The Best Baseball Books 2025

1. The 34-Ton Bat, (Hardcover)

An unorthodox history of baseball told through the enthralling stories of the game's objects, equipment, and characters. No sport embraces its wild history quite like baseball, especially in memorabilia and objects. Sure, there are baseball cards and team pennants. But there are also huge balls, giant bats, peanuts, cracker jacks, eyeblack, and more, each with a backstory you have to read to believe. In The 34-Ton Bat, Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin tells the real, unvarnished story of baseball through the lens of all the things that make it the game that it is. Rushin weaves these rich stories -- from ballpark pipe organs played by malevolent organists to backed up toilets at Ebbets Field -- together in their order of importance (from most to least) for an entertaining and compulsive read, glowing with a deep passion for America's Pastime. The perfect holiday gift for casual fans and serious collectors alike, The 34-Ton Bat is a true heavy hitter.

The 34-Ton Bat, (Hardcover) Author: Little Brown and Company ISBN: 9780316200936 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2013-10-15 Page Count: 352

2. The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse Hardcover

9780804190015. Pre-owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 384. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 384 p. Contains: Illustrations. -With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions---

The New York Times Bestseller With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions. It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions. How did a team composed of unknown, young players and supposedly washed-up veterans come together to break the Curse of the Billy Goat? Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs' transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball. Beginning with Epstein's first year with the team in 2011, Verducci will show how Epstein went beyond "Moneyball" thinking to turn around the franchise. Leading the organization with a manual called "The Cubs Way," he focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry as well as statistics. To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs' bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and late-arrival game days to loosen up his team, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with Old School leadership to help his players find their edge. The Cubs Way takes readers behind the scenes, chronicling how key players like Rizzo, Russell, Lester, and Arrieta were deftly brought into the organization by Epstein and coached by Maddon to outperform expectations. Together, Epstein and Maddon proved that clubhouse culture is as important as on-base-percentage, and that intangible components like personality, vibe, and positive energy are necessary for a team to perform to their fullest potential. Verducci chronicles the playoff run that culminated in an instant classic Game Seven. He takes a broader look at the history of baseball in Chicago and the almost supernatural element to the team's repeated loses that kept fans suffering, but also served to strengthen their loyalty. The Cubs Way is a celebration of an iconic team and its journey to a World Championship that fans and readers will cherish for years to come.

3. We Played the Game: Memories of Baseball's Greatest Era (Hardcover) by Danny Peary, Lawrence S Ritter

Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 672. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 672 p. Contains: Illustrations. Here is a thrilling, nostalgia-filled and candid look inside the game of baseball-from the dugout to the field manager's office-by the men who made it all happen. Covering the years from 1947 to 1964, more than sixty players-from Hall of Famers to utility players and bench-warmers-offer firsthand memories, opinions and gripes, and tell the real stories behind baseball's most colorful decades. Fans can relive all of the great moments on and off the field through the eyes of those closest to the action, including: - Roger Maris's record sixty-first homer - Ted Williams's final at bat (a home run) - Eddie Waitkus being shot by a female fan (the premise for The Natural) - Joe DiMaggio's desire to meet Marilyn Monroe-and many, many more. From arguments with managers to encounters with groupies, from racial conflicts to salary negotiations, all of the key stories are here, including many not recorded elsewhere. What a joy-one of the best pure baseball books I've ever read, raved Larry King when this marvelous volume was first published in 1994.

Here is a thrilling, nostalgia-filled and candid look inside the game of baseball-from the dugout to the field manager's office-by the men who made it all happen. Covering the years from 1947 to 1964, more than sixty players-from Hall of Famers to utility players and bench-warmers-offer firsthand memories, opinions and gripes, and tell the real stories behind baseball's most colorful decades. Fans can relive all of the great moments on and off the field through the eyes of those closest to the action, including: - Roger Maris's record sixty-first homer - Ted Williams's final at bat (a home run) - Eddie Waitkus being shot by a female fan (the premise for The Natural) - Joe DiMaggio's desire to meet Marilyn Monroe-and many, many more. From arguments with managers to encounters with groupies, from racial conflicts to salary negotiations, all of the key stories are here, including many not recorded elsewhere. "What a joy-one of the best pure baseball books I've ever read," raved Larry King when this marvelous volume was first published in 1994.

4. Jump

Jump

long description is not available