Favorite Baseball Books? Let's Share!

[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.

[akleinb611]

In my earlier post, recommending the Fireside Book of Baseball series, I inadvertently described the series as consisting of three volumes. I somehow forgot that Charles Einstein came up with a Fourth volume in 1987, a full nineteen years after the third. I may have discounted it in my memory because it's the only volume I don't have in hardcover, just in a trade paper edition. It's just as good as the first three.

Also - I join with those who recommend The Glory of Their Times, as well as the Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book - which may in fact be the funniest book I've ever read. If it's not the funniest, it's certainly part of the discussion.

Alan