100 Best Baseball Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Michael Lewis

5.0

Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Michael Lewis mines all these possibilities - his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are

Recommended by Ev Williams, Azeem Azhar, Carol Dweck, and 5 others.

Carol Dweck

You would think that the relationship between training and skill would be utterly obvious in sports, but apparently it isn’t. [source]

Daniel Hamermesh

What the book is really about is a guy who is using some econometrics to predict which players will do better in advancing wins, which is a remarkable use of economic thinking. [source]

David Papineau

It’s a parable of the disinclination of people in general to base their practices on evidence, a parable for evidence-based policy in general. [source]

2

Ball Four: The Final Pitch

Jim Bouton

4.6

The beloved baseball classic now available in paperback, with a new prologue by Jim Bouton

When Ball Four was first published in 1970, it hit the sports world like a lightning bolt. Commissioners, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the

Recommended by Aaron Gleeman, Ben Shapiro, Joe Posnanski, and 4 others.

Aaron Gleeman

Damn. Jim Bouton. "Ball Four" is the best baseball book ever written. It blew my 13-year-old mind and I've read it every few years since. It always holds up. Meeting him at a SABR convention in Seattle is something I'll never forget. An absolute legend. https://t.co/g37Afhlyaj [source]

Ben Shapiro

The best baseball book. [source]

Joe Posnanski

That’s exactly what it is. It’s a diary of a season. Jim Bouton was a wildly successful young player for the Yankees and then basically lost his arm, he got hurt. The book is about his attempt to come back. What makes it wonderful reading, and the reason I love it, is that it’s beautifully written and, again, there’s a great deal of humanity in it. There is certainly also a lot of shock-value in it. There are stories about athletes taking drugs and some of the off-field relationships. That is what made the book somewhat scandalous when it first came out. [source]

3

The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It

Lawrence S Ritter

4.5

Baseball was different in earlier days—tougher, rawer, more intimate—when giants like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb ran the bases. In the monumental classic The Glory of Their Times, the golden era of our national pastime comes alive through the vibrant words of those who played and lived the game.

Recommended by Joe Posnanski and John Thorn.

Joe Posnanski

What Lawrence Ritter did is he went back and talked to a bunch of players about their era. Again, it’s wonderful because there is this humanity to it. He’s talking to these athletes long after their successes are over. The stories get to be somewhat exaggerated, and somewhat more fully realised in a lot of ways. I don’t know if I would rely on every single thing in the book if I was writing a doctoral thesis or a paper, but it’s just wonderful, fun reading about a time when baseball was really just becoming the American pastime. There are so many characters that they talk about, and so many stories. It makes for great baseball reading. [source]

John Thorn

It is a time machine. You start reading and you are hearing these ballplayers who played in the major leagues between 1890 and 1920. These are men who played alongside Ty Cobb in the outfield, men who were present when Babe Ruth came up to the Red Sox, men who played a key roll in the World Series of 1912. They are speaking to you. You feel as if they were in your living room with you. Hearing from these foundational figures is like listening to an interview with George Washington at Valley Forge. [source]

4

The Boys of Summer

Roger Kahn

4.4

This is a book about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a book by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. T

Recommended by Joe Posnanski.

Joe Posnanski

I don’t think there’s any question that The Boys of Summer has always been larger than a baseball book. On the surface, at least, it’s about the 1952, 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers – their triumphs and their inevitable failings. They were good enough to get to the World Series, but not good enough to win. But they were a great team, and Jackie Robinson is a prominent part both of the story of the book, and of the team as a player. But it’s so much larger than that, because it’s really a story about Roger Kahn and his father. [source]

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5

The Art of Fielding

ChadHarbach

4.4

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. O

Recommended by Julia Enthoven and Leo Babauta.

Julia Enthoven

For non-business, I’ve loved so many different books that it’s hard to pick a favorite. Recently, I’ve enjoyed The Art of Fielding and Americanah, and I love classics like A Farewell to Arms and Lord of the Flies. [source]

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6

The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

Bill James

4.3

When Bill James published his original Historical Baseball Abstract in 1985, he produced an immediate classic, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “holy book of baseball.” Now, baseball's beloved “Sultan of Stats” (The Boston Globe) is back with a fully revised and updated edition for the new millennium.

Like the original, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is really several books in

Recommended by Joe Posnanski.

