The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1987 – Bill James, 1987 ★★★

Eyes on the Prize

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for baseball in 1986.

On the one hand, you had infielders who defied gravity, power pitchers out of Marvel Comics, a postseason for the ages, and stolen bases dominating the game at a level they never did before or would again.

On the other hand, you had collusion by greedy owners watering down the game, recreational drug use wrecking careers and lives, and a growing realization our national pastime was losing ground to football.

Fortunately, Bill James was still producing annual Abstracts to lend his analytical perspective and a touch of humor to the situation.

Casey: The Life And Legend Of Charles Dillon Stengel – Joseph Durso, 1967 ★★

A Winning Personality

The only man in baseball to have had his uniform number retired by both the New York Mets and the New York Yankees, Casey Stengel won those honors for entirely different reasons.

For the Yankees, he managed a team to an unmatched five straight World Series Championship seasons, and notched two more World Series wins and three further appearances in just 12 years. For the Mets, he diverted attention from epically bad baseball with a unique gift of gab and invigorating showmanship.

That the Mets retired #37 four years before the Yankees seems appropriate. Stengel’s personality often overshadowed his performance. You sense this reading Joseph Durso’s biography of the man, which was published between those two events and commemorating Stengel’s induction in baseball’s Hall of Fame as a case of winning personality.

The Summer Game – Roger Angell, 1972 ★★★★½

Diamonds are Forever

Last September marked the 100^th birthday of baseball writer Roger Angell, a bittersweet occasion for longtime admirers like myself. While certainly pleasant to think of him still around and hopefully enjoying life, I find myself floored, too.

Time’s passage is a dominant theme of this, Angell’s first and most famous book on the sport: “Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young.”

While focused on the transitory nature of youth as seen in the lens of a national pastime, The Summer Game is exactly that, a book that somehow remains forever young.

Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? – Jimmy Breslin, 1963 ★½

Who’s On First? Who Cares!

Here’s a thought: A book has to be about something. Find an interesting topic and really delve into it, examine it from different angles, give it a beginning and an ending and build a thesis around it.

Legendary newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin found a way around that and wrote what is hailed by many as one of the best baseball books ever. I don’t even think it’s the best book about the 1962 New York Mets.

If At First... – Keith Hernandez & Mike Bryan [Updated 1987 Edition] ★★★★

Game-by-Game with Captain Clutch

No sport tests endurance like baseball. There are 162 games in a season, not counting the postseason. Each game consists of nine innings, with a possibility for unlimited extra innings. Even marathons have finishing lines; not so baseball.

Baseball can be as much a mental drag as a physical one, especially when you have a divorce and drug accusations hanging over your head. Such was the case for Keith Hernandez in 1985, the season chronicled in this memoir.

The Amazing Mets – Jerry Mitchell, 1964 ★★★

How to Succeed in Baseball without Ever Winning

For very few lucky people, greatness is something that comes easy. Is it possible to say the same rule applies with ineptitude?

In the realm of professional sports, few have ever done so much with so little result, and been so celebrated in the process, as were the early New York Mets.

Pure Baseball – Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan, 1994 ★★★½

Breaking Down Balls and Strikes

It's one thing to watch the game of baseball. Understanding the ins and outs of your typical major-league contest is something else: The more you see, the deeper and trickier it gets.

Explicating the strategy that results in balls and strikes, and how those balls and strikes in turn require strategic adjustments on the fly, is the focus of this detailed analysis of two Major League Baseball games played in June of 1993.

Gil Hodges: A Hall Of Fame Life – Mort Zachter, 2015 ★★★½

Brooklyn's Favorite Dodger

Gil Hodges was by almost all accounts a great man and baseball player. 

He became a legend first as a slugging star for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, then added to it by managing the New York Mets to their first World Series championship in 1969. Too soon after, he died, and people seemed to forget about him.

Mort Zachter makes a case for why Hodges should be remembered.

A Magic Summer – Stanley Cohen, 1988 ★★★½

When the Mets Ruled the Earth

The summer of 1969's beautiful reputation is largely unwarranted.

Woodstock was a traffic and public-hygiene nightmare. The Beatles proved the love you make isn't equal to the love you take if Allen Klein is allowed in the mix. Billy and Wyatt demonstrated why it was hazardous for long-haired motorcyclists to tool around the Deep South.

But for fans of the New York Mets lucky enough to be there, 1969 was a blissed-out trip of heavenly delight.