Hey everyone.

In one of my college history classes we're doing research on a historical topic of our choice. I'm leading a group writing a 25 page paper on the rise and fall of baseball in the US.

What are some baseball books you've either read or heard of that would do a good job telling the history of professional baseball?

I'm lazy, so I'd probably start here.

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/

Good luck.

Try searching amazon.

The Bill James' abstracts have tons of material on older players.

Bill Veeck's book, "Veeck as in Wreck" has alot of stuff on promotion of the game and is a very entertaining read as well.

There are tons of biographies out there, maybe just pick one from each 20 year span and glean some stuff from each?

Thanks so far.

Anthony, the reason I didn't just do the obvious amazon search is that I wanted endorsement from someone who I trust for an opinion. Thanks for the ignorant comment though.

I know that there's a talk in baseball now bout the retirement a Jackie Robinsons number and that other guys number (some other race, cant quite member it)
...
Theres a debate on if they should retire the other guys number across the league also
...
Jackie Robinsons daughter is really getting it in the mix. The press is pretty much making her seem biased in her opinion not to let the other guys number retire like her dads did

Thanks so far.

Anthony, the reason I didn't just do the obvious amazon search is that I wanted endorsement from someone who I trust for an opinion. Thanks for the ignorant comment though.



There are uer on amazon too.




anytime.

Jethro,

Any of Rob Neyer's book are informative.

There is a great book by Larry Ritter called "The Glory of Their Times." It gives you a great look at how the early players of the century created the fan fare that allowed baseball to be what it was early on.

Eight Men Out- How it hurt basball with scandal. While at the same time provided it with a commishoner who took no shit and shaped the modern game.

Books about the1927 Murderer's row Yankee's and Babe Ruth show how one team, and one man changed the American lexicon forever.

David Halberstam has written couple great baseball books that helps explain why fans fall in love with baseball.

Baseball's great experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy: shows how intergration changed baseball.

Ball Four while not a work of genius, helps illustrate how the decline of baseball began in terms of public perception exposing the reality of the players being mortals.

There are several good books that show how economics influenced baseball when the Dodgers and Giants moved west. This also began the disenfranchised relationship with fans and owners.

Free Agency and Competitive Balance in Baseball by Ronald Cox shows how Curtis Flood and the lack of the reserve clause changed the scope of baseball.

From your descriptions, I think Ball Four will actually help me out quite a bit on this topic. I got the 9 video baseball series by Ken Burns now and it's proving to be a goldmine, but the copyright is 1994 - so it was right before the downfall of baseball (at least when it happened in my mind - starting with the 94 strike and no World Series)

Anthony, I know there are user reviews, but they are random people that I don't know from a hole in the wall. The users on here at least give me a sense of who they are so I can decide if I trust their judgement. On Amazon it could be the author's brother or publicist for all I know.

I know, i'm just fucking with you ;)


I wish I could recommend something to you, but I never read anything but the sport pages.

25 pages??????




HOLY SHIT. How much time do you get?

25 pages??????




HOLY SHIT. How much time do you get?

Wait till you write your 10-15 page first research paper in high school, and only have about 2 weeks to do it, and then you wait until the weekend before its due... and yea, loads of fun.

Jethro, Ball Four's a great book, very entertaining, but it's from the seventies so i don't know if it's the same "downfall" you're thinking of.

I read Ball Four as a teenager, maybe I need to check it out again.

Jethro, Ball Four's a great book, very entertaining, but it's from the seventies so i don't know if it's the same "downfall" you're thinking of.

I agree that it is not ultimate "downfall" of basball. However that book exposing the true nature of the lockeroom and its players, along with the relocation of franchises, followed by Free Agency starting in the 70's, the growing drug problem in the late 70's early 80's, the collusion in the 80's, and the growing salaries of the late 80's -90's, were the contributing factors that caused the downfall following the strike and cancelling of the WS.

People no longer viewed players a heroes but greedy millionaires who wanted more. That was not true of baseball in this country prior to the the mid 70's and after. It has been said that the 72 Pirates were the last championship of the golden era of baseball.

Agreed, I just think that Jethro misunderstood what you meant, since he was talking about copyrights after 1994.

I'v eordered the updated Ball Four, called Ball Four: The Final Pitch. Hopefully that has a bit more update. I hadn't heard of the other before, but it sounded like it had been more recent.

It's interesting how much baseball survived through in the early years - stuff far worse than 94 - but people didn't have the alternatives back then. After 94, they would have to soon deal with a certain Mr. Jordan giving up on the game and unretiring (for the first time) and it was too much to have McGwire and Sosa bring it back the way Babe did after the Black Sox scandal.