Majors: Book Guide

Book Review: Veeck's Story Gets A Worthy Retelling
May. 10, 2012
Paul Dickson's new book brings Bill Veeck's story to a new generation. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Phillies' Finish Can't Dim 'The Rotation'
May. 10, 2012
When the Phillies added Cliff Lee to a rotation that already included Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton, fans rightfully wondered if it was one of the greatest assembled rotations in baseball history. By the end of the season, the Phillies pitchers had made a pretty strong argument that yes, they did deserve to be considered among the greats. [...] Continue Reading »

Q&A: James Bailey's New Novel Looks At The Durham Bulls
May. 3, 2012
James Bailey's new novel, "The Greatest Show on Dirt," is packed with fascinating details on life in the old D.A.P. Those were the heady years after the film "Bull Durham" made the park a destination for baseball fans, and before the team moved to its new upscale digs. The novel depicts one crazy summer in the life of Lane Hamilton, an N.C. State grad who takes a job with the Bulls after getting fired from his going-nowhere sales job at a downtown bank. Bailey, now a contributing writer for Durham-based "Baseball America" magazine and editor with a legal publishing company in Syracuse, NY, released his self-published novel earlier this spring. He recently spoke about life at the old Durham ballpark and the joys of minor league baseball. [...] Continue Reading »

Bill Veeck's Story Gets A Worthy Retelling
Apr. 25, 2012
There's so much more to colorful visionary Bill Veeck to celebrate than midgets and Disco Demolition. He was a one of a kind owner whose impact reached beyond the ballpark. Author Paul Dickson has captured it all in entertaining fashion in "Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick." [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Centennial Brings Flood Of Fenway Books
Apr. 25, 2012
The 100th anniversary of Fenway Park has as expected brought a flood of books about the long-loved balpark. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Might Have Been
Mar. 22, 2012
To tab Yates, or Edward Everett as he's called throughout, the hero of Joseph Schuster's "The Might Have Been" is to upsell his lot in the baseball landscape. There's little heroic about him, next to no glamour in his life once he returns to the bush leagues, never again to sniff major league air. As a young man his self-absorption sows the seeds of the loneliness that will plague him well into middle age. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Banzai Babe Ruth
Mar. 14, 2012
"Banzai Babe Ruth" tells the story of Babe Ruth and a team of American All-stars trip to Japan in 1934. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Out Of My League
Mar. 2, 2012
Dirk Hayhurst's case, his first book "The Bullpen Gospels" and now his equally excellent second book "Out Of My League" explain life in the minors and the major leagues like you've never read it before, in large part because he's an outsider trying to fit in. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Excerpt: Out Of My League, By Dirk Hayhurst
Mar. 2, 2012
Dirk Hayhurst's first "Non-Prospect Diary" went live on BaseballAmerica.com on March 13, 2007. He chronicled three seasons on BA's website, a ride that took him to the major leagues, while also writing one of the best baseball books of the last decade: "The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran" (Citadel Press, 2010). For an encore, Hayhurst has taken us back inside the game to the biggest year of his career, 2008. It's a season that started with the protagonist back in the minor leagues, living in spartan conditions in an apartment with two fellow minor league veterans. It ended with Hayhurst getting on ESPN's "SportsCenter" after giving up one of Manny Ramirez's longest home runs. Hayhurst takes us through his major league debut in "Out Of My League." Here's an excerpt, when Hayhurst was getting used to the on- and off-field duties of a rookie in a big league bullpen. [...] Continue Reading »