Joe Posnanski

Bill is a very good friend of mine. He was always a baseball fan, but in the 1970s he started looking at baseball and asking all these questions about the game. Was it really the way people described it, in terms of the strategy of the game and the focus of the game? He found that in many, many ways it was not. And he just started writing about it. He’s a brilliant writer. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is his big thing; it’s an entire history of baseball. There’s a section where he goes through decade by decade, telling all the biggest stories about the game. There’s another section where he picks the 100 greatest players in every position – so the 100 greatest catchers, the 100 greatest first basemen and so on. This could be extremely dry, but Bill takes it as an opportunity to tell 1,900 different stories. I’ve read the book cover-to-cover, but even more than that, I’ve read some parts of the book a thousand times. I’ve picked it up, turned to a page and started reading about, say, the 23rd-best second baseman. The stories are just so wonderful, and Bill’s mind is just so remarkable. It’s a great book. [source]

7

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America

Joe Posnanski

4.3

When Legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked sports columnist Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, Posnanski had to think about it. From that question was born the idea behind BASEBALL AND JAZZ. Posnanski and the 94 year old O'Neil decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country in hopes of stirring up the love that first drew them to the game. This book is just a

8

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

Eliot Asinof

4.3

The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up as "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America!" First published in 1963, Eight Men Out has become a timeless classic. Eliot Asinof has reconstructed the entire scene-by-scene story of the fantastic scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw

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9

Shoeless Joe

W. P. Kinsella

4.3

“If you build it, he will come.”

These mysterious words inspire Ray Kinsella to create a cornfield baseball diamond in honor of his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson. What follows is a rich, nostalgic look at one of our most cherished national pastimes and a remarkable story about fathers and sons, love and family, and the inimitable joy of finding your way home.

10

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy

Jane Leavy

4.3

“The incomparable and mysterious Sandy Koufax is revealed…. This is an absorbing book, beautifully written.” —Wall Street Journal

“Leavy has hit it out of the park…A lot more than a biography. It’s a consideration of how we create our heroes, and how this hero’s self perception distinguishes him from nearly every other great athlete in living memory… a remarkably rich portrait.” — Time

The instant N

Recommended by Joe Posnanski.

Joe Posnanski

This is just a wonderful biography of one of the great pitchers of baseball history. [source]

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11

Summer of '49

David Halberstam

4.3

With incredible skill, passion, and insight, Pulitzer Prize–winningauthor David Halberstam returns us to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.

The year was 1949, and a war-weary nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals

12

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero

David Maraniss

4.3

On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero," a book destined

13

The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players

Ben Lindbergh, Travis Sawchik

4.3

Move over, Moneyball -- a cutting-edge look at major league baseball's next revolution: the high-tech quest to build better players.

As bestselling authors Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik reveal in The MVP Machine, the Moneyball era is over. Fifteen years after Michael Lewis brought the Oakland Athletics' groundbreaking team-building strategies to light, every front office takes a data-driven app

Recommended by Anders Ericsson, Bill Simmons, Eno Sarris, and 3 others.

Anders Ericsson

Author, Psychologist

High-speed cameras and radar-tracking devices have revolutionized training and are now giving baseball pitchers accurate, detailed and actionable feedback during practice. This captivating book details step-by-step how merely good major league pitchers have recently been able to transform themselves into great ones and reach previously unattainable levels of mastery by purposeful and deliberate practice. [source]

Bill Simmons

I wish this book spent more time on the Red Sox winning four times as many titles as the Yankees this century, but The MVP Machine is a great and informative deep dive on the challenges of unlocking talent and building winning teams in the age of analytics. [source]

Eno Sarris

@dmoniz611 yeah that was a great book! [source]

14

Wait Till Next Year

Doris Kearns Goodwin

4.3

By the award-winning author of Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit, Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball.

Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fa

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15

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches

Tyler Kepner

4.3

From the New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today

The baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration

Recommended by Adnan Virk.

Adnan Virk

“K: A history of baseball in 10 pitches” is a fascinating, absorbing book by @TylerKepner The artistry of the curve, the funkiness of the knuckler, the deceit of the spitter...it’s even got Dennis Eckersley convincing the author he could throw a serious splitter! https://t.co/yy7IqnQIEI [source]

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16

Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball

John Feinstein

4.2

Minor league baseball is quintessentially American: small towns, small stadiums, $5 tickets, $2 hot dogs, the never-ending possibility of making it big. But looming above it all is always the real deal: Major League Baseball. John Feinstein takes the reader behind the curtain into the guarded world of the minor leagues, like no other writer can. Where Nobody Knows Your Name explores the trials and

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17

October 1964

David Halberstam

4.2

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • THE BEST SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR

"October 1964 should be a hit with old-time baseball fans, who'll relish the opportunity to relive that year's to-die-for World Series, when the dynastic but aging New York Yankees squared off against the upstart St. Louis Cardinals. It should be a hit with younger students of the game, who'll eat up the vivid portrayals of legends li

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18

The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team

Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller

4.2

What would happen if two statistics-minded outsiders were allowed to run a professional baseball team?

