I haven’t made it to a Major League Baseball game in several years, to my chagrin, but at least I’ve had baseball books to keep me company. The best ones make you feel like you’re experiencing a game. You can almost hear the crack of a bat or see a ball whiz toward the stands. You remember how it feels to sit in the crowd and cheer on your team. There’s nothing quite like it.
Hope springs eternal in baseball. There are good games and bad games and at any point, they could turn it all around. The question is: will they? After the terrible season the Chicago White Sox had last year, you’d best believe I was clinging to “there’s always next year.” Anything is possible at the start of a new season.
I’m a White Sox fan by choice. I decided to root for the team simply to get under the skin of my Cubs fan cousins. I didn’t take it seriously until college when I met my friend Brooke, who is a born and raised Sox fan. I went to every Home Opener with Brooke’s family from 1999 through 2010 and only stopped because I moved out of state. From 2005 to 2009, Brooke and I bought partial season tickets, 13 games under the Ozzie Plan. As you may recall, the White Sox won the World Series in 2005 so it was especially great timing for us. Over the years, my friends and I made commemorative t-shirts and Brooke and I even bought a legacy brick when the World Series memorial was built at The Cell. I love this team.
Because my immediate family didn’t follow baseball and because the sport has a lot of obscure rules, I always feel like I have more to learn. I love finding fiction where it’s apparent the author is a huge fan and nonfiction that introduces me to some aspect of the sport I hadn’t considered before.
In honor of the 2025 season kicking off tomorrow, I wanted to share some of my favorite baseball books. I’ve read plenty more than this and have even more on my TBR—The Resisters by Gish Jen is at the top—but these are my MVPs, if you will. It seems like more and more baseball books are being published these days. I can’t figure out what’s inspiring this trend but I’m delighted by it and hope it continues for a long time to come.
11 baseball books
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The Brothers K
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Almost Perfect: The Heartbreaking Pursuit of Pitching’s Holy Grail
The Changeup
The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream
Evvie Drake Starts Over
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball
You Should Be So Lucky
The Prospects
I Don’t Care If We Never Get Back: 30 Games in 30 Days on the Best Worst Baseball Road Trip Ever
Are you a baseball fan? What are some of your favorite baseball books? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 14 books about walking and hiking.
Leigh Kramer is the Editor, Event Project Manager, and Social Media Manager here at MMD. Her go-to genres are romance and fantasy. You can follow Leigh on Goodreads.
74 comments
The Art of Fielding & Calico Joe!
The Art of Fielding is one of favorite books of all time! I was sure I’d see it on this list. Thanks for mentioning.
I came to say the same thing! Such a great baseball novel.
The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger should be added to this list. It’s a lovely coming of age book!
YES!! Not only is it a great baseball book, it’s a great book period.
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I am still sad he never wrote another book. That one was great! Baseball and a college setting
It wasn’t for me but I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Lifelong White Sox fan here! So happy to see worlds colliding with MMD and White Sox. This year will be better (right? It has to be!)
I sure hope so, Becky!! Delighted to meet a fellow Sox fan in the comments.
WHAT A GREAT LIST! I’M SO READY FOR BASEBALL!!
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it. Here’s to a great season!
Chabon, Michael. Summerland
For everyone:
Mochizuki, Ken.
Baseball saved us
“The Baseball 100” (also by Joe Posnanski) is incredible and much beloved by my baseball-obsessed teenage son (he has read it several times through!). I bet you would enjoy it!
Yes, it’s on my list! I’m eager to see how it compares to Why We Love Baseball.
I love this! My 12 year old is obsessed with baseball nonfiction, and now I have two more to add to the list! I know he would recommend 62, the story of Aaron Judge’s 62 home run season. He also devoured Joe Posnanski’s The Baseball 100. He’s currently reading Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher and says it’s the best baseball book he’s ever read. Thanks again!
Full Count sounds very much up my alley! Thanks for the rec.
This Boston Red Sox fan does a reread of Doris Kearns Godwin’s Wait Til Next Year annually at the beginning of baseball season. I
How on earth did I miss knowing about this book? I guess I’ve only ever heard about her biographies. Definitely adding to my TBR!
I came to add DKG’s book to this list, it is fantastic!
