| RotoGuru Baseball Forum View the Forum Registry |
| |
| 0 |
Subject: OT: essential sports books Posted by: Size 12 Feet - [478452013] Tue, Apr 24, 23:55 i want to start a sports book library for myself, and wanted your guys suggestions...i'm a fan of the big 3(hoops,baseball, and football)but i really love basketball. thanks | ||||||
| 1 | Matt S Donor ID: 57543213 Wed, Apr 25, 00:03 | Big 3??? I'm insulted! | |||||
| 2 | Size 12 Feet ID: 478452013 Wed, Apr 25, 00:04 | LOL, why matt? | |||||
| 3 | Matt S Donor ID: 57543213 Wed, Apr 25, 00:06 | Hockey doesn't fit? I find it a pretty big sport... Gets the same attendance Hoops does. | |||||
| 4 | Size 12 Feet ID: 478452013 Wed, Apr 25, 00:07 | good point matt. i guess hoops, baseball and football are my big 3 :) | |||||
| 5 | Matt S Donor ID: 57543213 Wed, Apr 25, 00:09 |
Better :) BTW - There was a really good thread last year on the same topic. Maybe it's still around... I'll check. | |||||
| 6 | tuXe ID: 4832810 Wed, Apr 25, 00:10 | Baseball, Basketball, Playoff Hockey | |||||
| 7 | Matt S Donor ID: 57543213 Wed, Apr 25, 00:15 | Nope, can't find the thread. I'm sure you'll get lots of ideas though! | |||||
| 8 | Size 12 Feet ID: 478452013 Wed, Apr 25, 00:17 | thanks for lookin Matt | |||||
| 9 | Tim G ID: 1611393123 Wed, Apr 25, 00:32 | "The Physics of Baseball." It won't help you at all with fantasy baseball, doesn't say much about the history of baseball, and can get complicated (the equations can be ignored however, the text explains everything pretty well), but it has some cool stuff about curveballs, thin air, and corked bats. | |||||
| 10 | The Beezer Leader ID: 191202817 Wed, Apr 25, 01:18 |
Grab anything by John Feinstein. Haven't read a bad one by him yet, including books on college basketball, golf, and college football. | |||||
| 11 | Wilmer McLean ID: 487331412 Wed, Apr 25, 02:58 |
For Baseball I highly recommend Carles Einstein's Fireside Book of Baseball or his The Baseball Reader - Favorites from the Fireside Books of Baseball. It's a collection of stories and newspaper articles about baseball. It's a treasury of writings from Franklin P. Adams' poem, "Tinkers to Evans to Chance" to James P. Dawson's spot reporting, "2,130, Lou Gehrig takes himself out" to Shirley Povich's prize winning story of Don Larsen's perfect game to Vin Scully's radio call of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax's perfect game to Heywood Broun's famous account starting with "The Ruth is mighty and shall prevail" and the complete text of "Who's on First." Other writers include Jimmy Breslin, John Updike, Thomas Wolfe and Grantland Rice. It even includes the story how Sikorsky used a wind tunnel to produce the formula to proove a baseball curves. | |||||
| 12 | yo Leader ID: 331341410 Wed, Apr 25, 05:30 |
And I thought this thread was about sports books, as in bookie's. Oh well, as long as I'm here: Instant Replay - Jerry Kramer Maybe I'll Pitch Forever - LeRoy Satchel Paige Ball Four: The Final Pitch - Jim Bouton | |||||
| 13 | Perm Dude Donor ID: 28059111 Wed, Apr 25, 07:06 |
Baseball Dynasties by Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein. It analyzes the greatest teams of all time, breaks them down compared to their conteporaries and also against each other. Good book. pd | |||||
| 14 | Sandlot ID: 27327119 Wed, Apr 25, 08:51 | I found this list doing a Yahoo! search. I've only read a few of these, but recognize many. I really recommend anything by Roger Kahn, especially The Boys of Summer. | |||||
| 15 | flake ID: 22351310 Wed, Apr 25, 09:19 |
The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter MacMillan Books, Inc. 1966 (from a review): There's no better way to indulge a baseball junkie than with a fix of The Glory of Their Times, one of the greatest baseball books ever written. I agree....loved it. From: Gangman (writing on flake's computer) | |||||
| 16 | Stewart ID: 10358258 Wed, Apr 25, 09:22 | what a fag lol!!! | |||||
| 17 | Mark L Leader ID: 4444938 Wed, Apr 25, 09:26 |
On baseball: anything and everything by Roger Angell. The books are collections of his New Yorker essays (he does two or three every season). Only The Ball Was White, Robert Peterson. A great history of the Negro Leagues. Prophet Of The Sandlots, Mark Weingarten. Biography of the late Phillies superscout Tony Lucadello (signed Schmidt, Fergie Jenkins, etc.). Best stuff I've ever read on the nuts and bolts of how the raw tools of baseball players are evaluated. And Weingarten is a fantastic writer. Baseball For Brain Surgeons . . . Tim McCarver. Yeah, he is annoying on TV, but this book has the best explanations of pitcher/hitter mind games and strategies that I've seen. | |||||
