9 Innings by Daniel Okrent
by simbaa on Jan 4, 2009 11:43 AM CST
18 comments
So over the Holidays, I found at a used-book store the book "9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game" by Daniel Okrent. I finished up the book this morning and wanted to recommend it and throw out there a thread on favorite baseball books.
First of all, here is a link to the book from Amazon:
I was not sure what i was getting when I picked the book up but it was well worth the read. It details out a rather random game in June 1982 between the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles. 9 Chapters and each Chapter has a portion on the top half and bottom half of the resepctive inning and then in-between background information on either various players or just history of the game.
It is a very interesting read and for som will bring back either memories or in my case was a few years before I really got into baseball but the names and some situations really resonate.
Of course, at the time Bud Selig is the owner of the Brewers and it talks in great detail about this ownership, hands-on approach, his willingness to either pay more or not pay more for certain players.
Anyway, for anyone that is looking for a good read, I highly recommend this book.
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great book.
"Never go with a hippie to a second location."
by jcAustin on Jan 4, 2009 2:08 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Ball Four
is at the top of my list, by Jim Bouton. I would say that this book is not only a good baseball book, but should be included among the finest non-fiction books. I can’t make any comment on the Ball Five amendment because I never read the updated version. If I had to mention one other, then it would be Bill James’ 1982 Baseball Abstract.
"Evolution happened, now get over it." Michael Shermer
by rodcarew on Jan 4, 2009 2:41 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Here are some of my favorites
(I have tons more in my collection)
Eight men Out – Eliot Asinof
Baseballs Golden Age – Gene Fehler
Bury My Heart at Cooperstown – Russo Racz
Fields of Dreams – Jay Ahuja
Baseballs Hometown Teams “the story of the minor leagues” – Bruce Chadwick
Texas Rangers – Eric Nadel
Shades of Glory – Lawrence D. Hogan
The Catcher was a Spy – Nicholas Dawidoff
Only the ball was White – Robert Peterson
Baseball as America – National Geographic
The Last Best League – Jim Collins
Miami bound...
by boomer1 on Jan 4, 2009 3:25 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
That list has a very big hole in it...
your collection needs “Seasons In Hell” by Shropshire to round it out and make it a great collection. Plus Ball Four should also be there…
What's the rumpus?
by Hypo-Luxa on Jan 4, 2009 5:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I have Ball Four
Just forgot to list it. You are right I need to get Seasons in Hell though.
Miami bound...
by boomer1 on Jan 4, 2009 5:40 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I haven't ready many good baseball books
that aren’t about statistics and such, but the Boy of Summer by Roger Kahn is one I read and loved.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw
by Gdawg on Jan 4, 2009 3:52 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter
A classic I read before each season.
by jparks77 on Jan 4, 2009 4:26 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
I got that book for Christmas but haven't had a chance to read it yet.
Your 2010 Texas Rangers starting shortstop....(see pic)
by Kinslerhomer on Jan 4, 2009 5:09 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Also highly recommend Roger Angel
The ones of his i’ve read are ‘The Summer Game’ and ‘Late Innings.’ Both great.
"Never go with a hippie to a second location."
by jcAustin on Jan 4, 2009 6:00 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
A couple more.
Iowa Baseball Confederacy — WP Kinsella
Hard Ball: A season in the projects — Daniel Coyle — The Disney movie is an insult to this book.
Go Rangers!
by rooster on Jan 4, 2009 10:34 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Ball Four is a very good book
but was helped immensely because it was one of the first looks behind the curtain of MLB.
My faves…
Moneyball
The Bronx Zoo
The Wrong Stuff (Bill Lee’s story – only book I can remember finishing and then starting over again)
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
Summer of ’49
October 1964
The Boys of Summer
Koufax
A False Spring
The Forever Boys
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
by Josey Wales on Jan 5, 2009 10:15 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
books i liked/suggest
“veeck – as in wreck” → bill veeck
“the teammates” → david halberstam
“the ol ball game” → collection of short (true) stories about the game
“black diamond” — patrica and fred mckissack
current 3 favs (dont ask me in 5 min, will probably have changed lol)
veeck as in wreck
black diamond
the teammates
Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.
by knockoutking on Jan 5, 2009 12:21 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
some of my favorites
The Glory of their Times is awesome, ecspecially the Audio, to listen to the actual interviews of men who played the game in the 1890s to 1930s is Indescribable. If you can find the CDs or Cassettes I highly recommend them.
others are:
any of the Halberstam Baseball Books
The Boys of Summer – Roger Kahn
The Echoing Green – Joshua Prager
The Luckiest Man – Jonathan Eig
1939 Baseball’s Pivotal Year – Talmadge Boston
"It gets late early out there." - Yogi Berra
by JakeStrait on Jan 5, 2009 5:32 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
You Gotta Have Wa, about the history of baseball in Japan.
Great read.
by biff pocoroba on Jan 5, 2009 5:39 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
great thread, new poster
Howdy guys, long time lurker, first time poster.
Moneyball is probably my favorite baseball book, though it seems like 75% of the people who talk about it don’t even understand its premise. It’s not a book lauding the value of building a baseball team by focusing on OBP, it’s a book about exploiting market inefficiencies to build a baseball team under limited resources, using OBP because at the time the market undervalued that asset. Moreover, it’s a great business/entrepreneurship book about thinking outside the box to outdo your wealthier competitors.
Another book I enjoyed immensely is “Fantasyland: A Season On Baseball’s Lunatic Fringe”. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s the story of Wall Street Journal writer Sam Walker joining the AL-only Tout Wars fantasy league, taking a year off work and hiring two assistants to do it. It’s fascinating, hilarious, and disturbing at various points, and it will make the average devoted fantasy player like myself realize that he’s not so “addicted” after all.
by WestTxAg06 on Jan 6, 2009 12:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Great take on Moneyball, WestTxAg
It was not a biography on Billy Beane as many people tend to believe and it did make you think about the value of exploiting market inefficiencies beyond a baseball diamond.
Welcome aboard.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
by Josey Wales on Jan 6, 2009 12:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
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