Looking for some baseball books

[FizzyWater]

I gave my dad one of my old readers a few months ago. Once upon a time, he used to read science fiction (I picked up the occasional habit from him). He enjoys a good mystery, but doesn't want the gruesome kind (but probably not those officially labeled "cozy either - he likes the Chet & Bernie series, for example).

But he tells me his favorite thing to read about is baseball...biographies, fiction, history...anything baseball.

Anyone have any recommendations?

[issybird]

He'll have read the classics, such as Ball Four and The Boys of Summer. How about The House That Ruth Built by Robert Weintraub?

http://www.amazon.com/House-That-Rut...mm_kin_title_0

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I gave my dad one of my old readers a few months ago. Once upon a time, he used to read science fiction (I picked up the occasional habit from him). He enjoys a good mystery, but doesn't want the gruesome kind (but probably not those officially labeled "cozy either - he likes the Chet & Bernie series, for example).

But he tells me his favorite thing to read about is baseball...biographies, fiction, history...anything baseball.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Blockade Billy by Stephen King

[Bookworm_Girl]

What a great question now that spring training has started. BILL VEECK: BASEBALL'S GREATEST MAVERICK by Paul Dickson published in 2012 gets great reviews and is on my TBR list.

[Gazella]

Moneyball by Michael Lewis came to mind. I haven't read the book but I saw the movie.

[usuallee]

As a matter of fact I just started reading Francona, about the former Red Sox manager. So far it's interesting and well written and supposedly will give a lot of insider's information about both the world series titles, and the Red Sox's epic collapse of 2011.

P. S. It was only $5 at amazon as of a few days ago.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

What a great question now that spring training has started. BILL VEECK: BASEBALL'S GREATEST MAVERICK by Paul Dickson published in 2012 gets great reviews and is on my TBR list.

Bill Veeck was a really good promoter (I can still picture the little person that who let bat!). I might have to pick this one up myself.

[Catlady]

I highly recommend the Roy Tucker/Brooklyn Dodgers series by John R. Tunis, beginning with The Kid from Tomkinsville. These were written in the 1940s and are ostensibly young adult books, but quite enjoyable and still interesting and thought-provoking. They have been published digitally by Open Road.

Also:

• The Natural by Bernard Malamud
• Shoeless Joe (basis of the film Field of Dreams) and The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by William Kinsella
• The Southpaw, Bang the Drum Slowly, and Ticket for a Seamstitch by Mark Harris

For nonfiction:

• The Summer Game and anything else by Roger Angell
• Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof
• Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
• Why Time Begins on Opening Day by Thomas Boswell

[Jozawun]

Zane Grey's baseball fiction books are available here on Mobileread.

[sharphamster]

Great timing - just re-read these non-fiction titles to pass the 23 days left until Opening Day.

All of my copies are epubs, but I'm betting Amazon carries them too.

Ernie Harwell: My 60 Years in Baseball - Tom Keegan, Al Kaline
Detroit institution and 'the voice of summer' "The only play-by-play broadcaster to cover games across seven decades, Harwell saw (and accumulated accompanying stories about) everyone from Babe Ruth to Ichiro Suzuki, many of which are shared in this entertaining biography."

The Final Season: Fathers, Sons, and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark - Tom Stanton
"Growing up in the 60s and 70s, Tom Stanton lived for his Detroit Tigers. When Tiger Stadium began its 88th and final season, he vowed to attend all 81 home games in order to explore his attachment to the place where four generations of his family have shared baseball. Join him as he encounters idols, conjures decades past, and discovers the mysteries of a park where Cobb and Ruth played. Come along and sit beside Al Kaline on the dugout bench, eat popcorn with Elmore Leonard, hear Alice Cooper's confessions, soak up the warmth of Ernie Harwell, see McGwire and Ripken up close, and meet Chicken Legs Rau, Bleacher Pete, Al the Usher, and a parade of fans who are anything but ordinary. By the autumn of his odyssey, Stanton comes to realize that his anguish isn't just about the loss of a beloved ballpark but about his dad's mortality, for at the heart of this story is the love between fathers and sons--a theme that resonates with baseball fans of all ages."

Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series - David Pietrusza
"History remembers Arnold Rothstein as the man who fixed the 1919 World Series, an underworld genius. The real-life model for The Great Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim and Nathan Detroit from Guys and Dolls, Rothstein was much more—and less—than a fixer of baseball games. He was everything that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Featuring Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, speakeasies, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of Sports, this is a biography of the man who dominated an age."

[JoelArnold]

There's Michael Chabon's fantasy novel "Summerland" which involves a lot of baseball (it was written for kids, but I enjoyed it.)

[yekim54]

The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad Harbach
Calico Joe: A Novel by John Grisham

[FizzyWater]

Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone!