Baseball Books

The book "Babe Ruth One of Baseball's Greatest" is a spectacular 5 star book. It tells of George Ruth from age 7 till his death. It depicths him at St.Marys school, where he first learned Baseball. It's where he won his first Championship and the academy game. At that game a Baltimore Baseball scout saw him pitch and was amazed, he reported about George to the owner of the Baltimore Oriels. One afternoon George and his friend Rod were having a catch. George was pitching, Rod was catching when they saw a man walking with the brothers who run the school. They called George in, the man was the Baltimore Oriels manager and he wanted George to play for them. This is where he got the name Babe since he was so young. Thus the career of Babe Ruth began. If you love Baseball and it's heroes you'll love this book.

It was a really great book. I learned a lot about Babe Ruth. A lot I didn't know - all about him growing up and what his childhood was like.
It was really informative and I really enjoyed reading it.

I read this book a couple years ago, but haven't forgot it. It's great if you like learning about sports heros or baseball. I remember most baseball stuff. I even remember that 1 month after his first wife died in an apartment fire, Babe Ruth married again. I learned that from this book. Would you like to learn more? Then buy this book!!!

I remember this reading this book in 7th grade and i will never forget it. It was writen with pride and dignity you felt that the great BAMBINO was a hero and he was to most people. I really recommend this book to baseball lovers and people who are interested with this topic. Oh Guernsey Van Riper and Seymour Fleishman did a excellent job writting and illustrating this book.

Highly detailed and at the same time very concise; a true encyclopedia in every sense.

Full of interesting tidbits.

The Ball Clubs is an excellent book. It provides extremely informative backgrounds on ALL major league franchises. I do, however, have two rather nagging criticisms of this book. The first is that the authors seem to be excessively "anti-owner": they seem to take every opportunity to point out every flaw in anybody who ever owned or operated a major league baseball franchise, while rarely (if ever) complimenting these individuals. The second criticism, which in my opinion is much more serious, is their quite STUPID decision to separate "franchises" into separate "teams" (such as the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers). This practice reaches a ridiculous point when a continuous franchise which has played in two different leagues (such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, in the AA from 1882-1886 and the NL from 1887-present) is given two different entries - for the SAME FRANCHISE!!! (Does that mean that there will be yet ANOTHER entry for the Milwaukee Brewers, since they are transferring to the NL in 1998?)

Whoecver heard of the Chicago Whales? While Chicago would be the last place one would go to find a whale (outside captivity), there was a team by that name at the turn of the century. I enjoyed this book as both a baseball fan and a historian. One fault that I do find, however, is the absence of the Negro Leagues. Maybe this oversight can be corrected in a future edition or even in a separate compendium. Also, while mention is made of the original Milwaukee Brewers AL franchise in 1903 in the St. Louis Browns entry, there is no separate entry listed for that particular franchise. The 1903 Brewers had as colorful a year as the 1969 Seattle Pilots (which themselves became the modern day Milwaukee Brewers).

If you had to buy just one book on baseball then "The Ball Clubs" should be the one you choose. It presents an in-depth look at every professional baseball club in the history of "America's pastime". Everyone knows of The Dodgers, The Yankees, The Braves et al, but how many have heard of The New York Mutuals or Altoona Mountain Citys, who also played a role (however brief) in the formation and history of Major League Baseball as we know it today. Well researched and written, this book should become a standard among baseball literature and will hopefully be updated on a regular basis. The writers demonstrate their love and knowledge of the game and this comes across in the book which not only includes bare facts but amusing side stories as well. This book is an enjoyable read and should form the foundation of any baseball book collection

I love this book. Stories of the team back in the day when they truly played as one unit and captured the hearts of the city that supported them. I grew up in Baltimore and now live on the west coast, and you have no idea how great it was to grow up with the Orioles (and the Colts), in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, until you view it from another city and a different time. The O's represented all that was good about baseball and the story of the personality of the team is well told.

