TBE Baseball Books: A-Z Listing (by Title)

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By Jason Turbow (w/ Michael Duca). In The Baseball Codes , old-timers and all-time greats share their insights into the game’s most hallowed—and least known—traditions. For the learned and the casual baseball fan alike, the result is illuminating and thoroughly entertaining.

With rollicking stories from the past and new perspectives on baseball’s informal rulebook, The Baseball Codes is a must for every fan.

-Goodreads

By John Grisham. A surprising and moving novel of fathers and sons, forgiveness and redemption, set in the world of Major League Baseball.

-Goodreads

By Tom Verducci. With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions.

-Goodreads

By Jon Pessah. In the fall of 1992, America's National Pastime is in crisis and already on the path to the unthinkable: cancelling a World Series for the first time in history. The owners are at war with each other, their decades-long battle with the players has turned America against both sides, and the players' growing addiction to steroids will threaten the game's very foundation. Drawing from hundreds of extensive, exclusive interviews throughout baseball, The Game is a stunning a rigorously reported book and the must-read, fly-on-the-wall, definitive account of how an enormous struggle for power turns disaster into baseball's Golden Age.

-Goodreads

By Mark Fainaru-Wada & Lance Williams. Chronicles the 2004 federal investigation that led to the exposure of performance-enhancing drug use by some of the nation's most famous baseball athletes, documenting how self-proclaimed nutritionist Victor Conte penetrated top levels of professional sports by exploiting corrupt practices. 

-Goodreads

By Terry Pluto & Tom Hamilton. Relive the most thrilling seasons of Cleveland Indians baseball in recent memory! Remember the excitement of those first years at Jacobs Field?[...]Those weren’t baseball seasons, they were year-long celebrations. Step back into the glory days with sportswriter Terry Pluto and broadcaster Tom Hamilton as they share behind-the-scenes stories about a team with all-stars at nearly every position … a sparkling new ballpark … wild comeback victories … a record sellout streak … two trips to the World Series … and a city crazed with Indians fever!

-Goodreads

Baseball writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti. 

Eds. Kenneth S. Robson & David Halberstam. 

Bart Giamatti was baseball's Renaissance man and its commissioner. In a collection of spirited, incisive essays, Giamatti reflects on the meaning of the game. Baseball, for him, was a metaphor for life. He artfully argues that baseball is much more than an American "pastime." "Baseball is about going home," he wrote, "and how hard it is to get there and how driven is our need."  A Great and Glorious Game  is a thoughtful meditation on baseball, character, and values by one of the most eloquent men in the world of sport.

-Goodreads

By Scott Simon. Heartbreak and hope. Charmed and haunted [...] Simon illustrates how the condition of “Cubness” has defined the life of so many Chicagoans and how the team’s fortunes became intertwined with the aspirations of its faithful. With the curse finally broken on November 2, 2016, My Cubs is the perfect portrayal of paradise lost and found.

-Goodreads

By Ted Williams & John Underwood. Ted Williams was arguably the greatest pure hitter who ever lived. A lifelong student of hitting, he sought advice from every great hitter—and pitcher—he met. Drawing on that advice, as well as his own legendary life in baseball, Williams produced the all-time batting classic, The Science of Hitting. Using its detailed illustrations, anecdotes, and concise coaching, players of all skill levels will learn how to improve their fundamentals and gain keen insights into the finer points of hitting.

-Goodreads

By Devin Gordon. The Mets lose when they should win. They win when they should lose. And when it comes to being the worst, no team in sports has ever done it better than the Mets. 

In this hilarious history of the Mets and love letter to the art of disaster, Devin Gordon presents baseball the way it really is, not in the wistful sepia tones we've come to expect from other sportswriters. Along the way, he explains the difference between being bad and being gifted at losing, and why this distinction holds the key to understanding the true amazin’ magic of the New York Mets.

-Goodreads

By Eric Nusbaum. A story about baseball, family, the American Dream, and the fight to turn Los Angeles into a big league city.

-Goodreads

By Zack Hample. [His] bestselling, smart, and funny fan’s guide to baseball explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will appeal to anyone—whether you're a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or a beginner. 

-Goodreads