Now that we are in the offseason, and in the leanest part of it in terms of baseball news, maybe Francona has finished that book, and perhaps some others. It's a great time for those involved with the sport to catch up on some reading. What better time to opine on some of the great reads of the national pastime?
Keeping in mind that I have not picked up the highly acclaimed Mickey Mantle bio that recently came out, here is my top five:
1. 9 Innings, Daniel Okrent
If you ever sat in the stands at a relatively meaningless midsummer game and saw it as so much more than that, as a collection of storylines that brought together more than 50 players and coaches onto one field at one time, then this is the book for you. Okrent weaves back stories on participants in a Brewers-Orioles game on June 10, 1982, with the expertise of a grandmother making blankets. The result is a tapestry which encapsulates every facet of the game, from the owners' history to the reason for a hit-and-run in the fourth inning. The game has most certainly changed quite a bit since then, but the characters on those two teams, which fought until the last day of the season for the American League East title, will keep it a wonderful read for years to come.
2. Red Smith on Baseball, Red Smith
Open to any page and sink into the work of the greatest baseball writer of his time, or perhaps any time. Beginning with a selection on the Brooklyn Dodgers from October 1941, and ending with one on Casey Stengel in January 1981, a year before Smith died, the collection puts the reader in the press box looking down on the greatest moments of the greatest years the sport has ever seen. As a tease, consider his well-known lede in his story on the Bobby Thomson home run on Oct. 3, 1951: "Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly implausible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again."
Brilliant stuff, and there's a lot of it.
3. The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn
It's been nearly 40 years since Kahn put out this masterpiece, and many of the figures have since left us, but this story of the talented, adored and charismatic Brooklyn Dodgers teams of the 1950s stands the test of time. Kahn starts by detailing a childhood in the shadow of Ebbets Field, his time covering the team as a reporter for the Herald Tribune and his visits to the homes of many of the players years after they have retired, where several sad stories of aging heroes are told. A must-read for anyone who loves the game for its history.
4. Summer of '49, David Halberstam
The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry has had some wonderful moments in recent years, but their pennant race in 1949, with Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams at the heart of it and a post-war nation beginning to boom, was an exceptional one, and deserves to be analyzed to the nth degree. Halberstam, whose knowledge of 20th century American history was just about unmatched, is the perfect person to bring those months to life once again. It still serves well to get excited about a modern-day Sox-Yanks series.
5. Men at Work, George Will
For those of you who love to learn about the greats of the game and all they do to make themselves great, dive into this four-part masterpiece. Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., Orel Hershiser and Tony La Russa are the subjects which Will analyzes in depth. This was written before sabermetrics really took off, so like some others on this list, it has an old-school feel, but that is also what makes it great. Gwynn's breakdown of his flirtation with the 5.5 hole and Ripken detailing how he moves around at shortstop based on the pitch that is about to be offered — these are the nuances of the game that will always resonate, regardless of what statistics are out there.
What is the best baseball book? Leave your thoughts below.
