I found Joe Posnanski's book on Buck O'Neil for $2.99 yesterday at Christmas Tree Shops. I can't wait to give it a read.

For me, aside from reference books, there's "The Glory of Their Times," and then there is all other baseball lit.

"Ball Four" by Jim Bouton
"I was Right on Time" By Buck O'Neill
"Maybe I'll Pitch Forever" By Satchel Paige
"Men at Work" by George Will

Just off the top of my head.

"Lords of the Realm" -- John Helyar

"Ty Cobb" and "John McGraw" by Charles Alexander
"Glory of Their Times" - the best - so good that the format is copied by Donald Honig is successful for "Baseball - When the Grass was Real" and "The Men in the Dugout"

"Nice Guys Finish Last"

"Baseball Historical Abstract"

"The Echoing Green" By Joshua Prager.

I am looking forward to the book on the 1978 One Game Playoff which is coming out soon.

A lot of people like Ball Four. I don't understand the adulation given to it, except to the extent that it busts out and tells the plain truth. It otherwise reads as a poorly-written diary.

I'm somewhere near finishing The Boys of Summer. The first half is a brilliant book, which reminds me of Hemingway's comment about Huckleberry Finn:

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.' If you read it you must stop where the ###### Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating.

(I was wondering whether that would get through the naughty-words trap unscathed. Guess not.) A lot of the second half of Boys does seem to be cheating.

Of the annuals, Baseball Prospectus towers over the others.

If I could only keep three baseball boks, I'd have to go with "You Gotta Have Wa", "Veeck - As In Wreck", and "Dollar Sign on the Muscle". Lots of other good choices available, but those are my three.

I was going to say there were no wrong answers, but the "bunch also recommends" list at the bottom of the article is pretty grim. If you're going to be trapped on a desert island with only one baseball book, who in their right mind would choose "Juiced"? Or "Tuesdays With Morrie"?

It's the Best Seat In Baseball, But you Have To Stand - by Lee Gutkind

(he spent a season with a NL umpiring crew in the mid-70's)

The Wrong Stuff - by Bill Lee with Dick Lally

(Funniest baseball book ever)

IMO, in addition to the Alexander bios and The Glory of Their Times, some of the best non-fiction books about baseball are Mike Sowell's Pitch That Killed, John Holway's many books about Negro Leaguers, and David McGimpsey's Imagining Baseball.

Veeck As in Wreck
The Long Season (meat!)
Edit: The Hidden Game of Baseball (damn, how could I forget that one)

Edit: Oh, and when I was a kid I read over and over and over etc. "The Boys' Life Book of Baseball Stories". I still remember 'em. Don't know if it would qualify under my lofty adult standards, but the kid has to be heard from. Edit: Yeah, that's the one.

It otherwise reads as a poorly-written diary.

I respect your POV, but I must disagree. Bouton had a gift for bringing out characters and picking the right details.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle

Second The Long Season, The Glory of Their Times, and just about any Abstract

Moneyball - team management
Dollar Sign on the Muscle - scouting
Fantasy Land - rotisserie
Lords of the Realm - history - ownership/union relations
The Numbers Game - statistics

Some good titles in addition to those already listed:

Eight Men Out, Eliot Asinf

Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History, by Cait Murphy

Stengel: His Life and Times, Robert W. Creamer

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, by Jane Leavy

A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution, by Marvin Miller

Pitching in a Pinch by Christy Mathewson

Cobb Would Have Caught It, by Richard Bak

Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train, by Henry W. Thomas

The Bronx Zoo, Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock

I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story, by Hank Aaron

The Chrysanthemum and the bat: The game Japanese play, by Robert Whiting

The Bill James Historical Abstract, by Bill James

I collect baseball books, have more than a thousand so far.

All of the books listed here are excellent.

I could go on and on....I love the Mark Harris novels ( Bang the Drum Slowly, etc....)

Roger Angell is great reading. The Summer Game. Season Ticket. Once More Around the Park.

