Baseball's Best Books

Some fiction, some non, but all favorite books about America's favorite past time.
Updated September 19, 2022
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The natural
Malamud, Bernard.
Paper Book
The classical novel (and basis for the acclaimed film starring Robert Redford) now in a new edition Introduction by Kevin Baker The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first--and some would say still the best-...
Shoeless Joe
Kinsella, W. P.
Paper Book
The inspiration for the beloved film Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella is the story about the beauty and history of baseball, and the power and endurance of a dream. "A moonlit novel about baseball, dreams, family, the land, and literature."--Sports Illustrated "If you...
If I never get back
Brock, Darryl.
Paper Book
Sam Fowler is taking a modern-day Amtrak home to San Francisco when an unscheduled stop somewhere west of Cleveland gives him the opportunity to stretch his legs. Instead, Sam finds that time has stretched and mysteriously transported him back to 1869. Bewildered at first, Sam soon meets up with...
The great American novel
Roth, Philip.
Paper Book
The celebrant : a novel
Greenberg, Eric Rolfe.
Paper Book
The first two decades of the 20th century were a time of promise and innocence in America. Hardworking immigrants could achieve the American dream, and heroes were really heroic. Greenberg authentically chronicles the real-life saga of the first national baseball hero, Christy Mathewson, and the...
The brothers K
Duncan, David James.
Paper Book
Bang the drum slowly
Harris, Mark 1922-2007
Paper Book
Henry Wiggen, hero of The Southpaw, became the best-known fictional baseball player in America. Now he is back again in Bang the Drum Slowly, throwing a baseball "with his arm and his brain and his memory and his bluff for the sake of his pocket and his family." Also available...
Moneyball : the art of winning an unfair game
Lewis, Michael (Michael M.)
Paper Book
"One of the best baseball--and management--books out.... Deserves a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame."--Forbes Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Following the low-budget Oakland Athletics, their larger-than-life general manger, Billy...
The art of fielding
Harbach, Chad.
Paper Book
A disastrous error on the field sends five lives into a tailspin in this widely acclaimed tale about love, life, and baseball, praised by the New York Times as "wonderful...a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting." 
The boys of summer
Kahn, Roger.
Paper Book
"A moving elegy . . . [to] the best team the majors ever saw . . . the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s."  -- New York Times The classic narrative of growing up within shouting distance of Ebbets Field, covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and what's happened to everybody since.<...
We are the ship : the story of Negro League baseball
Nelson, Kadir.
Paper Book
In this New York Times bestselling classic, Caldecott Medal-winning artist Kadir Nelson tells the incredible story of baseball's unsung heroes -- perfect for celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Negro Leagues! Winner of the Coretta Scott King Author ...
Hoopla
Stein, Harry 1948-
Paper Book
When eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, the team became known as the "Black Sox." Hoopla blends the narrative of team member George Weaver with the view of Luther Pond, who exposed the scandal. Filled with cameo portraits of prominent sports...
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. : J. Henry Waugh, Prop
Coover, Robert.
Paper Book
As owner of every team in the league, Henry is flush with pride in a young rookie who is pitching a perfect game. When the pitcher completes the miracle game, Henry's life lights up. But then the rookie is killed by a freak accident, and this"death" affects Henry's life in ways unimaginable. In...
The Veracruz blues
Winegardner, Mark 1961-
Paper Book
"When big-league ballplayers return from the war, unhappy with the contracts the club owners offer them, the wealthy Pasquel brothers pay unheard-of salaries to lure disaffected players - Sal Maglie, Vern Stephens, Danny Gardella, Max Lanier among them - to Mexico. When they get there, they see that...
The greatest slump of all time
Carkeet, David.
Paper Book
Queen of the Negro leagues : Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles
Overmyer, James.
Paper Book
The first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, there was no one like Effa Manley in the sports world of the 1930s and 1940s. She was a sophisticated woman who owned a baseball team. She never shrank from going head to head with men, who dominated the ranks of sports executives and...
Baseball's great experiment : Jackie Robinson and his legacy
Tygiel, Jules.
Paper Book
In 1997 the American people will celebrate with great fanfare and publicity the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's explosive entrance into major league baseball. Robinson has become a national icon, his name a virtual synonym for pathbreaker. Indeed, much has transpired between this young...
How baseball happened : Outrageous lies exposed! The true story revealed
Gilbert, Thomas W.
Paper Book
The fascinating, true, story of baseball's amateur origins. "Explores the conditions and factors that begat the game in the 19th century and turned it into the national pastime....A delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat."--Paul...
The last hero : a life of Henry Aaron
Bryant, Howard 1968-
Paper Book
In the thirty-four years since his retirement, Henry Aaron's reputation has only grown in magnitude: he broke existing records (rbis, total bases, extra-base hits) and set new ones (hitting at least thirty home runs per season fifteen times, becoming the first player in history to hammer five...

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