6 Baseball Books Perfect To Give As Holiday Gifts
In today's issue, one IBWAA member discusses six of his favorite baseball books that are just right for giving to baseball-loving friends and family around the holidays.
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Pregame Pepper: What Have Some Baseball Institutions Been Up To In The Offseason?
. . . Cooperstown seems to be in its finest postcard-ready condition, especially with the recent snowfall.
. . . Meanwhile at Coors Field, the infamous “Coors Cat” appears to have been supplanted this winter by a “Coors Fox.” Or two.
. . . At Citi Field and Rogers Centre, construction is underway on grand renovations to improve the ballpark experience.
. . . And at Chase Field and loanDepot park, preparations are underway for both stadiums to host the World Baseball Classic in a few short months.
Leading Off
Great Baseball Books For Your Holiday Shopping List
By Russ Walsh
No sport has generated more great writing than baseball. Whether it is the great sportswriters from Red Smith to Jayson Stark, the serious essayists and writers like George Will and Wilfrid Sheed, the novelists like Bernard Malamud and Mark Harris, or even the poets like Marianne Moore and Donald Hall, something about baseball inspires excellence in writing. Maybe it is the leisurely pace of the game, perhaps it is the individual dramas that play out in the context of a team sport, perhaps it is the very “Americanness” of the game, or its pastoral roots recalling a simpler time. Whatever it is, baseball and great writing seem to go together.
With the holidays upon us, perhaps you are looking for a book to give to a baseball fan in the family. Here are a few suggestions of books that I have read and could not put down -- some new, some old, some fiction, some nonfiction, and all examples of great baseball writing.
Bang the Drum Slowly, by Mark Harris
For my money, the greatest baseball novel ever written. Bang the Drum Slowly is the story of southpaw Henry Wiggen, star pitcher of the New York Mammoths, and his friendship with his teammate, third-string catcher Bruce Pearson. The book is written in Wiggen’s unique vernacular voice. Pearson, a player of very modest skills and even more modest intelligence, is often the target of ridicule by teammates. When Pearson is diagnosed with a terminal illness and is threatened with demotion to the Minor Leagues, Wiggen inspires him to become a better player. Reflecting on his experience with his friend, Harris/Wiggen ends the novel with one of the all-time great lines, “From here on in, I rag nobody.”
The book was made into a television drama starring Paul Newman and Albert Salmi and later a movie starring Michael Moriarty and Robert DeNiro.
Fathers Playing Catch with Sons and other essays on sport, by Donald Hall
Here, Hall writes a series of essays on sports, mostly baseball. In the 1970s, Hall attended spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates, practiced with the team, met and befriended noted eccentric pitcher Dock Ellis, and came away with this collection of essays and reminiscences. Hall does a wonderful job of showing how baseball connects us across generations. He also traces the history of poets and baseball, showing us that our greatest poet, Walt Whitman, was also a baseball fan.
The Summer Game, by Roger Angell
When he died last year, Angell was generally acclaimed as the greatest baseball writer ever. I would not argue with that. Any of his books are worthy of your attention, but this one is my favorite, perhaps because it covers a period when my own fandom was in full flower and I lived and died on every mighty swing of Dick Allen’s bat.
Angell’s secret, besides having learned to write at the foot of stepfather E.B. White, was to approach the game as a fan. He’s just like you and me, sitting in the stands rooting for the Yankees or the hapless expansion Mets. This is a writer who once described catcher Choo Choo Coleman’s defensive challenges thusly: “He handles outside curveballs like a man trying to fight off bees.” For more fun at the ballpark like this, read Roger Angell.
The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
This debut novel is the best fiction book about baseball I have read since Bang the Drum Slowly. Henry Skrimshander (is that a great baseball name or what?) is a whiz of a shortstop who is recruited to play for the Westish College Harpooners in northeast Wisconsin. Skrimshander, under the guidance of friend and mentor Mike Schwartz, excels at the college and is being closely watched by scouts. Then one day, on the cusp of setting an errorless streak, Skrimshander throws a ball wildly to first, hitting and seriously injuring his roommate, Owen Dunne, who was sitting in the dugout. Henry develops a case of the “yips” to rival that of Steve Sax. And thus, Skrimshander becomes our Hamlet of baseball, frozen into inaction by suddenly having to think about actions he had never before examined.
Don’t let that last sentence turn you off, though. This book is jam packed with great baseball action and very real human emotions and interactions.
K: The Story of 10 Pitches, by Tyler Kepner
New York Times baseball writer Kepner walks us through the history of baseball through the lens of the pitch: the place where all the action begins. He looks at all kinds of pitches, everything from fastball to curveball, from spitball to knuckleball. Kepner is both a fan and a reporter in these pages. His enthusiasm for the game comes through as clearly as his remarkably thorough research into his topic.
Perhaps best of all, Kepner chats with the pitchers who threw the pitches and gets them talking. Notably silent Steve Carlton discusses his slider and Bob Gibson recounts throwing at batters. Gibson says pithily, “I wasn’t throwing at batters. If I were throwing at them, I would hit them.” Even the most dedicated baseball fan will deepen their understanding of the game reading this book, and the casual fan will be mightily entertained.
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
This book started as a project for The Athletic. Like all good baseball fans, I love lists, so I could not wait to grab Posnanski’s book and see where my favorites landed. Sure enough, there was Robin Roberts at No. 72.
What you find when reading this book is not just a list of the greatest of all time with their statistics, but wonderful stories about the game. Stories like Roberts facing off against Jackie Robinson with the pennant on the line. Or Reggie Jackson’s feud with Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley that ended with a Jackson grand slam and a middle finger salute to the owner’s box. Or the bad hop ground ball that taught Greg Maddux to trust his instincts. Lots of great stories packed into this hefty volume. Plus, you get to see where your favorite players rank. Spoiler alert: Willie Mays is No. 1 and I am okay with that.
This is an idiosyncratic list for sure. There are many other great books out there on baseball, but these had particular resonance for me, and I am giving some of these to new friends this year. Happy Holidays. May your new year be filled with great baseball and great reading.
Russ Walsh is a retired teacher, diehard Phillies fan, and student of the history of baseball with a special interest in the odd, quirky, and once in a lifetime events that happen on the baseball field. He writes for both the SABR BioProject and the SABR Games Project and maintains his own blog The Faith of a Phillies Fan. You can reach Russ on Twitter @faithofaphilli1.