November 8, 2009

Player Search:

Order Now


The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Rob Neyer, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT.

Most Recent Comments


For daily results, visit the THT Daily Archive.




Or you can search by:

Sports Tickets

Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets.
Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com.
Chicago Cubs Tickets
Chicago Tickets
Championship Tickets



Creative Commons License
All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Roll mouse over date for entries
THT Live Calendar
April 2008
S M T W T F S


1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30


Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Ten Essential Baseball Books:  The Sequel


Well, heck, if Studes is going to publish his ... here's what I sent to Alex:

1. Any of the Roger Angell anthologies. The Summer Game was the first, but not necessarily the best; among the many phenomenal aspects of Angell's writing is how he's managed to remain as fresh and enthusiastic and sharp and witty and insightful as ever, decade upon decade.

2. Something by Bill James. I suppose The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract from 2001 is the default choice, but in some ways the original BJHBA from 1986 was better. And his Book of Baseball Managers is just as terrific. And, of course, one could hardly go wrong just taking one of the annual Abstracts from the 1980s.

3. The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball, by Leonard Koppett. If only most newspaper-beat sportswriters exhibited one-tenth of the intelligence and style of this tremendous thinker and writer.

4. A Day in the Bleachers, by Arnold Hano. Quite simply, the best ballgame-as-experienced-from-the-stands account ever written. Nothing else really comes close.

5. The Lords of Baseball, by John Helyar. The stunningly good history and examination of how MLB really operates.

6. Juicing the Game, by Howard Bryant. Picks up where Helyar left off, and presents the authoritative history of MLB in the modern era.

7. The Glory of their Times, edited by Lawrence Ritter. The first of the great oral histories, and in many ways still the best. Danny Peary's We Played the Game is a close rival.

8. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton with Leonard Schecter. Yes, Jim Brosnan's The Long Season was nearly as good, but not quite. Bouton's is the best insider's account yet presented.

9. Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof. Pick it up, and try to put it down. I dare ya.

10. The original MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia, from 1969. Others have come along and overtaken it, and of course today one just turns to baseball-reference.com. But every statistical reference work since stands upon MacMillan's robust and towering shoulders.

This leaves out a gazillion worthy contenders, of course. I'm sure as soon as I send this, I'm gonna slap my forehead and say, "D'oh! How could I have forgotten that one!" But every one of these ten is fundamental.




Posted by Steve Treder at 6:25pm

Ten Essential Baseball Books


Alex Belth asked 55 different baseball nuts, including yours truly, for their list of ten essential baseball books. I didn't put the number one choice on my list at all. In fact, I think it's pretty non-essential these days, though it was great for its time. Just in case you're interested, here are my comments to Alex...

Click for more...

Posted by Dave Studeman at 2:13pm

Better gloves in Houston


Crawfish Boxes looks at the Astros' improved defense. Using THT's Team page, natch.

Posted by THT Staff at 10:39am

Hopefully the Phillies won’t need hitting help


The Phillies' Triple-A squad is 3-23. Only one batter of note is hitting over .250. Meanwhile, Beerleaguer tries to be realistic.

Posted by THT Staff at 10:19am

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Joel Zumaya’s Driveline Mechanics


Kyle is back with his own observations about Joel Zumaya, including some general tips on throwing mechanics.

Posted by Dave Studeman at 4:45pm