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Great books to read.

Catching101Catching101100+ posts
I read a great book lately and wanted to share it with everyone. It is called Training Camp by Jon Gordon. One of the best books I've read in a long time! I recommend it to everyone.

Check it out here: Training Camp

I have no connection with the book, just wanted to share it with everyone on the board.

Any other books that you recommend?
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keewartkeewart10,000+ posts
Loved The Bullpen Gospels, by Dirk Hayhurst! It is a book chronicling one of his years in baseball and all the ups and downs (literally). It was first a blog for BaseballAmerica and it was so good that he was encouraged to write the book. It is quite an intimate look at life, and struggles, in the minor leagues. You will definately laugh! Writing may well be his second career!

I then followed that up with Beyond Belief - Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton. I am glad I read these two books in that order. If Josh, or his parents, had known what life in the minor leagues could be, especially for an 18 year old, things may have turned out differently. Dirk Hayhurst is a little more graphic, and Hamilton's book may not be a "tell all", but it is still a good book. I hope my 14 and 16 year old sons will read this book. I hope Bryce Harper has read it.

I am now in the middle of Ball Four. This book was quite the uproar in 1970 and was recommended quite a bit on another post. I don't recognize alot of names in the book, and Jim Bouton has put alot of names in there. I can see why folks were upset when it was published.

Another recommendation off this site is Senior Year, about a son's journey of being recruited his senior year in high school. It is written by a sports writer for the Boston Globe, so it is a very good read and written well.
Last edited by keewart
Three BaggerThree Bagger1,000+ posts
If you were my age and thank goodness you're not, it was hard to believe the uproar Ball Four caused when it came out. Nowadays most of the "terrible" things it depicted are just common stuff in todays media driven, tell-all society. At the time it was unthinkable that our superstars like Mickey Mantle would be crawling around on top of hotels peeking in rooms or playing virtually drunk or very hungover. Up to that time the newspaper men covered up these shanagins because they were right up on that roof too since the beat guys were often very close to the players and traveled with the team especially in train travel days.
KC K Complex100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by keewart:
Loved The Bullpen Gospels, by Dirk Hayhurst! It is a book chronicling one of his years in baseball and all the ups and downs (literally). It was first a blog for BaseballAmerica and it was so good that he was encouraged to write the book. It is quite an intimate look at life, and struggles, in the minor leagues. You will definately laugh! Writing may well be his second career!

I then followed that up with Beyond Belief - Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton. I am glad I read these two books in that order. If Josh, or his parents, had known what life in the minor leagues could be, especially for an 18 year old, things may have turned out differently. Dirk Hayhurst is a little more graphic, and Hamilton's book may not be a "tell all", but it is still a good book. I hope my 14 and 16 year old sons will read this book. I hope Bryce Hamilton has read it.

I am now in the middle of Ball Four. This book was quite the uproar in 1970 and was recommended quite a bit on another post. I don't recognize alot of names in the book, and Jim Bouton has put alot of names in there. I can see why folks were upset when it was published.

Another recommendation off this site is Senior Year, about a son's journey of being recruited his senior year in high school. It is written by a sports writer for the Boston Globe, so it is a very good read and written well.


Read em all! just finishing Bullpen Gospels now and it is a real treat! One more that I enjoyed was Pray for Rain . It is a book about college ball and a players season.
keewartkeewart10,000+ posts
Rob, I found this from a 2007 post:

"For those of you looking for something for your Middle School/Jr. High son's I suggest a book called High Heat. Without giving too much away this book deals with how a pitcher copes with some personal/home drama and how he deals with a very bad HBP situation that ultimatly changes the pitcher and the batter's lives.

I would suggest the parent reading it first then decide if it is right or not for your son. (might want to read the synopsis on this one first)"

High Heat

(Not sure the link posted)

I remember one of my sons friends read it and liked it. I think I am going to reserve it at the library right now!
Rob KremerRob Kremer1,000+ posts
Just got back from dinner with the author of High Heat, Tim Wendel. A terrific guy, extremely interesting. Co-Founder of Baseball Weekly and has written several baseball books, including "Castro's Curve Ball" which is a novel about what if Fidel Castro played pro baseball instead of becoming a totalitarian revolutionary.

He is now working on a book about the 1968 baseball season, the interplay of the game with the so very interesting political environment of that period.

Tim is an extremely interesting guy, totally unassuming. Can't wait to read his book.
Three BaggerThree Bagger1,000+ posts
Rob, I think I would enjoy the book Mr Wendel is writing since the middle of 1967 is when I really started following baseball day by day. The 1968 season was the REAL "year of the pitcher" and I followed that season day by day. It was an interesting and scary time in other ways also with many the cities burning from riots and the Viet Nam War at its height.
Three BaggerThree Bagger1,000+ posts
Rob, I just got back from the library--got to read my two or three books a week--and lo and behold, they had the book " High Heat" by Tim Wendel. This is just the kind of Baseball book I love--the improbable search for the fastest pitcher of all time. Especially interested in seeing what he found out about the legendary minor leaguer Steve Dalkowski whom I try to track every bit of info about that I can. Little guy from the 50's who people like Earl Weaver and anyone who saw him swear threw by far the hardest they ever saw. Unfortunately a typical scoreline for him in a game was 16 or 17 K's with 15 or 16 BB's. Some of the stories about the things he did with his fastball are legendary such as supposedly tearing a batters ear off and hitting a batter in the on deck circle. Unfortunately he eventually had a severe drinking problem that helped drive him out of the game. Wouldn't have wanted to face him in the throes of a bad hangover!

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