Tell-all baseball books are boring these days. Players are not saints and we know it. It wasn’t always this way. A few short decades ago, the public viewed athletes as golden boys.
Want to know what helped shift the public perception? Read “Ball Four.” Former player Jim Bouton’s classic account of the New York Yankees and expansion Seattle Pilots will no longer surprise, but it will greatly entertain. The book is famous for breaking open the walls of the major league clubhouse. Bouton’s transformation from fireballer to knuckleballer fascinated me, and the quest of players to make and stay in the majors is compelling reading.
Read it for a window into a crude and hilarious clubhouse. Don’t read it if you like telling young’uns that the athletes of yesteryear were much better people than today’s crop. Spoiler: Mickey Mantle was not a boy scout. Fun Fact: Bouton invented Big League Chew.
As long as we are tearing down old Yankee idols, try “Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life” by Richard Ben Cramer. What you already know: DiMaggio was a fantastic player, one of the best ever. What you might learn: DiMaggio was a fantastic jerk to people of all ages, including children.
Another good baseball read is “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis about the (then) new numbers-based philosophy toward scouting championed by Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s. Can Ivy League guys better evaluate players than classic “baseball men”? Um, yes. With “Moneyball” showing that intelligence is another route into professional sports, pickup mathletics are on the rise at public parks everywhere. If you like “Moneyball,” Lewis also wrote “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.” Read it now and follow the NFL career of rookie Michael Oher. The book chronicles his remarkable life and high school football career while dissecting the workings of the offensive line in football.
— GREG