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The Fan, by Peter
Abrahams. Warner Books, 1995.
Terrifying story of what happens when the barrier
between idolater and idol is broken.
Strike Zone, by
Jim Bouton. Viking, 1994.
The biggest game of the season is seen through the
eyes of 1) an oddball pitcher getting the break of his career and 2) an umpire-whose
own Major League hopes were dashed long ago-officiating his last game.
If I Never Get Back,
by Darryl Brock. Crown, 1990.
A fantasy featuring time travel, Mark Twain, a political
conspiracy and baseball's first all-professional team-the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
The Greatest Slump of All
Time, by David Carkeet. Harper & Row, 1984.
They are the best team in baseball-so why are they
all totally depressed?
Play For a Kingdom,
by Thomas Dyja. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1997.
In the midst of the bloody Civil War, soldiers from
North & South meet for a series of games on the battlefield as their armies
collide on the battlefield.
Screwball, by David
Ferrell. Morrow, 2003.
With the addition of amazing pitcher Ron Kane to its line-up,
it seems as if the Boston Red Sox will FINALLY have a chance at a World Series
title. But a disturbing pattern begins to emerge: wherever the team plays, a
killer strikes. Is an obsessed fan detremined to break the "Curse of the
Bambino" responsible for the carnage? Or does the madman wear a Red Sox
uniform? [Note: who knew the Sox would actually win the big one?]
Scooter, by Mick Foley. Knopf,
2005.
For better and for worse, the life of Bronz-born
Scooter Riley (named, much to his dismay for infielder Phil Rizzuto) is shaped
by his cop father's obsession with baseball and the New York Yankees.
Spirit of the Season, by
Heather Graham. Delacorte, 1993.
A young widow raising three children in a dilapidated
Victorian takes her orphaned 9-year old nephew into her home and tries to help
him through his Little League tryouts. Complicating matters is Tim Yeagher,
her recent flame, who wants to get her back and who, it so happens, is the coach
of the team. Looks like it's up to Babe Ruth to orchestrate a happy ending.
The New York Yanquis,
by Bill Granger. Arcade, 1995.
George Brememhaven, owner of the Yankees, stuns
the baseball world by replacing his high-salaried stars with a roster of baseball-loving
Cubans.
Bang the Drum Slowly,
by Mark Harris. Knopf, 1956.
Two baseball players, one a star pitcher and the
other a hapless catcher about to be cut from the team, form an unlikely friendship
when the former discovers that the latter is dying.
7,000 Clams, by
Lee Irby. Doubleday, 2004.
In 19s0s America, a down-on-his-luck bootlegger
comes into possession of an IOU for $7000 signed by Babe Ruth. He then travels
to St. Petersburg, Florida, where the Yankees are about to begin spring training,
in order to get teh babe to pay off on the debt.
All the Stars Came Out That Night,
by Kevin King. Dutton, 2005.
Famed gossip columnist Walter Winchell tells the
story of the epic 1934 match-up that pitted Henry Ford's bankrolled all-white,
non-Jewish baseball team consisiting of stars like Lou Gehrig and up-and-comers
like Joe DiMaggio and coached by recent World Series winning coach Dizzy Dean,
against Satchel Paige's all-black team that sported the likes of Josh Gibson,
Cool Papa Bell & Turkey Stearns.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy,
by W. P. Kinsella. Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
Gideon Clarke is determined to prove that in 1908
the World Champion Chicago Cubs played an exhibition game against the amateurs
of the Iowa Baseball Confederacy-a game that lasted 2000 innings.
Shoeless Joe, by
W. P. Kinsella. Ballantine, 1982.
"If you build it, he will come." Thus does Ray Kinsella
construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield to await the "return"
of his disgraced hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson. In the meantime, he kidnaps reclusive
author, J. D. Salinger, and takes him to a ballgame at Fenway Park.
Magic Time, by
W. P. Kinsella. Voyageur, 2001.
Ballplayer Mike Houle's career is on the skids until
his agent offers him a second chance in the Iowa Cornbelt League. Things turn
around for him, only there seems to be more to the odd little town of Grand
Mound and its fabulous baseball team than meets the eye.
Changing Pitches,
by Steve Kluger. St. Martin's, 1984.
He's 36 and seems to be washed up as a pitcher,
but then Scott MacKay develops a couple of new pitches and is horrified to find
himself falling in love with his new catcher.
Last Days of Summer,
by Steve Kluger. Avon, 1998.