I really enjoyed reading Mr. Patterson's book. Being a young Oriole's fan, it shared with me the glory of the past days in Baltimore as well as the downfalls. The one thing that bothered me about the book was the pictures. The majority of them were autographed and that took away from their point in my opinion. Also, the captions on the pictures usually told about things that would happen a few pages ahead. This would tell you prematurly about what was going to happen.

This is one of those books you will pull from the shelf again and again. Forward by the ultimate third baseman, Brooks Robinson. Ted Patterson is not only a fan but covered the team, and knows just what O's fans want to know. Great photos of the players, the parks, and the action, as well as memorabilia the author has collected over the years!

The memories of watching Orioles games on TV and in old Memorial Stadium came back to life as I read this book. Those long time Orioles fans can re-live great games of the past as they spend a moment, trying to forget that our old friend on 33rd Street will be torn down next year. Rich in history and documentation. Camden Yards is a great place, but you should never forget where you came from. Thank you, Memorial Stadium. I will miss you...

This book is a baseball fans bible. It has passion, it has conflict of the human nature, it has morals and ethics but best of all - it has baseball at its purest form. The simplicity of this book is what makes it so enjoyable to read, it is as though you are following a game inning by inning, pitch by pitch. The drama unfolds before you. The main character is strong and yet he is complicated. It is a book worthy of its title and a must read for every baseball fan and non-baseball fan. A tip of the cap to Mark Allen Valenza!

YOU CANNOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN, AND WHEN FINISHED, YOU WANT TO READ IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

a great book about the life of a baseball player and the tough times he has to endure

So many bad books are published these days... A few excellent ones slip through the cracks. This is one of those gems. The title says it all.

"Baseball as America: Seeing Ourselves Through Our National Game" was the companion volume the landmark traveling exhibition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. As its thesis this book takes Jacques Barzun's declaration "Who ever wants to know the heart and mind of American had better learn baseball." Within these 320 pages you will find yourself exploring every aspect of the American pastime lavishly illustrated and even long time baseball fans will be surprised at how much they will read and see that is new to them.

After an introduction by Jules Tygiel, which features a 1860 Currier and Ives lithograph showing Lincoln and his opponents for the presidency describing their platforms in baseball terms, "Baseball as America" is divided into seven units: Our National Spirit, Ideals and Injustices, Rooting for the Team, Enterprise and Opportunity, Sharing a Common Culture, Invention and Ingenuity, and Weaving Myths. Within these pages you will find Robert K. Adair explaining the science of the curve ball invented by Candy Cummings but first explained by a 23 year old Isaac Newton and Paul Simon explaining to Joe DiMaggio his use of Joltin' Joe's name as an emblematic icon in the song "Mrs. Robinson." There is Dan Shaughnessy's "Obituary of Elizabeth Dooley" the legendary Boston Red Sox fan and Buck O'Neil explaining how the Chicago Cubs traded away future Hall of Famer Lou Brock because the team already had three black outfielders. Then there are the letters Curt Flood and Bowie Kuhn exchanged when the outfielder refused to be traded from the Cardinals to the Phillies. You might remember Flood's letter from Ken Burns' documentary "Baseball," but here we have Kuhn's response.

Of course Ernest L. Thayer's ballad of the republic "Casey at the Bat" will be found here, along with a Charles Schulz "Peanuts" cartoon of Charlie Brown praying to catch a baseball, Bob Newhart's "Nobody Will Every Play Baseball" routine, and excerpts from W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe." There are photographs of the famous Honus Wagner T206 1909 baseball card, Eddie Gaedel's 1/8 St. Louis Browns jersey, Shoeless Joe Jackson's shoes, Lou Gehrig on the cover of a program from the American baseball tour of Japan in 1931, "Babe Ruth Underwear," and the patent and model for F.W. Thayer's 1878 catcher's mask. Then there is the poster of the elephants playing baseball for the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Then there is the juxtaposition of words and images: Joe Raposos's lyrics to the Frank Sinatra song "There Used to Be a Ballpark" with a photograph of the demolition of the Polo Grounds. There is an excerpt from Bernard Malamud's "The Natural" with the cowbell Hilda Chester used at Ebbets Field and a photograph of Andre Dawson's final visit to Wrigley Field. A photo of Satchel Paige of the Kansas City Monarchs warming up at Yankee Stadium and Ted Williams' 1966 induction speech at the Hall of Fame where he surprised the crowd with his call to honor the stars of the Negro Leagues. A letter from Fiorello LaGuardia in 1945 about a committee formed to end segregation in baseball opposite a pair of photographs showing black kids and white kids clutching Walter Johnson board games and waiting to meet their favorite baseball star.

