Best of
Baseball

1977

Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion


Roger Angell - 1977
    It also presented one of the best World Series of all time (1975), including still the greatest World Series game ever played (Game Six). Along with visiting other games and campaigns, Roger Angell meets a trio of Tigers-obsessed fans, goes to a game with a departing old-style owner, watches high-school ball in Kentucky with a famous scout, and explores the sad and astounding mystery of Steve Blass’s vanished control. Angell’s Five Seasons is a gem and a gift for baseball lovers of all ages.

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams


John Updike - 1977
    Seizing the occasion, he belted a solo home run- a storybook ending to a storied career. In the stands that afternoon was 28-year-old John Updike, inspired by the moment to make his lone venture into the field of sports reporting. More than just a matchless account of that fabled final game, Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu is a brilliant evocation of Williams' competitive spirit, an intensity of dedication that still "crowds the throat with joy." Now, on the 50th anniversary of the dramatic exit of baseball's greatest hitter, The Library of America presents a commemorative edition of Hub Fans, prepared by the author just months before his death. To the classic final version of the essay, long out-of- print, Updike added an autobiographical preface and a substantial new afterword. Here is a baseball book for the ages, a fan's notes of the very highest order.

Scroogie 2 Hello There Ball


Tug McGraw - 1977
    

Spitballs and Holy Water


James F. Donohue - 1977
    

Baseball's Back in Town


Louis Cauz - 1977
    Baseball in Toronto from the 1880s to the 1970s, published to celebrate the return of baseball to the city, in the form of the Blue Jays.