Any good baseball (or sports) books read recently?

[Handofdeath]

I work for a library and I'm wondering what everyone has been reading? Any recommendations?

[TOBTTReds]

Mind Game - Book about how the Red Sox build/built there winning teams lately. Looks it from a statistical view and what Theo and co. were looking for in players. Examines why certain things happen throughout the season. Highly recommended by me for others here. Can help people understand a bit more about baseball. Great use of numbers that aren't hard to understand.

[terminator]

I just finished reading "Baseball Between the Numbers." It seemed like a good general intro to sabermetrics.

[RedsManRick]

I'm reading "Reds Legs and Black Sox" right now. It's the 1919 WS story from the perspective of an Edd Roush bio. So far, so good.

[Degenerate39]

I read a few books during my summer vacation. Juiced by Jose Canseco is good in my opinion. And My Prison Without Bars by Pete Rose was decent. I tried to read Sparky Anderson's book but it was a real snoozer to me.

[RedsFanatic]

The new Michael Lewis book, The Blind Side, is an excellent read.

[Redsland]

My last baseball book was "Three Nights in August," by Buzz Bissinger. Author follows Tony LaRussa around for a season, then presents a particular three-game series as a case study in his management approach. Interesting anecdotes, but few real surprises. A good read if you like case studies about baseball games.

My last sports book was "Patriot Reign," by Michael Holley. Author follows Bill Belichick around for a season, and gives a full, behind-the-scenes account of everything from draft day to game-planning to team meetings and in-game adjustments. A must-read for football nuts.

[Jr's Boy]

''Weaver on strategy,the classic work on the Art of Managing a Baseball Team''.A position by position breakdown on just about every facet of the game.Alot of great insight into running a ball club by one of the greatest skippers ever in baseball,the great Earl Weaver.

[Reds Nd2]

Has anyone read Built to Win by John Schuerholz? I tried reading it and really wanted to like it, but about a third of the way through I grew tired of some rather snide comments and put the book down. I was curious what others thoughts were.

As far as recommendations, I've read and second the opinions regarding Mind Game and Baseball Between the Numbers. I also recommend The Numbers Game by Alan Schwarz. An interesting look at the early days of baseball stats. Weaver on Strategy is a must read IMO.

[George Anderson]

I recently read a book about Lou Gehrig called "Luckiest Man " and it was without question one of the best baseball books I have ever read. The thing I found most interesting about the book were the details of the disease and how it slowly took his life, something I never knew about before.

I also read a book about Babe Ruth called the "Big Bam". It was good but not in the must read department like the Gehrig book. It did however have alotta saucy tidbits for example details of an alleged trist between the Babe and Eleanor Gehrig.

I also read Joe Nuxhalls book and recommend it also.

[blumj]

Halberstam's Belichick book, "Education of a Coach".

[RedsBaron]

Originally Posted by terminator

I just finished reading "Baseball Between the Numbers." It seemed like a good general intro to sabermetrics.

Good book. I keep meaning to start a thread to discuss some of the articles in that book.
Earlier this year I read "The Last Coach," a biography of Bear Bryant written by Allen Barra. I recommend it.
Frank DeFord's "The Old Ballgame" is an interesting dual biography of Christy Mathewson and John McGraw, and Rob Neyer's "Big Book Of Baseball Blunders" is a fun read.

[dabvu2498]

I'm reading an older (1983, I believe) book by Willie Morris called The Courting of Marcus Dupree. It's about the recruitment of the "next Herschel Walker" out of Philadelphia, Mississippi in the fall of 1981. It's part history, part sports book, part sociology, part biography, part geographical sketch. Willie Morris is one of my favorite authors and I can't believe I've never read it before. Highly recommend.

[Roy Tucker]

It's been out a few years, but I just recently read John Feinstein's "The Last Amateurs". It's a chronicle of the 1999-2000 Patriot League basketball season (Army, Navy, Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross and Colgate).

It's interesting since it's pretty high-level NCAA Div. 1-A hoops, but most of the guys know they won't be going on to the NBA (instead they become stockbrokers and accountants). Well-told, but it got a little long towards the end.

[dabvu2498]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

It's been out a few years, but I just recently read John Feinstein's "The Last Amateurs". It's a chronicle of the 1999-2000 Patriot League basketball season (Army, Navy, Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross and Colgate).

It's interesting since it's pretty high-level NCAA Div. 1-A hoops, but most of the guys know they won't be going on to the NBA (instead they become stockbrokers and accountants). Well-told, but it got a little long towards the end.

Awesome book. Love the story about the Spitler kid from Holy Cross using the fact that he was the worst player on the worst team in the worst conference in D1 college basketball as a pickup line.