Batter up!

Major League Baseball's opening day is coming soon.  This is a perfect time to read up on the All-American sport.  We have many choices for you, a few of our newer selections are highlighted below.

In a tip-of-the-hat to the "Cheers" theme song, the book "Where Nobody Knows Your Name", is about the International League of minor league baseball.  This book has local interest, as our Indianapolis Indians are in this league, and our team is referenced throughout.  Veteran sports writer John Feinstein followed several minor league players as they made their way during the 2012 season.    Feinstein clearly points out that the minors are a long way from the major leagues, and most do not make it to the "bigs".

One player that did make it to the big leagues is Derek Jeter.  The Book "Jeter: Unfiltered" is a collection of photographs taken during his final season in baseball.  You will get behind-the-scenes access into the off-field world of professional sports. Jeter was a fourteen-time all-star and five-time World Series winner.  I am sure that he would agree that he owes the pioneers of baseball integration a big debt of gratitude.

This next book, "1954" is about some of those pioneers.  The same year that the U.S. Supreme court ruled in "Brown vs the Board of Education," baseball was experiencing changes that would make the sport what it is today.  This was the first time that the two teams in the World Series featured players of color.  Dive into interviews with the men who were there, especially Larry Doby of the Indians and Willie Mays of the Giants.  In this book the author Bill Madden gives Major League Baseball credit for being ahead of the country when it came to racial tolerance.

There's nothing like the crack of the bat on a warm spring day, or singing "Take me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch.  Get ready to enjoy our national pastime by immersing yourself in a book from your library.