# Best Damn Sports Books Period **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 6, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782 "2007-10-06T19:38:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/21 "2007-10-07T04:41:12Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] I don’t even like football, but the best sports book I have ever read - and it’s not even a close call, to be honest - is Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. [/QUOTE] Also by Bissinger is _Three Nights In August_, which tells the story of a three-game series between the Cardinals and the Cubs from the point of view of Cards manager Tony La Russa. It reads like a novel, with characters and suspense and subplots and flashbacks and tragedy and comedy. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2007, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/22 "2007-10-07T11:21:29Z")
The best baseball books I have read are: – **It’s What You Learn After You Know It All That Counts** , [Earl Weaver](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Weaver) (with Berry Stainback). Full of salty opinions and terrific anecdotes about Weaver’s own life, the great Baltimore teams he managed and their opponents. – **Pitching in a Pinch** , [Christy Mathewson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Mathewson) (ghostwritten by [John Wheeler](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neville_Wheeler)). A very accessible inside look at baseball in the early 20th century and an excellent complement to Charles Alexander’s **John McGraw**. (Also a very good book, IMHO.) – **The Long Season** , [Jim Brosnan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Brosnan). As good a book as \*\*Ball Four \*\* is, one must acknowledge that Jim Bouton was simply doing the same thing that Brosnan did very well a decade earlier. Both are very good looks at baseball through the eyes and minds of pitchers, although at very different points in their careers. And as Bill James has noted, \*\*The Long Season \*\* is the only sports book that actually was written by the athlete whose name appears on the cover. I’m not sure if any of these is in print, but they’re all well worth seeking out. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/23 "2023-08-17T17:12:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I don’t even like football, but the best sports book I have ever read - and it’s not even a close call, to be honest - is Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger. > **[Buzz Bissinger blasts Mason City schools’ ban of his “Friday Night Lights”](https://www.thegazette.com/sports/buzz-bissinger-blasts-mason-city-schools-ban-of-his-friday-night-lights/)** > > Mason City relied on AI in banning of 19 renowned books, including Buzz Bissinger’s bestseller about a high school football team and the world in which it lived. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/24 "2023-08-17T22:02:49Z")
I think the two sports with the most books written about them (at least in English) are Baseball and cricket. Someone said it’s because of the gentle pace of the bat-and-ball games, occasionally broken up by moments of sheer elation. I have read a couple of Roger Khan baseball books and enjoyed them. If you want to try some interesting cricket books, I would recommend anything by Jack Fingleton (Australian cricketer from the 1930s who became a journalist so he knows how to write) - his book on Bodyline _ **Cricket Crisis** _ is still the best cricket book I’ve read. Neville Cardus is an English writer who defined the ‘gentle knock of leather on willow in an English village’ style. I don’t recommend the books written by current active players (often the team captain) that come out after a Test series (such as the recent Ashes series - the first couple should be available for Dad’s Christmas presents) - these tend to be boring and full of ‘the boys gave 110%’ locker-room anecdotes. Best (Australian) current writer is probably Gideon Haigh. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2023, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/25 "2023-08-18T07:29:44Z")
I enjoyed _The Natural_ by **Bernard Malamud** when I read it a zillion years ago. I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet. This thread made realize that I haven’t read many sports themed books. _Moneyball_ was a good a read, but as noted above, routinely misunderstood. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/26 "2023-08-19T19:23:30Z")
_First Down and a Billion: The Funny Business of Pro Football_, by Gene Klein and David Fisher was one I really enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/27 "2023-08-19T20:37:50Z")
From this side of the Atlantic (and I don’t know how easy it would be to get a copy in the US), I’ll offer: **My Father and Other Working Class Football Heroes** by **Gary Imlach**. His father, Stewart Imlach, was indeed a Working Class Football Hero, even representing Scotland three or four times, and the book relates his father’s story, and the stories of his peers, in an era when (Association) Football was essential feudal in nature, and the actual players were treated like serfs and paid barely a living wage. I loved the book, and I don’t even like football. j ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/28 "2023-08-19T23:20:42Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Baseball and golf own this category when it comes to major sports. That’s true … if you aren’t aware that other countries play sports. And hat’s off to @Wallaby for casting a stone in defiance. From the reference library on the topic of cricket: Days in the Sun - Neville Cardus Beyond a Boundary - CLR James Concerning Cricket - John Arlott The Summer Game - Gideon Haigh The Unquiet Ones - Osman Samiuddin Rain Men - Marcus Berkmann ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782/29 "2023-08-19T23:44:36Z")
**The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America** by Joe Posnanski. Written by Posnanski when he was still at the Kansas City Star, it covers roughly a year that he spent tagging along with Buck O’Neil as he traveled around the country promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-sports-books-period/421782.md?page=1)