Off-Season Suggestion For The Baseball Fans Here

[Yankee4Life]

I don't consider myself a full fledged baseball historian because there's a lot of people who know more about the history of the game than I do. But I do consider myself pretty well informed about this history of this great game because I've spent a lot of time during the off season reading baseball books.

And in my case I am not just talking about picking up and reading books just about the Yankees. I usually read stuff about them during the course of the season.

During the off season, I would pick up books on the history of other teams just to be familiar with them. I've learned a lot about the origins of the New York Giants for example but just reading a few good books about that famous team. I read a great book a few months back about the exciting 1908 National League pennant race between the Cubs and Giants and the daily battle that those teams were going through then. It was a fantastic book.

I've read books on the Browns and their rise to their only pennant in 1944. I've read about how the dead ball era was and the real story of Ty Cobb. There's a ton of history written about this great sport out there and all you need is a library card to get it.

What you'll read is the kind of stuff that the MLB Network will never cover because they are more focused on the present instead of baseball's rich past. At least I think so.

Anyways, go read about the Dodgers and how the people in Brooklyn really felt about them. You'll read first hand accounts about this from people who were actually there. I recommend Peter Golenbock's excellent book "An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers." After reading that, you'll share the pain of the Brooklynites interviewed in that book about the loss of their favorite team.

Give it a shot this off season. Just a suggestion of course.

[CircleChange11]

I don't consider myself a full fledged baseball historian because there's a lot of people who know more about the history of the game than I do. But I do consider myself pretty well informed about this history of this great game because I've spent a lot of time during the off season reading baseball books.

And in my case I am not just talking about picking up and reading books just about the Yankees. I usually read stuff about them during the course of the season.

During the off season, I would pick up books on the history of other teams just to be familiar with them. I've learned a lot about the origins of the New York Giants for example but just reading a few good books about that famous team. I read a great book a few months back about the exciting 1908 National League pennant race between the Cubs and Giants and the daily battle that those teams were going through then. It was a fantastic book.

I've read books on the Browns and their rise to their only pennant in 1944. I've read about how the dead ball era was and the real story of Ty Cobb. There's a ton of history written about this great sport out there and all you need is a library card to get it.

What you'll read is the kind of stuff that the MLB Network will never cover because they are more focused on the present instead of baseball's rich past. At least I think so.

Anyways, go read about the Dodgers and how the people in Brooklyn really felt about them. You'll read first hand accounts about this from people who were actually there. I recommend Peter Golenbock's excellent book "An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers." After reading that, you'll share the pain of the Brooklynites interviewed in that book about the loss of their favorite team.

Give it a shot this off season. Just a suggestion of course.

My 8yo read aloud to me "Big Z: The Carlos Zambrano Story" recently, pretty interesting character. Our next book we're going you do in the "you read - I read" fashion and it's Clemente's new biography. That book has received great reviews.

I love the baseball prospectus and Bill James books, but in that regard there just isn;t much new under the sun, at this point.

I 2nd your recommendation on reading books about franchise histories, even the Negro Leagues. Another idea is to read the in-depth prospect analysis books, so one knows quite a bit about the players coming up in the next year or 2.

[Yankee4Life]

I 2nd your recommendation on reading books about franchise histories, even the Negro Leagues. Another idea is to read the in-depth prospect analysis books, so one knows quite a bit about the players coming up in the next year or 2.

Thank you for mentioning this. I completely overlooked these kind of books when I was making this thread.

And just watch CircleChange, by having your boy read about baseball with you, he is going to remember a lot of what he read and he's going to be reading more and more about baseball. Let me know how you both like that Clemente book because anything with Roberto Clemente or about him, I'll read. I was lucky enough to see him play in his final years in Pittsburgh and he was always among my favorites.