Resource: The Whole Baseball Catalogue

They don’t make ’em like this anymore. At least not lately.

The Whole Baseball Catalogue, edited by John Thorn and Bob Carroll (A Fireside Book, published by Simon and Schuester, 1990) has an excellent chapter on “Going by the Book: Baseball Between the Covers.”

“You can have a complete library for approximately what it costs to buy a franchise in the American League,” the section begins (bear in mind this is 1990; prices have skyrocketed since then, as has the number of books published). It then goes on to say that a “well-balanced, informative, entertaining baseball library” can be assembled “for $250.” We’ll ignore the figure, again citing inflation, although many of those titles are still available through Web sites, used book stores, and reprintings.

Among the titles listed are

• Baseball America’s 1990 Directory (easy enough to update)
• Baseball — The Early Years and Baseball — The Golden Years, by Harold Seymour
• The Baseball Reader: Favorites from Fireside Books of Baseball, Charles Einstein
• The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
• The Complete Baseball Record Book (always being updated, by various outlets although this one was published by The Sporting News)
• Eight Men Out, Eliot Asniof
• The No-Hit Hall of Fame: No-Hitters of the Twentieth Century, by Rich Coberly (many more have been tossed since this first came out in 1985)
• The Official Price Guide to Baseball Cards, by James Beckett (don’t get me started on how the industry has exploded into countless variations or questionable value)
• Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams, by Robert Peterson
• The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1988 Edition, by David S. Neft and Richard M. Cohen (another yearly update)
• Take Me Out to the Ball Park, by Lowell Reidenbaugh and Craig Carter
• Total Baseball, by John Thorn and Pete Palmer (also updated since)
• The Unforgettable Season, by G.H. Fleming (an account of the 1908 pennant race; this one seems a bit questionable for inclusion into what’s supposed to be a representative list)

The section also posts the results of a very limited survey conducted by Spitball magazine; a B.O.L.O. (Be On the LookOut for) list of various genres within baseball literature; a brief overlook of adult and juvenile fiction; a “how-to” article on writing your own baseball book; “Ten Great Ideas for Baseball Books Not Yet Written” (a few of which actually have made it to the bookshelves in the interim); and “The Perfect Title.”