erik lundegaard

Saturday January 23, 2016

To Every Year, a Baseball Book

Baseball books about different years in the 1970s

Baseball books about 1973, 1975, 1976 and 1977. Wither '74?

Quick question for the Hot Stove League: Has a book been written about every baseball year since whenever? 1903? I like those types of books. Years have arcs that lives and careers tend not to.

I'm thinking books that take in the whole year rather than simply one team's journey through that year, but I'll accept the latter, too. 

Here's a few I know. Others? Please weigh in. 

  • 2014: “Ninety Feet Away: The Story of the 2014 Kansas City Royals” by Kent Krause
  • 2004: “Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run” by Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin
  • 1991: “Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time” by Tim Wendel
  • 1990: “The Wire-to-Wire Reds: Sweet Lou, Nasty Boys, and the Wild Run to a World Championship” by John Erardi and Joel Luckhaupt
  • 1986: “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,” by Jeff Pearlman; “One Pitch Away” by Mike Sowell
  • 1981: “Split Season: 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball” by Jeff Katz
  • 1979: Tales from the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates Dugout: Remembering “The Fam-A-Lee” (Tales from the Team), by John McCollister
  • 1978: “October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin and the Yankees Miraculous Finish in 1978” by Roger Kahn; “The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees” by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock
  • 1977: “The Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City,” by Jonathan Mahler
  • 1976: “Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76” by Dan Epstein
  • 1975: “The Long Ball: The Summer of '75—Spaceman, Catfish, Charlie Hustle, and the Greatest World Series Ever Played” by Tom Adelman; “The Machine” by Joe Posnanski
  • 1973: “Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid: The Year That Changed Baseball Forever” by John Rosengren
  • 1971: “The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates,” by Bruce Markusen
  • 1969: “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton; “Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub and the Summer of '69” by Phil Rogers
  • 1968: “Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball--and America--Forever” by Tim Wendel; “The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real Champions” by George Cantor
  • 1967: “1967 Red Sox: The Impossible Dream Season (Images of Baseball)” by Raymond Sinibaldi and Billy Rohr
  • 1964: “October 1964” by David Halbertstam; “The Year of Blue Snow: The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies” by Mel Marmer; “Fred Hutchinson and the 1964 Cincinnati Reds” by Doug Wilson
  • 1962: “Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets' First Year” by Jimmy Breslin
  • 1960: “Sweet '60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates (SABR Digital Library Book 10)” by Dick Rosen and C. Paul Rogers
  • 1954: “1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever” by Bill Madden
  • 1951: “Strangers in the Bronx: DiMaggio, Mantle, and the Changing of the Yankee Guard by Andrew O'Toole
  • 1949: ”Summer of '49“ by David Halberstam
  • 1947: ”Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season“ by Jonathan Eig; ”1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball“ by Red Barber
  • 1941: ”56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number“ by Kostya Kennedy
  • 1923: ”The House that Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923,“ by Robert Weintraub
  • 1920: ”The Pitch That Killed“ by Mike Sowell
  • 1919: ”Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series,“ by Eliot Asinof; ”Red Legs and Black Sox: Edd Roush and the Untold Story of the 1919 World Series“ by Susan Dellinger, Ph.D.
  • 1908: ”Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History“ by Cait N. Murphy

And if you could, what year would you like to read about? Me, I'd love more on the '69 season, which is when: 1) MLB went to a division format; 2) Jim Bouton was writing ”Ball Four," which would forever change our perception of baseball and its players; 3) Curt Flood was traded to the Phillies but refused to report and sued MLB, setting in motion what would eventually become free agency, which would change baseball forever; 4) Reggie Jackson threatened Maris' HR record midseason but lost the crown, and the MVP, to my man Harmon Killebrew; 5) the Cubs collapsed (again); 6) the Baltimore Orioles were the best team in baseball but somehow lost the World Series to the Miracle Mets; and most importantly, certainly to me, 7) at age 6, I began to follow baseball regularly.

You?

Posted at 06:28 AM on Saturday January 23, 2016 in category Baseball  
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