Insomniac34 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I was wondering, can anyone recommend to me any good baseball-related books to read? I just picked up Moneyball today (I probably should've read this long ago) and I'm interested in hearing some recommendations for other good books. Whether they be (auto)biography, fiction, non-fiction, statistical.. can anyone make any recommendations? I appreciate any and all responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RmembrZito75 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Game Of Shadows...all bout BALCO and the steroids scandal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroEric Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Ball Four by Jim Bouton Anything by Bill James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_jefe061 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Three Nights in August, about a writer's experience following Tony La Russa. Game of Shadows, no description needed. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton. The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty by Buster Olney. You might like Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, the book by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan covering the 04 season, basically their diary. You might like Bill Simmons' Now I Can Die in Peace, but I've never read it. Although I don't like Dan Shaughnessy, some of his books are decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean O Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I'm about 1/3rd through Fantasyland right now, which is a tremendous look into fantasy baseball. Moneyball, of course, is required reading by anyone not named Joe Morgan. As a Sox fan, The First World Series was excellent. Not Bob Ryan's book, the other one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RmembrZito75 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I'm sorry, but exactly is Moneyball about? I also recommend reading "Juiced" by Jose Canseco. Title tells you all about the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddux31 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I am reading a AWESOME book right now called The Entitled..A Story About Modern Baseball...This is a new release and I can't put it down. I have read all the above books and so far this is right up there with my favorites of all-time. If you do not read it right now, I suggest reading it sometime in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ro290190 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 "Fantasyland" and "Now I can die" in peace are my 2 favourites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insomniac34 Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 Thanks a lot for all the recommendations. I was considering reading "Game of Shadows" since it created such a stir. I only wanted to get one book today since I wanna be sure I read one before buying another, and I went with Moneyball. I have the 2004 WS book by King and O'Nan, but I personally didn't care for it. As for the Sports Guy book, I think it's supposed to be just a lot of his columns together to make a book, right? I'm a big Sports Guy fan, read every new column/mailbag, listen to all his podcasts (the Marv Albert one today was great), so I may go out and pick it up. Good toilet reading And thank you for reminding me of the Buster Olney book "Last Night...", I've heard terrific things. As for FantasyLand, I see a couple of you recommend it, but I'm not a big Fantasy Baseball fan (I'm not a Fantasy Sports fan at all), so I'll probably avoid that one. Thanks for the recommendation, though. Thanks to everyone who has made recommendations. Please keep them coming so that not only I, but everyone who reads this thread can see some good recommendations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RussFeathers Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I just got the Stark Truth by John Stark about overrated and underrated players. Its pretty good. Definitly not the best baseball book but its a fun book to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philliesphan18 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Unhittable - A chronicle of all the best pitching moments in baseball The Teammates - The story of the friendship between Bobby Doerr, Dom Dimaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams. (You're a Red Sox fan so it's a must read!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred13 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Are speaking in terms of just non-fiction? There are a lot of great fiction books out there about baseball too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insomniac34 Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 Are speaking in terms of just non-fiction? There are a lot of great fiction books out there about baseball too. Fiction, non-fiction, doesn't matter to me. As long as it's baseball-related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_jefe061 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I have the 2004 WS book by King and O'Nan, but I personally didn't care for it. As for the Sports Guy book, I think it's supposed to be just a lot of his columns together to make a book, right? I'm a big Sports Guy fan, read every new column/mailbag, listen to all his podcasts (the Marv Albert one today was great), so I may go out and pick it up. Good toilet reading And thank you for reminding me of the Buster Olney book "Last Night...", I've heard terrific things. It's actually not columns strung together, it's a standalone Red Sox book, talking about his childhood to now. As for King's book, I liked it, but more as a revival of that season. As for "Last Night..." you can never, NEVER, ever go wrong with Buster Olney. That could be the best book of the bunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigPaPa Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I read game of Shadows and i thought it was pretty good then i read Juiced but that one was pretty bad. Game Of Shadows was much more well thoguth out and professional it provided evidence for all its accusations and really was informing. Juiced seemed kinda like it jsut wanted to throw as much suspicion on as many prominent players as possible it didn't seem to have a real point to me. Then again idk what i expected form Jose Canseco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krawhitham Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Moneyball is way