Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. America’s National Game by A.G. Spalding, 1911
2. You Know Me Al: A Busher’s Letters by Ring Lardner, 1916
3. Pitchin’ Man: Satchel Paige’s Own Story by Satchel Paige,
1948
4. The Natural by Bernard Malamud, 1952
5. Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in
the Big Leagues by Jim Bouton, 1970
6. The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn, 1972
7. The Bill James Baseball Abstract by Bill James, 1982
8. Rotisserie League Baseball by Glen Waggoner, 1984
9. Pete Rose: My Story by Pete Rose and Roger Kahn, 1989, and My
Prison Without Bars by Pete Rose with Rick Hill, 2004
10. Other Influential Books
Chapter Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index
Paul Aron is an editor and writer for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
“No one has read the literature of baseball with as much insight as
Paul Aron has. Even better, his narratives about the creation and
the impact of his selected books are as engaging as many of the
books themselves. I approached this book expecting cogent literary
analysis. I didn't expect to be charmed and delighted as well. This
is a marvelous book.”—Daniel Okrent, author of Nine Innings and
co-editor of The Ultimate Baseball Book
“Aron’s delightful account of the most influential books on
baseball is, at once, informative, insightful, entertaining, and
historically penetrating. The reader is introduced not only to the
great baseball narratives, but also to the historical circumstances
surrounding them.”—Andrew Zimbalist, author of Baseball and
Billions
“Richly entertaining and insightful, The Lineup chronicles
baseball’s long love affair with the written word, from biographies
and memoirs of such immortals as Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson
to Jim Bouton’s controversial Ball Four to Roger Kahn’s elegiac The
Boys of Summer to Bill James’ revolutionary Baseball Abstract.
Anyone who has a love of baseball and a passion for books will want
to read this remarkable book.”—James Mote, author of Everything
Baseball.
“an entertaining history of the literature of baseball, which is
also a history of baseball, as well as a stealth history of the
country. Working through Aron’s essays reveals different connecting
threads and different ways of looking at sport as well as the
larger American culture.”—The Baffler
“Monumentally meaningful, necessary and relevant. A Top 10 list for
the ages.”—Tom Hoffarth, Farther Off the Wall blog
“The Lineup is a quick and easy read…highly recommended”—The Inside
Game; “Grabbed my immediate attention”—The Virginia Gazette
“Unique, thought-provoking, historically insightful, and
occasionally iconoclastic…Must be considered as essential reading
for the legions of professional baseball fans.”—Midwest Book
Reviews.
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