It's the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies -- with real players, in a real ballpark, playing in real time. That's what Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when the Sonoma Stompers, an independent minor-league team in California, o

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19

Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

Jonathan Eig

4.2

The definitive account of the life and tragic death of baseball legend Lou Gehrig.

Lou Gehrig was a baseball legend—the Iron Horse, the stoic New York Yankee who was the greatest first baseman in history, a man whose consecutive-games streak was ended by a horrible disease that now bears his name. But as this definitive new biography makes clear, Gehrig’s life was more complicated—and, perhaps, eve

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20

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood

Jane Leavy

4.2

Award-winning sports writer Jane Leavy follows her New York Times runaway bestseller Sandy Koufax with the definitive biography of baseball icon Mickey Mantle. The legendary Hall-of-Fame outfielder was a national hero during his record-setting career with the New York Yankees, but public revelations of alcoholism, infidelity, and family strife badly tarnished the ballplayer's reputation in his lat

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21

Men at Work

George F. Will

4.2

Sports Research Baseball

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22

The Natural

Bernard Malamud, Kevin Baker

4.2

The classical novel (and basis for the acclaimed film) 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—novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material—the story of a superbly gifte

Recommended by Chad Harbach and Michael Carlson.

Chad Harbach

It’s a very dark book. Roy Hobbs is a really one-dimensional figure. He’s very ambitious, in a narrow, greedy American sort of way. [source]

Michael Carlson

A perfect, mythic take on baseball in which he plays with the myth of the Fisher King and the Holy Grail. [source]

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23

The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports

Jeff Passan

4.2

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers—five times the salary of all NFL quarterbacks combined. Pitchers are the lifeblood of the sport, the ones who win championships, but today they face an epidemic unlike any baseball has ever seen.

One tiny ligament in the elbow keeps snapping and sending teenagers and major leaguers alike to undergo

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24

The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime

Jason Turbow, Michael Duca

4.2

Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. What truly governs the Major League game is a set of unwritten rules, some of which are openly discussed and some of which only a minority of players are aware of. In The Baseball Codes, old-timers and all-time greats share their insights into the games most hallowed, and

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25

The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship

David Halberstam

4.2

More than 6 years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his ground-breaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them bestsellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by

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26

Calico Joe

John Grisham

4.2

A surprising and moving novel of fathers and sons, forgiveness and redemption, set in the world of Major League Baseball.

Whatever happened to Calico Joe?

When he arrived in Philadelphia, a cab delivered him to Veterans Stadium, where he was quickly fixed for a uniform, given Number 42, and hustled onto the field. The Cubs were already taking batting practice. Understandably, he was nervous, thrille

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27

Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong

The Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts, Jonah Keri

4.2

In the numbers-obsessed sport of baseball, statistics don't merely record what players, managers, and owners have done. Properly understood, they can tell us how the teams we root for could employ better strategies, put more effective players on the field, and win more games. The revolution in baseball statistics that began in the 1970s is a controversial subject that professionals and fans alike

28

Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball

Keith Law

4.2

Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport.

For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pi

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29

Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager

Buzz Bissinger

4.2

Three Nights in August captures the strategic and emotional complexities of baseball's quintessential form, the three-game series. As the St. Louis Cardinals battle their archrival Chicago Cubs, we watch from the dugout through the eyes of legendary manager Tony La Russa, considered by many to be the shrewdest mind in the game today. In his twenty-seven years of managing, La Russa has been named M

Recommended by Sam Yagan.

Sam Yagan

CEO/IAC’s Match Group

As a CEO, I have often thought about the balance of trusting data vs. gut in decision-making. I claim to be data-oriented, but in the moment, I often rely on my understanding of human nature. As I read about Tony La Russa’s maniacal focus on baseball’s mass of statistics, coupled with this nuanced understanding of his players and opponents, it was obvious that neither is enough on its own: The leader who truly understands the numbers will make the best gut decisions. [source]

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30

The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life

Dirk Hayhurst

4.2

From the humble heights of a Class-A pitcher's mound to the deflating lows of sleeping on his gun-toting grandmother's air mattress, veteran reliever Dirk Hayhurst steps out of the bullpen to deliver the best pitch of his career--a raw, unflinching and surprisingly moving account of his life in the minors.

I enjoyed the visualizations, maybe a little too much, and would stop only when I felt I'd ce

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31

Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty

Charles Leerhsen

4.2

Finally - a fascinating and authoritative biography of perhaps the most controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb.

