Compiled by Larry Ritter at the request of a SABR
(Society for American Baseball Research) publication.
Statistical reference works excluded; listed in alphabetical
order by author.
Roger Angell
The Summer Game (1972)
Five Seasons (1972)
Late Innings (1982)
Angell has such deep insights into the game and the
people who play it, and writes so well, that he has
virtually single-handedly elevated the quality of
sportswriting to a new level.
Eliot Asinof
Eight Men Out (1963)
Asinof's book about the 1919 Black Sox scandal still
stands, a quarter century later, as one of the best jobs
of investigative baseball reporting ever written.
Red Barber
The Broadcasters (1970)
1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball
(1982)
Two outstanding books, filled with inside information, by
the best baseball play-by-play announcer of all time.
Thomas Boswell
How Life Imitates the World Series (1982)
Why Time Begins on Opening Day (1984)
One of the few competitors to Angell in terms of elegant
and insightful baseball reportage.
Bobbie Bouton & Nancy Marshall
Home Games (1983)
A straightforward and honest book that reveals a side of
baseball that is rarely ackowledged, much less discussed.
Poignant and moving.
Jim Bouton & Leonard Schecter
Ball Four (1970)
A pioneer in its day. Considered daring at the time but
pretty tame stuff now. Perhaps the funniest baseball
writing since Ring Lardner.
Jim Brosnan
The Long Season (1960)
Talk about pioneers! As far ahead of his time as Galileo.
Ty Cobb & Al Stump
My Life in Baseball (1961)
After you finish the book, then read about Al Stump's
experiences writing it (a 3-part article in True Magazine
in 1961.)
Bob Creamer
Babe (1974)
Stengel: His Life and Times (1984)
Creamer writes a well-researched no-nonsense biography.
The best in the business at it.
Charles Einstein
The 3 Fireside Books of Baseball (1956,
58, 68)
It is hard to understand how the publisher, Simon &
Schuster, could have allowed these classics to go out of
print. They should be available in a boxed set.
James T. Farrell
My Baseball Diary (1957)
A tender and loving book. As great, in its own way, as
the same author's famous Studs Lonigan trilogy.
Gordon Fleming
The Unforgettable Season (1981)
A novel and exciting way to relieve a baseball season, in
this case 1908 and poor Fred Merkle. The idea is great
but I think one book of its type is enough.
Larry Gerlach
The Men in Blue (1980)
Interview-type books depend on the interviewer's skill as
an interviewer and as a writer. Gerlach is tops on both
counts.
Lee Gutkind
Best Seat in the House But You have to Stand
( 1975)
Great material, delightfully presented. One of the two
best books about umpiring ever written. The other is
Gerlach's.
Bill Heward & Dimitri Gat
Some Are Called Clowns (1974)
The 1973 season of the barnstorming Indianapolis Clowns.
Again wonderful material, top-notch writing.
Art Hill
I Don't Care If I Never Come Back (1980)
A warm, wise, and funny book.
Jerry Holzman
No Cheering in the Press Box (1974)
Terrific interviews with sportswriters.
Don Honig
Baseball When the Grass Was Real (1975)
Baseball Between the Lines (1976)
The Man in the Dugout (1977)
The October Heroes (1979)
The National League (1983)
The American League (1983)
Baseball America (1985)
The first four are wonderful interview books, the next
two are pictorial league histories from the turn of the
century to date, with hundreds of absolutely superb
photographs, and the last is a beautifully written blend
of social and baseball history. Fred Lieb used to be the
most prolific book-writing baseball author of all time,
but Honig has overtaken him and is lengthening his lead
with every copyright. In neither case has quantity
diminished quality.
Rogers Hornsby & Bill Surface
My War With Baseball (1962)
Bill James
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
(1985)
Innovative, stimulating, and great reading, although not
quite as good as Crime and Punishment despite what the
jacket copy says.
Pat Jordan
A False Spring (1975)
Another writer in the Angell-Boswell class.
Roger Kahn
The Boys of Summer (1972)
Kahn also belongs in the same league, as this classic
shows.
Gene Karst & Martin Jones
Who's Who in Professional Baseball (1973)
An obvious labor of love that few fans seem to know
about. It contains brief but interesting and well-written
player biographies.
Leonard Koppett
The Thinking Man's Guide to Baseball
(1967)
Now twenty years old and dated, but in its time an
eye-opener. Should be revised, updated, and reissued.
Fred Lieb
Baseball As I Have Known It (1977)
Absolutely fascinating stories about the old days by one
of the best baseball writers ever.
Lee Lowenfish & Tony Lupien
The Imperfect Diamond (1980)
An important well-researched history of labor-management
relations in baseball. Should be updated and reissued.
Sadaharu Oh & David Falkner
A Zen Way of Baseball (1984)
In my opinion, one of the best sports autobiographies
ever written.
Daniel Okrent & Harris Lewine
The Ultimate Baseball Book (1979)
I don't like all the articles by people like Tom Wicker
and George Higgins, I don't care for sepia-tinted photos,
and many of the photograph reproductions are too small,
but it is still one of the best baseball books ever
published.
Robert Peterson
Only the Ball Was White (1970)
A lot of research has been done on the Negro Leagues
since 1970, but when Peterson's book came out it was
pioneering work and it still stands up well today.