The back of the book includes a list of the selections from the collection broken down into baseballs (handmade ball made by Babe Ruth at school), baseball cards (1952 Topps Mickey Mantle), bats (George Brett's "pine tar" bat), books, booklets, and periodicals (comic book "Roy Campanella Baseball Hero"), broadsides, handbills, and posters (handbill urging integration of the New York Yankees), caps (Hideo Nomos no-hitter cap), cartoons ("Base Ball as Viewed by a Muffin" from 1867), communications equipment (Red Barber's first microphone), decorative art (theater lobby card for "The Jackie Robinson Story"), fan art and fine art ("Tom Seaver" by Andy Warhol), games and toys ("darktown battery" cast iron mechanical bank from 1888), gloves and mitts (Yogi Berra's mitt from Don Larsen's perfect World Series game), jerseys and uniforms (1976 Chicago White Sox Bermuda shorts), jewelry (charm bracelet made from championship jewelry given by Lou Gehrig to his wife), letters and documents (All-Star ballot filled out by Casel Stengel), medical-related items (ethyl chloride numbing spray), merchandise (Reggie Bar wrapper), miscellaneous equipment (prototype JUGS Speed Gun), programs and scorecards (program for first Colored World Series), sheet music and records (1908 Edison Wax cylinder record of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and magic lantern slide), shoes (worn by Ty Cobb), souvenirs (1961 button, "I'm for Maris--60 in '61), stadium equipment/artifacts (turnstile from the Polo Grounds), tickets and season passes (ticket to Lou Gehrig Day), and trophies and awards (Cy Young Award given to Sandy Koufax).

So you can get a very good idea of what you missed out from the traveling exhibit. Of course this is a fraction of what was on the tour and while less than half of what is included on these six pages makes its way into "Baseball as America" just looking over the list can be fun. The tour, of course, is long over, but if you have never been to Cooperstown, or if it has been a while since you have been to the Baseball Hall of Fame, then be forewarned because this book will make you want to go and visit all of the baseball treasures on display.

This book is an excellent companion piece to the Baseball as American travelling exhibit (www.....org). The pictures included (like any National Geographic piece) are first rate. The included stories are from a diverse group, from sportswriters to former players. However, that's where the book takes a bad turn. The articles are inconsistent in style and quality, and for anyone who enjoys baseball, it's painful to read. This book is required for anyone who loves the game, but I wouldn't recommend it to casual fans.

From the eye catching cover to the inspired essays and beautiful photographs inside, this book is a delight. All that was missing was the hot dog and beer. A great gift for fellow baseball fanatics! Go White Sox!

Book is very nicely presented with many great illustrations, pictures, and excerpts from notable authors. Great book for the casual or diehard baseball fan. This book covers the terrific exhibit now showing at New York City's Museum of American History. Check it out. It's very worthwhile.

This may be your only chance to see present baseball history. There are great photographs of McGwire's home run balls 63, 67, 68 and 70 as well as Sosa's 61, 64 and 66. Along with the photographs there are the stories behind each one.

This is a great way to commemorate the fantastic 1998 Baseball season. It also makes a great coffee table book.

I have been collecting Guernsey's catalogues for years and this one tops them all! Informativive, factual, and quite imaginitive, too. Guaranteed to become a collector's item!

WOW, WHAT A SUBJECT MATTER JUST AFTER THE BEST SEASON IN BASEBALL, NOW THIS THE SPORTS AUCTION OF THE CENTURY,NYC, MSG, PSA/DNA,MILES STANDISH, MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEMS OF 1998 IN SPORTS, WHO CARES ABOUT THE NBA STRIKE.

