Favorite Baseball Book

[La La La Linoleum]

What is your favorite book about baseball? Has it ever helped you with your ootp leagues?

[mitchkenn]

Hmmmm ... Only The Ball Was White, maybe because it was the 1 st book on Negro Leagues i read. Gave me a lot of insight to Satchel Paige, but also the NL as a whole. it's somewhere in my garage, but dang if i know exactly where.
But the one with most influence (and i've used it a lot to get info on Negro League players for my game) The Biographical Encyclopedia Of The Negro Baseball Leagues by James A Riley. Only negative i've found on this book, it has almost no stats, but interesting little bios and history of players.
and the third most import one to me was "The Enclypopedia Of Minor League Baseball" - which merely listed all the minor league teams and their movements and histories. A dull read but historically interesting on the craziness of the minors.

[joefromchicago]

I've read Harold Seymour's two-volume history of early professional baseball at least twice. It's about fifty-years old now, but it's still a solid work of scholarship as well as the foundational text for all subsequent baseball histories. I'd also add Bill James's historical baseball abstracts. I don't always agree with James, but it's hard to argue with the depth of his research and his unique insights, which are endlessly fascinating.

[Brad K]

Understanding the game: the first Sabermetrics book

Understanding the players: Ball Four

[CBeisbol]

I don't know if it was my favorite

But it's the one that first jumps to my mind when talking about baseball books

A Well Paid Slave by Brad Snyder
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-w...der/1112139612

The story of how Curt Flood helped change baseball free agency

Helped me with OOTP? Probably not
Helped me understand the business/finances of baseball? Especially from the player perspective? Definintely.

[mrbadguy]

Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter.
First hand account of the dead ball era. Done through interviews with former players, including 8 or 9 HOFers. Not just a great baseball book, but history book.

[progen]

Heart of the Game by S.L. Price

The story of Mike Coolbaugh, who was the guy that was hit by a line drive while coaching first base for the Tulsa Drillers, and was practically killed instantly.

A baseball book, but very much a human interest story, highlighting Mike and his life through baseball, and highlighting the batter, Tino Sanchez who hit the line drive. An incredible touching story, especially toward the end when Mike's family meets Tino in person.

I mostly read minor league books, as I enjoy the stories of players and their struggles to make it to the show. Currently reading Slouching Toward Fargo, which was written in 1999, about the St. Paul Saints who are owned by Bill Murray and Bill Veeck, and it was referred to me by Veeck via an email when I reached out to him years ago.

[LunchBox]

Wild Pitch by Mike Lupica


Link to a review and synopsis



https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-r...ca/wild-pitch/

[BirdWatcher]

I wouldn't even attempt to name my favorite as there are so many. (And certainly among them are several already named in this thread.)

But in terms of impact on OOTP, one that I go back to frequently is Bill James, Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?. As my fictional league progresses it has helped me formulate ideas about and even tools for (based upon many of the tools in this book) the Hall of Fame in my OOTP universe.

And I guess given that my fictional league is called the W.P. Kinsella League it is probably not a secret that I love the baseball fiction of the late, great Mr. Kinsella.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by mrbadguy

Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter.
First hand account of the dead ball era. Done through interviews with former players, including 8 or 9 HOFers. Not just a great baseball book, but history book.

The tapes of the interviews from the book are available someplace and they are great listening!

[Curve Ball Dave]

Originally Posted by mrbadguy

Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter.
First hand account of the dead ball era. Done through interviews with former players, including 8 or 9 HOFers. Not just a great baseball book, but history book.

Same.

[Juggernt]

+1 to Glory of Their Times

[BirdWatcher]

Oh, sheesh, I can't believe I forgot to say any baseball writing by the now centenarian Roger Angell.

One of my favorite writers, period, on any subject.

[Scottiedog43]

I’ve read Moneyball a few times

[Hrycaj]

This thread comes up every few years and I love it everytime. I wish we could get a stickied thread just devoted to books about the game. Like many here I have a ton of favorites. Not many have helped me play OOTP but they have definitely helped me write about leagues I have created. Here are a few that I really enjoyed.

Turkey Stearns and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit 1919-1933 by Richard Bak

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

A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant by Bill Felber

Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit by Tom Stanton

Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan by Peter Morris

And one of the best fictional reads.. The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella
__________________________________________________ ________Current reads:

Outside the Lines of Gilded Age Baseball: Alcohol, Fitness, and Cheating in 1880's Baseball by Dr. Rob Bauer

How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed by Thomas W. Gilbert

[Charlie Hough]

Crazy '08 and Wrigleyville. Inspiring books, especially for historical OOTP games.

[Eric]

I liked The Long Season by Jim Brosnan. Good account of a season from a player's point of view

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by mrbadguy

Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter.
First hand account of the dead ball era. Done through interviews with former players, including 8 or 9 HOFers. Not just a great baseball book, but history book.

Originally Posted by Curve Ball Dave

Same.

Originally Posted by Juggernt

+1 to Glory of Their Times

My thanks to you guys for this suggestion. Primary reason: Yet again, but I swear that this time it will be the last time for quite some time, I find myself slogging through the Dead Ball Era in my historical MLB / fictional player league. I need something to lighten the mood / change my perspective and perhaps this book is it.



"[Lawrence] Ritter got the idea for the book in 1961 upon the death of Ty Cobb, who had been widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the game's history. He was also influenced by the works of John and Alan Lomax, who traveled the country in the 1930s and 1940s with tape recorders seeking out old and almost forgotten American folk songs.

"Ritter realized that those who played baseball in the early years of the 20th century were now old men, and he resolved to interview as many of them as he could in order to record their memories. Ritter travelled 75,000 miles to interview his subjects, sitting for hours listening to them tell their tales into his tape recorder. The book retells their stories in the first-person, as they were told to Ritter."

[Raidergoo]

The Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball by John Helyar.


The New Bill James Historical Abstract by Bill James


Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame: Baseball, Cooperstown, and the Politics of Glory by Bill James


Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

Baseball Between the Numbers by Jonah Keri

Root for the Cubs: Charlie Root and the 1929 Chicago Cubs by Roger Snell

[luckymann]

Robert Coover - The Universal Baseball Association Inc, J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is a great novel whose subject matter would most likely resound deeply for all on here: the blurred line between real and simulated life...

... and Reversing the Curse by Dan Shaughnessy...