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🧲 Books like this

The Bad Guys Won! A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo-chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, The Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform--and Maybe the Best

Jeff Pearlman · back to the book

What’s in it

Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.

24 books with the same feel

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Summer of '49

David Halberstam · 336 pages

Chronicles the 1949 baseball season, which marked the beginning of the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

Sports HistoryBaseballSportsNew York City
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The Bronx Zoo

Sparky Lyle, Peter Golenbock · 248 pages

BaseballSports HistorySportsNew York City
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The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood

Jane Leavy · 468 pages

Drawing on interviews with friends and family, as well as teammates and opponents, "New York Times"-bestselling author Leavy delivers the definitive account of one of the biggest talents and most tragic figures ever to play baseball--Mickey Mantle.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNew York City
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BaseballSports HistorySportsNew York City
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The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told By the Men Who Played It

Lawrence S. Ritter · 320 pages

Personal narratives by Rube Marquard, Tommy Leach, Davy Jones, Sam Crawford, Jimmy Austin, Fred Snodgrass, Stanley Coveleski, Al Bridwell, Harry Hooper, Joe Wood, Chief Meyers, Hans Lobert, Rube Bressler, Edd Roush, Bill Wambsganss, Sam Jones, Bob O'Farrell, Lefty O'Doul, Goose Goslin, Willie Kamm, Heinie Groh, and Paul Waner.

Sports HistoryBaseballSportsNonfiction
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Sports HistoryBaseballSportsNonfiction
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Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball—and America—Forever

Tim Wendel · 272 pages

In a year shaped by national tragedy, baseball was shaped by amazing pitching--culminating in a victory by a Detroit Tigers team that faced off against Bob Gibson's St. Louis Cardinals, the 1967 World Series defending champions.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America

Joe Posnanski · 276 pages

Documents the author's cross-country travels at the side of Negro Leagues champion Buck O'Neil, a journey during which the pair sought to recapture their love of the game, remembered O'Neil's history-making career, and explored the numerous challenges that the sport has overcome.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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The Pitch That Killed

Mike Sowell · 330 pages

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team

Audrey Vernick · 39 pages

Documents the story of the Baseball Hall of Fame honorees, tracing how the Acerra family of New Jersey formed their own semi-pro baseball team in the 1930s and became the longest-running all-brother team in history.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball

George F. Will · 353 pages

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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Ball Four

Jim Bouton · 472 pages

Twentieth-anniversary edition of a baseball classic, with a new epilogue by Jim Bouton. When first published in 1970, Ball Four stunned the sports world. The commissioner, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the book. And seriou

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game

Dan Barry · 340 pages

From Pulitzer Prize-winning "New York Times" columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history--a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports

Kostya Kennedy · 365 pages

Recounts Joe DiMaggio's streak during the summer of 1941 and how it found its way into countless lives.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

Richard Ben Cramer · 553 pages

"In this biography, Richard Ben Cramer presents a stunning, often shocking portrait of the hero nobody knew. It is a story that sweeps through the twentieth century, bringing to light along the way not just America's national game, but her movie stars, mobsters, pols, writers...the birth (and the price) of modern national celebrity.". "This is the story Joe DiMaggio never wanted to tell - and nev

BaseballSportsSports HistoryNonfiction
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The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game

Edward Achorn · 336 pages

Describes how a German-born biergarten owner who knew nothing about baseball bought the St. Louis Browns baseball team in an effort to sell more beer and unwittingly formed the American League and revitalized the sport.

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Kadir Nelson · 96 pages

Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Illustrations from oil paintings by artist Kadir Nelson.

Sports HistoryBaseballSportsNonfiction
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BaseballSportsSports HistoryNonfiction
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The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams

Ben Bradlee Jr. · 855 pages

Ted Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. His batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit more than five hundred home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball for nearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in World War II and Korea. He hit ho

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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BaseballSportsSports HistoryNonfiction
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Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History" - The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers

Mike Shropshire · 250 pages

“Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, ‘If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we’re in deep trouble.’ When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, ‘Whitey, obviously, has seen me play.’” In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, not realizing that the Rangers

BaseballSportsSports HistoryNonfiction
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Babe: The Legend Comes to Life

Robert W. Creamer · 443 pages

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero. In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robe

BaseballSports HistorySportsNonfiction
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