Kluger scores another hit with this coming-of-age
fable about future sportswriter, Joey Margolis, and his improbable relationship
with Giants' rookie sensation, Charlie Banks.
The Dreyfus Affair,
by Peter Lefcourt. Random House, 1992.
In the middle of a pennant race, Randy Dreyfus,
a happily married All-Star shortstop, falls in love with his second baseman.
The Rabbi of Swat,
by Peter Levine. Michigan State Univ., 1999.
Against the wishes of his father Morrie Ginsberg
signs a contract to play baseball for the NY Giants. Based upon the early career
of the Giants' first Jewish pitcher.
The Year I Owned the Yankees,
by Sparky Lyle and David Fisher. Bantam, 1990.
A book only an ex-Yankee could write. George Steinbrenner
has been given the boot and the new owner of the Bronx Bombers is that legendary
flake-on-the-grass, Sparky Lyle. Will baseball ever be the same?
The Natural, by
Bernard Malamud. 1952
Roy Hobbes comes out of the west with his bat "Wonderboy"
to play for the New York Knights. But there is a dark secret in his past and
forces are determined that the Knights will not win the Pennant.
The Heavenly World Series,
by Frank O'Rourke. C&G, 2002.
Powerful, poignant, and mystical stories of post-WWII
ballplayers and the game they loved.
Double Play, by
Robert B. Parker. GPPS, 2004.
Ex-marine Joseph Burke, whose life fell apart after
being wounded during WWII, is hired by Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to act
as bodyguard for Jackie Robinson as he prepares to break the color barrier in
major league baseball.
Cooperstown, by
Eugenia Pilek. S&S, 2005.
In 1979, the lives of the citizens of the close-knit
community of Cooperstown, NY--where baseball is considered a religion--is rocked
by a proposed basebal theme park.
The 1898 Base-Ball Fe-As-Ko:
A Humorous Baseball Novel, by Randall Beth Platt. Catbird, 2000.
Royal Leckner, his wife E.M., and Leviticus and
Lou, the mentally out-of-sorts owners of the Four Arrows Ranch, have lassoed
themselves a struggling baseball team. They are depending on the team to save
the ranch, but getting them ready for the big time makes breaking a bronco look
like child's play. In the course of a long winter's training the team and its
owners encounter obstacles such as E.M.'s conniving half-sister, her jailbird
father, a past baseball scandal, and the team's ruthless opponents. The team
is scheduled to play the pennant-winning Boston Beaneaters in a game that will
decide everyone's futures.
The Curious Case of Sidd
Finch, by George Plimpton. Macmillan, 1987.
A burnt-out writer befriends a pitching phenomenon
who throws a truly otherworldly fastball.
The Cuban Prospect,
by Brian Shawver. Overlook, 2003.
Having watched his own career as a baseball player
end in failure, minor league scout Dennis Birch accepts the challenge of smuggling
a talented pitcher out of Cuba in the hope of al least coming close in his life
to greatness.
Hoopla, by Harry
Stein. 1983.
A novel exploring the dark underside of baseball (the 1919
Black Sox Scandal) in an era when people still believed in heroes.
Baseball Blues, by C. W. Tooke. Doubleday, 2003.
A promising rookie catcher and a jaded, downtrodeen reporter strike a friendship and rise to the tops of their
respective professions together. But faced with the cyncial, "big business" aspects of the game of baseball, both struggle with the
issues that pit professional success against personal happiness.
Michael Bowen
Fielder's Choice. St. Martin's, 1991.
When an acquaintance is murdered at a Mets game,
Thomas Andrew Curry, a wealthy free-lance lawyer for the family firm & his baseball-saavy
wife, Sandrine, chase the clues that they hope will lead them to the killer.
Robert Elias
The Deadly Tools of Ignorance. Rounder, 2005.
Debs Kafka, who is working towards his PhD in Criminalology
(although he still harbors a lifelong dream of playing big league baseball)
turns sleuth when his Department Chairman is murdered.
Robert B. Parker
Mortal Stakes. Houghton Mifflin, 1975.
Boston P.I. Spenser is hired by the Red Sox to see
whether a star pitcher is throwing games.
Lisa Saxton
Caught in a Rundown. Scribner, 1997.
Sassy Jewel Averick and docile Dee Sweet have nothing
in common but major-league baseball player husbands. They make for an unlikely
but loveable pair of amateur sleuths.
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