Talkin' Baseball: The Cubs Win It All, Baseball Haiku, and the Babe's 104 Home Run Season

While April 1, the opening day of the baseball season, is still a few long days away, in the book-publishing world, baseball season began about two to three months ago -- that's when the year's first crop of baseball books began hitting bookstore shelves and ARCs for new releases began to litter my desk and office floor (and I mean "litter" in the best possible sense).

Though I consider myself a huge baseball fan, I have to be honest -- in the late fall and early winter, it generally takes a miracle for anything to divert my attention away from football. But in early December, the unthinkable happened: a baseball book arrived on my desk here at ABA offices in Tarrytown, New York, that caught my eye: Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy (Collins). A fascinating book about the legendary 1908 Chicago Cubs -- the last Cubs team to win the World Series. It was a great read, an intriguing look at baseball at the turn of the last century.

So, with the season set to begin on Sunday evening, and under the guise of work, we here at Bookselling This Week decided to compile a selective list of recently published and upcoming baseball books. This year's books cover an array of subjects, but there are some decidedly hot topics: the history of minorities in the game, the ongoing steroids issue, and a look at baseball's wild early days.

And for those Fantasy Baseball players out there, Fantasyland by Sam Walker (Penguin), an April 2006 Book Sense Pick, comes highly recommended.

The books are divided into two lists -- hardcover and paperback releases -- and the titles are listed in alphabetical order, with their publisher and release date. If we missed your book, we apologize, but, well, there's always next year. --David Grogan

Hardcovers

1941 -- The Greatest Year in Sports: Two Baseball Legends, Two Boxing Champs, and the Unstoppable Thoroughbred Who Made History in the Shadow of War by Mike Vaccaro (June 2007, Doubleday)

After Jackie: Pride, Prejudice, and Baseball's Forgotten Heroes -- An Oral History by Cal Fussman (April 2007, ESPN Books)

Baseball Haiku by Cor Van Den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura (April 2007, Norton)

Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball -- and America by Steve Jacobson (January 2007, Lawrence Hill)

Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait Murphy (March 2007, Collins)

Dropping the Ball: Baseball's Troubles and How We Can and Must Solve Them by Dave Winfield and Michael Levin (March 2007, Scribner)

Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series -- and America's Heart -- During the Great Depression by John Heidenry (March 2007, PublicAffairs)

Hey Batta Batta Swing!: The Wild Old Days of Baseball by Sally Cook, James Charlton, and Ross MacDonald (February 2007, Margaret K. McElderry)

How Bill James Changed Our View of the Game of Baseball by Rob Neyer, Alan Schwarz, and Gregory F. Augustine Pierce (March 2007, ACTA Sports)

Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head -- My 25 Years in Baseball by Tim Kurkjian (May 2007, St. Martin's)

Jews and Baseball: Volume I: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948 by Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W. Boxerman (December 2006, McFarland & Company)

Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball by Paul Dickson (March 2007, Walker & Company)

Pouring Six Beers at a Time: And Other Stories From a Lifetime in Baseball by Bill Giles, Doug Myers, and Jayson Stark (March 2007, Triumph Books)

Senior Year: A Father, a Son, and High School Baseball by Dan Shaughnessy (May 2007, Houghton Mifflin)

Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History by Jayson Stark (June 2007, Triumph Books)

The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed by J.C. Bradbury (March 2007, Dutton)

The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card by Michael O'Keeffe, (May 2007, Morrow)

The Entitled by Frank DeFord (May 2007, Sourcebooks) -- A May 2007 Book Sense Notable

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America by Joe Posnanski (February 2007, Morrrow)

The Worst Call Ever: The Most Infamous Calls Ever Blown by Referees, Umpires, and Other Blind Officials by Kyle Garlett and Patrick O'Neal (May 2007, Collins)

Ty and the Babe: Baseball's Fiercest Rivals; A Surprising Friendship and the 1941 Has-Beens Golf Championship by Tom Stanton (May 2007, Thomas Dunne)

Paperbacks

A Great Day in Cooperstown: The Improbable Birth of Baseball's Hall of Fame by Jim Reisler (January 2007, Carroll & Graf)

All-New Baseball Brainteasers: 60 Major League Puzzles by Michael A. Morse (March 2007, Sterling)

An Indian Summer: The 1957 Milwaukee Braves, Champions of Baseball by Thad Mumau (February, McFarland & Company)

Baseball and the Media: How Fans Lose in Today's Coverage of the Game by George Castle (January 2007, Bison Books)

Baseball and the Mythic Moment: How We Remember the National Game by James D. Hardy (February 2007, McFarland & Company)

Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong by the Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts and Jonah Keri (March 2007, Basic Books)

Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime During the Civil War by George B. Kirsch (January 2007, Princeton University Press)

Baseball on the Brain by Dennis Purdy (March 2007, Workman Publishing)

Brushing Back Jim Crow: The Integration of Minor-league Baseball in the American South by Bruce Adelson (January 2007, University of Virginia Press)

Clearing the Bases: Juiced Players, Monster Salaries, Sham Records, and a Hall of Famer's Search for the Soul of Baseball by Mike Schmidt and Glen Waggoner (March 2007, Harper)

Entangled in Ivy by George Castle (March 2007, Sports Publishing)

Fantasyland: A Sportswriter's Obsessive Bid to Win the World's Most Ruthless Fantasy Baseball by Sam Walker (February 2007, Penguin) -- An April 2006 Book Sense Pick

In the Best Interests of Baseball: The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig by Andrew Zimbalist (June 2007, Wiley)

Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues by Donn Rogosin and Monte Irwin (March 2007, Bison Books)

Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems by Will Carroll (February 2007, Ivan R. Dee)

Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line (by Adrian Burgos (June 2007, University of California)

Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues & the Story of African-American Baseball by Lawrence D. Hogan and Jules Tygiel (March 2007, National Geographic)

Sports Illustrated: Great Baseball Writing by the Editors of Sports Illustrated (March 2007, Sports Illustrated)

That One Glorious Season: Baseball Players With One Spectacular Year, 1950-1961 by Richard Letarte (January 2007, Peter E. Randall)

The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger by Bill Jenkinson (January 2007, Carroll & Graf)

Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend by Timothy M. Gay (March 2007, Lyons Press)

Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip: A Fan's Guide to AAA, AA, A, and Independent League Stadiums by Josh Pahigian (March 2007, Lyons Press)

A Cool Baseball Sideline

Baseball Travel Map, 2007 Edition (March 2007, Hedberg Maps) Locates every professional team in North America, whether major league (includes spring training), minor league, or independent league. Includes team and league contact information and major baseball attractions. Accordion-fold laminate.