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Reading is for nerds. Luckily, so is baseball. This means that there are a lot of books about baseball to read. This thread exists to:
I'd like to have the book selected by Friday, and be fake democratic so I'm open to suggestions. I'll make a poll once we have 10? Or less than that, depending on how it goes. This is the first try, afterall! My suggestions (things I own and want to read): Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball http://www.amazon.com/Wally-Yonamine-Changed-Japanese-Baseball/dp/0803213816 Jackie and Campy: The Untold Story of Their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball's Color Line - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFSV08A/ The Lords of the Realm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345465245 -- EDITED TO ADD Cool Kids Vote Machine: http://teamnerdrage.com/2014/11/03/sas-book-club-novemberdecember-2014-book-voting/ Password is "goonygoon". e: Voting is set to end Friday 11/7 at 11:45PM ET so if you want to think it over you have time leokitty fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Nov 4, 2014 |
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Nov 3, 2014 21:27
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 22:21 |
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Lords of the Realm might be a good one to start with. I assume most of the people who would be interested in such a thing have already read Glory of Their Times, but maybe make it an option anyway? Beyond that - I guess three suggestions to throw in: Veeck as in Wreck, if people want to read a fun autobiography by a seminal baseball figure. Up, Up and Away, if people want to read about the Expos and line Jonah Keri's pockets. Baseball in the Garden of Eden, because John Thorn is cool and good and the book reveals a hell of a lot about early baseball that most people had no clue about.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:44
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I am into this idea, I've really only read Baseball as a Road to God and Fair Ball, which I think 90% of other SAS baseball folks have already gotten to.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:49
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"You Gotta Have Wa" and "The Samurai Way of Baseball" by Robert Whiting are both good overviews of Japanese baseball, if a bit dated at this point.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:49
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Tater Love 
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The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. I loved this dang book. Dollar Sign On The Muscle Great book about scouting
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Nov 3, 2014 21:56
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The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball http://www.amazon.com/Wally-Yonamine-Changed-Japanese-Baseball/dp/0803213816 The Lords of the Realm - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345465245 These are three books I'd really like to read in this order. Thanks for coming up with this idea.
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Nov 3, 2014 22:39
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Are we limiting this book club to non-fiction? Because I have been looking for an excuse to read The Art of Fielding. I mean, there are obviously other fiction baseball books too like The Natural or The Universal Baseball Association Inc. or whatever the hell it is called. Edit: Wow, I was slow to the fiction. I like fiction, I would like to do at least some fiction book if we do this all off-season.
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Nov 3, 2014 22:39
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I ain't got an opinion but I'll be glad to play along with whatever the hive mind comes up with.
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Nov 4, 2014 00:00
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I picked up A Well-Paid Slave (Curt Flood fighting for free agency) a while ago, but I haven't read it, didn't see any mentions of it in previous book threads either.
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Nov 4, 2014 00:30
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I ain't got an opinion but I'll be glad to play along with whatever the hive mind comes up with. Yep, same for me. I just want an excuse to post some SMG style analysis of some baseball literature.
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Nov 4, 2014 01:22
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I've had my eye on this book for a while: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8192391-changing-the-game
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Nov 4, 2014 01:26
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I'll second Wally Yonamine and throw in a book I know nothing about but am interested in: Raceball, about the history of minorities in baseball and their future.
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Nov 4, 2014 01:35
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I'm going to put everything into a SurveyMonkey thing we can put a password on and vote on. I'll post a link once Tavarin weighs in because I know he is a baseball book nerd like me and the Olives.
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Nov 4, 2014 01:42
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I keep trying to find excuses to read Lords of the Realm again so that's probably my A choice, but the Yonamine book is pretty high on my reading list too.
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Nov 4, 2014 02:00
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DannoMack posted:I've had my eye on this book for a while: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8192391-changing-the-game This is what we should read.
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Nov 4, 2014 02:04
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I'm pretty sure I've read everything but Jackie and Campy (And Changing the Game), but everything listed is definitely worth reading. The Wally Yonamine book is a good option, since it's a story not many people know. The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is also a ton of fun. Veeck as in Wreck is something everyone should read at some point, as Bill Veeck is awesome, while Jonah Keri did a really good job with Up Up and Away. One book not mentioned that I really like is If I Never Get Back, which is a fun fiction novel. And it might not be book club worthy, but Flip Flop Fly Ball is awesome. But clearly this book club is just waiting for the 3rd book of Norman Macht's giant Connie Mack biography so we can read all of it at once. 
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Nov 4, 2014 02:11
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DannoMack posted:I've had my eye on this book for a while: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8192391-changing-the-game I'm not sure playing baseball in no shirt and jeans is the best idea there  I'm glad this thread came around when it did, hopefully it will encourage me to do more nighttime reading instead of playing Civilization until 3 in the morning.
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Nov 4, 2014 02:27
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DannoMack posted:I've had my eye on this book for a while: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8192391-changing-the-game same
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Nov 4, 2014 02:30
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Not sure if I'll actually do this yet as im The Worst at doing things on time, but if I do You Gotta Have Wa and The Universal Baseball Assosiation (both of which have already been mentioned but shut up) have both been at the top of my to-do list for a while.