This was a great way to commemorate the end of a fantastic Baseball season. It contains some great stories of Bobby Thompson, Babe Ruth and Roger Maris as well as the stories behind McGwire's 63, 67,68 and 70 homerun balls and Sosa's 61, 64 and 66 homerun balls.

The catalog also makes a great coffee table book.

This book gave me ideas that I never thought of... Well written and spaced out. A great tool!

This is a great all in one coaches guide. It teaches you how to TEACH the game of baseball...drills, guidelines, how to set up practices, and even goes into pitching more than the common all in one books do. lots of diagrams to support the text...very highly rated.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in becoming a great coach. The book arrived in great condition and in the time frame advertised.

The book was purchased to assist with the management and development of little league ballplayers. This publication is geared for an older audience. However, the information and instructional tips are pure baseball and, as such, can assist anyone with better understanding how to approach teaching the game of baseball. It is an easy read, yet comprehensive. I would recommend adding it to your baseball instruction library.

This is the perfect book for a baseball fan (or a historian with an interest in baseball) to have if he's stranded on a deserted island.

I've looked at all the headlines in this book and skimmed some of the stories, but I still haven't read an appreciable portion of the book as a whole.

The detail is so great, and the print on the older newspapers is so small that one really would have to have the luxury of time to read the whole thing.

Essentially, the book is a collection of baseball-theme newspaper headlines from 1857 to 1999. One can appreciate just how far back in time this book takes him when he sees a 1918 Boston Post headline that reads, *Red Sox Are Again World's Champions.*

The RED SOX? Baseball's world champions? AGAIN??????

Now THAT'S ancient history.

But this just isn't a baseball book, and those who can tolerate the baseball but whose historical interests lie elsewhere will take interest in the other slices of Americana that often lie side-by-side with the baseball stories.

The Red Sox story above is actually overshadowed by a headline about 13,000,000 additional draft registrants being called up, even as victory over the Kaiser is within reach.

Right next to the Milwaukee Daily News headline from October 14, 1908 declaring *Cubs Again Champions of the World* (another example of ancient history) is a political cartoon lampooning President Teddy Roosevelt.

The 1921 acquittal of the Chicago *Black Sox* players of conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series accompanies another story about the death of singer Enrico Caruso.

A 1948 headline in the Washington Afro American announcing forty-something Satchel Paige's belated call-up to the major leagues also includes an editorial criticizing Harry Truman's civil rights policies and announcing the assassination of a Haitian editor of a pro-government newspaper.

*Going away?* the ad in the lower left-hand corner asks. *Be sure that the Afro goes with you.*

Ads for tobacco (*Rabbitt Maranville says, *Blackstone is the best smoke on the big league circuit*), chewing gum (*it's good and it's good for you,* the Wrigley's Spearmint Gum ad advises), and health-enhancing elixirs also predominate.

A 1951 story in the Kansas City Star about the boyish Mickey Mantle's standing as heir apparent to the great DiMaggio also proudly announces Satin School Jackets (regularly selling for $7.95) on sale for $4.98. 1951 model Dodges are available at Midwest Motors for only $1666.17.

Moon Mullins and other retro comic strip characters also dot these pages. *Whadd'ya mean he's beginning to get to you?* an irate boxing manager demands of his fighter in the middle of an empty arena. *He's been and gone!* Now THAT'S another animated boxing manager who also isn't going to be saying *we* anytime soon.

There's even a measure of eeriness about some of these headlines. Everyone knows that Joe DiMaggio's famous 56 game hitting strike took place in the pre-war environment that was the 1941 baseball season, so it's startling to see a number of San Francisco Chronicle headlines tracking his hitting streak - that are dated in 1933.

The answer, of course, is that years before DiMaggio electrified the nation with his 56-game streak, he was raising eyebrows on the West Coast with a 61-game streak for the Pacific Coast League's San Francisco Seals. Incredibly, the Chronicle repeatedly gets his name wrong, spelling it as *De Maggio*. The man was born on Fisherman's Wharf, after all. He was a San Francisco native son.

And in another Twilight Zonish moment from 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle proclaims that *Hank Gherrig* (whose bases-loaded homerun won the game for his local high-school) is the Babe Ruth of high school baseball.

