Recommended Baseball Fiction
NEW!
Some of these books can now be purchased through The Field of Dreams Bookstore --an Associate of Amazon.com
These lists were compiles by Peter "Doctor Baseball" C. Bjarkman,
Chairman of SABR's Latin American Committee and author of a comprehensive
study of baseball literature, The Immortal Diamond.
(These lists were compiled several years ago.)
- Carkeet, David: The Greatest Slump of All Time (1984)
- Charyn, Jerome: The Seventh Babe (1979)
- Coover, Robert: The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor (1968)
- Graham, John: Babe Ruth Caught In A Snowstorm (1973)
- Greenberg, Eric: The Celebrant (1983)
- Harris, Mark: The Southpaw
- Harris, Mark: Bang The Drum Slowly
- Herrin, Lamar: Rio Loja Ringmaster (1977)
- Kinsella, W.P.: Shoeless Joe (1982)
- Kinsella, W.P.: The Iowa Baseball Confederacy (1986)
- Malamud, Bernard: The Natural (1952)
- Roth, Philip: The Great American Novel (1973)
- Ardizzone, Tony: Heart of the Order (1986)
- Asinof, Eliot: Man On Spikes (1955)
- Bell, Marty: Breaking Balls (1979)
- Bowen, Michael: Can't Miss (1987)
- Brady, Charles: Seven Games In October (1979)
- Browne, Robert: The New AToms' Bombshell (1980)
- Originally published as The Last Man Is Out by Marvin Karlin
- Burch, Mark H.: Road Game (1986)
- Craig, John: All G.O.D.'s Children (1975)
- Craig, John: Chappie and Me (1979)
- Cronley, Jay: Screwballs (1980)
- DeAndrea, William: Five O'Clock Lightning (1982)
- Deford, Frank: Casey On The Loose (1989)
- Donohue, James F.: Spitballs & Holy Water (1977)
- Everett, Percival: Suder
- Frank, Morry: Every Young Man's Dream - Confessions of a Southern League Shortstop (1984)
- Geller, Michael: Major League Murder (1988)
- Gethers, Peter: Getting Blue (1987)
- Gordon, Alison: Dead Pull Hitter (1990)
- Gregorich, Barbara: She's On First (1987)
- Harris, Mark: A Ticket For A Seamstich
- Harris, Mark: It Looked Like Forever (1979)
- Hays, Donald: The Dixie Association (1984)
- Hemphill, Paul: Long Gone (1979)
- Honig, Donald: The Last Great Season (1979)
- Hough, John, Jr.: The Conduct of the Game (1986)
- Kahn, Roger: The Seventh Game (1982)
- Kluger, Steve: Changing Pitches (1984)
- Kowet, Don: The 7th Game (1977)
- Lardner, Ring: You Know Me Al (1960)
- Littlefield, Bill: The Prospect (1989)
- Mayer, Robert: The Grace of Shortstops (1984)
- McAlpine, Gordon: Joy in Mudville (1989)
- Morgenstein, Gary: The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees
- Morgenstein, Gary: Take Me Out To The Ballgame (1980)
- Neugeboren, Jay: Sam's Legacy (1974)
- Peuchner, Ray: A Grand Slam (1973)
- Platt, Kinn: The Screwball King Murders (1978)
- Plimpton, George: The Curious Case of Sidd Finch (1987)
- Pomeranz, Gary: Out At Home (1985)
- Quarrington, Paul: Home Game (1983)
- Rice, Damon: Seasons Past (1976)
- Ritz, David: The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back To Brooklyn (1981)
- Rothweiler, Paul R.: The Sensuous Southpaw (1976)
- Schiffer, Michael: Ballpark (1982)
- Small, David: Almost Famous (1983)
- Snyder, Don J.: Veterans Park (1987)
- Stansberry, Domenic: The Spoiler
- Stein, Harry: Hoopla (1983)
- Tannenbaum, Sylvia: Rachel, the Rabbi's Wife (1978)
- Willard, Nancy: Things Invisible To See (1984)
- Wolff, Miles, Jr.: Season of the Owl (1980)
OK, here's my own attempt to list some more recent works that are more than worthy of being added to these lists. (and a few earlier ones that I just like)
If you have reccommendations to add, please email me with them.
- Bauer, Brad: Hitting in the Clutch (2006)
- Billed as a Baseball book for the Maxim crowd, Hitting in the Clutch is a rowdy, crude, hilarious look at what really goes on inside the clubhouse and on and off the field among professional baseball players.