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Nov 4, 2014 02:32
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Cool Kids Vote Machine: http://teamnerdrage.com/2014/11/03/sas-book-club-novemberdecember-2014-book-voting/ Password is "goonygoon". e: Voting is set to end Friday at 11:45PM ET so if you want to think it over you have time 
leokitty fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Nov 4, 2014 |
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Nov 4, 2014 02:45
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One book that I feel gets overlooked far too much is A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone by Roger Angell. It has some stylistic flourishes that aggravate the hell out of me (mostly Angell's insistence of using an article when naming a position player -- so instead of "the ball went to second baseman Chuck Knoblauch," he writes "the ball went to the second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch"), but it's such a well-written book and really illustrates life as a pitcher who was very good, occasionally great, and was always so frustrated by failure.
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Nov 4, 2014 03:01
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I picked up The Numbers Game Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics awhile back but just haven't given it time yet. A history of statistics and how they evolved over the life of the game.
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Nov 4, 2014 04:34
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I'll join in reading whatever gets selected, but this also seems a good place to ask a request. I want to learn more about the early baseball leagues in the late 1800s. I'm planning to read "When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom 1865-1870" as well as "The National Association of Base Ball Players: 1857-1870". But if anyone has recommendations for books about the early professionalization of baseball I'd appreciate it.
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Nov 4, 2014 14:13
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Capt. Sticl posted:I'll join in reading whatever gets selected, but this also seems a good place to ask a request. Not really about baseball turning professional, but if you're just looking for pre-1900 things, both "Fifty-Nine in '84" and "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey" http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-nine-84-Radbourn-Barehanded-Baseball/dp/B006TQV350 and http://www.amazon.com/The-Summer-Beer-Whiskey-Immigrants/dp/1610393775 by Edward Achorn are quite enjoyable.
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Nov 4, 2014 15:05
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SABR has an ebook that's a pretty large compendium of 19th century players. There are lots of all sorts of fun facts, like Robert Addy trying to start an ice skating baseball league. http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-digital-library-nineteenth-century-stars
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Nov 4, 2014 15:31
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Tony Phillips posted:Not really about baseball turning professional, but if you're just looking for pre-1900 things, both "Fifty-Nine in '84" and "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey" Just ordered this. Love me some old timey baseball. Rand alPaul fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Nov 4, 2014 |
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Nov 4, 2014 20:49
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Jerkface posted:The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. somehow, I'd never heard about this book before in any capacity whatsoever so I read a brief synopsis and overnighted it immediately. sweet christ it's amazing
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Nov 5, 2014 13:43
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As much as I want to read Universal Baseball Association, I feel it's only appropriate to read it alone so I voted for Wally Yonamine.
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Nov 5, 2014 14:43
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Here's where we stand so far:
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Nov 5, 2014 20:39
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leokitty posted:Here's where we stand so far: Lords of the Realm is 640 pages? Did other people know this before voting?
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Nov 5, 2014 22:01
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tadashi posted:Lords of the Realm is 640 pages? Did other people know this before voting?
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Nov 5, 2014 22:09
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I didn't realize it was quite that long but if we have through December to read it that should be enough time I would think.
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Nov 5, 2014 23:10
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It's also an anthology-type thing so you're not going to get buried in minutiae.
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Nov 6, 2014 04:46
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I have a 45 minute commute on the train each way and am a reading machine so I'm up for anything in a month or so except the Connie Mack bios (they are cool but really dense). 
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Nov 6, 2014 05:05
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leokitty posted:I have a 45 minute commute on the train each way and am a reading machine so I'm up for anything in a month or so except the Connie Mack bios (they are cool but really dense). Cool. Somebody else said it's an easy read. I was more worried about losing a lot of people who can't keep up. 
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Nov 6, 2014 14:50
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Bob Shabazz posted:It's also an anthology-type thing so you're not going to get buried in minutiae. I just semi-recently finished Baseball Before We Knew It. http://www.amazon.com/Baseball-before-We-Knew-It/dp/0803262558 What you might call the book portion of it is all of 162 pages. Then a 60 page bibliography that is really interesting, but possibly the slowest reading thing I've ever managed to finish. Then 64 pages of appendixes of varying degrees of interesting. Wrapping up with 36 pages of notes that I just skipped cause Christ I couldn't do it. Still - I'd recommend that book in a heartbeat.
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Nov 6, 2014 15:17
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Voting closes tonight, thread will be updated with final results tomorrow.
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Nov 7, 2014 18:41
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Tony Phillips posted:I just semi-recently finished Baseball Before We Knew It. Yeah, I read this one too. It's really good.
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Nov 8, 2014 03:38
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The Lords of the Realm is our winner.
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Nov 8, 2014 19:28
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 22:21 |
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That was my second choice, so that's good. I am also glad the thread got extended until December, because I will be ordering the book used, and it will take a week or two to arrive.
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Nov 8, 2014 19:45
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