Tom Boswell- Why Time Begins on Opening Day. ( I read that essay just this morning)

Another favorite is Pat Jordan. A False Spring and The Suitors of Spring.

Ball Four today may read like a poorly done diary, but if you were a young Yankee baseball fan in 1971 and suddenly learned about major leaguers shooting beaver, your life was never the same again. I never looked at baseball players again the same way. The same thing happened with the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstracts. My view of the game completely changed.

Compare Ball Four to Jim Brosnan's "The Long Season", another excellent book.

Of all the great baseball books, that is a remarkably weak list. remarkably.

I was only 12 when I read Jay Johnstone's book "Temporary Insanity" but I read it about six times.

Koppett's Brief History

Angell's Late Inings (the Web of the Game may be my single favorite baseball story, interweaving college phenoms Ron Darling and Frank Viola, an extra inning no-hitter, and the aging but still observant Smokey Joe Wood. Wow.)

Kahn's Good Enough to Dream. Much better than the more critically acclaimed BofS.

I was only 12 when I read Jay Johnstone's book "Temporary Insanity" but I read it about six times.

Hells yeah. Any baseball book I owned I read many, many times. As-told-tos, juvie fiction, it was all good. I was not critical...and I was happier for it.

Hells yeah. Any baseball book I owned I read many, many times. As-told-tos, juvie fiction, it was all good. I was not critical...and I was happier for it.

Do you remember "Who's on Third?" about the White Sox? That was another favorite. I lost two copies of it, then checked out the library copy while I saved up money for a third.

Do you remember "Who's on Third?" about the White Sox?

Sorry, no, I never heard of that one, and actually I never read the Johnstone. But I'm sure I have a few in mind that few of us know of, and I doubt I'm alone in that respect! I was so starved for baseball books I read and re-read what I could get my hands on. I must've read Baseball Is a Funny Game ten-fifteen times (no exaggeration), and it was a library book. I liked reading, I liked baseball, and the intersection was wonderful.

This has got me thinking about "Casey at the Bat" again, and I have to tip my hat to the pitcher who throws nothing but strikes to Casey with first base open and the game on the line. That's the way to play.

This has got me thinking about "Casey at the Bat" again, and I have to tip my hat to the pitcher who throws nothing but strikes to Casey with first base open and the game on the line. That's the way to play.

What do you expect? Ernest Thayer wrote for a San Fransisco paper, not an Oakland paper.

"The Old Ball Game" by Frank Deford
"Teammates" by David Halberstam

http://sportslocker.blogspot.com/

Why no love for "Juiced"?

I know what you're thinking. You're all saying to yourselves "Why would I read a book by that moron?".

Well, let me let you in on a little secret. The man can write. The chapter of him jabbing the needle into McGwire's ass is one part Joyce, another part Twain, with a little Huxley sprinkled on top.

Glory of Their Times, Lawerence Ritter
Why Time Begins on Opening Day, Tom Boswell
How Life Imitates the World Series, Tom Boswell
The Umpire Strikes Back, Ron Luciano
Politics of Glory, Bill James
Original Historic Abstract, BIll James
Bill James Guide to Managers, Bill James
Men in the Dugout, Leonard Koppett
Ball Four, Jim Bouton
Veeck as in Wreck, Bill Veeck
Nine Innings, Jules Tygiel
Moneyball, Billy Beane
Baseball's Great Experiment, Jules Tygiel
Crazy '08, Cait Murphy
Soul of Baseball, Joe Poz.
It Ain't Over Until It's Over, Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts
Eight Men Out, Eliot Asinof
The Wrong Stuff, Bill Lee

"My Greatest Day in Baseball" - ed. John Carmichael

They had this book in my grade school library, and I must have read it 20 times. It was out of print for years and years, but was recently re-released.

This has got me thinking about "Casey at the Bat" again, and I have to tip my hat to the pitcher who throws nothing but strikes to Casey with first base open and the game on the line. That's the way to play.

