Stealing a page from Time: Baseball books in 2012

Lev Grossman contributed this piece on “Seven Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2012,” and since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I thought I might borrow that idea for these baseball titles on the schedule for next year that I’m particularly looking forward to.

Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss, by Marty Appel. Who better to write about the Yankees than one who observed them from the inside?
Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, by Paul Dickson. The author of several important books on the game is back with the first new bio of Veeck in almost 25 years.
The Juju Rules: Or, How to Win Ballgames from Your Couch: A Memoir of a Fan Obsessed, by Hart Seely. Seely collaborated with Tom Peyer on a collection of “poems” by Phil Rizzuto, so this promises to be quirky fun.
Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest Gift, by Harvey Araton. Araton (who happens to live in my town) takes a break from his basketball and soccer themes to write about the touching relationship between Berra (another “neighbor”) and Guidry.
Baseball Fantography: A Celebration in Snapshots and Stories from the Fans, by Andy Strasburg. A collection of fan photos that are sure to evoke common memories and emotions.
Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, by R.A Dickey and Wayne Coffey. Simply because Dickey’s a Met (as of this writing) and seems like an interesting character.
A People’s History of Baseball, by Mitchell Nathanson. Because there’s hasn’t been a new scholarly “general” history in some time.
Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan, by Robert Fitts. An expert on the Japanese game, Fitts will no doubt present a compelling story here.
Best Mets: Fifty Years of Highs and Lows from New York’s Most Agonizingly Amazin’ Team, by Matthew Silverman. Because it’s a book about the METS! Duh.
Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball, by Molly Lawless. A graphic depiction of the tragedy.

Now, I found most of these by doing an Amazon search. And if you’re like me and do that a lot, don’t you, too, wish they had better filters? You could save a lot of time if you could eliminate all non-adult titles. If there’s a way to do that that I don’t know about, please drop me a line. I thank you.