Off-season Reading List

The baseball season is officially over now, and I suspect that I'm not the only one who isn't sure how to mark the time for the next few months.  If you crave some baseball-based entertainment in your life while you wait for pitchers and catchers to report and the hot stove isn't enough for you, here's a list of my ten favorite baseball books of all time.  It's split into two categories: fiction and non-fiction.  They're not strictly in an order because my favorite book is often the book I read last (hence The Art of Fielding being on top).  Be warned that above all, I'm a baseball romantic, so books that are stats heavy like Moneyball don't appear on my list even though they might be on yours.  I was also probably wrong to leave The Natural in the honorable mentions category, but that's on every other list so I'm sure you've heard of it.  Add your favorites in the comments, particularly because I've read all these and I'm going to need something to read next.

Fiction

The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach -- I just finished this one... this afternoon.  It's the story of Henry Skrimshander, a South Dakota native who goes to a small college in western Michigan to play baseball.  Remarkably modern, I think it might be the first book I've read where the characters text.  The description of baseball is superb -- it makes me miss the days when I played more than just beer league softball.  Bless You Boys is using this for their online bookclub, and it's a good choice for Michigan baseball fans, but I think the midwestern style fits Minnesotans just as well.

The Brothers K, by David James Duncan -- This might be my favorite book of all time.  It's the coming of age story of a family of brothers whose father is an ex-ballplayer.  It remains the only book that has ever made me cry, but it also made me laugh more than once.  In particular, the scene in which two of the brothers argue over whether or not they'd lick Roger Maris's crewcut is one of the funniest pieces of dialogue I know.

Summerland, by Michael Chabon -- Despite being written by the author of Kavalier and Clay and Wonder Boys,  you'll find this one in the young adult fiction section.  But just as I know plenty of adults who liked Harry Potter, there's plenty to be entertained by in this book about a magical adventure where the world must be saved by playing the most epic game of baseball ever against Coyote, weaving in all sorts of classic mythologies into the mix.  And you thought Jim Thome was the man with an ox in the batter's box...

Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella -- It wouldn't be right to make a list of baseball books without including Kinsella.  Shoeless Joe is the story Field of Dreams is based on.  Unlike the movie, the cranky old author is J.D. Salinger, who in real life threatened to sue so it was changed for the film to the James Earl Jones character.  It's the magical romanticized view of baseball centered in Twins territory.  It's also a pretty short read.  (You could also pick just about anything else by Kinsella for a good baseball story.)

The Southpaw/Bang the Drum Slowly, by Mark Harris -- I'm cheating and throwing two books in one here.  But that's because a lot of people know Bang the Drum Slowly thanks to the Robert De Niro movie of the same name.  It's Brian's Song, but about baseball and just as well done.  But what most people don't know is that there was a first book about Henry Wiggen called The Southpaw that is a lot less about death and a lot more about coming of age through baseball.

Honorable mentions: The Natural by Bernard Malumud, The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord, She's on First by Barbara Gregorich

Non-fiction

Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, by Doris Kearns Goodwin -- This book has probably had a bigger effect on me than any other book on this list as it started me keeping score at baseball games and I now have a stack of filled scorebooks as a result.  As a woman who grew up a huge baseball fan, thanks in no small part to her father, Goodwin's stories of growing up a Brooklyn Dodger fan resonated with me on multiple levels.  But I think there's something here for guys to appreciate too.  (Note: I'm not putting The Boys of Summer on this list, even though I probably should, because I like Goodwin as a writer better than Roger Kahn and I didn't want two books about the Dodgers.)

Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, by Barbara Gregorich -- When I was 12 I saw A League of Their Own and promptly went out and read every book I could find about the AAGPBL, which was only about three books at the time, and wrote about it for my first big research paper in 7th grade.  I've rewritten that report twice in my life -- once for my senior year women's studies class in high school and once for a class in college on the history of women in America.  I think I've read every book about the AAGPBL.  This one is the only one I know of that actually includes the history of the Bloomer Girls who came before the league and stories of women who played baseball after the league folded.  Oh, and women have been umpires in the minor leagues, too!

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America, by Joe Posnanski -- This book makes me really sad that Buck O'Neil is not in the Hall of Fame.  But Posnanski is one of my favorite sports writers (if you don't read his blog you are missing out), and we're lucky that he had the chance to drive around with Buck recording his memories of the Negro Leagues and a period of American history that many people would rather we forget.  Also, I'm in deep trouble with a friend of mine for losing his autographed copy of this book, so if anyone knows where I could get a replacement...

Ball Four, by Jim Bouton -- This book is funny as hell.  It apparently caused quite the stir when it came out in 1970, but it seems pretty tame in the era of Jose Canseco's Juiced.  It's easily the least romantic book in my list in terms of its image of baseball, but that's probably because most writers don't know the game from Bouton's perspective.

The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence Ritter -- Okay, I'm cheating.  I haven't read the book.  But I have the audio of the interviews Ritter did with old time players like Sam Crawford, Goose Goslin, and Smoky Joe Wood.  The players are all dead now, but hearing them tell stories about what baseball was like in the early days is fascinating.  So much has changed, but so much has stayed constant too.  It's like baseball is a metaphor for life or something...

Honorable Mentions: The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston by Howard Bryant, I Love This Game by Kirby Puckett.