Baseball is still America’s Pastime, whether actively playing a pick-up game or passively watching from the stands. The library has books about how to play the game, biographies of famous players, the history of baseball, and highlights of the transformation of teams. Michigan is home to the Detroit Tigers, a team with a meaty history, plenty of famous players, and its share of controversy. The first two books below can be found on the main floor New Book displays, and the rest are available on the New Book shelves in Youth Services. The call number for books about baseball is 796.357.

INSIDE THE EMPIRE: THE TRUE POWER BEHIND THE NEW YORK YANKEES (2019) by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff (2019) provides readers with in-depth information about how the New York Yankees builds a team roster in order to win championship games like The World Series. Casual readers will be lost after the first chapter, but hardcore baseball fans will understand the strategies and planning that goes into choosing players and making a team that will claim the pennant at the end of the season. The authors were able to interview Yankee executives such as Hall Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, Giancarlo Stanton, and Derek Jeter to get the real inside story about major league baseball. Eight pages of color photos have been inserted in the middle of the book to highlight the most famous players and managers in the sport, as well as a 23-page index for fact-finding.

THE PAGE FENCE GIANTS: A HISTORY OF BLACK BASEBALL’S PIONEERING CHAMPIONS (2019) by Mitch Lutzke tells the fascinating story of an all-star black baseball team from Adrian, Michigan, in the 1890s. The team was sponsored by the Page Woven Wire Fence Company and its founder, J. Wallace Page, who hired Bud Fowler and Home Run Johnson to organize the team in 1895. They recruited the best African-American players, putting together a team that won game after game throughout the Midwest for the next four years. Even more important than the championship team itself, is the tale of challenges the players faced while traveling to games in a country that was becoming more segregated toward the turn of the century than it had been after the Civil War. The combination of good writing and documented significance to Michigan history earned THE PAGE FENCE GIANTS a spot on the 2019 Michigan Notable Book list. Period photos, sprinkled throughout the book, add to the book’s readability.

STATHEAD BASEBALL: HOW DATA CHANGED THE SPORT (2019) by Eric Braun is an overview of how baseball uses an increasing number of statistics, becoming more of a business than a game. The first news coverage of a baseball game is recorded in 1845 between two New York teams. Stats consisted of hits, runs, errors, strikeouts, put-outs, and assists. Through the years, a player’s batting average and runs batted in (RBI) have also become common baseball lingo, as fans are increasingly interested in statistics. In 1971 the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) was formed to analyze baseball and collect even more statistics. Baseball today is a high stakes business venture, as coaches analyze a staggering amount of data to increase their game scores and get the best performance from each player.

SUPERFAN’S GUIDE TO PRO BASEBALL TEAMS (2018) by Drew Lyon highlights 30 baseball teams, from the Detroit Tigers to the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants. Each has a two-page spread of photographs, superfacts, win/loss records, World Series championships, franchise leader statistics, and the name of the team’s home baseball park. Star players over the years are also featured — always in the uniform of the year they played. The book also includes a map of all the major league teams in the United States and a page dedicated to the Tools of the Game: bats, baseballs, gloves and uniforms.

BASEBALL: WHO DOES WHAT? (2018) by Ryan Nagelhout covers the basics of baseball starting with the rules, the playing field, and the player positions. The chapter titled, “Who’s on First?” describes the strategy of a first baseman, which can also come in handy if you’re a runner on first base. Strategies are also explained for the other bases and the outfield positions. A table of contents and index are in place to help find information quickly. The page layout is brightly colored and consistent — a great way to learn the game.

BASEBALL: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORTS (2019) by Cathleen Small gives examples of how baseball coaches try to keep their players focused on the game whether in the batting lineup or taking the field. At the same time, the team strategizes on ways to distract the opposing team’s players, so they make mistakes that cost them runs. A “Mind vs. Muscle” page shows how baseball legend, Ty Cobb, worked on his weaknesses by practicing the skills over and over they became strengths. This book has an easy-to-read layout that includes a Glossary, website resources, and an Index.

By Lynette Suckow

Reference Desk