The subject, of course, is Lou Gehrig who would set the all-time record for grand slam homeruns (it still stands today) and who would later join Babe Ruth in the Yankees lineup to make up what might still be the greatest homerun-hitting tandem of all time.

Yes, if you've got this collection with you, you have tremendous incentive to find a desert island to be stranded on.

Of course, the stories from the more recent years can be passed over. And retro-baseball also contains some sobering food for thought: 50 years from now; 80-100 years from now; will baseball fans from the future pour over headlines about Darryl Strawberry, Frank Thomas, Alex Rodriguez, Garry Sheffield, and Will Clark - and modernist madness outside the world of baseball - with the same misty glow?

I just received this book for an early birthday present and have not been able to put it down! I have always been a fan of the way's baseball used to be,so I really got into this book.It almost felt like I was in the game! I would recomend this book to any one who loves baseball,or even a young boy just starting out. It really shows true appreciation of the sport.

This book is awesome... First of all, it's huge - about 18" x 12" and 400+ pages. Each page is copy of a newspaper, going back to 1857, with stories about significant events in baseball's history. Reading the non-baseball stories and advertisements is almost as good as the baseball stuff. I highly recommend this book!

I've bought this book, and I thinks it not so bad. If you're into baseball from 1860 to 1950 this one is for you, but the stories from the 60s to the 90s is not so well covered. It is many pages I would like to have, for example more on expansion teams, player's strike, my favourite team the St. Louis Browns and of course stories about unassisted triple plays. In the 80's section the most stories are about world series winners (but not all, both Pete Rose and the Pine-Tar case is there). I would recommend it for every old baseball fan, and of course fans who like to trace the history. Bam's last game is covered, so is The Ironman, and BoSox first win in the WS are also well covered. Ed Gaedel is also one story that I liked. But the author could have add more pages from the modern times of baseball. If you buy this book, be sure to have a magnifying glass, many of the articles are written in very small types

I have been getting the Forecaster for about 7 years. It has all the information you need to make good, informed picks during your fantasy draft. Ron's player comments are usually right on the money, and very entertaining. If you don't have the Forecaster and other members of your league do, you're starting from a serious disadvantage.

Ron Shandler's book is nothing short of exceptional - and it's indispensible for fantasy league players. His use of sabermetric tools is very sophisticated but also easily understandable. (Not many other guides discuss important concepts like Batting Eye, Base Performance Value and Speed Index.) Shandler's book is so solid and thorough you'll find yourself hoping that no one else in your league also owns a copy!

This is the first(definitely not the last) time I have ever bought this book. I have used it now after about 2 months into the year so much the ends are curling up from frequent use. I bought four other guide books for prep in our fantasy league. I NEVER USE ANY OF THE OTHER GUIDES ANYMORE!

Save yourself a lot of time and buy the only fantasy guide you need to buy. This book is not a rehash of the "same old junk" as all the others seem to be. It breaks down the reasons to grab people nobody knows about and goes "inside the numbers."

This is my new best friend that nobody will know about but me. I just hope the cover lasts all year!!

If you play fantasy baseball, Shandler's book has the best player analysis of any book on the market -- I've read a lot of them.

Shandler uses sabermetic principles to look at all players who played in the majors last season. The book is orgainzed by player alphabetically, dividing hitter and pitchers. There are some general articles on fantasy strategy in there too that are quite useful whether you're new to the game or an old vet.

If I was going to buy only one book on baseball, I'm not sure it would be this one -- the Baseball Prospectus has a greater range of players (includes more minor leaguers) and the team comments are very interesting. If I was was going to buy one fantasy baseball book... it would probably be this one.

In any case, it's worth picking up.

During much of the World War II era the best teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) could be found in St. Louis, the Cardinals of the National League and the unlikely Browns who dominated in 1944 and came close to doing so in 1945. The Cardinals, a team built through the extensive farm system engineered by Branch Rickey, dominated the National League and won three World Series--1942, 1944, and 1946--and won the pennant but not the overall championship in 1943. It was a dynasty every bit as dominating as that of the New York Yankees during that time.

