Get Ready for MLB Opening Day with These Books
Opening day 2024 is here! However, unless you are a Rangers fan, you were probably disappointed with your team in 2023. (In Chicago, we got a double dose of disappointment.) Perhaps you aren’t hopeful for the 2024 season. If that’s the case, why not dip into baseball’s storied past? After all, baseball is all about stories. You can indulge in your love of the game without dwelling on past defeats. We’ve got stories of good guys and bad guys, small ball and stadiums, and even some sabermetrics. Enjoy!
The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America
David Rapp
“This volume should appeal to baseball fans and history buffs alike. And the fact that Rapp writes very well adds to that appeal.”—SABR’s The Inside Game
“Vividly details the lives of all three players, weaving together how they converged in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century. Along the way, Rapp tells the story of a changing America that became suddenly and almost inexplicably gripped with baseball fever.”—Chicago Magazine
The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines
Stuart Shea
“One of the best books ever written about the Cubs, their home, and the fans who flock there to watch them, win or lose.”—Rolling Stone
“Deserves the location of honor on the nightstand of each and every Cubs fan, to be read a chapter or two at a time between Opening Day and the World Series.”—Chicago Tribune
The Autobiography of Bill Veeck
Bill Veeck with Ed Linn
With a New Foreword by Bob Verdi
“One of baseball’s most famous—and outspoken—owners tells his story in Veeck—as in Wreck. Veeck recounts his many years with the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox, among other teams, and the friends and enemies he made along the way.”—New York Times
“Folksy, self‑deprecating, outrageous, and famously one‑legged, Veeck was a burr in the bottom of major‑league owners whose pockets were as deep as their hands were short.”—Chicago Tribune
Leo Durocher with Ed Linn
“Mr. Durocher has somehow managed to be involved with more than his fair share of baseball’s mythic moments and situations. . . . [This] is Leo Durocher talking straight as a low line drive.”—New York Times
“If you love the old baseball stories . . . if you like the romance and swagger and tough talk of baseball in the pre‑corporate skybox era, this is fun.”—Hardball Times
A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and Its Statistics
John Thorn, Pete Palmer, with David Reuther
With a New Introduction by the Authors and a Foreword by Keith Law
“As grateful as I was for the publication of The Hidden Game of Baseball when it first showed up on my bookshelf, I’m even more grateful now. It’s as insightful today as it was then. And it’s a reminder that we haven’t applauded Thorn and Palmer nearly loudly enough for their incredible contributions to the use and understanding of the awesome numbers of baseball.”—Jayson Stark, The Athletic
Find all of these books on our website or at your favorite bookseller.