BEST Baseball BOOKS OF 2020

In a year made for reading rather than rooting, the nation’s publishers hit a home run in producing great baseball literature.

Titles range from “The New Baseball Bible: Notes, Nuggets, Lists, and Legends from Our National Pastime” to biographies of Yogi Berra, Jim Bouton, Roy Halladay, and Effa Manley – the only female member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Rating them, as always, is hard, but adhering to three rules helps: nonfiction only, new titles only, and no personal favorites (sorry, “New Baseball Bible”). That being said, here’s how they rate:

1 The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932 In an era of 16 teams, day baseball, and social upheaval, Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, and Jimmie Foxx were heroes to millions glued to radio and newspapers. Historian Tom Wolf even says Ruth called his shot twice – including the legendary blow in the 1932 World Series.