That’s the one I was thinking of. Great book. Cheers to 162 days of fun.
Fellow Red Sox fan here! I really enjoyed this book.
I’m a lifelong Cubs fan, but I root for the White Sox, too. One of my favorite Cubs players from the last couple of years, Mike Tauchman, is now on the White Sox team, and I wish him well. A baseball book on my TBR that I haven’t read yet is The Boys of Summer.
I’ve wondered about whether The Boys of Summer was worth picking up.
Great list! I’d add “The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game” by Erik Kratz and Tim Brown. I’d also recommend “Baseball Codes…Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime” by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca.
Those both sound great!
The All-American by Susie Finkbeiner is great! It’s about more than baseball but baseball is part of the plot.
The Art of Fielding and Cactus League
Two nonfiction options. Fair Ball by Bob Costas and Wait Till Next Year by the amazing Doris Kearns Goodwin. We also need to talk about the great baseball movies we should be watching right now… 8 Men Out, The Natural, Bull Durham (my favorite), League of Their Own, Field of Dreams, and Major League filmed in my beloved Milwaukee with the best announcer ever, Bob Ueker. Can you tell we like baseball in our house? Go Brewers!
Baseball movies could be a whole other post! I hardly ever watch TV anymore but I was curious about the League of Their Own TV show as it sounded like a good complement to the movie.
I loved Moneyball – both the book by Michael Lewis and the movie starting Brad Pitt. I’m a statistics geek by profession, and was fascinated by this aspect of baseball. I also loved the movie 61 about Roger Maris’s 61 homerun season. Does anyone know if there is a book on which this movie was based?
I’m not a baseball fan, but I surely did love Trouble with the Curve (2012) with Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams!
You can’t go to a ballpark without getting a hotdog or a cup of ice cream. THE JOY OF BALLPARK FOOD: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine by Bennett Jacobstein shares the various food items eaten at ballparks all over the US plus shares other historical information about various baseball facts and history. A great book for Father’s Day or for the baseball fan!
https://www.sincerelystacie.com/2015/06/book-review-joy-of-ballpark-food-by/
This sounds like such a fun read!
A nonfiction book I really enjoyed was Watching Baseball by Jerry Remy, the long time color analyst for the Red Sox, who sadly passed away a few years ago. As some one who became a fan as an adult, it really helped me appreciate watching the game more.
I can see how that would add to your appreciation!
Two of my favorites are
Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game by Dan Barry
and
One Shot at Forever: a small town an Unlikely Coach and a Magical Baseball Season by Chris Ballard
Bottom of the 33rd is on deck for me soon! I was hoping to get to it before this list ran but here we are.
I second One Shot at Forever! I gave my copy to my dad and it has been passed around to his entire group of friends with good reviews by all!
I am a very dejected Oakland A’s fan so not really looking forward to this season. However! My favorite baseball book is If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock, about a sports reporter who ends up traveling back in time to the 1860’s and joining the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
Some years our teams really put us through the wringer. Solidarity, Kate. And thanks for the rec, it sounds fabulous!
I love baseball and am a San Francisco Giants fan. I grew up watching the Oakland A’s with my grandma so I also root for the A ‘s.
The Natural is hands down,my favorite baseball book. It’s very different from the movie and draws heavily on the Arthurian legend.
Shoeless Joe is a great read as well: it’s the book on which Field of Dreams is based.
I’d also like to give a plug for a great nonfiction piece, Called Up by Zak Ford. Zak, a former student of mine and lifelong baseball enthusiast, compiled a series of interviews with MLB ballplayers about their experiences with getting “called up” to the majors. It’s a gem!
I had no idea The Natural draws from the Arthurian legend. I’m very intrigued!
I was scrolling to see if anyone would mention Shoeless Joe!
K The History of Baseball in Ten Pitches is really interesting (nonfiction).
56, about Joe Dimaggio’s record (also nonfiction)
Bottom of the 33rd (nonfiction), the longest game ever.
Moneyball by Michael Lewis, what the movie is based on.
Also liked The Art of Fielding.
There are so many fictional stories about baseball, but I find the true stories way more interesting. You can’t make this stuff up!
