesting read about making the hall.

Men at Work by George Will - the chapter on Henderson alone is worth the price.

The Fireside book of baseball (three volumes).

Nine Innings by Dan Okrent - anatomy of a baseball game.

[drmiraculous]

Some excellent reads you have suggested here, will have to check a few out soon, and some others standards I have read multiple times! Here are a few I enjoyed that I don't think have been mentioned yet.

Three Men on Third and also Low and Inside by H Allen Smith & Ira Smith

Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst

Terror in the City of Champions by Tom Stanton

[jingram058]

One of my all-time favorites is The World Series: A Complete Pictorial History by John Devaney and Burt Goldblatt.

[Tabe]

Some of my favorites:

The Big Train
Crazy '08
59 in '84
Fall From Grace (Joe Jackson)
The Pitch That Killed
One Strike Away
War on the Basepaths (Ty Cobb)
The Rocket That Fell to Earth (Roger Clemens)
Glory of Their Times

[Jason Carota]

I recommend Before the Curse - The Glory Days of New England Baseball, 1858–1918, by Troy Soos.

[Griffins]

Summer of '49- David Halberstamm
The Teammates- David Halberstamm (Doerr, Dom, Pesky, Williams)
Nice Guys Finish Last- Leo Durocher
Bo, Pitching and Wooing-Maury Allen (Bo Belinsky)
Our Game- Charles Alexander (history of the tame)
Any of Golenbocks team anthologies- Wrigleyville, Bums, Amazing, Spirit of St Louis, RedSox Nation
Baseballs Western Front- PCL during WW2 by David Wells
The Kansas City A's and the wrong half of the Yankees, by Jeff Katz

2 I was disappointed in- Alvin Darks Biography (he came across as such an oblivious racist asshole, at least by todays standards) and The Sudden Sam Saga. The last one might be interesting by any recovering alcoholics, but it's more about that than baseball

[Kutcher55]

Another vote for You Know Me Al, which I feel is nothing short of brilliant. I love any of the Brooklyn Dodger books because the subject matter is just so rich. Halberstams’s Summer of 49 is excellent even though my Sox lost. I also found Bill Lee’s The Wrong Stuff to be a fun read. More recently, The Art of Fielding (fiction) was good. The Kid From Tompkinsville and subsequent sequels are great for young readers.