Recently received The Lineup: Ten Books That Changed Baseball by Paul Aron. I first learned of this book when I was researching for a “Coming Down the Pike” entry; thankfully, it did not include the word “forever” (regular readers of this blog know my feelings about superlatives in titles).
I was trying to find the exact wording of Aron’s new offering via a Google search mistakenly using the phrase “most influential baseball books” and it produced several lists. Most carried the same works such as The Glory of Their Times, Moneyball, The Boys of Summer, and Ball Four; others were more eclectic.
Here a few of them for your amusement/education/debate. Talk amongst yourselves. Where available, I have included the writer’s name and date since older lists omit some good stuff that were published afterwards. One must also consider where these lists came from. Some sources are less baseball-oriented/savvy than others and might judge their selections on a different basis than those more familiar with the sport.
In the order in which they appeared in the Google search:
♦ The 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written, from Esquire by Alex Bleth (Nov. 2021)
♦ Here’s a list of our all-time favorite baseball books, from MLB.com (December 2021)
♦ These are the 21 best baseball books to read in 2022, from Screwballtimes.com by Fred Hofstetter (March 2022)
♦ The 25 best baseball books of all time, ranked, from The Sporting News by Graham Womack (March 2016)
♦ 10 of the Best Baseball Books of All Time, from Earlybirdbooks.com by Elias Garfinkle (July 2020, updated May 2022)
♦ The 10 Baseball Books Every Fan Should Read, from Men’s Journal by Caryn Rose (March 2015)
67 Best Baseball Biography Books of All Time, from Bookauthority.org by multiple contributors (“BookAuthority identifies and rates the best books in the world, based on recommendations by thought leaders and experts.” This list is undated and like many compiled from “community participants” can be quite questionable. Some of the books here seem to be written for younger readers and I find it hard to believe, with all due respect, that three of the 67 “best” are about Mike Trout.)
♦ 12 books every MLB fan should read, from FranchiseSports.co.uk, by Jeremy Mallari (March 2022)
♦ Best Baseball Books, from Readthistwice.com by numerous contributors. I included this because each of the 44 titles offers links to other articles in which the specific book was mentioned, kind of a Russian nesting doll. (This site also suggests the best 16 books on pickleball! Who knew there were that many on the sport?)
♦ SABR 50 at 50: Baseball Books, as voted on by a committee of SABR members, including yours truly. (“As part of the SABR 50 at 50 project to commemorate the organization’s fiftieth anniversary, we offer 50 baseball books worth reading from the past 50 years.”)
is available on Amazon.com,
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