Baseball Books
Reviews
- Spring Training, by William Zinsser.
- I loved this book. Zinsser is a great, very readable writer. The book is an account of the time he went to the Pirates' spring training camp at Bradenton in Florida. He goes as a fan and a reporter, but mostly as a fan. He gets to talk to all kinds of baseball people: scouts, the manager, players, booster club members, coaches, and front office people. I liked the way the casual tone of his writing matched the feel of spring training.
- Take Time for Paradise, by A. Bartlett Giamatti.
- Whoa. This is the only sports book I've ever read that references Aristotle. It isn't stricly a baseball book, but Giamatti was, of course, the Commissioner of Baseball in the late eighties. He also uses baseball as the main example of his theory that people use sport as a way to achieve paradise (or something like that). I was really expecting some lovely short book on the glories of baseball, but instead I got this philosophical argument on leisure time. It was good and all, but make sure you're in the mood to pay attention and think along when you read it.
- Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, ed. Elinor Nauen
- This book is a collection of stories, essays, and poems by women writers on baseball. Overall, the quality is very good, although a few of the stories are sappy, and some reinforce the idea of sports as male territory. I do recommend, however, "The Markoe Plan for Overcoming Boredom at a Baseball Game" by Merrill Markoe, despite the fact that I firmly believe that only boring
people get bored at baseball games.
- Why Time Begins on Opening Day, by Thomas Boswell
- For a sports book, this is very well written. It mainly concerns the Orioles in the early 80's, but I still found it interesting.
- Pure Baseball: Pitch by Pitch for the Advanced Fan, by Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan.
- The title should be taken literally. Hernandez, a former first baseman for the Mets, analyzes two games pitch by pitch. It is an excellent book for learning about strategy and for understanding a lot of things that go into the game that are not very noticeable to non-players. Hernandez, though, is not a
particularly adept writer, so the book doesn't just grab you and keep you tied to your seat until you finish it.
- Baseball and Lesser Sports, by Wilfred Sheed
- I have not finished this book yet, but I like it so far. In contrast to Hernandez's book, this one is written more from the perspective of the fan. It has essays about other sports, as well.
- The Summer Game, by Roger Angell
- Angell is THE baseball writer to which all others must measure up. His writing is graceful and engaging, full of his joyful enthusiasm for the game. This book recounts the season highlights and the World Series from 1962 to 1971. The last essay, Angell's somewhat bitter commentary on the ills of the game(oddly similar to those almost thirty years later) is of lesser quality than the rest, but overall the book is wonderful.
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