THE BASEBALL ALMANAC BOOK SHELF

Baseball Book Lists & Baseball Book Reviews | Baseball Almanac

Book shelves lined with baseball books: some reference, some fiction, some historical, and some that are just plain fun to read. Over seventy-thousand books have been written covering every facet of our national pastime. With so many choices, and so many different versions, it can be difficult deciding what books deserve your money. Moe Berg, the legendary Major League catcher turned spy, once said that he, "would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books, than a King who did not like reading."

Baseball Almanac wants to do the work for you and suggest a title worth adding to your personal baseball library — one that will not make you a "poor man in a garret." Each month we review dozens of possible books and select one book which we believe you will truly enjoy reading. Book reviews are done by either our personnel, by Dr. Donald McKim (a trusted book critic), or our newest contributor Tom Swift. The ratings column is determined by the actual review, user comments, and input made at Amazon.com.

Ralph Andreannoe wrote in No Joy in Mudville (1965) that, "The literature of baseball is voluminous; some of it is extremely valuable, but most of it is riddled with cliches and empty analysis." If the book we review is empty analysis, Baseball Almanac will tell you. If its not, then we will tell you that as well. Our standard is simple; is the data accurate, is the data helpful to our site, and is it worth it...

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"Indeed, it may be fairly said that amongst all of mankind's games and sports, only chess, with its advantage of over a thousand years of existence and its international exposure, surpasses the literary outpourings devoted to baseball." - Voigt, David. Author. Baseball: A Comprehensive Bibliography. 1986.

Baseball Books | Baseball Book Reviews

Baseball Almanac Bookshelf | Alphabetical Order | Bold = New in 2026

two stars 108 Stitches
  Ron Darling
two.5 stars 1960: The Last Pure Season
  Kerry Keene
five stars 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die
  Ron Kaplan
two.5 stars A Legend in the Making: The 1939 Yankees
  Richard J. Tofel
three stars A Pitcher's Story
  Roger Angell
four stars And The Crowd Goes Wild
  Joe Garner
four.5 stars Autumn Glory: First World Series
  Louis P. Masur
four stars Baseball and Philosophy
  Eric Bronson
four.5 stars Baseball Dynasties
  Rob Neyer
four stars Baseball Letters
  Seth Swirsky
four.5 stars Biographical Encyclopedia
  Total Sports, Inc.
five stars Carl Furillo, Brooklyn Dodgers All-Star
  Ted Reed
four stars Connie Mack's '29 Triumph
  William C. Kashatus
five stars Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball
  Jonathan Fraser Light
five stars Curveballs and Screwballs
  Jeffrey Lyons & Doug Lyons
four.5 stars Cy Young: A Life in Baseball
  Reed Browning
five stars Damn Senators
  Mark Judge
five stars Deadbeats, Dead Balls, and the 1914 Boston Braves
  Martin H. Bush
five stars Dixie Walker: A Life in Baseball
  Lyle Spatz
four.5 stars Dizzy and the Gas House Gang
  Doug Feldmann
four stars Fair Ball: A Fan's Case For Baseball
  Bob Costas
five stars For The Good of the Game
  Bud Selig
four stars Go Pro BASEBALL WISE
  P.J. Dragseth
five stars Great Book of Baseball Knowledge
  David Nemec
four stars Heartbreakers
  John Kuenster
four.5 stars Heat
  Dwight Gooden
four stars Here's the Catch: A Memoir of the Miracle Mets
  Ron Swoboda
four stars Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger
  Lyle Spatz
four.5 stars Images of Baseball (The Series)
  Arcadia Publishing
four.5 stars Ichiro, Satchel, and the Babe
  Mike Attiyeh
four.5 stars Jocko
  Jocko Conlan
four stars Joe Mock's Ballpark Guide
  Joe Mock
three stars Koufax Throws a Curve
  Brian M. Endsley
five stars Left on Base in the Bush Leagues
  Gaylon H. White
five stars Line Drives : 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems
Edited by Brooke Horvath & Tim Wiles
four.5 stars Mendoza's Heroes : 50 Batters Below .200
  Al Pepper
three-five stars Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son
  Tony Castro
three stars More Than Merkle
  David W. Anderson
four.5 stars Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible
  Nolan Ryan
four stars Philadelphia's Top Fifty Baseball Players
  Rich Westcott
three stars Play Hungry: The Making of a Baseball Player
  Pete Rose
four.5 stars Red Smith on Baseball
  Red Smith
four.5 stars Red Sox vs. Yankees : The Great Rivalry
  Harvey Frommer
four stars Roy Sievers: The Sweetest Right Handed Swing
  Paul Scimonelli
four.5 stars Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy
  Jane Leavy
four stars Smoke
  Peter C. Bjarkman
three stars Spitting on Diamonds
  Clyde Hogg
three stars Summerland
by Michael Chabon
four stars Tales from the Dugout
  Mike Shannon
five stars Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever
  Kevin Cook
three-five stars The 500 Home Runs Club
  Bob Allen & Bill Gilbert
four.5 stars The Athletics of Philadelphia
  David M. Jordan
four stars The Ballpark Book
  Ron Smith
four.5 stars The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych
  Steve Fainaru & Ray Sanchez
four.5 stars The Duke of Havana
  Steve Fainaru & Ray Sanchez
four stars The End Of Baseball As We Knew It
  Charles P. Korr
five stars The Gift of the Bambino : A Novel
  Jerry Amernic
four stars The Head Game
  Roger Kahn
four stars The Joy of Keeping Score
  Paul Dickson
four stars The Oldest Rookie
  Jim Morris
four.5 stars The Perfect Pitch : The Biography of Roger Owens
  Daniel S. Green
three stars The Quotable Baseball Fanatic
  Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
two.5 stars The Ripken Way
  Cal Ripken, Sr.
five stars The Theatre of the Impossible
  Daniel McNeill
five stars They Bled Blue Book Review
  Jason Turbow
four stars Tiger Stadium
  Irwin J. Cohen
four.5 stars Total Baseball
  Total Sports, Inc.
four stars Twins Trivia
  John Swol
three-five stars Uncle Robbie
by Jack Kavanagh & Norman Macht
two.5 stars Wit & Wisdom of Baseball
  David Plat
three-five stars Yankee Stadium
  Christopher Jennison
four stars You're Missin' A Great Game
  Whitey Herzog

The Baseball Almanac Book Shelf

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One of the most often asked questions here at Baseball Almanac is what are our favorite baseball magazines? Our answer, Baseball Digest.

Read EVERY word of Coaching Adult Pitchers by record setting pitcher Mike Marshall in our Baseball Almanac exclusive online eBook section.

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