Favorite Baseball Book

[Slegnaac]

I installed Kindle on my phone a couple of months ago and have enjoyed reading many different books. I searched for baseball books and found "The Glory of Their Times". It is an interesting collection of interviews with players from the 1900s.

This led me to searching for one of my favorite Baseball books, "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton. I was happy to see that the updated version was available through Kindle Unlimited. I originally purchased the book at a book fair in HS. The electronic version includes the 10, 20 and 30 year updates on Jim Bouton's life, which I had never read. The 30 year update is extremely emotional.

If you have not read "Ball Four" I would recommend checking it out.

What is your favorite Baseball book?

[nate]

Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy.  Excellent biography.  Must read.

[deepdrive]

I installed Kindle on my phone a couple of months ago and have enjoyed reading many different books. I searched for baseball books and found "The Glory of Their Times". It is an interesting collection of interviews with players from the 1900s.

This led me to searching for one of my favorite Baseball books, "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton. I was happy to see that the updated version was available through Kindle Unlimited. I originally purchased the book at a book fair in HS. The electronic version includes the 10, 20 and 30 year updates on Jim Bouton's life, which I had never read. The 30 year update is extremely emotional.

If you have not read "Ball Four" I would recommend checking it out.

What is your favorite Baseball book?

 

What happened in year 30?

[Slegnaac]

Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy. Excellent biography. Must read.

$1.99 on Kindle - Sweet!

[Adam]

Guessing you've probably read it, but Moneyball is an epic piece of literature whether you like baseball or not. Very well written. 

[Lou]

I installed Kindle on my phone a couple of months ago and have enjoyed reading many different books. I searched for baseball books and found "The Glory of Their Times". It is an interesting collection of interviews with players from the 1900s.

This led me to searching for one of my favorite Baseball books, "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton. I was happy to see that the updated version was available through Kindle Unlimited. I originally purchased the book at a book fair in HS. The electronic version includes the 10, 20 and 30 year updates on Jim Bouton's life, which I had never read. The 30 year update is extremely emotional.

If you have not read "Ball Four" I would recommend checking it out.

What is your favorite Baseball book?

 

thanks, Sleg. I had no idea that there were updates of the book

[disarcina]

Updated Ball Four??

 

I red that years ago and then Bouton did a follow up book after that.

 

the Ball Four activities seem tame compared to today's standards.

 

Just read the book "Rickey and Robinson"  about Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson -- good read. Roger Kahn the author of the classic "Boys of Summer" authored the Rickey & Robinson 2014 book.

 

Moneyball was a great baseball book.

 

There was a book about the Cape Cod League that was written a few years back that was a good read -- I read it and then gave it to a kid playing high school ball.

 

One of my favorite sports books was one by SI's John Feinstein about following NCAA basketball  teams in the Patriot League chasing the automatic bid. Great read as was, I think it was also  Feinstein book about following several seasons of Army-Navy football leading to the big game -- both of these books are dated now but good reads.

 

If you want to read a book about some real good guys read the more recent biographies out on STAN MUSIAL and then the one on HENRY AARON. 

 

There should be an annual STAN MUSIAL Award for the Best Good Guy in baseball each year -- although none would live up to the ideals and character of Stan Musial.

 

While I am at it, read a biography of Ted Williams a few years back that was a great read.......gave a rough edges and all account of Ted Williams from his school days in San Diego, his somewhat concealed Mexican heritage (his mother was part Mexican), his larger than life persona, his antics on and off the field and his somewhat troubled relationship with family -- the story extends to his final years and the bizarre battle at the end of his life between his son and daughter including the cryogenics controversy........pretty interesting read of one of MLB early mega super stars who is considered by many (especially himself) as the MLB's greatest hitter ever with the best swing ever.

[Don]

I really enjoyed The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst. Great book on minor league life. And I'll go with the crowd here as far as loving Ball Four. That book destroys any arguments that baseball in the 60s or 70s was a pure, clean, or glorious game. Greenies, man.

[disarcina]

a book and film making the rounds these days -- that I have not read or seen yet but will -- is "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" about when Bing Russell owned the Portland AAA team as an independent owner back in the 70's.........several of my friends have seen the movie (in the form of a documentary) and strongly recommend it.

[Slegnaac]

What happened in year 30?

Year 30 is the update written in 2000, thirty years after the publication.

There was a tragedy in the family.