overrated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwentySeven Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I'm sorry, but exactly is Moneyball about? I also recommend reading "Juiced" by Jose Canseco. Title tells you all about the book. Moneyball is about the Oakland A's in 2002 when they were doing really well despite extremely low payrolls. It talks about how Billy Beane overcame the low payrolls by using up market inefficiencies, etc. Moneyball is way overrated No it's not. It overhypes thinks like the A's draft (it didn't turn out all that well and Jeremy Brown kind of failed, but whatevs), and looking back it doesn't look all that good. It talks about how the A's passed on Ben Sheets and almost passed on Jeremy Bonderman, and looking back you might say that that was a stupid move. But you have to consider that back then that wasn't a bad move. You can't know that Bonderman turns out that well. Whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean O Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Moneyball is way overrated how so? What didn't you like about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insomniac34 Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 I just started reading Moneyball, really good stuff. I never knew Billy Beane was Bo Jackson-esque in his earlier H.S. days, really interesting info. It's a very well-written book and I can't wait to get further into it. After this, I think I'll check out the Buster Olney book "Last Night..." because I'm a big fan of his work on ESPN.com. @ jefe, from a couple reviews I read on Amazon.com, apparently the Sports Guy book is a mix of older columns and new material, including the last 100 pages or so going over the last couple weeks of the season, the playoffs, and the WS. And some of the columns have been reworked with little footnotes/observations included on the side, so it seems like there will be enough fresh material to make this a worthy purchase. And while not a baseball book, I should probably check out Paul Shirley's new book, "Can I Keep My Jersey?". He seems to have a very Simmons-esque sense of humor after listening to him on the Sports Guy podcast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elduque Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 The Duke of Havana by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez I am suspicious to tell, but this is the best baseball book I have read till now, for me always baseball was life and life was baseball, this book is about life and baseball. You, me, or any of those first pick draft, would risk our life's, for playing baseball? leaving our family and friends behind, not knowing if we are ever going to see them again? will you? He did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LetsPlay2 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 The Long Ball - Tom Adelman A great book outlining the events of the 1975 season.... capped off by, what many consider, the best World Series of all time. Fair Ball - Bob Costas Costas makes some really good points about some the areas that need improvement in today's game.... and common sense ideas to try and fix them. After reading this, you will hope (like I did) that Costas will be the next commissioner of the MLB.... you can really tell that he has a deep love for the game. Feeding the Monster - Seth Mnookin A must-read for any Sox fan. This book disspells some of the myth and legend surrounding the Sox.... including the "Curse of the Bambino". Not only does Mnookin give the Sox credit where credit is due, he also sharply criticizes the team (mainly the front office) for its downfalls. In a nutshell, Mnookin is the anti-Shaughnessy. The book concentrates on the time from the sale of the Sox to the Henry group through to the 2005 season. An awesome book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroEric Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Does anyone have any experience with the three great how-to's of hitting? Rod Carew's "Art and Science of Hitting" Charlie Lau's "The Art of Hitting .300" or Ted Williams' "The Science of Hitting" ? Not that I have anything to improve except my swing in company softball games. I'd like to see how two of the best hitters (and one of the best hitting coaches) present the physics of swinging the bat. --Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elduque Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Does anyone have any experience with the three great how-to's of hitting? Rod Carew's "Art and Science of Hitting" Charlie Lau's "The Art of Hitting .300" or Ted Williams' "The Science of Hitting" ? Not that I have anything to improve except my swing in company softball games. I'd like to see how two of the best hitters (and one of the best hitting coaches) present the physics of swinging the bat. --Eric I have no own words to put in here but I guess it could help a little the following ... Back in the early 90's in an Up-Close ESPN show (have no clue if it exist still) the anchor asked Tony Gwynn: Q: "How did you learn to hit that well?" A: "Ted Williams' The Science of Hitting, it's all there" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lz477 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 If you're interested in fiction... ...I would suggest another book that Jim Bouton co-wrote with Eliot Asinof in the mid-90's called "Strike Zone" about a minor league knuckleball pitcher making his major league debut in an NL playoff game for the Cubs. ...Of course Bernard Malamud's, "The Natural" is a classic and in my opinion the movie just doesn't quite do it justice. ....and the last baseball book of fiction I would suggest you might have trouble finding because it's no longer in print. It's called "The Sweet Swing" by Richard Friendlich. It's a very short book for teens, but I loved it. I found it at a book sale at my local library so you might try your library for it if interested. Of course if you're a Red Sox fan and like autobiographies I would suggest. "My Turn at Bat: The Story of My Life", by Ted Williams and John Underwood. It's a "Fireside Sports Classics" book so it's like he's talking to you as you read the book. I liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuanshuowu Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 theres a book by Jerry Remy about the Red Sox, even though I am a big Yankee fan, but it is still interesting to read. It briefly talks about his career and the 2004 sox, with many interesting comments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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