Books always serve as excellent sources of Inspiration. They make the best friends because you’ll always find them cuddling you in your sad moments with their comforting words and motivational stories. For baseball fans, nothing is more special, after watching the game, than reading stories of their baseball heroes. To make sure you spend the most beautiful moments when alone or depressed next, we have enlisted below 15 of the most famous baseball books for you.
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1. Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn (1972)
From one perspective this is a memoir of Roger Kahn who had the good fortune of covering the Brooklyn Dodgers for the Herald Tribune in the 1950s. Take another look at this famous baseball book, and you will find that it is the oral history of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the biography of Jackie Robinson, the team and player who broke the color barriers that had shackled the baseball game for decades. In the words of a critic, “it is a book about America, about fathers and sons, prejudice and courage, triumph and disaster, and told with warmth, humor, wit, candor, and love.”
2. The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, And The Stories Behind Baseball’s Rarest Feats by Joe Cox (2018)
This is a famous baseball book about incredible feats in the baseball field. It sheds light on the miraculous, endless possibilities that the American National Pastime offers to the players to make seemingly unachievable records. Joe Cox takes you on an exclusive tour of 30 of the rarest achievements in baseball in this exciting book. The riveting stories of the incredible feats in the book will surely leave you with the belief that impossible is actually possible.
3. Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott And Tim Brown (2012)
Imperfect is a memoir of the player who was born without a right hand. However, that did not stop him from becoming the athlete who “threw one of the most dramatic no-hitters in major-league history.” It is the inspiring story of the life of Jim Abbott, known as the “one-handed ballplayer.” This impressive and unforgettable memoir is a living testimony on how imperfections and failures can motivate us to carry out feats that even the most perfect ones find impossible.
4. The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence Ritter (1996)
The Glory of Their Times is a fascinating and moving account of the early days of baseball narrated by the players themselves. This book is a transcription of the recorded interviews of Lawrence Ritter with the old-time baseball players in the 1960s. It is considered to be the finest baseball book ever written. It is also regarded as the best oral history books for any subject by the book critics.
5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (2003)
Moneyball is considered to be one of the most impactful books in baseball history. It tells that story of how the general manager of Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane, despite having severe budget constraints made his team won an incredible 20 consecutive games. The book explores the business side of baseball and tells how the use of statistics and data can help understand the day-to-day accomplishments of the players. This famous baseball book was also adapted into an eponymous movie, which is the amongst the most successful baseball movies of all-times.
6. Clearing the Bases: The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century by Allan Barra (2002)
This is a loaded-with-information book which is meant primarily for the fans who like to argue about the greatest (or worst) players, teams, seasons, games, and incidents in baseball history. It is the first book that tackles some of the most intriguing and heated questions about the game and offers answers based on common sense, exhaustive research, and analysis. The book challenges some of the most widely held beliefs of the baseball fans and will certainly turn you into a well-informed supporter.
7. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America by Joe Posnanski (2007)
If you are a baseball fan and also care for civil rights, you should read this book. The Soul of Baseball is the story of Buck O’Neil, the legendary league player and arguably the greatest ambassador of the game. Joe Posnanski followed O’Neil through the 93rd year of his life, and this famous baseball book is the result. It is as much as the story of baseball as it the story of O’Neil. Posnanski fulfills the seemingly impossible feat of fusing the history of baseball and civil rights in America in a single volume. It is a must-read for every baseball player.
8. Ball Four by Jim Bouton (1970)
“It never hurts to apologize, especially if you don’t mean it.” Ball Four introduced this remarkable quote in Ball Four which is one of the most controversial yet honest books in the history of baseball.
When the book was published in 1970, Jim was declared a “social leper” and traitor by the sportswriters; he was forced to announce the book untrue by the baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn. However, all this negative propaganda didn’t keep the readers from loving this book and turned it into a baseball classic.
9. Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1997)
This New York Times bestseller is the memoir of the award-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin. The biography is a moving account of her life in the 1950s and how she developed the love of baseball. The book re-lives the postwar era of the 1950s when the corner stores were the place to share stories, and the neighborhoods were uniformly distributed between the Dodger-Giant and Yankee fans. Goodwin introduces us to her family and recounts how their influence made her fall in love with books and baseball.
10. Five Seasons by Roger Angell (1977)
Five Seasons covers the baseball seasons during the period from 1972-1976 that is described as the “most significant half-decade in the history of the game.” This famous baseball book is a series of insightful essays that Angell penned down in the 1970s. Along with recounting the highlights of the seasons, Angell describes how the game was evolving from a business perspective during that period. The book is indeed a masterpiece of Roger Angell who is regarded as “the best baseball writer on the planet.”
11. Lords of the Realm by John Helyar
Based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and digging, John Helyar, in this colorful and fascinating chronicle brings to life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped America’s favorite pastime. The history of baseball owners and the destruction they caused to the game is both intriguing and saddening at the same time. If you are a baseball fan and student of the game, you cannot miss out this book.
12. Baseball by Geoffrey C. Ward
If you have just developed an interest in baseball or have a young fan of the game around, then this book is for you. The companion book of Ken Burns’s fantastic PBS Television Series, Baseball recounts the 150 years of history of baseball. In excellent words of Goodreads introduction to the book, “[It is a book on baseball] history that goes beyond stolen bases, triple plays, and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced our [American] national life: politics, race, labor, big business, advertising, and social custom.”
13. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood by Jane Leavy (2010)
This famous baseball book by the award-winning author of the New York Times Bestseller book Sandy Koufax chronicles the life of baseball icon Mickey Mantle. In this book, Jane Leavy delves deep into the life of the legendary hall-of-fame outfielder who was a record-setter during his career with the New Yorker Yankees but later his involvement in alcoholism, infidelity, and family strife badly tarnished his reputation. In The Last Boy, Leavy uses first-hand research as well as her recollections to show why Mickey remains the most adored yet misunderstood Yankee sluggers of all times.
14. Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime by Jean Hastings Ardell (2005)
While baseball is conventionally seen as a game to be played, relished, and reported from a masculine viewpoint, it has long been revered by women even more so than any other game. Jean Hasting in her book Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime, reveals, through interviews and extensive research, just how interested women are, and have always been, in American Pastime. It a particularly great book from a feminist point of view.
15. Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life in and out of Major League Baseball by Billy Bean (2003)
This autobiography of the only alive openly gay former major league player Billy Bean is an outstanding and unprecedented chronicle of the American National Pastime. Bean offers profound insights into the game and unveils the physical and emotional requirements it demands from the players. The book is an excellent American tale that shows the way toward a more inclusive and accepting game in which all men and women can follow their athletic dreams free of discrimination and prejudice.
BONUS:
16. The Long Season by Jim Brosnan (1960)
This book is a classic insider account of a baseball season by a major league player. Jim takes us through the winter season when he anticipates whether his contract will be renewed, then through his journey of the spring training in Florida and then the entire season. Considered an intellectual by his teammates, Jim’s writing is erudite and insightful about the lives and personalities of his fellow players. “It is probably one of the best American diaries“, according to the New York Times Book Review.
17. The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia by Gary Gillette (Editor), Pete Palmer, Peter Gammons (Foreword) (2004)
This encyclopedia by the sports experts of ESPN is considered to be the most useful and informative baseball compilation ever written. Bill James, the author of the Historical Baseball Abstract, writes about this encyclopedia, “I want a bumper sticker: You can have my Baseball Encyclopedia when you tear it from my cold, dead hands.”
Which is your favorite book from the above list? Let us know in the comments section.
Get home safe,
Jan
