We’re already 2 weeks into the baseball season, but it’s not too late to pick up some baseball books to help get you ready. There are a lot of great books, new and old, in our baseball section right now, so I wanted to point out a few of my favorites.

A few days ago I picked up Baseball: A Literary Anthology (part of the Library of America series). It’s been out a few years now, but somehow I’d missed it. It has a great cover that caught my eye, and the list of writers is impressive. Nearly every important baseball essay, story, and book is represented here, but you’ll also find some fantastic lesser-known pieces.

I read Odd Man Out a couple months ago, and it reminded me of another book I enjoyed, Can I Keep My Jersey? by Paul Shirley. Like Shirley, Matt McCarthy is a misfit in his sport — introspective, observant, and clouded with self-doubt and a less-than-singleminded approach to the game. In other words, he’s a refreshing change from the endless postgame interviews with athletes who are incapable or unwilling to say anything insightful or candid.

As They See ‘Em offers a different perspective on baseball, and one too infrequently considered, given the impact it has on the game. Bruce Weber gives the reader a look into the world of umpires, and if, like most fans, you find that you only notice the umpires when they make a mistake, it’s well worth reading. We applaud the players who finally get their major league opportunity after years in the minors, but the path to becoming a major league umpire is arguably as difficult and wearying.

If you enjoy baseball statistics or sabermetrics, I’d encourage you to check out the Bill James Gold Mine 2009. Don’t buy it expecting a rigorous statistical study — this is a 320 page mish mash of baseball “stuff”. Each major league team has a 5 or 6 page chapter that covers interesting notes about particular hitters and pitchers. Interspersed are essays exploring questions about player evaluation and historical comparisons. None of it is intended to be definitive or authoritative — more questions are raised than answered, and James frequently points out the limitations of his methodology. Still, the Gold Mine is well worth the price of admission just for all the great statistical “nuggets” and for opening discussion on baseball topics considered dead and buried by traditional wisdom.

And finally, whether you’re a new fan struggling to keep up with the terminology, or an old fan wanting a reference for all the baseball lore you’ve accumulated, I highly recommend the Dickson Baseball Dictionary. Weighing in at just over 1000 pages and newly updated in its third edition, this is the authoritative guide for all things baseball. When we got our first copy in, I spent a few minutes trying my hardest to stump the dictionary, but it had entries for all of my most obscure and arcane bits of baseball knowledge. It breezed through this test, usually explaining them in greater detail than I myself knew, and while flipping through it I couldn’t help but stop and read some additional entries I was unfamiliar with. Consider this required for the serious baseball fan.

Any of the sports fans out there that read Bill Simmons’  “Sports Guy” column on ESPN.com may have noticed this section in his recent NFL Power Poll:

Gift No. 7: Books. You can’t go wrong with any of these (all of which I loved): “The Chris Farley Show” (superb oral history of Farley’s life) … “Born Standing Up” (Steve Martin’s insightful memoir about his earlier life as a standup comic) … “Alphabet Juice” (Roy Blount’s one-of-a-kind take on his favorite words) … “Boys Will Be Boys” (Jeff Pearlman’s rollicking tale of the ’90s Cowboys) … “The Best Game Ever” (Mark Bowden’s take on the ’58 NFL title game) … “Outliers” (Malcolm Gladwell’s new one, a must-read as always) … “Loose Balls” (Terry Pluto’s oral history of the ABA, finally back in print) … and “Nixonland” (an amazingly well-done book if you like American history even a little). So there you go.

We have all of these books in stock — and we have signed copies of Alphabet Juice and Outliers. If you’re struggling for those last few Christmas gifts (or if you haven’t even started yet), come by the store and I bet we can find something for everyone on your list.

I’m a sucker for a good baseball book, so when I saw that John Feinstein had a new book out, I couldn’t resist. Feinstein spent a season covering Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. I’m only a couple chapters in, but so far it’s as good an inside look at baseball as I’ve read in a long time. It reminds me a lot of George Will’s “Men at Work”.

Go Tigers! (Sorry Jake.)

Every once in a while I come across a book that I missed the first time around. I know everyone else has already read Moneyball, but until recently I hadn’t — and now that I’ve read it, I agree that every self-respecting baseball fan needs to read it.

Much has been made about Billy Beane (Oakland A’s general manager) and his statistical approach to assembling a team. The oft-repeated caricature of Beane and his ilk as a bunch of math-obsessed nerds misses the point. The stats-geeks love baseball as much as the traditionalists — they just have an unquenchable desire to understand the nuts and bolts of the game, instead of relying solely on their immediate perception of players and teams. Michael Lewis narrates the battle between the new-school statistical approach and the old-guard “Baseball Men” (a club restricted mostly to former players and scouts), and follows Beane’s path from a failed prospect (who was described as “can’t-miss” by the old guard) to a major league general manager assembling overlooked and ignored players into a playoff team.

If you’re gearing up for baseball to start (March 25th!), and you haven’t read Moneyball yet, definitely grab a copy. It’s a great read and will definitely change the way you understand the game.