Favorite baseball book or movie

Books: David Halberstam's "The Teammates", most of anything by Tom Boswell.

Movie: "Bang the Drum Slowly"
Sentimental favorite: "The Kid From Cleveland" with the Indians that won a World Series... seriously, they won a World Series once or twice! Veeck, Boudreau, Doby, Gordon, Hegan and the gang. Johnny Berardino was robbed of an Oscar.

Maxie

Funny you mention those players. Just finished a game. They lost to 05NYGiants 5-1 in the 11th. Great game.

I don't read much non fiction, but baseball non fiction book I enjoyed most is the Celebrant.

Rick

Book; The Last Boy - Mickey Mantle - by Jane Leavy. This is a classic if anyone is interested in baseball, the Yankees, Mickey Mantle, or that era in general. Truly moving.

Movie; Moneyball. Great movie for movie lovers and baseball geeks alike!

"Men at Work" by George Will. It shows how intricate the game is and how thin the margins are between winning and losing. I know it's an old book but I think it still holds true. I have read it twice and just passed it along to a fellow baseball geek to read and then pass it along to another.

non-fiction: tie:

The Babe Ruth Story - yeah, yeah, its a scholastic kid's book, but its in the Babe's own voice and starts with 'I was a bad kid, I say that without pride. if that doesn't draw you in...

The Long Season - Jim Brosnan a little dated now and since superceded by

Ball Four - Jim Bouton also a little dated now, but, as I recall , sincerely written, Brosnan's was too, but his was when we were all white bread and whole milk, Bouton's was after the 60's and has Mincher, I believe, if I remember the story correctly, punching somebody (a Pilots teammate) who kisses him on the mouth.



fiction: The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (the kernel of the movie and play Damn Yankees, somewhat similar to The Natural


movie: non-fiction tie Eight Men Out & 61* (p.s. Cicotte and Shoeless belong in the HOF they were banned for life not eternity and they are dead now compare Cicotte to Three-Finger Brown @ Basefall-ref)

fiction: For Love of the Game mostly because it takes you through one whole game, even though some of the lines they gave Scully are reediculous. I realize Scully is a little dramatic in real life, but C'MON. Nothing against Bull Durham,

the Natural all I can say is, I like Redford as a person (as I perceive him) and I love the Sundance channel on cable, but does he always have to play a saint?


What I like about FLOTG is, Billy Chapel acts like a player acts ('can't talk now, gotta warm up' 'today its me & Gus' ) the Schmalz about Gus driving in the winning run is not that bad, its a middle inning double w/ a guy on, no lightning bolts after tatering with a homemade bat...)


documentary: Baseball (the Ken Burns one)

Movie - Moneyball, Bad News Bears (1976), Major League ("Juusst a bit outside. Ball 4. Ball 8."), "42".
Book - After Jackie (very interesting to read first hand the words of Aaron, Frank Robinson, Maury Wills, Lou Brock, Yogi, etc.), The Summer of Beer and Whiskey (an interesting history of how brewers, distillers and bar owners made baseball popular in the 1880s).

Books:
<> Ball Four
<> any of the "Chip Hilton" book series
<> and a small book w/a grayish cover which I read over & over as a kid at night in bed. While it romanticized the early years of baseball, it was still an engaging read for a young kid who wanted to be the next Bobby Richardson or Billy Martin. Reading about Grover Cleveland Alexander pitching in relief facing Tony Lazzerri, Walter Johnson throwing a 14 hit shutout [ first 7 innings out/out/hit/hit/out, last 2 innings 6outs], Ty Cobb becoming the first "most hated" man in baseball, the craziness of Dizzy and Paul Dean, and the Graceful Arrogance of Joe Dimaggio... never got old.

Movies:
<> MoneyBall (who knew Art Howe was such a dick?)
<> Sandlot (hard to resist the charm of kids enjoying non-organized baseball so much)
<> The Natural ( " I didn't want to see you fail ", gets me everytime)
<> Field of Dreams (because I wish my dad could have had one more game of catch with his father)
<> Bull Durham, The Rookie, Little Big League, For the Love of the Game, Eight Men Out... are all good.

dgrish

There was a book when I was 10 or 12 called "the Kid who batted 1000", not the same as the Allison book I am seeing on the internet.

The premise was this kid was always able to get wood on the ball hitting balls foul, and would eventually walk. So he had to figure out to hit a ball within fair territory so he could go 1 for 1 in a little league baseball season.

Movies (in no particular order):
Field of Dreams
Bull Durham
League of their Own
Major League
For Love of the Game
"42"

Agree with another guy on here ..Ken Burns "Baseball" Documentary is amazing. I have watched it 3 times and will watch it again..fantastic!


Books:
Have not read a baseball book since I was a kid! Only one that sticks out in my mind is "From Behind the Plate" by Johnny Bench..my hero growing up!

How about "the Pride of the Yankees" the Lou Gehrig story starring Gary Cooper ,Teresa Wright and Walter Brennan .
Not to mention Babe Ruth and Bill Dickey playing themselves and Bob Meusel , Mark Koenig and Bill Stern.