During this extended period of isolation and social distancing, many baseball fans find themselves wondering what to do with their free time. With no live games to follow, I highly recommend catching up on some reading. The following titles are perfect for baseball junkies looking to learn more about the sport’s inner-workings and wider cultural significance.
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
This book is required reading, not just for baseball fans, but for anyone who is fascinated by Japanese culture. Robert Whiting’s 1989 text examines the Japanese worldview through a baseball lens, with specific attention paid to the country’s focus on group harmony.
The author provides humorous anecdotes about American ballplayers who found that their individualism clashed with traditional Japanese principles. He offers stunning insight into Japan’s unique way of life, and how the Japanese perfected the game of baseball by infusing it with their own societal values.
Read my full review of You Gotta Have Wa here
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
Moneyball is a flawless text, a book that conveys a multitude of complex ideas without talking down to the reader. The 2011 movie starring Brad Pitt is a solid companion piece, and yet it pales in comparison to the work that inspired it.
Michael Lewis was granted unprecedented access to the Oakland A’s front office during the 2002 season, and his profile of a small-market team taking on financial juggernauts is simply revelatory.
In addition to being a thoughtful character study of A’s GM Billy Beane, the book provides an inside look at the 2002 draft and profiles of idiosyncratic players like submariner Chad Bradford.
The reason Moneyball endures as a classic of the pop-sociology genre is that it’s unbelievably prescient. Billy Beane could sense that baseball was on the verge of a major paradigm shift, and that soon every team would employ the same type of comparative analysis that had helped Oakland discover overlooked talent.
In the years since Moneyball was published, front offices have been driven by Ivy League alumni and teams of statisticians that play a major role in roster construction. Oakland’s dependence on a single man, Paul DePodesta, for data crunching back in 2002 seems primitive in comparison.
Read my thoughts on Moneyball’s movie adaptation here
Wherever I Wind Up by R.A. Dickey (with Wayne Coffey)
Like many Mets fans, I fell in love with R.A. Dickey during the 2012 season. That year, Dickey won 20 games for a fourth-place Mets team and became the first knuckleballer to take home the Cy Young Award. Dickey also became a published author in 2012 when his autobiography Wherever I Wind Up hit bookshelves.
Dickey’s book is a compelling read because so much of his journey was defined by failure and hardship. The pitcher had an $825,000 signing bonus rescinded when a Baseball America cover photo led to the discovery that he was born without a UCL in his right elbow.
He would eventually make it to the big leagues, but struggled so mightily that he became a knuckleballer in a last-ditch attempt to revive his career.
Once he mastered that notoriously unpredictable pitch, Dickey enjoyed an unlikely breakthrough at the age of 37.
As an author, Dickey is forthright and unafraid to share details that might make him appear vulnerable. He’s also a natural storyteller, and his combination of warmth and wit makes this a breezy read. Dickey’s story is one of perseverance, and many viewers will be inspired by his triumphs over adversity.
The Cubs Way by Tom Verducci
The Cubs Way is not quite as transcendent as Moneyball, but it is a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys America’s pastime. Acclaimed sportswriter Tom Verducci takes us inside the Cubs dugout during the 2016 World Series, with manager Joe Maddon laying out his strategy and preparation for each game.
Verducci dissects the decisions that led to this curse-breaking championship, and chronicles how executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer accumulated elite talent through a carefully orchestrated strategy.
The Cubs Way occasionally gets bogged down by self-indulgent quotations from Maddon, and very little about the team’s organizational philosophy could be seen as revolutionary. Still, this is an informative text that reveals how building a championship team is a grueling multi-year process with a significant amount of risk.
Read my full review of The Cubs Way here
3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger
Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger follows manager Tony La Russa as his Cardinals take on the division rival Cubs during a critical three-game series in August of 2005. Bissinger is perhaps a little too enamored with La Russa, as he continually heaps praise upon the manager while ignoring some of his more obvious shortcomings.
That minor flaw aside, this is an engrossing story told brilliantly by its author. Bissinger writes with the clarity you’d expect from an accomplished journalist, and he understands that baseball games are filled with suspense and dramatic tension that cannot be manufactured.
The three-game series that serves as the book’s focus also gives Bissinger’s tale a clear-cut beginning, middle, and end.
Some have described this work as the “anti-Moneyball” because it celebrates Tony La Russa’s ability to trust his gut instinct in the heat of the moment. However, Bissinger acknowledges that the skipper was thorough in his preparation, and that he created index cards with relevant statistical information to guide his in-game strategy.
Overall, this book is an illuminating glimpse into the pressures of leading a major league ballclub.
The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball by Tom M. Tango, Mitchel G. Lichtman, and Andrew E. Dolphin
The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball is the text that all MLB Network researchers are required to read when they first accept the position. Written by statistics gurus Tom M. Tango, Mitchel G. Lichtman, and Andrew E. Dolphin, this text employs charts, tables, and lengthy descriptions to explain sabermetric principles.
Make no mistake, The Book is not a fun or easy read. Many readers will be frustrated by the technical nature of the writing, which serves to inform rather than to entertain. While novice fans will find the text to be impenetrable, the writers offer thorough, step-by-step explanations for fulfilling a baseball research query.
As dry and monotonous as it can be, The Book is a necessary pickup for anyone looking to break into the world of baseball research and statistics. You may not enjoy the experience, but it’s worth reading for the wealth of information it presents.
By the time you’ve finished with the text, you will better understand how to answer baseball research questions using advanced analytics.
Searle’s Final Say
We may be unable to watch live baseball games for a while, but we can still enjoy the sport by reading books on the topic. Every year, new texts add to our collective understanding of America’s pastime. These publications are entertaining, and they strengthen our ability to analyze baseball in a meaningful manner.
