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Baseball books for a snowy day

Believe it or not, baseball season is only two weeks away.

Personally, I wouldn’t really call myself a baseball nut. I don’t know who won the 1932 World Series or how many hits Ted Williams gathered in his career.

But I love the idea of baseball. Sitting in the stands on a lazy Sunday afternoon, watching men in crisp white uniforms run around a bright green field. Driving home on a hot summer night with the windows rolled down listening to a ball game on the radio. That kind of thing.

That’s the kind of feeling a good baseball book can create. So to get our minds off of the snow falling outside our window, here are my favorite books about America’s favorite summer pastime.

1. “Last Days of Summer,” Steve Kluger. A laugh-out-loud, heartwarming book about a bratty pre-teen and an obnoxious 20something baseball player who become friends in the 1940s. I liked this book so much I read the whole thing out loud to my mother—more than once.

2. “Shoeless Joe,” W.P. Kinsella. “Field of Dreams” might be my favorite movie of all time, so one day my boyfriend (now husband) bought me the book it was based on. It’s different from the movie, and it starts off a little slow, but the characters will grab you. I was sorry when it ended.

3. “Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig,” Jonathan Eig. I admit I don’t normally read sports biographies. But I interviewed the author a few years ago, and I decided to check out his work. Who knew the life of a shy, awkward ball player in the 1920s could be so compelling?

4. “Waiting for Teddy Williams,” Howard Frank Mosher. This quirky book full of quirky characters tells the story of E.A. Allen, a fatherless boy in Kingdom Common, Vermont; his mother, Gypsy Lee, an “escort” and country music singer; and a stranger named Teddy Williams who teaches E.A. the finer points of baseball.

5. “Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series,” Eliot Asinof. I actually just finished this one. The details can get dry at times, and it’s another slow starter, but it picks up when you get to the games themselves and the revelation of the scandal. It’s fascinating how many people were involved and how almost all of them managed to walk away unstained.

Curl up with one of these to remind yourself that summer is indeed on its way. Feel free to add to the list.

Go Brewers!