For my purposes, College fooball season is over. And since I'm not much of an indoor spectator sports guy, I am looking ahead to next year, and baseball books. I am a pushover for baseball books.
I think that you have to start with David Halberstam if you're talking baseball. He chose to focus his razor sharp journalistic skills on sports in between his heavier volumes. Rather than look at individuals, Halberstam looks at moments in time (the Summer of '49) and matchups of teams (October 1964) to tell epic societal tales via the baseball diamond.
And you have the new Watching Baseball Smarter, Zack Hample's enthusiastic primer containing everything you'd want to know about the sport (but were afraid to ask).
And there's Moneyball, Michael Lewis' profile of baseball's new statistic-minded braintrusts, notably focused on Oakland's Billy Beane.
Last but not least, there is Game of Shadows, which apparently tells of the talented but fatally-flawed Barry Bonds, and his decision to turn from a hall of famer to a pariah via steroids.
What else is there? This list alone will not get me through to spring training.
Nice suggestions for baseball reading. I'll add three to your list: Clemente by David Maraniss, Autumn Glory (I can't remember the author's name; the book is about the first-ever world series), and, of course, The Natural by Bernard Malamud.
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