What's a good baseball book for a kid?

Little Banjo, six years old, is developing an infatuation with major league baseball.

He played Peewee ball this spring/summer, and was rather good at it, and we head up to Prospect Park several times a week to play catch and mess around with the bat.

This positive experience with sports, coupled with his prodigious mental power (well-exercised by Pokemon, et al), is leading him into wanting to know EVERYTHING ABOUT BASEBALL AS IT IS CURRENTLY PLAYED.

Now, I ain’t watched a major league game since the LAST strike, so I’m not the best source of knowledge for him. Does anyone know of a good book, picture book, comic book, magazine, whatever, that would guide a six-year-old through the maze of contemporary major league ball?

It’s a bit of a heavy tome, but “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Baseball” by Johnny Bench should cover all your baseball needs for years to come, especially as he gets older and needs to know the weirder stuff like balks, dropped third pitches, etc. I believe Joe Morgan wrote “Baseball for Dummies” which is probably pretty similar. I’m guessing you can’t go wrong with either.

Well, it isn’t “everything about baseball as it is currently played,” But this is an absolutely gorgeous picture book - plus there is a great deal of weird baseball information in the margins, if you look for it.

Damn. I know nothing about the sport, but I do have a copy of “The Yogi Book - I really didn’t say everything I said!” by Yogi Berra. Hilarious quotes :slight_smile: Although 6 might be a little young for it, there are a few he might like. My father (not a baseball fan either, just an English/expressions/lame joke fan) used to say some of them to me when I was really young, like “It ain’t over til it’s over”, “Pair up in threes” (I have two siblings - it was fair!) and “90% of the game is half mental” (when I was old enough to understand fractions, I calculated that (45%)).

Just to get some good Daddy-son traditions there :slight_smile:

How about something like the Baseball Register? It’s a book that basically covers the stats, bio info, etc of all of the players. That way, if he has a favorite player or team he can look up what they have done in the past and learn about them (and about what certain stats mean.)

I was a junkie for this stuff as a kid and always loved books with stats and season previews. I actually got some of the best joy from reading books from the 50’s and 60’s just to see what the experts had to say (things like “This Mays kid has some good defensive skills but may need to improve the bat speed to win an outfield spot.”)

There probably isn’t one single volume that will cover everything, especially for a six-year-old. The game is so old and the nuances so complex that while it takes a short time to grasp the basics, it takes a lifetime to appreciate them.

I would suggest an extended regimen of exposure to a variety of sources, such as actual game viewing and discussion of the analysis. I would also include Ken Burns’s documentary and the accompanying book (very good history, not only of the sport, but of the country during the late 19th and all of the 20th Centuries). Also, Tim McCarver’s The Perfect Season. He analyzes the 1998 season, the events and the outstanding players, and gives insight into why that season was so good for the sport and the country. It is, of course, a book for adult fans, but you can filter it for him, and highlight the aspects that will teach him the subtleties of the game.

Thanks for all the tips. The Baseball Register sounds pretty good, if a bit dry…he’s a good reader, for a six-year-old, but he’s still six.

I wasn’t joking around with the above Pokemon reference. Kids who’ve memorized all those damn cards are going to be well on their way to becoming pro sports stat junkies.

I got him the DK book on baseball yesterday, which he found kind of interesting, but had more history than he wanted to assimilate. He doesn’t wanna know from Honus Wagner and Lou Gehrig and Sandy Koufax; he wants the LATEST NEWS. Maybe I should just hand him the sports pages.

We took in a Brooklyn Cyclones game last weekend, and have tix to the (bleccch) Yankees next week. The things I do for that kid.

Just to be completely obvious, if he likes Pokemon cards, baseball cards are the next logical step. My son (9) assembled a tabbed and color-coded Pokemon album. It was kept on the headboard of his bed. Then, something happened–the wind shifted–and he gave all of his Pokemon cards to his little sister so he could use the album for baseball cards.

There are (again I’m telling you the obvious here) two popular series of fictional sports books, including many baseball titles. Unfortunately, I don’t much like either of them. My husband remembers the Chip Hilton books fondly, but my son never got into them, and they are dated (despite the fact that the old version Hardy Boys are cool–go figger). The Matt Christopher books also didn’t interest my son, and they have an annoying moral overtone too.

