# Best baseball novels... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013 "2004-02-19T15:10:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/1 "2004-02-19T15:10:27Z")
All right, let’s create a line-up card of the best baseball novels. Obviously you have _Shoeless Joe_ by Kinsella, and _The Iowa Baseball Confederacy_ also by Kinsella, and _The Natural_ by B. Malamud (BTW, in the book he strikes out), and the Henry Wiggen series by Mark Harris (_The Southpaw_ and _Bang the Drum Slowly_ are the classics), and _The Celebrant_ by M. R. Greenburg, and _If I Never Get Back_ and _Havana Heat_ byDarryl Brock… oh, and _Sometimes You See It Coming_ by Kevin Baker, and _For the Love of the Game_ by Michael Shaara, and _Columbus Slaughters Braves_ by Mark Friedman, and _Sport_ by Mick Cochrane… Keep 'em coming. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/2 "2004-02-19T15:46:01Z")
_The Great American Novel_\* by Philip Roth _The Universal Baseball Association, Inc.: J. Henry Waugh, Prop._ by Robert Coover Both are a bit surreal, but worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/3 "2004-02-19T15:51:07Z")
Yeah, I’ve read both of those – Philip Roth is one of my favorite writers. He works a little bit of baseball into every book, so he must be a huge fan. The Coover book is remarkable for being a book about fantasy baseball, but written like 35 years ago before many people even knew what it was. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/4 "2004-02-19T16:06:03Z")
If your interested in some non-fiction, I was a big fan of Ball Four by Jim Bouton. It’s a good read, and some interesting stories. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/5 "2004-02-19T16:17:50Z")
There’s a good fiction book by Bouton as well…it’s written with an ex-umpire and it’s the story of an over-the-hill pitcher who finally gets his chance to have a big break. Turns out this game is being called by an ump who is one day from retirement and being blackmailed into throwing it so a colleague can pay of a huge gambling debt. Every other chapter is written from the point of view of each guy, inning by inning and I thought it was really interesting. Also in non-fiction: I found **Moneyball** to be downright gripping. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/6 "2004-02-19T18:59:06Z")
Sounds good, **voguevixen**. Thanks for the tip. ---
**Author:** ![BizarroRonJeremy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@BizarroRonJeremy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BizarroRonJeremy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/7 "2004-02-19T19:14:35Z")
For a peek into the crazy-ass Yankees of the 70’s (Reggie, George, Billy and others), you simply gotta read The Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-baseball-novels/230013/8 "2004-02-19T21:59:09Z")
Bizzaro, if you liked _The Bronx Zoo_ then you ought to try Lyle’s novel too, _The Year I Owned the Yankees: A Baseball Fantasy_ . It isn’t the greatest novel you’ll ever read, but parts of it are hilarious. When I was a kid I devoured John R. Tunis’ series about a fictionalized Brooklyn Dodger team in the 1940s: _The Kid From Tomkinsville, Keystone Kids, World Series, High Pockets, Schoolboy Johnson_ and _The Kid Comes Back._ I don’t know if they’ve aged well, or where one could find them, but as a boy I thought they were great stories.