eMusic Bookshelf
Baseball Books
The structure and rhythm found in nine innings of baseball are unique among sports. The dynamics of the game, from the one-on-one clashes between batters and pitchers to the economic relationships between owners and players, have inspired countless narratives. Journalists and essayists write gripping explorations of everything from statistics to scandals, and the athletes themselves contribute decade-spanning biographies and comic memoirs. Novelists have found in baseball a readymade source of tension, a sport full of towering individuals and flawed protagonists. Baseball’s status as a source of inspiration for so many shouldn’t come as a shock: there is, after all, a reason it’s the national pastime.
These six books cover over 90 years of the sport and explore everything from practical jokes in the dugout to clandestine steroid use, their dramas unfolding from the front office to the minor leagues. Yet common themes arise again and again: the complex relationship between players, the fans and the media; the awkward dance of salary negotiations; the very nature of how the game is played. The sport has a way of digesting its own internal conflicts, with its attuned prose stylists soon incorporating those frictions into their own work. Over time, athletes become iconic figures; later, those figures become raw material, either as points of comparison to a contemporary feat or as elements in a revisionist novel. And whether heroic or disgraced, its subjects are rarely less than compelling.
-
The Big Bam
- Written by
-
Leigh Montville
- Narrated By
-
Adam Grupper
Leigh Montville's The Big Bam doesn't impart an increased knowledge of its subject, George Herman Ruth, as much as analyze him as a phenomenon, a figure who altered how the game was played and how athletes interacted with the general public. Present are the requisite legendary feats — namely Ruth's prodigious home run totals — along with attempts to rectify the disparate accounts of those events. Montville acknowledges from the outset that elements of Ruth's life are undocumented or unknowable, either via lost memories or a vanished paper trail. While first and foremost the chronicle of a complex life, The Big Bam's more fascinating aspects come in the details Montville returns to: the changes in gameplay between the beginning and ending of Ruth's career and the ability of an athlete to make a living from their chosen sport. Adam Grupper's excited tone and booming voice suit the larger-than-life exploits of the book's subject.
-
You Know Me Al
- Written by
-
Ring Lardner
- Narrated By
-
Dennis McKee
Jack Keefe, the protagonist of You Know Me Al, is an up-and-coming pitcher in the years before World War I. Indomitable, stubborn, broke most of the time and unlucky in love, Keefe works his way to a spot in the Chicago White Sox rotation. Related via letters to his friend Al in their hometown, Jack's story is told in a wry, winking manner. Never quite able to predict his future with much accuracy, Keefe quarrels with the front office over his salary, looks into the up-and-coming Federal League, occasionally clashes with his teammates, but remains an endearing underdog. At times, you can see the punchlines coming, whether Jack’s staring down Ty Cobb or trying to understand his contract. Nevertheless, Lardner strikes the right balance between laughing with and laughing at. Dennis McKee’s dry narration doesn’t exaggerate Jack's mannerisms and leaves plenty of room for Lardner's story to grow.
-
The Natural
- Written by
-
Bernard Malamud
- Narrated By
-
Christopher Hurt
Bernard Malamud's The Natural borrows liberally from baseball’s archetypes, sometimes translating them literally onto the page and sometimes twisting them into something unrecognizable. Protagonist Roy Hobbs is wounded after striking out a Babe Ruth-like figure and spends over a decade recovering, beginning his time in the majors at the time many of his peers are ending theirs. If you know The Natural through Barry Levinson's film adaptation, you may be in for a shock: Malamud's novel can be a brutal read, in which unpleasant things happen to good people and a sense of corruption settles over the proceedings. At its heart, it's less about sports than the search for redemption — sometimes leading to athletic triumph, sometimes leading to personal disgrace. Christopher Hurt's approach to telling the story is suited for its grander elements, lending distinctive voices to the characters and accentuating Malamud's grittier details.
-
Bat Boy
- Written by
-
Matthew McGough
- Narrated By
-
Matthew McGough
Matthew McGough’s lifelong fascination with the New York Yankees began at an early age: his memoir opens with him as a child in the '80s, watching a controversial game with his father and observing players who would become some of the best in the league. A decade later, McGough was himself wearing pinstripes, going on fast food runs, sleeping in the clubhouse and balancing schoolwork with the surprisingly busy schedule of a bat boy. He has a knack for zeroing in on surreal images — one involves him driving a player’s SUV full of children's furniture on the beach during spring break — and is unafraid to point out his youthful indiscretions. McGough handles the narration himself, and both fond nostalgia and pained hindsight are abundant in both his cadence and his prose.
-
Moneyball
- Written by
-
Michael Lewis
- Narrated By
-
Michael Lewis
As its title suggests, Moneyball combines a study of baseball’s gameplay with the more business-oriented aspects of the sport. Michael Lewis has written extensively on both topics, and he gives equal weight to the book’s dramatic on-field moments as well as the intricate explorations of the economics of a mid-level baseball team. Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane is at the center of the book, and as Lewis explores Beane's transition from journeyman outfielder to strategic thinker, he lays the groundwork for an alternative, on-base percentage-based theory of baseball — one which shies away from prevailing notions of power hitters and home run counts. Moneyball delves into statistics-obsessed observers of the game, scouting reports and unexpected draft choices, and yet it never once feels digressive. Lewis narrates his own work like an expert holding forth in intimate conversation, uniformly laying out the key elements of his argument.
-
Game of Shadows
- Written by
-
Mark Fainaru-Wada,
-
Lance Williams
- Narrated By
-
Arnie Mazer
The BALCO scandal, in which a Bay Area company was found to be providing performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of professional athletes, brought national attention to the role of steroid use in sports. As baseball entered an era of power hitters who broke longstanding records, the scandal raised the question of whether these achievements were legitimate. Fainaru-Wada and Williams meticulously explore the scandal's roots in the life of BALCO founder Victor Conte, the factors leading many athletes to seek out his help and the federal investigation that ensued. By the end, with highly-paid athletes sitting before a grand jury, the effect is not unlike a detective story having reached its conclusion, with a brutal sting yet to come. Arnie Mazer's animated delivery suits both the journalistic tone of the book and the accompanying sense of outrage.
© 2008 Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.