Leo Durocher used to devour two books a week. Moe Berg was also a voracious reader. And millions of adult baseball fans collect books the way they collected baseball cards as a kid.
A great offseason hobby, it’s also a great way to spread holiday cheer — and to cure the baseball blues that all purists suffer between the end of the World Series and the day pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in February.
As an author and fan for more than 50 years, I know the feeling. And I know the feeling of excitement when opening up a new book reminds me of opening a new pack of cards.
There’s plenty to choose from, ranging from Red Barber, Rickey Henderson and Hank Aaron biographies to invaluable research paperbacks from Bill James, Bill Nowlin and the Baseball Hall of Fame.
With a tip of the cap to the jukebox radio Top 40, here’s how the 2022 baseball books stack up for the winter gift-giving season:
1
Unstoppable: the Official Atlanta Braves World Series Championship Commemorative Book (Skybox Press, 128 pp., $40), by Mark Bowman, foreword by Dansby Swanson, introduction by Brian Snitker. An oversized hardcover dominated by handsome color photography, this is the best of a half-dozen volumes that followed Atlanta’s surprise 2021 world championship.
2
The Real Hank Aaron: an Intimate Look at the Life and Legacy of the Home Run King (Triumph, 271 pp., $28), by Terence Moore, foreword by Dusty Baker. The Atlanta-based author not only witnessed Hank Aaron’s successful pursuit of Babe Ruth’s record but knew the slugger well — both on and off the field. It’s a vivid portrait of a true-life rags-to-riches story of a poor Mobile kid who became a hero on the field and humanitarian off it.
3
A true coffee-table book, this handsome hardcover will please card collectors even
