Big Book Bonanza

Derek Zumsteg

Baseball has better books than any other sport. Say what you will about the state of the game, but you can always from some damn fine reading. Here's what's hit the stores lately (the prices listed are current at press time, and most and are available at a discount by clicking the book's link, thanks to our association with Amazon.com):

Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans
by Tim McCarver with Danny Peary
($16.10)

I heard that Tim McCarver was the most cerebral of baseball's announcers, but that's really like saying that he's the least lobotomized of the asylum. My witticism aside, this one often seems like Keith Hernandez's excellent Pure Baseball in McCarver's detailed, position-by-position analysis of the game.

Bad part is that it's poorly written and organized (it wanders all over the place) and despite its attention to detail and personal experience, it's unsatisfying. I can only attribute this to Tim McCarver knowing so much about the game but still buying into the canon of announcer "truths" about speed, defense, clutch hitting, and the like. If you enjoy McCarver's commentary, by all means check this out. Otherwise, consider your other choices.

Baseball When the Grass Was Real
by Donald Honig
($11.96)

Baseball Between the Lines
by Donald Honig
($8.76)

These are great reading. I'm not big on baseball nostalgia, but these books are collections of interviews with players, from the twenties to forties and forties to fifties (respectively). It's so much fun reading accounts of the prevalence of the knockdown, and it's all good. These are great books that impart the feeling of baseball in different eras, often tainted with that brown hazy nostalgia, but with true voices that make them both memorable. Recommended.

The Worst Baseball Pitchers of All Time: Bad Luck, Bad Arms, Bad Teams, and Just Plain Bad
by Alan S. Kaufman, James C. Kaufman
($9.95)

This is one of my favorite baseball books ever. The stories of pitchers who really stunk, and not only stunk but stunk so badly, for so long, makes for great reading. Failed talents, headcases, injury-plagued, it's all in here, with yearly awards for the worst pitcher (the "Skunk"), along with other similarly funny awards.

All written in a humorous tone, it is, in one sense, quite serious. There are great interviews with many of the pitchers, who proved to be good sports, and I learned a lot in reading it. Now out in paperback, originally published in 1993 (so we don't get last year's worst pitchers, for instance), but I hardly noticed. Recommended.

Baseball for Dummies
by Joe Morgan, Dick Lally, Richard Lally
($15.99)

I am of two minds about this series and the Idiots' Guide series (which, due to an unfortunate remark to an IDG publisher, has spawned ...for Schizophrenics): while they generally offer a good introduction to their topics, in some cases excellent (the Dummies wine book is, I hear, wonderful), they also insult you -- RIGHT ON THE DAMN COVER.

Anyway. This is written by Joe Morgan, another color man. Standard attention-span impaired dummies styles with all those side notes and graphics and stuff. Baseball for Dummies covers nearly everything a beginner needs to know, but begs the question -- why can't statheads get jobs as commentators? Why can't someone who really understands Rey Ordonez's worthlessness get a book deal, instead of guys who, however well-intentioned, value speed and defense as much as, say, a player's ability to crush balls into the stands?

Check out this one and see if it seems to appeal to you; if you're looking for a good commentator-introduction to baseball so that you can later be subverted by the truth, this would serve you well. If you already know the truth, well, you're not a dummy.

Giants manager John McGraw wrote another book, and it stinks. Look out for the upcoming Baseball Prospectus Annual ($21.95) and the new Hardball Times Annual ($15.96), and if you haven't already, you need to buy a copy of The Physics of Baseball ($9.60), which answers the question "how the hell does the ball do that?"Also read Dave Paisley's excellent article on the essential baseball library (all the books' 1999 versions are now available), and for more book ideas, see the Baseball Stores book page.

about the author

Derek Zumsteg is hoping to one day write a baseball version of Less Than Zero. Members of the 1999 Dodger lineup can volunteer their true anecdotes at dmz@strikethree.com.