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Baseball Books with a Fenway Focus

Angell, Roger
Late Innings: A Baseball Companion
Articles originally published in the author’s column, “The Sporting Scene” in the New Yorker, 1977-1981. 796.357 Ang (Main)

Geist, William
Little League Confidential: One Coach’s Completely Unauthorized Tale of Survival
Geist reveals the ups and downs (well, mostly downs) of coaching a team sponsored by a local beauty salon. 796.357 Gei (Main)

Golenbock, Peter
7: The Mickey Mantle Novel
A fictional memoir inspired by the life of the iconic baseball star places a surprised late Mantle in heaven, where he confesses the truth about how he hurt his loved ones, alienated his fans, succumbed to alcoholism, and otherwise fell short of deserving the adulation directed toward him throughout his career.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns
Wait Till Next Year
Memoir of the author’s life and her parents: her mother who instilled in her the love of books and her father who taught her the joy of baseball. B Goodwin (Main), Audiobook B Goodwin 2 cass. (West)

Halberstam, David
Summer of ‘49
The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League, and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season. 796.357 Hal (Main & West)

Halberstam, David
The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship
A moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the book is the friendship of these four very different men -- Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams -- who remained close for more than sixty years. 796.357 Hal (West), BCD 796.357 Hal (West)

Harris, Mark|
Bang the Drum Slowly
A poignant portrayal of professional ballplayers' lives on and off the field during the sport's golden years in the 1950's. YA PB Har (Main)

Honig, Donald
The Plot to Kill Jackie Robinson
In 1946, a racist determines that he will not let Jackie Robinson play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but Joe Tinker, a New York Daily News sportswriter, is impressed by Robinson's behavior.

King, Stephen
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
When a 9-year-old girl becomes lost on a hike on the Appalachian Trail, she relies on her courage and faith, as she imagines her hero, baseball pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her. Fic Kin (Main & West)

Kinsella, W.P.
Shoeless Joe
Ray Kinsella's fanatic love of baseball drives him to build a baseball stadium in his corn field and kidnap the author, J.D. Salinger, and bring him to a baseball game. YA PB Kin (Main), Fic Kin (West)

Lupica, Mike
Wild Pitch
Washed-out pitcher Charlie Stoddard is called back to the majors after the Red Sox lose two starting pitchers, but he hopes to turn around his personal life as well--a much more difficult challenge. Fic Lup (West)

Malamud, Bernard
The Natural
A girl shoots Roy Hobbs, 19, at the beginning of his promising baseball career. Fic Mal (West), YA PB Mal Reading List (Main)

Massarotti, Tony and John Harper
A Tale of Two Cities: the 2004 Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant
Respected baseball writers John Harper (New York Daily News) and Tony Massarotti (Boston Herald) chronicle the Yankees and Red Sox in parallel story lines through the summer of 2004. The authors take you behind the scenes with the teams, cities, and media during one of the most intense baseball seasons in history. YA 796.357 Mas Summer (Main & West)

Ortiz, David
Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits
In his memoir, the man affectionately known as "Big Papi" recounts his life from growing up in an impoverished area of the Dominican Republic to his ascension in Boston. Ortiz discusses, in detail, his historic and record-setting performances as a member of the Red Sox, his exploding popularity, the challenges of playing in Boston, and life in the Red Sox clubhouse. B Ortiz (Main)

Parker, Robert
Double Play
In 1947, as Jackie Robinson breaks the major league baseball color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Joseph Burke, a World War II veteran and survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to be Robinson's bodyguard. Mys Par (Main)

Piercy, Marge
Storm Tide
A minor league baseball player who returns to his small hometown on Cape Cod makes a bid for political office, finds himself torn between two women, and witnesses a horrible tragedy. Fic Pie (Main)

Pilek, Eugena
Cooperstown
The close-knit community of 1979 Cooperstown, New York is shaped by its members' faith, family values, and devotion to baseball until the construction of a baseball theme park brings in modern levels of commercialism and tests their old-world way of life.

Ryan, Bob
When Boston Won the World Series: A Chronicle of Boston’s Remarkable Victory in the First Modern World Series of 1903.
Bob Ryan, sportswriter for the Boston Globe, tells the compelling tale of the creation of the modern World Series in 1903, wherein the frontrunners of the upstart American League (the Boston Americans, officially renamed the "Red Sox" in 1907) defeated the champions of the established National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates in an epic post-season series of games that would set the standard for all future Word Series. 796.357 Rya (Main)

Shaugnessy, Dan
Fenway, Expanded and Updated: A Biography in Words and Pictures
Fenway Park is the most famous ballpark—and arguably stadium—in all of sports. From the ominous Green Monster, to the notorious cramped seats (including the lone red seat that marks Ted Williams's record-setting longest home run), to the hand-operated scoreboard (if only those walls could talk), Fenway Park has inspired more lavish praise and outrageous comparison than any American sports arena in history. An update of the 2000 edition. 796.357 Sha (Main)

Staten, Vince
Why Is the Foul Pole Fair?: Answers to the Baseball Questions Your Father Hoped You’d Never Ask
Amaze and dazzle your friends with these baseball anecdotes.796.357 Sta (West)

JK 5/07