January 30, 2024
***
Spring Training is coming soon. We asked our writers to respond to the following:
We only have a few more weeks until Spring Training. Please list a few (no more than five) of your favorite baseball books of all-time to help everyone pass the last remaining weeks until it starts.
Here are their responses:
***
Paul Semendinger - There are so many great baseball books. So so so many. Here are five lesser-known books that I loved reading (not in rank order) and are books that usually don't make lists like this:
A False Spring by Pat Jordon
Foul Ball by Jim Bouton
Good Enough To Dream by Roger Kahn
Just Tell Me I Can't by Jamie Moyer and Larry Platt
Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry
(I could go on and on and on, but I'll stop here because of the self-imposed rule of limitiing the list to five books.)
***
Tamar Chalker -
Non-Fiction - The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America by Joe Posnanski
Fiction - The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
New Book I’m About to Read: The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams by Adam Lazarus
***
Cary Greene:
Summer of '49 by David Halberstam
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig
October 1964 by David Halberstam
***
Mike Whiteman:
Some recent reads of mine:
Our Team by Luke Epplin about the 1948 Cleveland Indians, one of the most interesting teams of all time.
Split Season by Jeff Katz about the 1981 strike season.
Stengel: His Life and Times by Robert Creamer about Casey Stengel, one of the most fascinating players in baseball history.
The Least Among Them by our fearless leader Paul Semendinger. It really is a great book.
***
Derek McAdam -
Michael Lewis’ Moneyball is, by far, my favorite baseball book. Although I don’t necessarily agree with Billy Beane’s entire approach, it is a fantastic read. Plus, the 2011 movie of the same title is a good watch.
Tom Verducci’s The Cubs Way is also another solid read that I would highly recommend.
***
Tim Kabel -
Three of my favorite baseball books are:
Driving Mr. Yogi- by Harvey Araton
Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain- by Marty Appel
62- by Bryan Hoch
