OT: What books are in your Sports Library???

[xpress34]

Xpress 34’s Baseball Library

America's Pastime

Ballparks Yesterday & Today
Baseball Archaeology
Baseball (Ken Burns)
Baseball - The Biographical Encyclopedia
Baseball - The Perfect Game : An All-Star Anthology
Baseball's Book of Firsts
Baseball's Golden Age (Conlon Photos)
Baseball's 100 Greatest Players (Sporting News)

Classic Baseball (Iooss Photos)

Echoes from the Ballpark
Every Pitcher Tells a Story

Game of Shadows
Girls of Summer
Glove Affairs
Guys, Dolls & Curveballs

Historic Ballparks - A Panoramic Vision

Inside Baseball (Vintage)

Jinxed

Kings of the Hill

Men at Work
Mets Media Guide 2008
MLB Hometown Heroes
My Greatest Day in Baseball (Vintage)

Nolan Ryan – Fireballer
Nolan Ryan - From Alvin to Cooperstown (Sporting News)

Nolan Ryan – Miracle Man AUTOGRAPHED
Nolan Ryan Pitcher's Bible (I would like this in Hardback!)
Nolan Ryan : Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Legend
Nolan Ryan - Throwing Heat AUTOGRAPHED
Nolan Ryan - The Authorized Pictorial History AUTOGRAPHED
Nolan Ryan - The Authorized Pictorial History (Leather Cover) AUTOGRAPHED
Nolan Ryan - The Road to Cooperstown AUTOGRAPHED
Now I Can Die in Peace

100 Years of Baseball
100 Years of Major League Baseball
Only the Ball was White

Play Ball
Play Baseball the Ripken Way AUTOGRAPHED

Rawlings Presents Big Sticks
Reel Baseball
Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants and Stars AUTOGRAPHED

Smithsonian Baseball
Stan Musial

Take Me Out to the Ballpark
The Barry Halper Collection
The Baseball Book (Sports Illustrated)
The Baseball Anthology
The Baseball Encyclopedia (1969)
The Baseball HOF 50th Anniversary Book
The Baseball Scrapbook
The Baseball Timeline
The Catcher was a Spy
The Gashouse Gang
The Life and Times of Nolan Ryan
The Love of Baseball
The Mick
The Mutual Baseball Almanac (Vintage)
The National Pastime
The National Game
The Oldest Rookie
The Only Game in Town
The Other Game - Nolan Ryan
The Pocket Baseball Encyclopedia (Vintage)
The Tao of Baseball
The Timeline History of Baseball
The Treasures of Major League Baseball
The Way We Were – Baseball
The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Baseball
Time for Paradise
20th Century Baseball Chronicle

Unhittable

Vindicated - Jose Canseco AUTOGRAPHED

Warning Track AUTOGRAPHED
Watching Baseball Smarter
When Baseball Went to War
Who Invented the Game (Ken Burns)

Yankees Suck!
__________________________________________________ ________


As you can tell, my Library consists of Baseball only... love to see what everyone else has...


- Chris

[gingi79]

The Sports Bestiary by George Plimpton. If you haven't read it, worth a borrow from the local Library as the wit and humor is right on.

Cather was a Spy about Moe Berg was eye opening and well written

Best Ports Writing of 1992. The Dave Barry Article about the Miami Heat is one of the best articles I have ever read. Humorous, insightful and well written.

[2000mvpfan]

..great list-but you forgot one of the all-time greats:"Ball Four" by Jim Bouton...as hilarious and eye-opening (especially on the subject of players and "greenies"-even then players were trying to get an edge!) today as it was in 1970!

Joe

[xpress34]

..great list-but you forgot one of the all-time greats:"Ball Four" by Jim Bouton...as hilarious and eye-opening (especially on the subject of players and "greenies"-even then players were trying to get an edge!) today as it was in 1970!

Joe

Joe -

I definately need to add Ball Four to the library as well as Money Ball...

If you want a GREAT recommendation from my Libraray, pick up 'Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants and Stars'. Written by Robert 'Bob' Motley - the last surviving Negro League Umpire about his trials and tribulations... very well written...

- Chris

[bigtruck260]

The Baseball Book - Sports Illustrated
The Best of Tom Verducci
Throwing Heat - Nolan Ryan
The Gas House Gang
The ST. LOUIS Baseball Reader
The Card - Michael O'Keefe
A Well Paid Slave (Curt Flood Bio)
Operation Bullpen - Kevin Nelson
Driven From Within - Michael Jordan
Juiced - Jose Canseco
Dark Trade - (Insider account of pro boxing)
Various Sports Almanacs


I have a few more, but my 'library' is chock full of so much other stuff.
Right now I am reading a book called: The Year of Living Biblically...
and before that, I re-read Hells Angels by Hunter Thompson.

Come to think of it, I have every Hunter Thompson book he ever wrote. He is probably a more interesting than any baseball team or player. Might be why I named my son Hunter after him...

[ironmanfan]

Along these lines, a web-site that I've found helpful to catalog/inventory my book collection (baseball and otherwise) is www.librarything.com

It's a free web-site for your first 200 books and I have found it extremely easy to use and useful.

Bill
whhp72@yahoo.com

[princip]

These are essential in any NFL library.

NFL books by David Boss

[godwulf]

I second the recommendation for libraything.com. It's very, very cool. They even have discussion boards on just about every reading interest you can imagine.

Book recommendations not already mentioned:

You Gotta Have Wa - an eye-opening account of Baseball as it's played in Japan. Timeless and fascinating.

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty - chapters going into the recent, pre-2001 stories and histories of Torre, Steinbrenner, Paul O'Neill, Jeter, etc, interspersed with a nearly pitch-by-pitch account of Game 7 of the '01 World Series.

Love Me, Hate Me - very little love in this well-researched book on Bonds.

At the moment, I'm reading a book called Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound With a Minor League Misfit by Matt McCarthy, whom I met at a book-signing earlier this month. McCarthy is a Yale man who spent a year - 2002 - playing for the rookie league Provo Angels, and is now a medical resident at a New York hospital. He's gotten a huge amount of flack from former teammates, who claim that at least some of his stories are made up or exaggerated, but it's a funny and insightful book, in any case, and I suspect that it gives a pretty accurate account of what it's like to play in that league.

[xpress34]

GW and IronMan -

Thanks for the info on the Library link... I'll be checking it out.

I forgot a couple of books on my list:

Beyond Belief - The Josh Hamilton Story - VERY Moving and deeply detailed encounter of Josh's ups and downs...

Tales from the Rockies - a brief history of highlight moments from the Rockies history from day 1 to the 2007 World Series.

Juiced - Jose Canseco - This book definately changed my opinions of the man... and has been very insightful during the recent Steroids News...

I just finished the 1st two listed here... the Hamilton book was so intense I sat down and read the book cover to cover in one day.

From my original list, I am taking Watching Baseball Smarter with me on my Spring Training trip to read on my downtime and my flight there and back.

And a final recommendation from my original list - Men at Work by George Will. It gives four very distinct and different views of how the game is looked at from four very distinct and different individuals - Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken, Orel Hershiser and Tony LaRussa.

- Chris

[ironmanfan]

Chris:

I agree that George Will's " Men At Work" is a very underrated book (would reccommend it to any baseball fan; not just fans of Ripken, Gwynn, etc.).

As an aside, I have a Sunday season ticket plan @ Camden Yards and see George Will at the ballpark virtually every game (at least that was the case last season). I would be more than happy to get your copy signed by him if you have any interest (just let me know).

Bill
whhp72@yahoo.com