Baseball Fiction

All the Stars Came Out That Night, by Kevin King (2005)

A tale based on the 1934 World Series which traces the machinations of Clarence Darrow to bring about the Cardinals' win, an achievement marked by the contributions of Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Henry Ford and others.

Ballpark Blues, by by C.W. Tooke (2003)

A lowly reporter trapped in a job he hates, Russ Bryant gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he meets and befriends Casey Fox, a talented and promising rookie who receives an irresistible offer to play for the Boston Red Sox, but both Russ and Casey soon discover the downside to fame in a world in which sports has become big business.

Blockade Billy, by Stephen King (2010)

A retired coach recounts the story of "Blockade Billy" Blakely, known for his skills as a catcher and also as a formidable batter, the only player to have his record erased from baseball history, and his time with the New Jersey Titans.

Double Play, by Robert B. Parker (2005)

In 1947, as Jackie Robinson breaks the major league baseball color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Joseph Burke, a World War II veteran and survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to be Robinson's bodyguard.

The Entitled, by Frank Deford (2007)

Howie Traveler, manager of the Cleveland Indians, and his Cuban-American star player, Jay Alcazar, have little interaction off the field until Traveler witnesses an encounter between Alcazar and a woman that ends in a rape charge.

Hanging Curve, by Troy Soos (2000)

When Mickey Rawlings, utility infielder for the St. Louis Browns, accepts an invitation to play against the East St. Louis Cubs, a black semi-pro team, he is met with open hostility from the commissioner and the Ku Klux Klan, black pitcher Slim Crawford is murdered, and Mickey is hurled into a dark world of prejudice, in a mystery set in 1922.

The Havana World Series, by Jose Latour (2004)

At the height of the World Series in 1958, the gambling empire of Meyer Lansky enjoys unprecedented profits much to the chagrin of rival mafia boss Joe Bonanno, who plots to hijack Lansky's winnings with deadly consequences.

The Heavenly World Series: Timeless Baseball Fiction, by Frank O'Rourke (2002)

The master of sports fiction serves up a collection of stories--including "The Catcher" and "One Ounce of Common Sense"--about baseball players who play out their fantasies and dreams through the game and the discipline that surrounds it.

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, by W.P. Kinsella (1986)

His quest to prove that the world-champion Chicago Cubs of 1908 met the amateur Iowa Baseball Confederacy in an epic game of more than two thousand innings brings Gideon Clarke and his friend Stan in touch with destiny.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King (1999)

Having wandered away from her arguing family during a hike on New England's Appalachian Trail, a young girl discovers that she is lost in the menacing woods with only her personal stereo and the Red Sox game for comfort.

The Great American Novel, by Philip Roth (1973)

A novel narrated by octogenarian ex-sportswriter Word Smith, who plans to write the "Great American Novel" and also to tell the tragic and hilarious story of the Ruppert Mundys - the only homeless baseball team ever to play in the big league, who have disappeared from all official histories.

Murder at Ebbets Field, by Troy Soos (1995)

Anticipating the animosity between the Brooklyn Dodgers and his own team, Giants player Mickey Rawlings is nevertheless surprised when Florence Hampton, the widow of Dodger owner William Daley, is murdered after an important game.

The Natural, by Bernard Malamud ( 1952)

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows the career of baseball player Roy Hobbs, a natural with a bat whose dreams of playing in the big leagues are deferred by a youthful indiscretion, but who finally becomes a hero.

Play for a Kingdom, by Thomas Dyja (1997)

When Union soldiers and Rebel troops accidentally cross paths, they decide to put aside the bloodshed and compete in their own way, breaking out the baseball and playing game after game, until the horrors of war once more overwhelm them.

Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella (1982)

Motivated by his fanatical love of baseball, Ray Kinsella is inspired to build a baseball stadium in his corn field, dedicated to his hero, the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, in a novel that became the inspiration for the film Field of Dreams.

Strike Zone, by Jim Bouton & Eliot Asinof (1994)

Two expert writers on baseball offer an exciting tale about Sam Ward, an aging minor league pitcher, who gets a chance to pitch in the Majors, and Ernie Kolacka, an umpire, who has agreed to fix the game.

Summerland, by Michael Chabon (2002)

Ethan Feld, the worst baseball player in the history of the game, finds himself recruited by a 100-year-old scout to help a band of fairies triumph over an ancient enemy.

Waiting for Teddy Williams, by Howard Frank Mosher (2004)

On the eighth birthday of Ethan "E.A." Allen, who lives with his mother and Gran in a Vermont town decades behind the rest of New England, a drifter named Teddy comes into their world, teaching E.A. how to play ball and the secrets of baseball.

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