Opinions vary

Graham Womack published this ranked list of the 25 greatest baseball books on The Sporting News site.

When I wrote 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die, I made a decision not to put them in an order other than alphabetical to avoid having to defend my choices. Such a method invites arguments and debate so I won’t disappoint as I do below in comparing my ranking with Mr. Womack’s.

Overall, I have no real complaint with his list; he deserves kudos for offering such a wide range of topics, time periods covered, and time of publication. I probably would have substituted a couple of titles, but I’m just going by the items he selected.

My rankings indicate the impact of the book on the entire baseball community, not just fans. Here’s why:

• Moneyball: Michael Lewis’ classic, originally published in 2003, is a perpetual best-seller. It’s practically required reading for front office people and has spawned several titles on how other teams have adopted the principles of statistical analysis when constructing a team (Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, etc).
• Ball Four: Doesn’t seem so scandalous almost 50 years after it was released, but at the time it caused quite the sensation. Jim Bouton was the granddaddy of all the tell-all memoirs, for better or worse.
• Babe: The Legend Comes to Life: In an article linked to Womack’s list on TSN is another story he contributed on how “Baseball Hall of Fame should do more to honor game’s legendary writers.” Back in 2012 he wrote “An open letter to the Hall of Fame: Consider honoring Robert Creamer this summer” for the Baseball: Past and Present site (I blogged about it here). There have been many bios on the Babe, but Creamer’s was the first to try to balance the bad with the good, detailing the Bambino’s character flaws and paving the way for other books that took off the rose-colored glasses and honestly dealt with their subjects as human beings.
• The Glory of Their Times: Like Ball Four, TGOTT was a revelation as the first big oral history of the game. Another perpetual best seller.
• The Hidden Game of Baseball: Womack includes several books by John Thorn on his list and rightly so. This one, written with Peter Palmer 30 years ago, was ahead of its time as it considered the use (and abuse) of statistics when determining a player’s value. This could even rank higher than Lewis’ book because without Hidden, maybe there would be no Moneyball.
• The Boys of Summer: The first book written specifically to play on the nostalgia factor of the Boomer Generation, ably handled by Roger Kahn.
• The Last Boy: See Boys of Summer. Author Jane Leavy also wrote about another icon of the era in Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.
• Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life: See Babe. A lot of readers never forgave author Richard Ben Cramer for sullying their memories.
• Cardboard Gods: Boys of Summer for Boomer card collectors.
• Baseball’s Great Experiment: You could probably substitute any book by Jules Tygiel, but this one was one of the first about the relationship between Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey.
• The Summer Game: A collection of essays by the estimable Roger Angell.
• The Numbers Game: Mommy, where do sabermetrics come from?
• The Soul of Baseball: Joe Posnanski’s touching bio was even better than subject Buck O’Neil’s charming memoir, I Was Right on Time because it was able to report how others perceived and loved him.
• Only the Ball Was White: An important look at the Negro Leagues. Opened the door for the many histories that followed.

The second half of my list was a bit more difficult to rank and justify

• The Book: Seems to fit in right about this spot.
• Lords of the Realm: Heylar’s book on the business of baseball came out in 1994 during a time when the sport was going through a major crises. A few other books dealt with labor issues, but I found this to be the most accessible for the layperson. Twenty years after the fact, however, it has lost a lot of steam for me and certainly nowhere as high as Womack places it.
• Summer of ’49: I wish David Halberstam had written more about baseball. But as exciting as the season may have been, it falls even outside of boomer nostalgia territory.
• Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?: Debating whether this player or that one really belongs in the Hall has been going on since the Cooperstown landmark opened its door. Bill James adds his usually wit to the topic, but seems we hear this question every year now.
• Baseball in the Garden of Eden: Another Thorn title. Important in its topic, but the early history of the game has never held that much fascination for me so…
• Total Baseball and The Baseball Encyclopedia: The former was a new and improved version of the latter, with more stats and a handful of interesting articles over several editions, but high cover prices and the internet have doomed tomes such as these.
• Baseball: An Illustrated History: Pretty companion to the 1994 Ken Burns documentary series, but there have been numerous coffee table books that combine narrative and illustrations.
• The Bill James Historical Abstract: Again, an enjoyable James product, but badly in need of an update.
• Ty Cobb: An award-winner via the mind of Charles Leerhsen but — all due respect — I don’t know if Cobb ever had the lasting national (and international?) appeal of Ruth.
• Baseball as I Have Known It: Fred Leib’s memoir about the characters he covered in the first half of the 20th century. Doesn’t have the impact it once did for readers who aren’t that into the history of the game.

So there you have it. I’m sure you can offer your own version of what should go where and why.

Tagged as: Babe Ruth, Baseball Cards, Baseball Hall of Fame, baseball history, baseball statistics, Bill James, Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Dodgers, Bucl O'Neil, David Halberstam, Jackie Robinson, Jo DiMaggio, John Thorn, Mickey Mantle, Negro Leagues, New YorkYankees, Roger Angell, Roger Kahn, Sportswriters