There is a book called Baseball Fever about a NY kid who loves baseball but who’s father thinks he should be playing chess. That was pretty good.

The Goof that Won the Pennant is a wonderful, wonderful book. I uhm…permanently borrowed it from my 5th grade classroom back in the day. It’s got a bit of the “Bad News Bears” feel to it - minus the alcoholism. It also has an explanation of the major league pennant game on which the final play in the book is based.

It’s not really an instruction book by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a wonderful read.

Does your son play in the SFX league? Just curious, I grew up in Park Slope and was one of three girls in the league at that time! (early 80s) But they gave me special girl trophies with chix playing ball at the end of the year. I just found 2 of them in a box, and have them prominantly displayed in my apartment.

I collected baseball cards and, baseball stickers which actually I enjoyed more (you got this booklet and you’d try to fill in all the sticker blanks… with stickers you’d buy in packs… kinda like stamp collecting I guess. ) I believe I even completed a booklet once, dang that was exciting. My brother was more into the cards… We really dug the special giveaway days held by the stadiums… I know we had a Yankee batting helmet apiece and at least one Mets helmet too.

back to the OP… what about movies? The Bad News Bears, Angels in the Outfield… Hardball? Also, I’m not sure but I think that there are new books being written in the"Chip Hilton" series… so perhaps you’ll have some luck with those.

I’m thinking if he’s into all the current players and statistics, etc he might enjoy a subscription to a baseball magazine. My brother used to get something called Baseball Digest (do they still make it?) and it was a monthly that had all the latest info on performance, rankings, trades, injuries, etc. It was sorta small and pulpy so I don’t think it had much in the way of pictures/illustrations. I believe there’s a Sports Illustrated for kids specificly now, and be sure to check out the MLB site in case there’s a kids section. Also, if you are near one, most major league teams have a kids club he can join and get perks and giveaway type things. (Some even have “meet the players” type promotions, etc.) That might be a fun treat for him.

Jim (the Walking Encyclopedia of Baseball) suggests “The Illustrated Rules of Baseball” by Jeffrey Stern; he also seconds “The Idiot’s Guide…”, and his third suggestion is www.mlb.com (the home page of Major League Baseball). But, since there won’t be any baseball in two weeks, it’s all kinda moot. Then you can have fun explaining to Little Banjo why $3,000,000 per year just isn’t enough to coax somebody into playing baseball for a living.

While it’s certainly no “current events” book, there is no better child-oriented sports novel than The Basement Baseball Club. For any kid with a love of the game, this will become an instant favorite.

Baseball Digest is a monthly and the articles aren’t too taxing, but the material is usually a bit out of date.

You could try a Baseball Weekly subscription, but that’s morphing into Sports Weekly next month and will start having football, basketball, and hockey (and other sports) coverage in it.

Yeah! He was on the Dalmatians team last spring, sponsored by Squad One, the firehouse on Union Street!

We’re just wrapping up Edward Eager’s The Time Garden and are ready for a new “chapter book” for out-loud Dad-time reading, so I though I’d pick up a copy of Konigsburg’s About the B’Nai Bagels.* While we’ve got the thread going, does everyone agree that this is a wise choice, and what other baseball fiction would be appropriate?

  • Banjo’s older sister Pianola had other Konigsburg novels read to her by Pop around age six…From the Mixed-Up Files and Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth. But those were girly Konigsburg novels.

When he gets a little older, read him Year the Senators Won the Penant." It is the book that “Damn Yankees” is based on.

“'Cos you gotta have heart
Lots and lots and lots of heart…”

And the name of the book is actually “The Year the Yankees Lost the Penant.” Has anyone seen my cup of coffee?

In other words, he’s a statistics wonk? Or is he just more in tune with the “now”? One of the beautiful things about the game is that it’s still pretty much played the way it was in Wagner’s and Gehrig’s (not to mention Keeler’s and Spalding’s) day. A 6-4-3 double play is still a 6-4-3 double play.

Although, I suppose that the history will come, as long as he’s finding an interest in the game as it’s played now.

A wonderful book for both of you (especially if you read it to him) is The Glory of Their Times. It examines the greats and near-greats of the teens, 20s and 30s in their own words.

It may well be out of print now and it might be a little advanced for the lad if he is asked to read it on his own. But it is sure to be in used book stores and it will be a joy to read together.