| 18 | Janitor ID: 513312211 Wed, Apr 25, 09:38 |
These are biographies and autobiographis that I enjoyed reading. Rocket at Heart (Rudy Tomjanovich) Living the Dream- My Life and Basketball (Hakeem Olajuwon) Bo Knows Bo (Bo Jackson) Also the 3rd Edition of the NBA Encyclopedia is a must for any die-hard hoops fan. It will set you back about 50 bucks but it is well worth it. | |||||
| 19 | KevinL Donor ID: 10417811 Wed, Apr 25, 09:49 |
Everything by Terry Pluto is great. Especially: 48 Minutes, an entire book about a single day in the life of an NBA team (Cavs vs Celtics, late 80's) Tall Tales, stories about the early days of the NBA, Wilt, Russel, & company Loose Balls, a similar book about the ABA. If you don't know Terry Pluto, he'a also a newspaper columnist who can be found here. | |||||
| 20 | Wilmer McLean ID: 487331412 Wed, Apr 25, 10:10 |
ooops, my bad, misspelled the book's editor. It's Charles Einstein. Sorry. Mark L. The Baseball Reader contains Roger Angell's great piece, "1975: Boston Red Sox 7, Cincinnati Reds 6: The spectacular sixth game of the World Series." | |||||
| 21 | Mattinglyinthehall ID: 1832399 Wed, Apr 25, 10:25 |
Size 12 "The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball" Every player who has ever appeared at the plate, in the field or on the mound from 1901. Stats listed by year with a brief synopsis of the major events of that year. Includes team stats, final standings and playoff stats for each season. Includes the 1914-1915 Federal League, but not the Negro Leagues. The reasons for this being that the Negro Leagues were never part of Major League Baseball and that stats were much more loosely kept and many are highly debated. The book is sectioned off into eras and lists career stats for all players at the end of each era. The back of the book contains the single season, career and team records for almost every stat kept. It is updated every year and is by far the non-internet baseball resource I use more than any other. | |||||
| 22 | Size 12 Feet ID: 478452013 Wed, Apr 25, 11:05 | thanks for the suggestions guys, i've never heard of some the books and stuff you've mentioned | |||||
| 23 | Toral ID: 452461218 Wed, Apr 25, 11:20 |
On football: Bill Walsh, Building a Champion Paul Zimmerman, A Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football (dated, with respect to modern strategy, but still definitely worth reading) if you're into stat analysis: Pete Palmer, et al., The Hidden Game of Football (attempts to apply statistical analysis to football, to see what can be done with it a la Palmer's work on baseball. Answer, except for QBs, mostly not much, but they try.) I dislike the cutesy-cutesy writing style (presumably the work of co-author Bob Carroll)...but this is a starting point at least. Another stat work is George Ignatin and Allen Barra, Football By The Numbers 1986. An attempt to create a Bill James-type baseball annual that didn't catch on. Interesting discussion of historical stats; and description of their design of a schedule toughness model for college football, a la Sagarin. I still occasionally see the book on remainder for a couple dollars. Barra is a distinguished football writer whom I remember best for disproving, or attempting to, that a good running game is essential to a team's success ot that "the run sets up the pass." These are somewhat dead issues in today's football, but Barra has attempted to show that a strong running game was *not* a big component of Vince Lombardi's success. On the early history of the game: Allison Danzig, Oh, How They Played The Game (find out the real history of the forward pass. No, it's not like the Knute Rockne film portrays it). | |||||
| 24 | Size 12 Feet ID: 478452013 Wed, Apr 25, 17:21 | BUTT | |||||
| Rate this thread: | If you wish, you may rate this thread on scale of 1-5. Ratings should indicate how valuable or interesting you believe this thread would be to other users of this forum. A '5' means that this thread is a 'must read'. A '1' means that this is a complete waste of time. If you have previously rated this thread, rating it again will delete your previous rating. If you do not want to rate this thread, but want to see how others have rated it, then click the button without entering a rating, or else click here. | ||||||
| |||||||
Post a reply to this message: (But first, how about checking out this sponsor?) | |||||||