11 new baseball books for 2023 lineup, from World Series to Bo Jackson
Believe it or not, it's spring.
How do we know? Because baseball is almost here for real. The Milwaukee Brewers kick off their 2023 season March 30 at Wrigley Field, taking on the sometimes-hated, not-feared-so-much-lately Chicago Cubs.
Yes, it feels like years since baseball's been here. If you're in need of a refresher, these baseball books, all published since the Brewers were mathematically eliminated from the 2022 postseason, should get you back in the game.
By John Rosengren (Sourcebooks). In a fast-paced and engaging narrative, Rosengren, a prolific baseball author, retraces the events of the 1973 baseball season in the context of a turbulent year, featuring the rise of Reggie Jackson, the swan song of Willie Mays and the beginnings of baseball’s Age of George Steinbrenner.
By Matthew J. Prigge (McFarland). Prigge, whose include looks at movie censorship and mayhem, takes on a subject dearer to his heart with this look at the Brewers’ past 53 opening days, layered with related trivia and full recaps of each game.
By Tyler Kepner (Doubleday). Rather than the traditional chronological approach to what they used to call the Fall Classic, Kepner (“K: A History of Baseball in 10 Pitches”) digs into the stories you didn’t know you needed to know about the World Series, from sidebars to the Series’ greatest moments to features on unlikely World Series heroes (trigger warning: it includes an in-depth look at the Brewers’ crushing loss in Game 6 of the 1982 World Series).
By J. Daniel (University of Missouri Press). If you do want to relive the 1982 season — the good (the Brewers winning the American League pennant), the bad (the Brewers losing the World Series to brewery-town rival St. Louis Cardinals) and the ugly (the injury to relief ace Rollie Fingers that made the bad possible) — this month-by-month recounting of it all fits the bill.
By Jacob Kornhauser (Rowman & Littlefield). In baseball, a “cup of coffee” is a short stay in the majors; these 11 players made it into just one game — or, in the case of Robin Yount’s big brother Larry Yount, made it onto the lineup card for one game without actually playing. Kornhauser tells their stories, including what happened after their brief moment in the bigs.
By Jeff Pearlman (Mariner Books). Pearlman makes a compelling case that baseball and football giant Bo Jackson could be the last sports star whose story is part myth, since his on-field heroics took place before every move on the field was videotaped. Among the legendary moments Pearlman demythologizes: the time Jackson broke a bat over his head after grounding out to Brewers pitcher Jay Aldrich at Milwaukee County Stadium. (Spoiler: Aldrich discloses that he’d already cracked the bat with a pitch earlier in the at-bat.)
By Dan Taylor (Rowman and Littlefield). Seven years after the Black Sox scandal, Major League Baseball was rocked by what could have been an even bigger scare, a betting scandal involving some of the game’s biggest stars. Taylor argues that the following season — especially the home run exploits of Babe Ruth, cleverly promoted by his business manager (and the title “savior”) Christy Walsh — saved baseball, much like the home run contest of 1998 salvaged the game after the fan backlash following the 1994 baseball lockout.
By David Krell (Rowman and Littlefield). Krell, who wrote a similar book a couple of years ago about America and Baseball in 1962, dives into the transition year of 1966, when baseball’s labor relations, dynasties and legends were all in flux.
By Lee Lowenfish (University of Nebraska Press). Part oral history and part elegy, Lowenfish’s in-depth look at the world of scouting puts a human face on what had been the foundation of baseball, at least before “Moneyball” helped to all but wipe out the profession.
By Tim Hagerty (Cider Mill Press). Hagerty, a veteran minor-league baseball broadcaster, compiled this relentlessly entertainment collection of vignettes of strange and sometimes surprising moments in the minors. Among them are more than a dozen related to Milwaukee minor league teams (including a 1928 game between the minor-league Brewers and Louisville Colonels in which the teams used yellow baseballs — an experiment that lasted one day).
By Traci Sorell (Penguin). In this book for younger readers (illustrated by Arigon Starr), Sorell tells the story of two deadball era greats — John Meyers and Charles Bender, both stuck with the nickname “Chief” because of their Indigenous heritage — who faced each other in the 1911 World Series. Recommended for younger readers ages 6 to 9, but it's an important and worthwhile read for all.
