THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Yeah, the THT annual.  There must be some other new books to put on the list.

I’ve heard good things about “Satchel.”

He has Poz’s Buck O’Neill book, but not the new book on the Reds, which seemed like a good one.

I’m not sure if it’s out yet, but I have Jaffe’s Evaluating Baseball Managers on my list. 

There’s “Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” if the ephemera from baseball’s history sounds interesting to you.

I’ve been meaning to read Larry Tye’s book on Paige.  I think the reason I put it off is because I own and didn’t borrow it from the library, thus imposing a deadline on reading it.  Lew Paper’s book on Don Larsen’s perfect game surprised me.  Click on my name.  I mentioned it on my blog about a week ago.

I’ve often thought that it would be nice if The Book Blog had a standing thread where we could share baseball books (either new or out of print) and/or other baseball related media as we come across them.  I have four contributions that I will mention.

Weaver on Strategy,1984, Earl Weaver and Terry Pluto.  The Book for which this blog is named is all about quantifying strategic decisions in baseball which carries an implicit comparison to how managers have made these decisions in the past.  So what could be a more interesting contrast than one of the great managers of the twentieth century explaining his thought processes in making these decisions.  Actually, the book is much more than that with Weaver also explaining all the other work that goes into being a manager, how he became one, and a sprinkling of anecdotes from a man for whom the word colorful seems an insufficient adjective. 

The Pitcher, John Thorn and John Holway, 1988.  The Neyer/James’ Guide to Pitchers is often on “must own” lists and is cited often on baseball blogs, but I don’t think I have ever seen Thorn’s book mentioned.  And that is a shame.  It covered much the same ground 16 years earlier, but with enough differences and with Thorn’s beautiful writing style that it should be on every sabermetrician’s bookshelf as well.

A Baseball Winter,Terry Pluto and Jeffery Neuman,1986.  This book is a description of the off-season workings of five baseball teams during the winter of 1984-85.  There is enough contrast between the situations of the five clubs that the result is a comprehensive examination of the types of decisions that have to be made during the off-season.  Although I am sure there have been many changes in how ball clubs operate in the past 25 years and the dollar amounts in this book are laughingly quaint, I am also sure that much has stayed the same.  In any event, whether you consider this book ancient history or relevant to the present makes no difference, it is a terrific read either way.

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg directed by Aviva Kempner.  This documentary film won many awards when it came out in 2000.  Longer than I expected from a documentary, it is filled with great film footage of baseball games from the 1930’s and interviews of Hank, his baseball contemporaries, his family, and prominent Jews explaining how much the presence of a Jewish baseball star meant to them as they were growing up.  A wonderful film about a great baseball star who appears to have also to have lived up to his image as a hero off the field as well.  If you missed it when it came out, it is now available on Hulu or can be purchased from Amazon on dvd.

I agree on the Weaver and Pitcher books.  I enjoyed those very much.  Indeed, “Weaver’s Laws” was the inspiration for those “The Book says...” boxes.

I haven’t read the others.

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Peter, are you talking about acting like a library of sorts?  Or just as a “book club” to bring up and discuss those books?

Tango - Just a resident thread where everyone could mention any baseball book that they thought others would enjoy or find useful in light of the other baseball threads on your blog.  There doesn’t even have to be much if any discussion.  A one line second endorsement like you gave above is about right.  There is a huge booksale (250,000+ books) twice a year in Ithaca near my home and I have picked up many baseball books that I have enjoyed and would like to alert others about.  I thought other people might like to do the same.

Certainly not acting as a library, as almost any local library can get almost any out of print book for you in a couple of days through interlibrary loan.

Ok, good idea.  This thread then can serve that function.

I’ll add this thread to the links at the top of every page.

Darn, I’ve already read five out of those six books.

I read (from the library) the Satchel Paige bio by Larry Tye.  I’d say it was good but not great.  Paige’s personality doesn’t shine through quite as much as one would hope for, but the book was comprehensive and well done.

As a gift book, The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski is about perfect because it would work well for any baseball fan, whether casual or serious.  It’s well written and inspirational but also appeals to someone looking for some historical content.

I heartily recommend The Physics of Baseball by Bob Adair, The Numbers Game by Alan Schwarz, and Pure Baseball by Keith Hernandez.

I also second Peter’s recommendation of Weaver on Strategy, and on the humor side, Ron Luciano’s books are great, particularly The Fall of the Roman Umpire.

Alex Belth’s Ten Essential Baseball Books, as nominated by a bunch of baseball luminaries:
http://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/archives/970360.html

Plus a few more ballots:
http://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/archives/972406.html

And the ballot from studes:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/blog_article/ten-essential-baseball-books/