Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book

• #17 in Best Baseball Books

18 Reviews

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A must for any Baseball fan. The photos in this book are simply amazing. It will make you fall in love again with the game you grew up on.

Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book proves to be a fantastic photo history of the Major League Baseball. Using some of the greatest baseball photographs ever taken by Sports Illustrated, the book traces the history of baseball from the first decade of the 20th century to the first six years of the 21st. There are short articles scattered among the pages on special events and personalities of the game but most of the book remains a photo feast of baseball history. Also shown are photographs of rare baseball equipments, probably from Cooperstown Hall of Fame collection. Each photographs proves to be clearly marked and explained.

While a fantatsic book overall, I only have two minor quibbles with the book. For one, the photographs are not in any real order. You got modern as well as old photos mixed together regardless of the decade chapters of the book. Articles are that way too. Two, as a Boston Red Sox fan, I was bit surprised that there was very little mention of their 2004 season play-off series which considered by many baseball historians as one of the greatest ever played. Breaking of the curse and all that captured the attention of the entire nation as no baseball event ever has in a very long time. (Entire team was voted as "Sportsmen of the Year".)

Otherwise, a fantastic collection of photos of baseball history that should satisfied any fan of the game like myself for long time to come.

This is a wonderful book for the avid baseball fan. Being that I only started following baseball about 5 years ago, this book gave a great summary of the rich and interesting history of baseball. The book is organized by decade, with amazing photographs. The best Sports Illustrated writers contribute with many articles.

I purchased the Sports Illustrated "Baseball Book" for my 83 year old father who has been an avid baseball (Cardinals, Braves, Cubs)fan for the past 75 years. He absolutely loves the stories, the pictures, the memories that can only accompany a historical application such as this. Reading, remembering, challenging the mind has kept his mind & spirit alive & well.

Obviously, I was raised in the baseball atmosphere & this book brings back many fond memories of my own.

Richard

I am 100% baseball fan. Since being a kid I was moved by the great players achievements. I enjoyed this bokk throughly. It's a work very well done and a prize for sports book's collectors. The only thing I regret is that, for unknown reasons, some of baseball hall of fame players pictures were not included, namely Harmon Killebrew.

I got this as a birthday gift for my boyfriend last October (he's 22 and loves baseball). He loved it and still uses it for reference all the time.

This book is great! I loved the Football book and decided to get the Baseball book and we love it!

This was a great gift idea for family members and friends that love baseball. Lots of information!

I was sent this book by the artist featured on page 212, Ben Sakoguchi, who is a close friend. Upon seeing
the photo images, I purchased one for my 20 year old grand-nephew who aspires to be a professional base-
ball player. The book is a huge success. As an artist and art teacher I find the photos, in addition to Ben's
work, excellent and extremely creative. I plan to use the book in my teaching at a local community college.
And I might add I'm a huge Dodger fan and collecter of Sakoguchi's art.

I could not be more pleased with this book. The photography is beautiful, it is just a great book. It makes a wonderful gift for your favorite baseball fan. My dad loves it.

No one does sports photography better then SI. If you love the history of baseball, and can appreciate it through fine photography, then this is the book for you.

Book that is great for baseball fans. Photos and facts that are good fun for an old man to sit down with.

Bought this book for my adult son's birthday - a baseball fanatic - needless to say, he loooooooooves it!

I gave this to an 80 yr old fanatic, who immediately looked at a photo, said who it was, and then gave a sports announcer history commentary! I was surprised he hadn't received it earlier, but I took the chance. The photos are really impressive - even for me; the rest was beyond my interest.
So- judging from HIS reaction, I would say it is a pretty fantastic book for a baseball nut.

I have Sports Illustrated's 50th Anniversary Book and The Football Book, so I decided to get this spectacular celebration of baseball. If you enjoy watching baseball, seeing how the game has changed over the years and reading about the players' lives, you'll love Sports Illustrated's Baseball Book. Great sportswriting from past eras are reproduced here with plenty of lose-ups that bring back memories, charts and trivia. Whenever company comes over, this is the book everyone seems to pick up and can't put down. If you love a team--any team--you'll love this!

My son loved this book from Sports Illustrated. He's keeping it away from other baseball players on his college baseball team.

Overall I would say SI did a pretty good job with this book. The photography is awesome and they included several interesting and quirky aspects of baseball to help give a sense of the sport's unique history and personality. I learned quite a few new things and enjoyed seeing other things I had heard about, for example Juan Marichal using his bat as a weapon! Also a good job on baseball's international popularity by including several Latin/South American/Japanese players and their influence on the game.

I have to agree with the reviewer who thought the Red Sox 2004 World Series victory should have recieved more attention (and I don't even like them). This holds true for some other things too, such as the Bay area earthquake World Series, Lou Gehrig's "luckiest man" speech (not only a great baseball moment but a great moment for all humanity, but perhaps too obvious and well-known to be included in this book), and not including Field Of Dreams on the baseball movies page (the father/son relationship theme is so relevant to baseball and it's history in America). Hitting my father in the knees with fastballs in our backyard as he crouched down and caught and I pitched is one of my fondest childhood memories! By the way, Johnny Bench is the greatest catcher of all time because my father told me he was.

Guess I just wanted a bigger book! Baseball history is tough to cover because it has been around a lot longer and so many more games are played. With The Football Book, it was easier to cover everything and SI really nailed it.

Other complaints are that too many pictures from 2000 to present were included and not enough from the 70's, 80's, and early to mid 90's, when baseball was still great and not so profit-driven that core values and purity of the game are compromised for hype in order to look good in an ever increasing commercialized, quick-fix, and sterile society. (whatever that means)

Also detected a slight Yankees bias, but they do deserve the most coverage (DiMaggio, Mantle, Gehrig, Ruth, Maris--some of the classiest and greatest ever!). But Rivera on the all-time team? Ya, one of the great closers, and closing is more difficult than many think, but leaving off pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller, and Gibson is just inexcusable. Closers?, we don't need no stinkin' closers.

I recommend buying this book for $19.95 on sale if at all possible.

This is more than just a coffee table book. Full of the wonderful photography that SI is noted for, this book is a nice anthology of my favorite game and something I am passing down to my grandson who is the fourth generation of baseball lovers in our family. The complete history of the game is displayed with era by era photos and action pictures right up through the 2006 season. This book is a treasure for anyone considering themselves a true fan of our national past time.