Ryan Beil: 3 books about baseball to put on your summer reading list

The illustrious and mighty Vancouver Canadians Baseball club is on the road in Hillsboro this week. This means the seats in the stands at Nat Bailey Stadium will remain empty. Save for an errant raccoon or crow, perhaps. 

When the C’s are away I have to find other pastimes to occupy my time. Noble pursuits that definitely don’t include using vacant eyes to stare into my phone. 

Generally speaking, in the summer months when I’m not watching baseball, I enjoy lazing about and cracking a good book. And believe it or not, those books often feature baseball itself or baseball-adjacent ideas and themes. My obsession never takes a break. Even when I take a break.

So, this week, I thought I’d share a couple of baseball books that I’ve enjoyed to add to your summer reading lists. Do people still make summer reading lists? I know I don’t. I just acquire books at a rate that is almost constant and far exceeds the time I have available to actually read them.

1. The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team by Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller

This book is an amazing behind-the-scenes look at running a minor league baseball team. The two authors, baseball writers with a keen interest in advanced statistics, get an opportunity to run an independent minor league baseball team, The Sonoma Stompers, for one season. They construct the roster, hire the staff and manage all the baseball operations. It’s a fascinating tale told from both of their perspectives.

2. Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich

Truth be told, I haven’t read this book yet, but I have acquired it. So why am I recommending something I haven’t read? I don’t know! Maybe because I’m a maverick who likes to take risks? Whatever the case, this book is all about the Houston Astros cheating scandal (the bang-bang trashcan thing) by the reporter who broke the story originally. Baseball and cheating have a long and close relationship and I am excited to take a deep dive into this salacious story.

3. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu by John Updike

This one isn’t even a book. It’s an essay. But it does come in book form. I know because I’ve acquired it. And this time, I’ve even read it! On Sept.28, 1960, Ted Williams played his last game of baseball at the legendary Fenway Park. John Updike, then 28, was watching that day and he penned this famous essay about the experience and Ted Williams rocky life in Baseball. It’s capital “R” Romantic about baseball, just a beautiful piece of writing. I think you could even read it online. Go ahead. Google it. I dare you. 

What about you? Do you have any baseball book recommendations that aren’t Shoeless Joe or Moneyball? Send them my way. Or just go ahead and yell them at me at the ballpark. As always, I’ll see you at the Nat.