Ty Cobb is baseball royalty, maybe even the greatest player who ever lived. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, after twenty-one years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than nine

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32

The Summer Game

Roger Angell

4.2

The Summer Game, Roger Angell’s first book on the sport, changed baseball writing forever. Thoughtful, funny, appreciative of the elegance of the game and the passions invested by players and fans, it goes beyond the usual sports reporter’s beat to examine baseball’s complex place in our American psyche. Between the miseries of the 1962 expansion Mets and a classic 1971 World Series between the Pi

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33

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First

Jonah Keri

4.2

What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens—the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history.

In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportsw

Recommended by Vinod Khosla and Vinod Khosla.

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34

Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History

Cait Murphy, Robert W. Creamer

4.2

From the perspective of 2007, the unintentional irony of Chance's boast is manifest—these days, the question is when will the Cubs ever win a game they have to have. In October 1908, though, no one would have laughed: The Cubs were, without doubt, baseball's greatest team—the first dynasty of the 20th century.

Crazy '08 recounts the 1908 season—the year when Peerless Leader Frank Chance's men went

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35

Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend

Larry Tye

4.2

This is the first biography of Satchel Paige, the premier pitcher of the Negro Leagues. This is the definitive biography of a black showman-athlete. The author interviewed more than 200 veteran fellow players of the Negro and Major Leagues.

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36

The Yankee Years

Joe Torre, Tom Verducci

4.2

Twelve straight playoff appearances. Six American League pennants. Four World Series titles. This is the definitive story of a dynasty: the Yankee years

When Joe Torre took over as manager of the New York Yankees in 1996, the most storied franchise in sports had not won a World Series title in eighteen years. The famously tough and mercurial owner, George Steinbrenner, had fired seventeen managers

37

Golf is Not a Game of Perfect

Bob Rotella

4.2

Preview Summary

Filled with insightful stories about golf, Dr. Bob Rotella’s delightful book will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player.

Dr. Bob Rotella is one of the hottest performance consultants in America today. Among his many professional clients are Nick Price (last year's Player of the Year), Tom Kite, Davis Love III, Pat Bradley, Brad Faxon, John Daly, and many others. Rotella, or “Doc,”

Recommended by Bill Cole.

Bill Cole

Bob Rotella is probably currently the most famous sports psychologist out there, still active. It’s very easy reading and it has the ring of truth because he’s in the trenches every single day, and has a huge amount of credibility. [source]

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38

Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend

James S. Hirsch

4.1

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39

Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks

Zack Hample

4.1

Whether you’re a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, Watching Baseball Smarter leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny fan’s guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national pastime.

Wha

Recommended by Rhea Butcher.

Rhea Butcher

@culturedork I’ve found this book to be not only insightful, but very close to sitting with a baseball nerd during a game. Which I also highly recommend. Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks https://t.co/Runs4HbpdI [source]

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40

The Lords of the Realm

John Helyar

4.1

In this fascinating, colorful chronicle -- based on hundreds of interviews and years of research and digging -- John Helyar brings to vivid life the extraordinary people and dramatic events that shaped America's favorite pastime, from the dead-ball days at the turn of the century through the great strike of 1994. Witness zealous Judge Landis banish eight players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, af

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41

Baseball: An Illustrated History, including The Tenth Inning

Geoffrey C. Ward

4.1

The companion volume to Ken Burns’s magnificent PBS television series—updated and expanded to coincide with the broadcast of a new, two-part Tenth Inning, directed with Lynn Novick.

The authors of the acclaimed and best-selling The Civil War, Jazz, and The War turn to another uniquely American phenomenon: baseball. In words and pictures they provide a stunningly rich evocation of our beloved nation

Recommended by Chris Wesseling.

Chris Wesseling

@RotoPat @scrogers5684 @KenBurns Yep! I think I got about 3 different copies of that monster for Christmas the year it came out. Great coffee table book. [source]

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42

Veeck As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck

Bill Veeck, Ed Linn

4.1

Bill Veeck was an inspired team builder, a consummate showman, and one of the greatest baseball men ever involved in the game. His classic autobiography, written with the talented sportswriter Ed Linn, is an uproarious book packed with information about the history of baseball and tales of players and owners, including some of the most entertaining stories in all of sports literature.