[Yellow Balloon]

In no particular order:

 

Lords of the Realm - about all you need to know about the people who ran baseball in the 70s and 80s and the rise of the MLBPA.  Amazing how greedy and unbelievably shortsighted a lot of the owners were.  Charles O. Finley comes across as a genius compared to some of his fellow owners who thought he (Finley) was an idiot.  

 

Veeck, As in Wreck -- bio of Bill Veeck.    

 

Seasons in Hell - about the 1972-'74 Rangers.  Ted Williams, Whitey Herzog, Billy Martin, etc.  What a disaster those teams were.  Although Jim Bibby was supposedly blessed with a particular talent that had nothing to do with his right arm.

 

Dollar Sign on the Muscle - kind of an oral history of scouting.  Some hilarious stories.

[ELEVEN]

Under The Halo.

[laagamer]

Some of my favorites:

 

Ball Four -

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Four-Twentieth-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0020306652

 

Love Me Hate Me -

 

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Me-Hate-Making-Antihero/dp/0060797533/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420698668&sr=8-1&keywords=love+me+hate+me

 

Game of Shadows -

 

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Shadows-Steroids-Scandal-Professional/dp/1592402682/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

 

The Echoing Green -

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Echoing-Green-Untold-Thomson/dp/0375713077

 

EDIT: I almost forgot the greatest baseball writer I've ever experienced. 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Juiced-Times-Rampant-Roids-Baseball/dp/0060746416

Edited January 8, 2015 by laagamer

[Stradling]

I read a book years ago called, Letters to the Mick, truly incredible. It was letters written to him while he was in the hospital. The book made me cry a few times.

[Dave Saltzer]

Definitely take the time to read "The Bullpen Gospels" and it's sequels. You will laugh out loud and really feel for th struggles of the guys in the Minors.

[AngelsSurfer]

Seconding the recommendations for Ball Four and Seasons In Hell. I also really liked R.A. Dickey's memoir, Wherever I Wind Up. He's got an absolutely amazing story.

[Jimmag]

Ball Four hands down.

 

Also may get beat up for this one- True Blue: The Dramatic History of the LA Dodgers, Told by the Men Who Lived It.

Great book covering the Brooklyn days when they moved to LA into to the 90's.

 

Another one I have (go a head beat me up) though I have not read yet is the Bill Simmons book- Now I can Die in Peace.

[ELEVEN]

I saw Now I can Die in Peace in a thrift store this morning for a buck. I couldn't bring myself to buy it. F the sox.

[Erstad Grit]

Blockade Billy by Stephen King was fun. 

[Spirit]

It's not just about baseball, but "You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television Hardcover" by Al Michaels is really good.  I was really surprised about just how much baseball coverage was in there.  Including (sigh) his coverage of the Angels vs. Boston in 1986.

[disarcina]

other good books to read -- and I'm surprised there's not more of them with accompanying CDs of game calls and stories......

 

but get the auto-biographies of the announcers (mostly radio) who covered baseball.

 

Jack Buck's book was great, Hank Greenwald (GIants) wrote a good one......Steve Stone's book about his booth pairing with Harry Carray had me laughing out loud.

 

Being a S. Cal fan, I also got the compilation book of players/ writers/ others' comments about Chick Hearn - the book comes with a CD full of in game "Chickisms" which really bring back the memories.......the CD is worth the price of the book alone..........

 

Bob Miller (LA Kings) also wrote a short book of stories his work including a hilarious one about his being hired (by the very cheap Jack Kent Cooke). It's hilarious as are some of the stories related.......

 

One DVD that should be prepared and packaged and put on sale is the Prime Sports (it was that long ago) joint interview of Chick Hearn, Bob Miller and Vin Scully..........three legends of the booth, three different sports, one very fortunate city/ sports region.  If they would put this in DVD format and packaged it......I think it would sell fast.

 

If Vin Scully ever did an auto-biography and then also read his own Book on Tape version........that book would be sold out day one.

[Dave Saltzer]

By the way, it goes without saying that if you haven't read any of the Rob Goldsman baseball books, such as Once They Were Angels and Nolan Ryan, they are an absolute must read.

[Bruce Nye]

"Fifty Shades Of Hay"

 

   - the John Lackey story.  

[eligrba]

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero.

 

Great read.

[YESWECAN]

"Favorite Baseball Stories" by Bill Stern. Hard to locate but you won't ever forget the stories>