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The 20 Best Baseball Books Ever

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Aug 20, 2013.

  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Esquire:

    http://www.esquire.com/the-side/best-baseball-books?src=soc_fcbks#slide-1

    1. Five Seasons
    2. Red Smith on Baseball
    3. The Glory of Their Times
    4. Only the Ball Was White
    5. Veeck — As in Wreck
    6. Moneyball
    7. The Pitch That Killed
    8. A Day in the Bleachers
    9. The Wrong Stuff
    10. The Bronx Zoo
    11. Baseball's Great Experiment
    12. Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud
    13. October 1964
    14. Ball Four
    15. Baseball When the Grass Was Real
    16. Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball
    17. Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?
    18. Don't Look Back
    19. Seasons in Hell
    20. Boys of Summer

    How many have you read? What do you think of the list?
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I've read 10.

    Surprise Brosnan's "The Long Season" didn't make the list, and that "Boys of Summer" was ranked so low.
     
  3. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I've read 12.

    Very pleased to see "Seasons in Hell," "The Wrong Stuff" and "The Pitch That Killed" on that list. All excellent, and not widely known. And you can't go wrong with Roger Angell in the No. 1 spot.

    "Only the Ball Was White" is an important book, but it's not an enjoyable read by any means. Surprised "Ball Four" is so low.

    And "The Bronx Zoo" is fairly pedestrian and breezy. I loved it when I was 14 years old, but it's not at all well-written. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning" is far superior about the Yankees of that era.
     
  4. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    Anybody who thinks Joe Pepitone's book is better than Ball Four is hopelessly full of shit.

    BTW, loved the link: "How To Choose The Right Cologne For Your Lifestyle." It's like someone is doing a parody of Esquire.

    Back to giving us all lessons on how to be a man.
     
  5. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    Ranking 13 books ahead of Ball Four, including The Bronx Zoo, makes that list mean not a thing.
     
  6. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Another book, that maybe wouldn't have made the top 20, but one that I enjoyed is "On a Clear Day, They Could See Seventh Place", about the worst baseball teams of all time. A fun read.
     
  7. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Crap list, as I expected.
    I submit Dan Okrent's Nine Innings.
    He somehow stumbled upon a creative/reductive narrative style years before Esquire invented it.
     
  8. Elliotte Friedman

    Elliotte Friedman Moderator Staff Member

    Aside from Moneyball, anything from this century?

    The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, The Yankee Years, the Mnookin book on the Red Sox all could qualify
     
  9. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    "Bottom of the 33rd" is the best baseball book I've read in a long time.
     
  10. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    "Babe," by Robert Creamer.

    You cannot know baseball if you do not know Babe Ruth.

    I'm done here.
     
  11. "Baseball in the Garden of Eden:The Secret History of the Early Game" despite the author's detour into theosophy.

    Also wod put "Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself" somewhere in a top 20 list.
     
  12. Della9250

    Della9250 Well-Known Member

    I've read 8.

    I, like the masses, can't believe Ball Four is so low — especially behind some of the ones on the list.

    I really like the DiMaggio book by Richard Ben Cramer and was surprised it's not on there. I thought "The Unforgettable Season" was pretty good too. I've ready too many baseball books without looking over my stacks to see if I'm missing any non-fiction ones.
     
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