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43

Up, Up, and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, and the Ill-fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos

Jonah Keri

4.1

The definitive history of the Montreal Expos by the definitive Expos fan, the New York Times bestselling sportswriter and Grantland columnist Jonah Keri.
2014 is the 20th anniversary of the strike that killed baseball in Montreal, and the 10th anniversary of the team's move to Washington, DC. But the memories aren't dead--not by a long shot. The Expos pinwheel cap is still sported by Montrealers,

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44

Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak

Travis Sawchik

4.1

New York Times Bestseller

After twenty consecutive losing seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, team morale was low, the club's payroll ranked near the bottom of the sport, game attendance was down, and the city was becoming increasingly disenchanted with its team. Pittsburghers joked their town was the city of champions…and the Pirates. Big Data Baseball is the story of how the 2013 Pirates, mired i

45

Babe: The Legend Comes to Life

Robert Creamer

4.1

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." -- Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero.
In this extraordinary biography, noted spo

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46

Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball

R.A. Dickey, Wayne Coffey

4.1

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47

The Brothers K

David James Duncan

4.1

Duncan took almost 10 years to follow up the publication of his much-praised first novel, The River Why, but this massive second effort is well worth the wait. It is a stunning work: a complex tapestry of family tensions, baseball, politics and religion, by turns hilariously funny and agonizingly sad. Highly inventive formally, the novel is mainly narrated by Kincaid Chance, the youngest son in a

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48

Nine Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game

Daniel Okrent

4.1

You'll never watch baseball the same way again. A timeless baseball classic and a must read for any fan worthy of the name, Nine Innings dissects a single baseball game played in June 1982 -- inning by inning, play by play. Daniel Okrent, a seasoned writer and lifelong fan, chose as his subject a Milwaukee BrewersBaltimore Orioles matchup, though it could have been any game, because, as Okrent rev

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49

The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball

Tom M. Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, Andrew Dolphin, Pete Palmer

4.1

Written by three esteemed baseball statisticians, The Book continues where the legendary Bill James' Baseball Abstracts and Palmer and Thorn's The Hidden Game of Baseball left off more than twenty years ago. Continuing in the grand tradition of sabermetrics, the authors provide a revolutionary way to think about baseball with principles that can be applied at every level, from high school to the m

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50

Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

Richard Ben Cramer

4.1

Joe DiMaggio was, at every turn, one man we could look at who made us feel good. In the hard-knuckled thirties, he was the immigrant boy who made it big—and spurred the New York Yankees to a new era of dynasty. He was the Yankee Clipper, the icon of elegance, the man who wooed and won Marilyn Monroe—the most beautiful girl America could dream up. Joe DiMaggio was a mirror of our best self. And he

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51

The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron

Howard Bryant

4.1

In the thirty-four years since his retirement, Henry (Hank) Aaron's reputation has only grown in magnitude. But his influence extends beyond statistics, and at long last here is the first definitive biography of one of baseball's immortal figures.

Based on meticulous research and extensive interviews The Last Hero reveals how Aaron navigated the upheavals of his time - fighting against racism while

52

The Bad Guys Won!

Jeff Pearlman

4.1

The Bad Guys Won, award-winning Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jeff Pearlman returns to an innocent time when a city worshipped a man named Mookie and the Yankees were the second-best team in New York.

It was 1986, and the New York Mets won 108 regular-season games and the World Series, capturing the hearts (and other assorted body parts) of fans everywhere. But their greatness on the field was

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53

The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams

Ben Bradlee Jr.

4.1

From the catalog: At long last, the epic biography Ted Williams deserves – and that his fans have been waiting for. Ted Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. This Red Sox legend's batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit over 500 home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left b

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54

Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season

Stewart O'Nan, Stephen King

4.1

Early in 2004, two writers and Red Sox fans, Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, decided to chronicle the upcoming season, one of the most hotly anticipated in baseball history. They would sit together at Fenway. They would exchange emails. They would write about the games. And, as it happened, they would witness the greatest comeback ever in sports, and the first Red Sox championship in eighty-six ye

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55

Astroball: The New Way to Win It All

Ben Reiter

4.1

When Sports Illustrated declared on the cover of a June 2014 issue that the Houston Astros would win the World Series in 2017, people thought Ben Reiter, the article's author, was crazy. The Astros were the worst baseball team in half a century, but they were more than just bad. They were an embarrassment, a club that didn't even appear to be trying to win. The cover story, combined with the speci

56

One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season

Chris Ballar

4.1

"One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational. . . . This isn't merely a book about baseball. It's a book about heart."
--Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won

In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats, defied convention and the odds. Led by an English te

57

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City

Jonathan Mahler

4.1

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Scheduled for release in July 2007 as an ESPN original miniseries, starring John Turturro as Billy Martin, Oliver Platt as George Steinbrenner, and Daniel Sunjata as Reggie Jackson.

A kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City in 1977, The Bronx Is Burning is the story of two epic battles: the fight between Yankee Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin,

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58

The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth

Leigh Montville

4.1

He was the Sultan of Swat. The Caliph of Clout. The Wizard of Whack. The Bambino. And simply, to his teammates, the Big Bam. From the award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Ted Williams comes the thoroughly original, definitively ambitious, and exhilaratingly colorful biography of the largest legend ever to loom in baseball—and in the history of organized sports.

“[Montville is] one

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59

I Was Right On Time

Buck O'neil, David Conrads, Ken Burns, Steve Wulf

4.1

From Babe Ruth to Bo Jackson, from Cool Papa Bell to Lou Brock, Buck O'Neil has seen it all. As a first baseman and then manager of the legendary Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil witnessed the heyday of the Negro leagues and their ultimate demise.
In I Was Right on Time, he charmingly recalls his days as a ballplayer and as an African-American in a racially divided country. Whether he's telling of hi

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60

The Pitch That Killed

Mike Sowell

4.1

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61

The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball

Frank Deford

4.1

In The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford, NPR sports commentator and Sports Illustrated journalist retells the story of an unusual friendship between two towering figures in baseball history.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Christy Mathewson was one of baseball's first superstars. Over six feet tall, clean cut, and college educated, he didn't pitch on the Sabbath and rarely spoke an ill word about

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62

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse

Tom Verducci

4.1

With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions.
It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World

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63

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness

Buster Olney

4.1

For an extraordinary handful of years around the turn of the millennium, the Yankees were baseball's unstoppable force. With four World Series championships in five seasons and a deep bench of legends and comers -- Clemens, Rivera, Williams, Soriano, Jeter, O'Neill -- they dominated the major leagues.

For the members of the team, though, baseball Yankees-style was a pressure cooker of anxiety, expe

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64

Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports

Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams

4.1

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65

Francona: The Red Sox Years

Terry Francona, Dan Shaughnessy

4.0

From 2004 to 2011, Terry Francona managed the Boston Red Sox, perhaps the most scrutinized team in all of sports. During that time, every home game was a sellout. Every play, call, word, gesture—on the field and off—was analyzed by thousands. And every decision was either genius, or disastrous. In those eight years, the Red Sox were transformed from a cursed franchise to one of the most successful

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66

Stan Musial: An American Life

George Vecsey

4.0

When baseball fans voted on the top twenty-five players of the twentieth century in 1999, Stan Musial didn’t make the cut. This glaring omission—later rectified by a panel of experts—raised an important question: How could a first-ballot Hall of Famer, widely considered one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, still rank as the most underrated athlete of all time?

In Stan Musial, veteran sp

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67

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

Robert Coover

4.0

A satirical fable with a rootless and helpless accountant as the protagonist. Alone in his apartment, he spends all his nights and weekends playing an intricate baseball game of his own invention. The author has won the William Faulkner Award and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award.

Recommended by Michael Carlson.

Michael Carlson

This is my favourite of all baseball books, and I think it is one of the great novels of its period. Coover is one of the most interesting but ignored novelists of that time. He was writing what we now call metafiction in the sixties, alongside people like John Barth and Thomas Pynchon. What I love about the book is the idea of someone who is a rather nondescript and average person using baseball as a way of elevating himself into being the creator of a universe. [source]

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68

Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

Leigh Montville

4.0

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend – and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve his country as a fighter pilot; to embrace his fans while tangling with the

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69

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season

Jonathan Eig

4.0

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswrite

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70

Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion

Roger Angell

4.0

Five Seasons covers the baseball seasons from 1972 through 1976, described as the “most significant half decade in the history of the game.” The era was notable for the remarkable individual feats of Hank Aaron, Lou Brock, and Nolan Ryan, among others. It also presented one of the best World Series of all time (1975), including still the greatest World Series game ever played (Game Six). Along wit

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71

The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds

Joe Posnanski

4.0

Award-winning sports columnist Joe Posnanski hits a grand slam with The Machine—a thrilling account of the magical 1975 season of the Cincinnati Reds, baseball’s legendary “Big Red Machine,” from spring training through the final game of the ’75 World Series. Featuring a Hall of Fame lineup of baseball superstars—including Johnny Bench, George Foster, Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, and “Charlie Hustl

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72

Mr. Tiger: The Legend of Al Kaline, Detroit’s Own

Detroit Free Press

4.0

“Mr. Tiger” Al Kaline was the most distinguished Detroit Tiger of them all, combining on-field excellence, acclaim and awards with off-field class, humility and generosity. Kaline made such an impact that his passing at 85 on April 6, 2020, saddened not just Tigers fans throughout the region but baseball fans everywhere, who watched with admiration and respect during Kaline’s storybook 22-year Hal

73

The Closer: My Story

Mariano Rivera, Wayne Coffey, Michael Kay

4.0

The greatest relief pitcher of all time shares his extraordinary story of survival, love, and baseball.

Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, h

74

The Science Of Hitting

Ted Williams, John Underwood

4.0

As a boy, all Ted Williams wanted was to be the best hitter there ever was. Through his storied tenure with the Red Sox, he pretty much got his wish. He not only hit, he knew how to hit; there was no keener, more devoted, more articulate student of the art. The Science of Hitting is his comprehensive book of wisdom and anecdote, a baseball bible that offers clear, concise, well-illustrated, fundam

75

I Never Had It Made

Jackie Robinson, Alfred Duckett

4.0

The autobiography of a boy of summer who became a man for all seasons

Before Barry Bonds, before Reggie Jackson, before Hank Aaron, baseball's stars had one undeniable trait in common: they were all white. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke that barrier, striking a crucial blow for racial equality and changing the world of sports forever. I Never Had It Made is Robinson's own candid, hard-hitting accou

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76

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy

W. P. Kinsella

4.0

Bearing W.P. Kinsella's trademark combination of "sweet-natured prose and a richly imagined world" (Philadelphia Inquirer), The Iowa Baseball Confederacy tells the story of Gideon Clark, a man on a quest. He is out to prove to the world that the indomitable Chicago Cubs traveled to Iowa in the summer of 1908 for an exhibition game against an amateur league, the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. But a sim

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77

Blockade Billy

Stephen King, Alex McVey Glen Orbik

4.0

Even the most die-hard baseball fans don't know the true story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game's history.

Every effort was made to erase

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78

The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream

Jim Collins

4.0

79

The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

Nicholas Dawidoff

4.0

Moe Berg was a baseball player and a spy, and one of the most colorful men ever to pursue either line of work. Long the source of speculation and fascination, Berg's life has never before been pieced together so seamlessly and to such riveting effect as it is now in this superb biography. 16 pages of photos.

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80

Fantasyland: True Tales from America's Most Compulsive Fantasy Baseball League

Sam Walker

4.0

Every spring, millions of Americans prepare to take part in one of the oddest, most obsessive, and most engrossing rituals in the sports pantheon: Rotisserie baseball, a fantasy game where armchair fans match wits by building their own teams. In 2004, Sam Walker, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal, decided to explore this phenomenon by talking his way into Tout Wars, a league reserved

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81

We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Kadir Nelson

4.0

Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Illustrations from oil paintings by the author.

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82

Baseball Biographies for Kids: The Greatest Players from the 1960s to Today

Dean Burrell

4.0

Grand slam! Inspiring baseball biographies for young fans

It's the bottom of the ninth, bases are loaded, and your team is down by three--who do you want coming up to bat? Baseball Biographies for Kids answers this question and more!

Bursting with statistics and impressive feats from the greatest players of the last 60 years, this lineup of inspirational baseball biographies shows you what it takes

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83

A Fan's Guide to Baseball Analytics: Why WAR, WHIP, wOBA, and Other Advanced Sabermetrics Are Essential to Understanding Modern Baseball

Anthony Castrovince

4.0

Broken up into sections (pitching, fielding, hitting), this authoritative yet fun and easy guide will help readers young and old fully understand and comprehend the statistics that are the present and future of our national pastime.

We all know what a .300 hitter looks like. The same with a 20-game winner. Those numbers are ingrained in our brains. But do they mean as much as we think? Do we feel t

Recommended by Mark Feinsand.

Mark Feinsand

The King of Dad Jokes has written a book that will help my dad understand analytics. It's great. Go order it now. https://t.co/TufJICONTt [source]

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84

24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid

Willie Mays

4.0

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85

Cobb: A Biography

Al Stump

4.0

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86

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Stephen King

4.0

Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland strays from the path while she and her recently divorced mother and brother take a hike along a branch of the Appalachian Trail. Lost for days, wandering farther and farther astray, Trisha has only her portable radio for comfort. A huge fan of Tom Gordon, a Boston Red Sox relief pitcher, she listens to baseball games and fantasizes that her hero will save her. Nature

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87

One Summer: America, 1927

Bill Bryson

4.0

In One Summer Bill Bryson, one of our greatest and most beloved nonfiction writers, transports readers on a journey back to one amazing season in American life.

The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ign

Recommended by Tom Terry.

Tom Terry

Wow, I didn't know this! What an unbelievable accomplishment this was. Something so common nowadays was a huge endeavor in the 1927. BTW, a GREAT BOOK about this and other stories read: One Summer (in 1927) by Bill Bryson. Fantastic. https://t.co/EKvghJ1u5y [source]

88

Relentless Optimism: How a Commitment to Positive Thinking Changes Everything

Darrin Donnelly

4.0

Studies prove that positive thinkers are happier, healthier, and more successful than everyone else. Discover the simple, proven techniques for becoming a more positive person...