“How can you not be romantic about baseball?”.
“You can’t make this stuff up!” Completely agree!
Another minor league baseball gem is “The Only Rule Is It Has To Work” by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller. Ben and Sam are two statistics-minded outsiders who are given control of the Sonoma Stompers — picking players and setting line-ups. Just a really fun look at minor, minor league baseball while learning a little bit about how sabermetrics changed the game. So entertaining that I made a pilgrimage to a Stompers game last summer to experience the vibe for myself.
This sounds fantastic! And how cool that you went to see them play.
Can confirm on the quality of Charlie Hustle. Expertly researched and O’Brien spoke with Rose himself I think 20 times. Rose deserved the persona non grata status he earned.
Did you listen to O’Brien’s interview on The Stacks Podcast? I loved hearing more about how he approached the book and his interviews, especially once he no longer had access to Pete.
Magic Season by Wade Rouse
https://waderouse.com/books/magic-season/
Oh yes! Fabulous book, I loved it. Father and son with baseball seemingly being their only common ground
Evvie Drake Starts over by Linda Holmes is great! And as a Mariners fan, I loved Edgar: An Autobiography.
I second “Edgar”!!
The memoir Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearnes Goodwin is full of beautiful nostalgia
Lupe Throws Like a Girl by Anita Perez Ferguson is a recently released Young Adult novel about a Latina who loves baseball and is navigating her way through high school and life.
The Last Days of Summer” bu Steve Klug is another really good baseball book.
I’m a Diamondbacks fan! I read the Art of Catching Feelings this year and loved it! I tried to read the Cactus League and couldn’t get into it unfortunately. Love this list!
This is a great list – thanks! My personal favorite is Wait Till Next Year, A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin
1950’s Long Island, feisty girlhood and life long Brooklyn Dodgers fan and so well written. She shares a slice of true America’s memory.
I’m glad someone said Bottom of the 33rd Hope , Redemption and Baseball’s Longest Game by Dan Barry. It is great! Also Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas by Jesse Cole.
Moneyball by Michael Lewis definitely deserves a spot on this list.
Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park is an excellent middle school historical novel about “about life, faith, and America’s favorite pastime: baseball.” Several of Gary Schmidt’s middle school books (Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now, etc.) involve love of baseball, also.
Play Ball by Jim Bouton. I understand it’s not for everyone but I love that book. I’m a former A’s fan so I feel your pain with the White Sox!
Thank you for feeling my pain, Cheryl!
One-Handed Catch by Mary Jane Auch is a wonderful historical fiction book for kids that I totally enjoyed too.
As a Mets fan, I enjoyed I Am Keith Hernandez. And, as I live in Rochester NY and follow the Red Wings, I will definitely have to read Bottom of the 33rd. I’m so happy it’s baseball season again!
I just read and loved Heavy Hitter by Katie Cotugno. A romance, it’s about the relationship between an ‘on the verge of retirement’ baseball player and a famous singer (think Taylor Swift).
I’d add The Resisters by Gish Jen!
Another Joe Posnanski must read…
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
Buck played in the Negro leagues during the 1940s & 1950s. O’Neil’s contributions to the game of baseball and his love for the sport garnered national attention when he was featured in Ken Burns’ 1994 documentary Baseball.
Also, in nonfiction…
Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye
Superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel” Paige
I know it’s not the most obvious choice, but “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok is, too me, one of the great baseball stories.
Whoa! You’re right. I read that the summer before my freshman year of college (27 years ago!) and forgot all about that.
Do you know what field that is in the picture? It looks like a college field (my alma mater!) with an MLB ball.
Unfortunately, I have no idea. It was a stock photo and I don’t believe it included a tag for the location.
Wait Till Next Year – Doris Kearns Goodwin
This memoir traces the author’s childhood in the 50’s and the love she and her father had for each other and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s a touching reminiscing of her childhood.
What a great thread! I’ve written them all down. I’m a life long SF Giants Fan. We live in in the Sacramento Area and are quarter season holders for the Giants’ Farm team – River Cats. We’re very excited to have the A’s in town for a couple seasons. My favorite baseball move is Trouble with the Curve. That idea of “pure sound” warms every baseball fan’s heart! Thanks for the list.
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