Full Description
Each work, chosen with exquisite care by an expert, is analyzed and summarized. Its greatness as baseball literature, its place in the genre, its peculiarities, weaknesses, strengths, how the critics went for it--all are discussed in such a way, with quotations, that reading or browsing Shannon's book is equivalent to absorbing a rich history of the sport.
Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction deletexi
American Baseball I
American Baseball II
American Baseball III
The American Diamond delete 13
The Annotated Casey at the Bat delete 16
The Armchair Book of Baseball delete 21
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life delete 23
Ball Four delete 29
Bang the Drum Slowly delete 34
Baseball [photographs] delete 39
Baseball: A Historical Narrative
Baseball America
Baseball as I Have Known it
Baseball Between the Lines
The Baseball Encyclopedia
Baseball I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life
Baseball Is a Funny Game
Baseball When the Grass Was Real
Baseball's Best: The MVPs
Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson
Baseball's 100: A Personal Ranking
Beating the Bushes
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars
Bo: Pitching and Wooing
The Boys of Summer
The Bronx Zoo
Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
The Bush League
Can't Anybody Here Play the Game
The Celebrant
The Chrysanthemum and the Bat
Clemente!
A Day in the Bleachers
Destiny's Darlings
Diamonds Are Forever
Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball
Dollar Sign on the Muscle
Eight Men Out
A False Spring 160
Fan Poems
Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story
The Fireside Book of Baseball 174
The Second Fireside Book of Baseball 179
The Third Fireside Book of Baseball 182
Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion 186
The Glory of Their Times 190
Good Enough to Dream 195
The Great American Baseball Card...Book 198
The Great American Novel 202
The Hidden Game of Baseball 207
The Hot Stove League 211
How Life Imitates the World Series 214
I Don't Care if I Never Come Back 218
The Image of Their Greatness 221
Insider's Baseball 224
Invisible Men 228
It's Good to Be Alive 232
Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud 236
The Long Season 240
The Lords of Baseball 244
The Man Who Invented Baseball 248
Maybe I'll Pitch Forever 251
The Men in Blue 255
Mighty Casey: All-American 260
The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff 264
My Baseball Diary 268
My Life in Baseball 272
My Turn at Bat 275
The Natural 279
Nice Guys Finish Last 284
Nobody's Perfect 288
One for the Record: Hank Aaron 292
Only the Ball Was White 297
Out of Left Field: Willie Stargell 301
Out of My League 305
Pennant Race 310
The Pitcher 314
Sandlot Peanuts 317
Say It Ain't So, Joe!
A Season in the Sun 326
Shoeless Joe 332
Some Are Called Clowns 338
Stengel: His Life and Times 342
The Suitors of Spring 346
The Summer Game 350
Take Me Out to the Ballpark 356
A Thinking Man's Guide to Baseball 360
This Great Game 366
The Thrill of the Grass 369
Topps Baseball Cards 373
Ty Cobb 376
The Ultimate Baseball Book 382
The Umpire Strikes Back 386
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. 390
Veeck as in Wreck 394
Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues 400
The Way It Is 404
Why Time Begins on Opening Day 408
Willie's Time 412
The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant 416
You Know Me Al 422
Index 427