For english class, I once wrote a script that was a parody of what a "Jim Rome" style sports talk show would have been like the day after Casey struck out. The fact that the pitcher didn't walk him was a major thread, along with the fact that Casey had let a good pitch go by simply because it "wasn't his style" and was clearly going for a homer when any type of hit would have tied the game and probably won it.

This isn't quite a classic, but I wanted to mention "Seasons In Hell" by (Mike?) Shropshire ans an enjoyable read.

One I reread several times was "The Answer is Baseball" by Luke Salisbury, a short but well-written book on the subject of baseball trivia.

I've got over 300 baseball books...if had to pick only one, I'd go with my mint-in-the-box 1969 Macmillan.

"Well, let me let you in on a little secret. The man can write. The chapter of him jabbing the needle into McGwire's ass is one part Joyce, another part Twain, with a little Huxley sprinkled on top."

Someone's on drugs here, and for once, it ain't Canseco.

I've got over 300 baseball books...if had to pick only one, I'd go with my mint-in-the-box 1969 Macmillan.

So you'd pick the only one you can't read?

Jonathan Light's The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball is a fun bathroom book.

The chapter of him jabbing the needle into McGwire's ass is one part Joyce, another part Twain, with a little Huxley sprinkled on top.

Oh great. Now I have to read Canseco. Some sort of unsung after-the-fact modernist genius, apparently. At least Pynchon wasn't mentioned.

One more....

The 3 Fireside Books of Baseball. Essays, poetry, news stories, fiction, photographs, cartoons, art.....beautiful baseball reading.

"Sandlot Peanuts" by Charles Schultz

The chapter of him jabbing the needle into McGwire's ass is one part Joyce, another part Twain, with a little Huxley sprinkled on top.

Oh great. Now I have to read Canseco. Some sort of unsung after-the-fact modernist genius, apparently. At least Pynchon wasn't mentioned.

Jose probably Pynched him and is saving that for his next book.

Catcher in the Wry by Bob Uecker was a fun read. It reminded me of Bruce "Mouse" Strauss's take of himself in an SI column that dealt with boxing's professional "opponents" (read: tomato cans). Strauss (who is also a promoter) knew he was fodder for up and comers and had no illusions otherwise and made a decent career financially as a fighter/promoter--he knew when he was beaten and knew when to stay down. As he once opined (paraphrased) 'If you've never seen me knocked out you don't follow the sport closely.'

That was Uecker--he knew he was a scrub and always would be but when all is said and done he did pretty well in the game (post-playing career included). His .293 career OBP (lg. avg. .327) isn't awful for a career .200 hitter.

Best Regards

John

I find myself flipping through Bill James' Baseball Books a lot. Don't really know why -- I just find the player comments very interesting, 15 or so years later. (Plus, there are some interesting essays in the back.)

I read Ball Four in 2000, so it's revelations about the games were largely passe. I enjoyed it because you could open up to virtually any page and there'd be some hilarious or awesome line. Dick Stuart: "I add 20 points to my average if I know I look b1tchin' out there." Joe Morgan's "analysis" of the difference between the curve ball and the "m0therfucking curve ball" (oh, how I wish he would provide such analysis now!)

As for books, one I think is a must have is Dickson's Baseball Dictionary.

The Soul of Baseball - Joe Posnanski
Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Fantasyland - Sam Walker
Historical Abstract - Bill James
Ball Four - Jim Bouton
I Was Right On Time - Buck O'Neil

What, 41 posts and no mention of "Champions in Sports and Spirit" or "More CiSaS" by Ed Fitzgerald?
These were published in the 50s, I believe under the auspices of the Catholic Church. I used to be amazed that Ed Fitzgerald could be a Major League catcher and an author too. Turns out Ed Fitzgerald was a well-known author (SI, possibly?) of the era.

Actually, "Ball Four" but I haven't read that many baseball books. I gravitate to history books more and spend too much watching baseball.