The Best Baseball Books Of 2011
Dec. 22, 2011
In March 2010, Little, Brown outbid seven other publishers for the rights to an unemployed author's first book, paying $650,000 to publish Chad Harbach's tale about a slick-fielding shortstop at a fictional Division III college in Wisconsin. It was a highly unusual transaction for a debut novel targeted at a male audience. The publisher was vindicated, however, by a constant flow of praise in the months leading up to the release of "The Art of Fielding," certainly unprecedented among baseball novels. The book lived up to its hype, landing a coveted place on the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2011 list. It also tops ours, the only work of fiction to win a spot. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: September Nights
Dec. 14, 2011
In September Nights, Rays pitcher James Shields and author Bill Chastain detail with behind the scenes insight what the team went through on the field and inside the locker room as it pursued its second World Series appearance in three years. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900
Dec. 13, 2011
David Nemec's obsession with 19th-century baseball dates back to his junior year of high school in the mid-1950s. His fascination hasn't wavered in the half century since. His ambitious undertaking to catalog the debut and finale dates of every 19th-century major leaguer expanded into something even greater: Write a short biography for every player who suited up in a major league contest from 1871-1900. While he eventually settled on anyone who had one year as a qualifier for a league's batting or ERA title, what was left still weighed in at over 1,200 pages, in a two-volume set entitled "Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900" released this fall by University of Nebraska Press. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Clark Griffith, The Old Fox Of Washington Baseball
Oct. 24, 2011
A new book tries to explain the significance of former Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Right Angle
Oct. 24, 2011
The Right Angle tells tales from the owner of the long-time owner of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Art of Fielding
Sep. 12, 2011
Chad Harbach's debut novel, "The Art of Fielding," drew a huge advance and praise from all corners of the literary world, to a degree unprecedented for a baseball novel. Can the book possibly live up to this advance billing? In a word, yes.
[...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The House That Ruth Built
Aug. 25, 2011
Robert Weintraub tells the story of the stadium and the player who helped alter the balance of baseball power in New York. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
Aug. 25, 2011
Author Josh Wilker follows up on his popular baseball book "Cardboard Gods" with a look back on the move "The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training," the 1977 sequel to the original baseball classic. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: 1961*
Jul. 25, 2011
Fifty years ago this summer, Yankees teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle waged the greatest (non-juiced) tandem assault on the record book in baseball history. Maris, of course, established a new single-season home run mark with 61, topping Babe Ruth's 154-game accomplishment, while Mantle fell short with 54. To commemorate the golden anniversary of their race, Phil Pepe, a beat writer for the New York World-Telegram & Sun over the season's final two months, has penned "1961*: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase." [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Way of Baseball
Jun. 29, 2011
Former Blue Jays and Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green gives insight into his baseball career and his Zen outlook on live in a new memoir. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Uppity
Jun. 28, 2011
If people who know the man had any doubt where they stood with Bill White, they won't after reading his new memoir, "Uppity: My Untold Story about the Games People Play." White, whose long and varied career afforded him a view of the game from just about every angle, doesn't hold back, sharing his candid thoughts about a number of people with whom he crossed paths over the years. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: 'Diamond Dishes' Takes You In Player's Kitchens
Jun. 1, 2011
If you've ever wondered what big league ballplayers eat, boy, are you in luck. Major League Baseball has released a cookbook, written by Julie Loria (wife of Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria), entitled "Diamond Dishes: From the Kitchens of Baseball's Biggest Stars." [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: 'Pitchers Of Beer' Honors Seattle's Minor League Legacy
May. 11, 2011
Given that the Mariners, even after the last couple of rounds of expansion, are still one of Major League Baseball's relative newbies, it's easy to overlook Seattle's significant baseball history. But long before the M's came to town in 1977, and even before the Pilots took up a very temporary residency in 1969, the city was a hotbed for professional ball. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Pitching In The Promised Land
Apr. 27, 2011
"Pitching In The Promised Land" is a well-written account of the short-lived Israel Baseball League. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Baseball In The Garden Of Eden
Apr. 6, 2011
John Thorn digs into the origins of baseball in his new book. [...] Continue Reading »

Game Review: Major League Baseball 2K11
Mar. 29, 2011
Baseball America recently received 2K Sports' newest baseball installment, Major League Baseball 2K11 for Xbox 360. I went over to Nathan Rode's house to test out the game recently, and here are my early impressions of the game with grades—as you could only expect from Baseball America—based on the 20-80 scouting scale. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Campy
Mar. 23, 2011
Neil Lanctot's new biography about former Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella does a good job telling the sometimes complicated story of Campanella's highs and lows on and off the field. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Extra 2%
Mar. 3, 2011
Jonah Keri's new book The Extra 2% looks into the secrets behind the Tampa Bay Rays' success. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: Knocking On Heaven's Door
Jan. 20, 2011
Marty Dobrow follows the careers of six minor leaguers in search of the big leagues. [...] Continue Reading »

Book Review: The Immortals
Jan. 7, 2011
'The Immortals' is a one-of-a-kind book. [...] Continue Reading »

The Best Baseball Books Of 2010
Dec. 16, 2010
In baseball literary circles, 2010 will be remembered as the year of the biography. We had noteworthy releases this year on Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe Cronin, and Charles Radbourn. Roger Maris fell short of Cooperstown, but the new bio on him ranks right up there with the other greats, as does that of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who appeared for the first time on the veteran's committee ballot this fall. [...] Continue Reading »