The Cards won a franchise record 106 games in 1942, and bested the Yankees in the World Series. The next year they won 105 games, but lost to the Yankees in the fall classic. In 1944 the Cards also won 105 games and defeated the cross-town Browns in the World Series, the only "streetcar series" in St. Louis history. In 1946, just as the troops were mustering out of the military after the war, the Cardinals had to beat the emerging dynasty of the Brooklyn Dodgers in a three game playoff to claim the National League Pennant, but then they went on to defeat the Boston Red Sox in a dramatic seven game World Series.

Wiliam B. Mead's "Baseball Goes to War" is an outstanding journalistic account of this era in MLB. It is built around the story of the Cardinals and Browns in St. Louis, but goes beyond that to take in and comment on the milieu of the 1940s. This is the third edition of this wonderful book. It was originally published in 1978 as "Even the Browns," emphasizing the fact that although the Cardinals were one of the most successful franchises of the National League the Browns were one of the American League's weakest.

Indeed the joke, "first in booze, first in shoes, and last in the American League," characterized the plight of the Browns better than perhaps any other statement about them. A revision in 1982, "The Ten Worst Years of Baseball," followed with Mead emphasizing the loss of MLB talent to the military during the war years. Mead notes that the Browns, while becoming respectable in the early 1940s after years of mediocrity, did not so much rise to take the American League pennant in 1944 as the rest of the league declined from the loss of talent to the war effort. In reality, the Browns rebuilt into a decent team during this period, posting winning seasons in the war years 1942-1945. They finished a distant third in the American League in 1942, but finally won the big one in 1944, capturing their only St. Louis pennant. As the "streetcar series" ended in 1944, however, it took with it the last opportunity for the Browns to produce a winner in St. Louis. After a good season in 1945, they slid back into their normal place at the bottom of the league until their departure from St. Louis for Baltimore in 1953, where they became the Orioles.

This is a wonderful, pleasurable history of baseball during the war years, focusing on the Browns and Cardinals, but going much beyond. Enjoy!

This book was originally published as "Even the Browns" and it is both a lovingly detailed valentine and a eulogy to baseball's worst franchise, the St. Louis Browns.

Author William B. Mead, who spent his boyhood watching these mediocrities play their home games from the cheap seats at Sportsman's Park, has compiled a remarkable history of a last place team that seemed cursed to play its games before a few hundred disinterested fans year in and year out. Mead chronicles how the Browns seemed poised to achieve great success before the rival Cardinals stole the hearts and minds of St. Louis baseball fans during the Twenties.

The management of the slumping Browns even rented their ballpark to the Cardinals and ended up subsidizing the successful National League club by agreeing to divide the cost of janitorial service at Sportsman's Park equally. The Browns played before empty seats while the Cardinals had capacity crowds filling the concourses with discarded paper cups, hot dog wrappers, peanut shells and litter.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had several unintended consequences: the Browns were denied a lucrative opportunity to relocate from St. Louis to Los Angeles and military conscription meant that all of the teams lost key players to the armed forces. Suddenly, the collection of untested rookies, minor league journeymen, grizzled veterans and pathetic alcoholics on the Browns roster seemed to be competitive! Could this motley crew cope with success long enough to win?

This book is an entertaining and enjoyable read. Nostalgia at its best. Welcome back to the era of rationing cards and railroad travel when baseball's sixteen major league teams were based in eleven cities and St. Louis was the far Western frontier of the big leagues.

THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLENT LOOK AT THE WWII ERA. ALOT OF GREAT INTERVIEWS AND STORY TELLING DESCRIBE THIS HISTORIC ERA IN GREAT DETAIL. IT LIKE BEING THERE. MR. MEAD DOES A FINE JOB AND THIS IS TRULY AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR HISTORIANS AND FANS OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SPORT. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

William Mead's wonderful book about a baseball in the 1940's has appeared under several titles (EVEN THE BROWNS, BASEBALL'S WORST DECADE). In each guise it is a sprightly written and judicious account of the personalities (Judge Landis, Pete Gray) and events of baseball in a time of national crisis.