Bases Loaded: Three Baseball Classics

Kahn, Roger, The Boys of Summer (Harper & Row, 1st ed., 1972; later printing, 1976). ISBN 06-012239-0. Interwoven stories of Kahn’s rise through sports journalism at the New York Herald Tribune and the boys of the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers. Though some critics faulted its nostalgic tone as a little over the top, the book is consistently rated one of the best sports book of the last century; it went through over ninety printings and sold more than three million copies. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. 8.5” x 6”, 442 pp. HBB price: $35.

McCarthy, Matt, Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound With a Minor League Misfit (Viking, 1st ed., 2nd printing, 2009). “When I was twenty-one, I could throw a baseball 92 miles an hour. This led to a strange courtship between my left arm and a series of pencil-moustached, overweight men.”  Yale molecular biology major McCarthy got signed with the Provo Angels for a year before going to Harvard Medical School. This is the hilarious tale of a twelvemonth in The Show. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, mylar cover, fine condition, ex-library. HBB price: $15.

Walsh, Christy, Baseball’s Greatest Lineup (A.S. Barnes & Co., 1st ed., 1952). LOC 52-8286. Christy Walsh, a cartoonist and sportswriter, saw the future of baseball one day, and its name was Babe Ruth. He dogged Ruth to see him for two years, and when he finally got in, he asked Ruth how much he’d been paid for a newspaper article. “Five dollars.” “I can get you a hundred,” Walsh replied, and for the next 27 years he made Ruth a wealthy man through better contract negotiations and product endorsements. Walsh was the first great sports superagent, representing the cream of American sports- Ty Cobb, Knute Rockne and Lou Gehrig, among others. Baseball’s Greatest Lineup is a collection of profiles of sportswriters’ picks for baseball’s greatest, 1900 to 1950. Thoughtful, funny, the book makes you think Walsh invented fantasy baseball as well. Hardcover, no dust jacket, very good condition. Autographed with a Walsh caricature of himself, for Wilton Garrison, longtime sports editor of The Charlotte Observer. HBB price: $100.