So I want to build up my historical baseball library

[jimm]

Suggestions, where to start, must haves, etc. Starting from scratch pretty much, thanks.

[mwiggins]

Just to name four...the first two are essentials and great ones to start with, while the 2nd two are favorites I'd consider "must haves".

New Historical Baseball Abstract - Bill James (solid all-around reference, interesting essays, and a little bit of stats)

Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter (interviews and profiles on early 1900's ballplayers)

The Summer Game - Roger Angell (anthology of baseball articles/essays written during the 1960's)

October 1964 - David Halberstam (look at baseball in transition through the prisim of the 1964 World Series)

[ol' aches and pains]

Suggestions, where to start, must haves, etc. Starting from scratch pretty much, thanks.

"The Glory of Their Times", by Lawrence Ritter. Ritter spent about 5 years in the 1960's traveling the country tracking down and interviewing old retired players from the turn of the century. The result is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read, baseball or otherwise. The original interviews are also available on CD, if that's your preference. In both cases, the questions are edited out, so you just read/hear the player telling his story of what it was like playing in the Majors 100 years ago.

"Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy" by Jules Tygiel. More than a biography of Robinson, this is a well-researched and well-written history of the breaking of baseball's color barrier in the 1940's.

"Babe", Robert Creamer's excellent biography of Babe Ruth.

"The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn. Doesn't get much love here at BBF, but if you're starting from scratch, I think it's worth reading, and making up your own mind.

I think these are all essential choices, I'll let other posters make their own suggestions, or tell me I'm full of crap, probably.

[Eastvanmungo]

Another vote for Bill James's Historical Abstract and Ritter's Glory of Their Times. Both are "must haves".

I'll add...

We Played the Game: Memories of Baseball's Greatest Era - Dan Peary

Spaceman - Bill Lee

Summer of '49 - David Halberstam

Eight Men Out - Eliot Asinof

Ball Four - Jim Bouton

[BSmile]

"The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn. Doesn't get much love here at BBF, but if you're starting from scratch, I think it's worth reading, and making up your own mind.

I love that book!
What reasons are people giving for not liking it??
Anyways, I'll add:

"Baseball In The Afternoon" by Robert Smith
"I Managed Good, But Boy Did They Play Bad" by Jim Bouton
"Lost Summer: The '67 Red Sox and the Impossible Dream" by Bill Reynolds
"The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told" by asst. authors (collection)

[jimm]

Thanks guys keep 'em coming!

[Captain Cold Nose]

Baseball Wit and Wisdom-Frank Graham. An anthology of various tidbits and humorous anecdotes.

The Way it Is-Curt Flood-what he went through while trying to nullify his trade from St. Louis to Philadelphia, and his career up to that point.