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.
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
W. P. Kinsella
You know Me Al: A Busher's Letters
Ring Lardner
In the early decades of the twentieth century, newspaperman and humorist Ring Lardner (1885-1933) made America laugh with his hilarious depictions of odd characters in the sporting world, Tin Pan Alley, and Hollywood. His first great success was You Know Me Al, a fictional series of letters...
Moneyball : the art of winning an unfair game
Lewis, Michael.
Just before the 2002 season opens, the Oakland Athletics must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players and is written off by just about everyone--but then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins. How did one of the poorest teams in baseball...
The art of fielding : a novel
Harbach, Chad.
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.
The Boys of Summer recreates the magic of Dodger baseball as played in Ebbets Field during that brief dream when Brooklyn was the center of the universe. Robinson, Snider, Reese, Furillo, Campanella, and the rest tell Roger Kahn how it was raising hopes every year only to fall before the mighty...
Baseball's great experiment : Jackie Robinson and his legacy
Tygiel, Jules.
In this gripping account of one of the most important steps in the history of American desegregation, Jules Tygiel tells the story of Jackie Robinson's crossing of baseball's color line. Examining the social and historical context of Robinson's introduction into white organized baseball, both on and...
The last hero : a life of Henry Aaron
Bryant, Howard
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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