2008: Year of the Illustrated
Baseball Book

November 13, 2008

I’ve been intensely following baseball literature and particularly the annual release of new baseball books for nigh on 30 years now, and never have I seen so many terrific illustrated baseball books published in a single year as this year. Every season a couple of illustrated baseball books garner attention, but nothing on this scale has happened before. I don’t know what this means, if anything, but I do think it is a phenomenon worth pointing out. It also will explain why a larger than usual number of spots on the list of CASEY Award Finalists for 2008 will certainly go to some of these illustrated books.

The most arresting baseball book of the year has to be We Are the Ship, Jump at the Sun/Hyperion’s book of Kadir Nelson’s stunning Negro League paintings. Nelson supplements his beautiful and beautifully reproduced artwork with a historical text geared towards children, but it is adult sensibilities which will most appreciate the genius evidenced here. We Are the Ship is a shoo-in to receive a CASEY Award Finalist Nomination, and it will be the first “childrens” book in history to do so. The book will also be reviewed in the upcoming issue of Spitball.

Classic Cubs: The Men and Magic of Wrigley Field (from Cumberland House) is another book of outstanding baseball art, and this time the subject is the Chicago Cubs. Artist John Hanley works in what appears to be the impossible combination of water color and air brush to produce images that seem to be nostalgic and contemporary at the same time. The paintings are so appealing that even fans who are bored with Cubness will find them irresistible.

Baseball photography has hardly been neglected by publishers this year. Far From Home uses the exceptional photographs of Jose Luis Villegas (plus those of a few other contributing photographers) and a crisp text by the astute Tim Wendel to tell the story of the Latin invasion of the big leagues. Houston photographer Michael Hart took advantage of his total access to document his favorite player’s swan song; and the resulting effort from Bright Sky Press, Biggio: The Final Game, displays, besides expert craftsmanship, the closeness and affection of a family album. Former Reds pitcher and longtime radio broadcaster Joe Nuxhall was and remains a big deal here in Cincinnati. To honor his memory The Cincinnati Enquirer published an illustrated biography of him, Joe Nuxhall: The Life, Legacy and Words of a Cincinnati Icon, that uses pictures to effectively get across what all the fuss was about. And then there is Ballet in the Dirt, Taschen’s mammoth presentation of Neil Leifer’s career as a baseball photographer. Leifer covered the game during what for my generation was Baseball’s Golden Era (the 1960s and ‘70s), and many of the photos in this book are certified classic captures of diamond demi-gods in their moments of triumph (think Koufax, Aaron, Mantle, Clemente, and of course Mays).

But wait … there’s even more! Baseball’s Greatest Hit (from Hal Leonard) is a tribute to the most famous and most performed/sung baseball song of all time, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”; and the book presents a fascinating and delightful hodge-podge of artifacts and memorabilia to tell the history and convey the status of its celebrated little piece of music. Photos of baseball memorabilia are not a story-telling tool but the whole point of the gorgeous 100 Baseball Icons from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Archives (Ten Speed Press) by Terry Heffernan, Kit Hinrichs & Delphine Hirasuna. And, as you would expect from such a book, 101 Baseball Places to Visit Before You Strike Out by Josh Pahigian (The Lyons Press) contains numerous alluring images of baseball-related sites; the only quibble we can make in regard to the book is that it does not contain even more such photos.

Finally, this past season was the final chapter in the history of the original Yankee Stadium, so it should surprise no one that several publishers took note of this juncture by releasing illustrated books devoted to the grandest of all ball yards, including: Yankee Stadium: A Tribute (HarperCollins) by Les Krantz and A Yankee Stadium Scrapbook: A Lifetime of Memories (Running Press) by David Fischer. Both of these books are crammed with photos of the many many highlights of Yankees glory, yet the best illustrated book of 2008 about the oldest professional baseball franchise in Gotham City may be Greatness in Waiting: An Illustrated History of the Early New York Yankees, 1903-1919 (McFarland) by Ray Istorico. The Yankees weren’t always great; in fact, they weren’t always the “Yankees,” and Istorico’s book supplements the story of the fun-loving but mediocre Highlanders with priceless photos from their all-but-forgotten past.