There are two seasons--baseball season and the rest of the year. (A. Bartlett Giamatti)
                                            

On New Year's Eve, 1972, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death when his plane crashed while attempting to deliver earthquake relief to Nicaragua. Journalist Maraniss brings the great baseball player back to life, that rare athlete who rose above sports to become a symbol of larger themes. Born in rural Puerto Rico, Clemente went on to play eighteen seasons in the major leagues, becoming their greatest Latino player.

Pulitzer-Prize-winner Richard Ben Cramer chronicles Joe DiMaggio's complex, inspiring, and sometimes tragic life, including his relationships off the field with Marilyn Monroe and the mob.  Cramer's book generated, and continues to generate, controversy with its insightful examination of the influence of the media and the nature of celebrity in American society. If you want to know one of the century's great sports stars, this is a good place to start.

Sandy Koufax had the five greatest consecutive seasons of any pitcher in major-league history from 1962 through 1966. An arthritic pitching arm led to his retirement in 1966, and, except for a brief stint as a broadcaster, Koufax shunned the spotlight. Award-winning sports writer Jane Leavy updates Koufax's legacy with hundreds of interviews with former teammates, opponents, friends and family members. Koufax was a hero to a generation on the basis of his pitching accomplishments. This biography will earn him further respect for a life well lived.

Jackie Robinson doubly blessed baseball with his skills and his courage and is regarded today as one of the greatest Americans of all time. This biography, by award-winning literary historian Arnold Rampersad, reveals his athletic determination and his integrity when confronted with the racism of 1940s America. Rampersad's biography marks the 50th anniversary of the year Robinson integrated Major League baseball.

World-famous for his hitting prowess, Babe Ruth transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero. In this extraordinary biography, sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage and the glory days with the Yankees to his later years, Creamer has drawn a classic portrait of an American original.

Leigh Montville, a former sports writer for the Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated, is an admitted Red Sox and Williams fanatic. He traces Williams' initial signing as a teenager with the Boston Red Sox in 1938, his record-setting batting averages, his two-time service as a fighter pilot, and his love-hate relationship with fans and the media. For his focused, scientific approach to hitting, Williams is unmatched in the history of the game.

Roger Angell's favorite pieces on baseball are collected together in this volume.  Included are several previously unpublished stories, as well as profiles of great players, past and present, and other works from 1962 spring training to the 2002 World Series.  According to Newsweek, "Roger Angell is our best writer on baseball." Not to be outdone, Time asserts, "Angell's passion for baseball is enough to convert the heathen."

This insightful diary by pitcher Jim Brosnan recounts his struggles on the mound for the 1959 St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. Jocks weren't supposed to write books, but this college-educated ballplayer (uncommon in the 1950's) wrote a very good one that started the tradition of the baseball player autobiography. Brosnan's mild irreverence annoyed the game's overseers in an era when ballplayers earned modest paychecks and rarely popped off. Readers will also enjoy Ball Four, Jim Bouton's funny and more combative diary of the 1969 season which followed the model of Brosnan's pioneering memoir.  

If you had the inside knowledge of a baseball pro, who would you pick for your fantasy "dream" team?  Former Astros coach Larry Dierker gives us his picks for "fantasy baseball" teams, both the underdogs and a "dream" team, from the players he has known and worked with throughout his forty-year career; his criteria--experience, leadership skills, and personality.

Pat Jordan recalls the three years he spent playing bush-league ball while trying to develop his skills in hopes of becoming a star, "a painful memoir and self-analysis of a young, aspiring baseball player who failed to make the majors" (Library Journal). Mike: "The best account I have ever read of life in the minors."

Travel with author Joe Posnanski and Negro Leagues champion Buck O'Neil as they cross the country revisiting baseball's past and the sites of O'Neil's history-making career. Together they explore the many challenges baseball has overcome and recapture their love of the game.

How is baseball--the game and the culture--different in Japan?  Robert Whiting looks at the history, rituals, fans, and teams of Japanese professional baseball and describes what it reveals about Japanese culture and Japanese-U.S. relations.

The classic history of the 1919 World Series and the efforts of eight White Sox players to throw the game.  Eliot Asinof uncovers the scandal from the first meetings between White Sox players and gamblers to the 1921 trial and its aftermath.

When Only the Ball Was White was first published in 1970, Satchel Paige had not yet been inducted into the Hall of Fame and there was a general ignorance even among sports enthusiasts of the rich tradition of the Negro Leagues. This book reminds us that what was often considered the "Golden Age" of baseball was also the era of Jim Crow. It is a book that must be read by anyone hoping to not only understand the story of baseball, but the story of America.  Mike: "The book that started a resurgence of interest in the Negro leagues."

The "national" in "national pastime" is a relative term in Yale literature professor and former semi-pro catcher Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria's meticulous examination of baseball in the land of his birth. A respected scholar, Echevarria is also a fan, and he manages to weave both objectivity and appreciation throughout a carefully researched and multi-layered narrative that draws from numerous first-person reminiscences.  Library Journal: "a definitive cultural history of Cuban baseball from 1860 to the present."  Fred: "A book that changed my life."

"At a point in life when one is through with boyhood, but has not yet discovered how to be a man, it was my fortune to travel with the most marvelously appealing of teams." The first sentence of this masterpiece of sporting literature, first published in the early 1970s, sets its tone. Kahn, a Brooklyn native, recreates the magic of Ebbets field and the Dodgers in an inspiring history of the team that culminates with the exciting 1955 season.

Brad Snyder examines the landmark 1970s Supreme Court case between All-Star center fielder Curt Flood and Major League Baseball.  He  documents how Flood fought to play for the team of his choice at the cost of his career and placement in the Hall of Fame and in doing so, paved the way for future players to become free agents

The author chronicles a year in the life of New York City, gazing at the metropolis through the lens of the Yankees, exploring issues of race and crime and profliling Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Ed Koch, and Mario Cuomo, among others.  Cable sports network ESPN premieres an eight-part miniseries based on the book on July 9.

Offers a decade-by-decade look at baseball history, record-breaking achievements, rankings of the greatest players in each position, and essays on a host of baseball topics.

Looks at the history of every existing major league baseball team and provides a variety of team and player statistics.

Ray Kinsella's fanatic love of baseball drives him to build a baseball stadium in his corn field, kidnap the author, J.D. Salinger, and bring him to a baseball game.  Made into the film Field of Dreams in 1989.

Mark Harris passed away on May 30th at age 84 from complications related to Alzheimer's disease. His most acclaimed novel is a poignant portrayal of professional ballplayers' lives on and off the field during the sport's golden years in the 1950s. At the time of the novel's publication in 1956, the New York Times reviewer stated, "Bang the Drum Slowly makes wonderful reading - whether one hates baseball or loves it. . . . It is awfully funny in parts, and laughter is rare enough on anybody's bookshelf."  Martha: "The one that is considered in the top 100 of all books."