An All-Star Lineup of Baseball Books

Back in the 1970s, football passed baseball as America’s most popular sport. But you might never know it from what you see at bookstores and libraries.

Major publishers traditionally have brought out better books about baseball than about football, which has no less drama. George Plimpton, the celebrated Paris Review editor, tried to explain it with what he called his “Small Ball Theory” of literature: The smaller the ball, the better the book.

Some critics disagree with Plimpton, but I’ve found his theory to hold more than a grain of truth: Every spring, when I was the book critic for Glamour and later for a large newspaper, I received from publishers more good books about baseball than about football.

I’d be hard-pressed to name 10 great books about football, much as I love the sport. But I’ve found great baseball titles in every category: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Over at @Medium, I write about the baseball books for adults or children that have made it into my literary Hall of Fame: a list that includes titles as different as pitcher Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, a diary-like account of his life on (and off) on the mound, and Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship, an award-winning account of Negro League baseball, illustrated with his own handsome pantings. You’ll find my full list, and why I chose the entries, in my @Medium story, “Take Me Out To the Bookstore.”