Turns out Ed Fitzgerald was a well-known author (SI, possibly?) of the era.

I'm pretty sure Fitzgerald was the editor of Sport magazine.

All the books on my list have already been mentioned. How The Glory of Their Times missed this list makes no sense to me.

How about Charles Einstein's The Fireside Book of Baseball series? I bought volumes 1 and 2, both originals, for under $5 each on Amazon.

Hmmm...

My desert-island collection would include Baseball Extra (various newspaper front pages), Peter Morris's two-volume A Game of Inches, David Block's Baseball Before We Knew It, the most recent Historical Baseball Abstract and the Fireside anthologies.

Ball Four - Jim Bouton
Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Weaver on Strategy - Earl Weaver
You're Missin' a Great Game - Whitey Herzog
Men at Work - George Will
New Bill James Historical Abstract - Bill James
Politics of Glory - Bill James
This Time Let's Not Eat the Bones - Bill James
This Ain't Brain Surgery - Larry Dierker
The Wrong Stuff - Bill Lee
Catcher in the Wry - Bob Uecker
Me and DiMaggio - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
The Big Book of Baseball Legends - Rob Neyer

Anything by James, really.

One I'm reading now and really like so far:

The Code - Ross Bernstein

My pick is The Southpaw, but that's different than a history or analysis book. Roger Angell at his best is what I would pick for non-fiction.
(hi pthomas)

Holding it down to 13 lines, with great difficulty, and in rough order:

Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

Any Leonard Koppett book, especially Koppett's Concise History of Major League Baseball, which is 99.99% as good as the James HBA

Jules Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment / Lester Rodney, Press Box Red (the Daily Worker writer who agitated for baseball's integration more than the rest of the entire white press corps put together)

Johnny Evers, Touching Second (my favorite deadball era book)

Fred Lieb, Baseball As I Have Known It (memoir of a more than seventy year writing career)

Speed Johnson, Who's Who in Major League Baseball (the oversized 1933 hardback, not to be confused with the longstanding purely statistical version that's still being published)

Branch Rickey, The American Diamond (with some of the best baseball photos and drawings ever, and all by the same man, Robert Riger)

Any Angell book

Brad Snyder, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators (on the Homestead Grays and their interaction with Clark Griffith and the Nats)

Any John Holway book, but especially his Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History

Damon Rice, Seasons Past---I used to sell this book with a money back guarantee, and never had to refund a penny

The four Fireside Book[s] of Baseball

Jim Brosnan, The Long Season (the only player ever to write his own book without a ghostwriter; Bouton 10 years before Ball Four)

Your book reports are due first thing Monday morning---no excuses

You Gotta Have Wa, Robert Whiting.
The Kid Who Batted 1.000, Bob Allison and Frank Hill.

Yeah, Seasons In Hell was a hoot.

James' Manager book and the first Historical Abstract are my two favorites. For non-James reading, anything by Angell. In fiction, Kinsella's books. Oh, and the THT Annuals!

Among the fiction titles, Pafko at the Wall has got to be in consideration. The link tells you which issue of Harper's has it. It is an absolute joy.

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Green Cathedrals. Although much of the info is now available online, it is still THE ballpark book.

Surprising that we went a lot a books into the list without mentioning Kinsella. "The Thrill of the Grass"

"Pafko at the Wall" was a novella that became the first chapter of a huge book by Don DeLillo called "Underworld". What ever happened to the baseball that Thompson hit?

Across the scope of DeLillo's work he is often equal parts stunning and horrifying, but the first chapter of Underworld was unbelievably beautiful writing. Possibly some of the best baseball fiction (as short as it was) that I've ever read.

As far as fiction, no one's mentioned "Sometimes You See it Coming" by Kevin Baker, which is also pretty good. But, only "pretty good", as opposed to his later stuff. It was an early work, and he's really hit his stride lately with the City of Fire stories, so in a way I wish he'd kinda do it over.