Damon Rice
Seasons Past (1976)
A warm and wonderful book, with the author's name an
obvious psuedonym. Within a fictional framework, covers
New York baseball from the 19th century until the Dodgers
and Giants went West. Has always been a special favorite
of mine.
Jackie Robinson & Charles Dexter
Baseball Has Done It (1964)
Powerful stuff, written at the height of the civil rights
movement.
Howard Senzel
Baseball and the Cold War (1977)
Your political views will probably greatly influence your
reaction to this book. Personally, I think it is
haunting, original, beautifully written. Also funny. But
if you tend to be Conservative by inclination, you won't
care for it.
J.G. Taylor Spink
Judge Landis and 25 Years of Baseball
(1947)
Actually, Fred Lieb wrote this, although Spink's name is
on the title page. Informative and frank and pulls
surprisingly few punches, given the era in which it was
written.
Geoffrey Stokes
Pinstripe Pandemonium (1984)
Billy Martin and the New York Yankees during the 1983
season. One of the best behind-the-scenes
in-the-clubhouse books ever written about a baseball
team.
John Thorn
The Armchair Book of Baseball (1985)
A worthy successor to the Fireside Books.
John Thorn & Pete Palmer
The Hidden Game of Baseball (1984)
Like Bill James, innovative and stimulating whether or
not you agree with their conclusions.
Bill Veeck & Ed Linn
Veeck as in Wreck (1962)
Great fun and such a pleasure to read!
SABR REVIEW Of BOOKS ESSENTIAL
BASEBALL LIBRARY
This is taken from an old issue of The SABR Review of Books, A
Forum for Baseball Literary Opinion. They polled selected members
for the books they go back to time after time. The members who
were asked to participate are a true blue-ribbon panel of serious
baseball writers and researchers. This list was compiled by Paul
D. Adomites. The following people were contributors:
Dick Beverage Alan Blumkin Bill Borst
Jack Carlson Jon Daniels Jay Feldman
Cappy Gagnon Mark Gallagher Bob Hoie
Lloyd Johnson Tom Jozwik Jack Kavanagh
Phil Lowry Vern Luse John Pardon
Frank Phelps Larry Ritter Louis Rubin
Leverett T. Smith Adie Suchsdorf Jules Tygiel
David Voigt
They requested 50 books. More than 200 books were mentioned,
yet the amount of agreement was remarkable. The
"library" created has 57 entries. To be listed, a work
had to be recommended by more than 3 participants. The two works
mentioned most often were The MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia and
Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times.
The categories were decided upon afterward just as a way to group
the books.
STATISTICS
The Sports Encyclopedia - Baseball - Neft,
Cohen, Deutsch
The Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia
The Sporting News Baseball Guides & Registers
The Hidden Game of Baseball - Thorn &
Palmer
HISTORY
Eight Men Out - Eliot Asinof
Daguerreotypes - The Sporting News
The Unforgettable Season - Gordon Fleming
The American League - Donald Honig
The National League - Donald Honig
Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
The Boys of Summer - Roger Kahn
Baseball As I Have Known It - Fred Lieb
The Ultimate Baseball Book - Okrent &
Lewine, eds
Baseball - The Early Years - Harold Seymour
Baseball - The Golden Age - Harold Seymour
Judge Landis and the Twenty-Five Years of Baseball
- J.G. Taylor Spinks
American Baseball (3 vols) - David Voigt
TEAM HISTORIES
Even the Browns - William B. Mead
Putnam team histories
IN THEIR OWN LEAGUE
The Old Ball Game - Tristram Coffin
Men in Blue - Gerlach
Dollar Sign on the Muscle - Kevin Kerrane
The Imperfect Diamond - Lowenfish & Lupien
The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter
FICTION
Shoeless Joe - W.P. Kinsella
The Natural - Bernard Malamud
THE MINORS
Bush League - Robert Obojski
Minor League Stars I and II - SABR
BIOGRAPHY/AUTO- AND OTHER
Ty Cobb - Charles Alexander
Ball Four - Jim Bouton
The Long Season - Jim Brosnan
Pennant Race - Jim Brosnan
Babe - Robert L. Creamer
Stengel - His Life and Times - Robert L.
Creamer
Nice Guys Finish Last - Leo Durocher
Baseball Between the Lines - Donald Honig
Baseball When the Grass Was Real - Donald Honig
A False Spring - Pat Jordan
Suitors of Spring - Pat Jordan
Ban Johnson, Czar of Baseball - Eugene Murdock
The Life that Ruth Built - Marshall Smelser
Veeck as in Wreck - Bill Veeck
ANTHOLOGIES AND COLLECTIONS
The Hot Stove League - Lee Allen
Five Seasons - Roger Angell
Late Innings - Roger Angell
The Summer Game - Roger Angell
How Life Imitates the World Series - Thomas
Boswell
Why Time Begins on Opening Day - Thomas Boswell
Insiders Baseball - L. Robert Davids, ed
The Fireside Books of Baseball (3 vols) - Charles
Einstein, ed
The Baseball Reader (a 1 vol compilation of the 3)
- Einstein, ed
The Armchair Book of Baseball - John Thorn
NEGRO LEAGUES
Voices from the Great Negro Baseball Leagues - John
Holway
Only the Ball Was White - Robert Peterson
BALLPARKS
Green Cathedrals - Phil Lowry
Take Me Out to the Ball Park - Reidenbaugh
& Carter, eds
Reference Sources 
