The Baseball Almanac Book Shelf

Book shelves lined with baseball books: some reference, some fiction, some historical, and some that are just plain fun to read. Over seventy-thousand books have been written covering every facet of our national pastime. With so many choices, and so many different versions, it can be difficult deciding what books deserve your money. Moe Berg, the legendary Major League catcher turned spy, once said that he, "would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books, than a King who did not like reading."

Baseball Almanac wants to do the work for you and suggest a title worth adding to your personal baseball library — one that will not make you a "poor man in a garret." Each month we review dozens of possible books and select one book which we believe you will truly enjoy reading. Book reviews are done by either our personnel, by Dr. Donald McKim (a trusted book critic), or our newest contributor Tom Swift. The ratings column is determined by the actual review, user comments, and input made at Amazon.com.

Ralph Andreannoe wrote in No Joy in Mudville (1965) that, "The literature of baseball is voluminous; some of it is extremely valuable, but most of it is riddled with cliches and empty analysis." If the book we review is empty analysis, Baseball Almanac will tell you. If its not, then we will tell you that as well. Our standard is simple; is the data accurate, is the data helpful to our site, and is it worth it...