Positive thinking leads to positive outcomes. Study after study proves this. Researchers have found that optimistic people live longer, live healthier, have more energy, have more successful careers, make better decisions,

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89

The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees

Sparky Lyle, Peter Golenbock

4.0

This bestselling, highly-acclaimed account is a hilarious but scathing baseball tell-all. After being voted the 1977 American League Cy Young Award winner, Sparky Lyle was rewarded for his efforts by being benched. The Yankees, a leader of free agency, signed Goose Gossage as their closer. Things only went downhill from there and the 1978 season turned out to be one of controversy, firings, fights

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90

Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s

Dan Epstein

4.0

The Bronx Is Burning meets Chuck Klosterman in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade

The Major Leagues witnessed more dramatic stories and changes in the '70s than in any other era. The American popular culture and counterculture collided head-on with the national pastime, rocking the once-conservative sport to its very foundations. Outspoken player

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91

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

Alan Schwarz

4.0

Most baseball fans, players and even team executives assume that the national pastime's infatuation with statistics is simply a by-product of the information age, a phenomenon that blossomed only after the arrival of Bill James and computers in the 1980s. They couldn't be more wrong.

In this award-winning book, Alan Schwarz - whom bestselling Moneyball author Michael Lewis calls "one of today's bes

92

The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond

Jeff Silverman

4.0

Thirty great essays, profiles, and stories about America's pastime.

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93

Bang the Drum Slowly

Mark Harris

4.0

Henry Wiggen, hero of The Southpaw and the best-known fictional baseball player in America, is back again, throwing a baseball “with his arm and his brain and his memory and his bluff for the sake of his pocket and his family.” More than a novel about baseball, Bang the Drum Slowly is about the friendship and the lives of a group of men as they each learn that a teammate is dying of cancer.

Bang th

Recommended by Michael Carlson.

Michael Carlson

Mark Harris wrote four books where the main narrator is Henry Wiggin. The first one was called The Southpaw because he is a left-handed pitcher, who are baseball’s oddballs. It’s no coincidence the lefty’s signature pitch is called a screwball. Bang the Drum Slowly, which I think is his best book, is the second in the series. The first three were written in the fifties, and then he came back in 1979 with a book called It Looked Like Forever, in which the ageing Wiggin can’t throw as fast anymore, a metaphor for ageing. [source]

94

Touching All the Bases: A Story of Power, Purpose, and Surviving the Bronx

Dave Winfield, Alan Maimon

4.0

"An ex-Yankee star’s entertaining tell-all details his long-running feud with the team’s mercurial owner." —KirkusA fearless and insightful portrait of power, race, and resilience from one of baseball’s most unique and dynamic Hall of Fame legends, offering an unflinching look at the battles fought both on and off the field.Few athletes have lived a story as riveting—and as revealing—as Dave Winfi

95

Ballpark: Baseball in the American City

Paul Goldberger

4.0

An exhilarating, splendidly illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.

From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's T

Recommended by Brian Mctaggart.

Brian Mctaggart

If you love baseball and ballparks like me, check out @paulgoldberger's new book "Baseball in the American City" from @penguinrandom: https://t.co/EOiGk94mVG… https://t.co/gqd40kkrZC [source]

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96

Out of My League: A Rookie's Survival in the Bigs

Dirk Hayhurst

4.0

Picking up where the "New York Times" bestseller "The Bullpen Gospels" leaves off, "Out of My League" continues Hayhurst's hilarious roller-coaster baseball odyssey through his rookie season.

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97

As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires

Bruce Weber

4.0

Millions of American baseball fans know, with absolute certainty, that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong.

As They See 'Em is an insider's look at the largely unknown world of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very occasional woman) who make sure America's favorite pastime is conducted in a manne

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98

Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank and the 2004

Bill Simmons

4.0

99

The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created

Jane Leavy

4.0

From Jane Leavy, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax, comes the definitive biography of Babe Ruth—the man Roger Angell dubbed "the model for modern celebrity."

He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. He expan

Recommended by Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor

Babe Ruth was an extraordinary baseball player and Leavy makes that case in the context of the emergence of athletic stardom and celebrity. This is not a mere recounting of statistics. Leavy gives Babe Ruth a place in cultural history. [source]

100

The Physics of Baseball

Robert K Adair

4.0

Recommended by Bill Nye.

Bill Nye

Provides us with words to live and play by. [source]