As a fan of both baseball and books, it's natural for me to enjoy reading about baseball, and with this post I wanted to make a few recommendations on this topic. In addition, I've also talked to some people who know a little something about baseball and asked them if they would recommend some books as well. I will be starting off with their recommendations and ending with mine.
I have included links for each book mentioned for those of you who would like to get a little more information about the books or read reviews of them.
From japanesebaseball.com
Michael Westbay was kind enough to point me to his discussion page when I asked him for some recommendations. Many of books mentioned on his site have been mentioned by others on their list here, so I will only add one's not mentioned. It is however, worth taking a look at the site, as there are reviews of some of the books mentioned in some of the links on this post. Westbay-san also mentioned that he agreed with Mr. Allen's choice of Banzai Babe Ruth.
Wally Yonamine by Robert K. Fitts
A Zen Way of Baseball by Sadaharu Oh and David Falkner
David Klopfenstein of Yakyu Night Owl:
Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting by Kevin Kerrane
Baseball in '41 by Robert W. Creamer
When Women Played Hardball by Susan E. Johnson
Teammates by David Halberstam
SATCHEL by Larry Tye
Runs, Hits and an Era by Paul J. Zingg and Mark D. Medeiros
Red Smith on Baseball by Red Smith
Ball Four by Jim Bouton
Say Hey by Willie Mays with Lou Sahadi
Baseball's Hometown Teams by Bruce Chadwick
Slugging It Out in Japan by Warren Cromartie and Robert Whiting
My Greatest Day in Baseball by John P. Carmichael
Smithsonian Baseball by Stephen Wong
Play by Play by Neal Conan
Sayonara Home Run! by John Gall and Gary Engel
The Baseball Anthology by Joseph Wallace
Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times:
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
The Samurai Way of Baseball by Robert Whiting (aka The Meaning of Ichiro)
Field of Screams by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon
Baseball Is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro by David Shields
Banzai Babe Ruth by Robert K. Fitts
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
Trading Bases by Joe Peta
From the Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast with John E. Gibson and Jim Allen
Remembering Japanese Baseball by Robert K. Fitts (Gibson)
Transpacific Field of Dreams by Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu (Gibson)
Banzai Babe Ruth by Robert K. Fitts (Allen)
The Samurai Way of Baseball by Robert Whiting (aka The Meaning of Ichiro) (Allen)
Thomas St. John
Minor Players, Major Dreams by Brett Mandel
The Zen of Zim by Don Zimmer
Ichiro on Ichiro by Ichiro Suzuki
A Zen Way of Baseball by Sadaharu Oh and David Falkner
The Samurai Way of Baseball by Robert Whiting (aka The Meaning of Ichiro)
Slugging It Out in Japan by Warren Cromartie and Robert Whiting
Patrick (mine)
Weaver on Strategy by Earl Weaver with Terry Pluto
Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia by Joseph A. Reaves
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James
The Chrysanthemum and the Bat by Robert Whiting
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst
Baseball: A Literary Anthology by Nicholas Dawidoff
Wherever I Wind Up by R. A. Dickey with Wayne Coffey
Ichiro Magic by Jim Allen
Can you root for the Hanshin Tigers in English? by Shannon O. Higgins
The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence S. Ritter
Lost Ballparks by Lawrence S. Ritter
Korean Pro Baseball Guidebooks by Thomas St. John
For the parents with young kids:
My Baseball Book by Gail Gibbons
H is for Home Run by Brad Herzog
Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon
Three Extras (recently recommended to me)
Opening Day by Jonathan Eig
The Numbers Game by Alan Schwartz
Field of Schemes by Neil deMause & Joanna Cagan
Overall, the list was more diverse than I expected, though a bit heavy on Japanese related titles. Banzai Babe Ruth and The Samurai Way of Baseball seemed to be the most recommend books. I would like to thank everyone for contributing their recommendations!
Hope you enjoyed the lists. Part of this reason for this post was that I knew many great books wouldn't be mentioned, so if you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments section.
Update:
In case this list isn't enough for you, I have just found this book:
501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die by Ron Kaplan
This is a great list with lots of titles I'm unfamiliar with. I'll be checking them out, for sure.
ReplyDeleteA few books I read this past year have jumped to near the top of the list of my Favorite baseball books:
The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad by Robert Elias
A Drive into the Gap by Kevin Guifoile
And here are a couple of my very favorite baseball books that I never see on lists:
Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal by Daniel A. Nathan
Ironweed (a novel) by William Kennedy
Thanks,
TS Flynn (mightyflynn.tumblr.com)
Thanks for the comment and the book recommendations. I'll definitely be adding them to my list. The first one sounds particularly interesting!
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