This books is a HOOT! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a fictional Ball Four, written during the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks season. Clutch, the fictional author of the book, and his buddies are a lot like high-school boys, always cracking one-liners, talking crude and looking for monkey. It may be fiction but I thoroughly believe a lot of it is likely to be the way some ballplayers really are (or do I just want to believe it?). As crude and rude as Clutch is, I found myself actually caring about him by the end of the book. It's one of the funniest books I've read in a while. Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and get a copy. You won't be sorry. Highly recommended!
- Bauer, Brad: Homering in the Clutch (2007)
- Bechard, Gorman: Balls (1995)
- Benjamin, Paul: Squeeze Play (1982)
- Bishop, Michael: Brittle Innings (1994)
- Bookbinder, Bernie: Out at the Old Ball Game (1995)
- Brashler, William: The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1973)
- Brock, Darryl: If I Never Get Back (1990)
- Cabral, Rick: The Pitch: The Adventures of Luther Woundup and His Magical Orange Ball (2004)
- Cartwright, Gene: I Never Played Catch With My Father (1995)
- Cook, Marshall: The Year of the Buffalo (1997)
- Cook, Marshall: Off Season: A Novel of Love, Faith and Minor League Baseball (2002)
- Evers, Crabbe: Bleeding Dodger Blue (1991)
- Evers, Crabbe: Murder in Wrigley Field (1991)
- Evers, Crabbe: Murderer's Row (1991)
- Evers, Crabbe: Fear In Fenway (1993)
- Evers, Crabbe: Tigers Burning (1994)
- Gardner, Martin, ed.: The Annotated Casey at the Bat (1967)
- Grant, Richard J.:The December Rose (1995)
- A wonderful story of a retired star who gets the chance to play again.
- Keifetz, Norman: The Sensation 1975)
- King, Kevin: All the Stars Came Out That Night (2005)
- Kinsella, WP: Magic Time (2002)
- Lasser, Scott: Battle Creek (2000)
- Looney, Mike: Heroes Are Hard To Find (2004)
- McAllister, Troon: The Kid Who Batted 1.000 (2002)
- Nemo, John: The King's Game (2006)
- Veteran pitcher Cody King takes the mound for Game Seven of the World Series unaware it will mark the final nine innings of his troubled existence. With each pitch, King confronts a past - from being abandoned by his teenage mother to fighting to keep his wife's love from fading away - filled with tragedy and talent. - from the book
I really enjoyed this book. It's structured much the same as Michael Shaara's For Love of the Game, but the content is quite different. Cody King is one of the greats and has taken the Warriors, perennial losers all the way to game 7 of the World Series. Intertwined with pitching the final game, he relives events of his very troubled past. The author definitely knows his baseball. The action is good and believable, but as with most good baseball fiction, it's about much more than baseball. I definitely recommend it!
- Newlin, Paul: It Had To Be A Woman (1979)
- Pomeranz, Gary: Out At Home (1985)
- Ross, Calvin: Aliens of Summer (1995)
- The Cleveland Indians are playing out of this world. Which is not surprising, considering not one of them was born in this solar system. The San Francisco Giants, on the other hand, are buried in last place. A man named Belteron wants to help them in the worst way, and he's come a long way to do it. In The Aliens of Summer, we discover that there's more than one way to play the game. By the end of the season, baseball may never be the same!
Baseball with a Science Fiction twist. Imagine baseball developing on a distant planet exactly as it did here on Earth - what could be more natural? This book drags just a bit at times, but is definitely worth staying with it. Mr. Ross may not have played much baseball himself but you wouldn't know it from reading this novel. It's got several very memorable characters and the baseball is very real and good. As I was finishing it, during the game scenes near the end, I was totally enthralled. I kept saying to my son, "This is GOOD!" I heartily recommend it!
- Sayles, John: Pride of the Bimbos (1975)
- Shaara, Michael: For Love of the Game (1991)
- Smith, H. Allen: Rhubarb (1946)
- Soos, Troy: Murder at Ebbets Field (1995)
- Soos, Troy: Murder at Fenway Park (1995)
- Soos, Troy: Hunting a Detroit Tiger (1997)
- Soos, Troy: Murder at Wrigley Field (1997)
- Soos, Troy: The Cincinnatti Red Stalkings (1998)
- Valenza, Mark Allen: Baseball & Benevolence (1993)
- New York Newsday, 9/23/94 :
"Field of Dreams meets It's a Wonderful life under the influence of John Grisham."
- Weaver, Will: Striking Out (1995)
- Weaver, Will: Hard Ball (1998)
- Weaver, Will: Farm Team (1999)
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Last modified: Tue July 10, 2007 - dan
Dan Nichols <dan@kypris.com>
