I am a Kid at heart. I have always loved sports fiction. Starting with Matt Christopher, also a series of books about a little league written in the 1950s-1960s (I forgot the names of these books. Its the same little league, and it focuses on one kid in a book. In other books, that kid will be on an opposing team, or an older kid in the hold, etc. There were about 10 of them.)

Here are a few recent I read which you may not have heard of. Im leaving out the ones most have heard of, Art of Fielding, Calico Joe, The Natural, Stephen Kings baseball books, etc.

Broken Laces: It was just a coincedence this is an Aggie writer and the story takes place in Houston.
http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Laces-ebook/dp/B004DNWIEG/ref=zg_bs_301912_9

The Intrepid Golfer.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Intrepid-Golfer-Overcoming-ebook/dp/B00AUGX74U/ref=zg_bs_301912_53

The Ballplayer.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ball-Player-ebook/dp/B007YK2CMI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360854906&sr=1-1&keywords=the+ballplayer

Hard Lines.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16084676-hard-lines


Anyone have any recommendations of sports FICTION they would recommend?



[This message has been edited by Unthought known (edited 2/14/2013 12:05p).]

'Playing For Pizza' - John Grisham - Great read about semi-pro football in Europe (Italy specifically).

'Fourth and Long Gone' - Pepper Rodgers - Fun read (not deep by any means, but still fun) about college football recruiting. Writtne by Pepper Rodgers, former NCAA and Pro football head coach.

Read Matt Christopher books all the time as a kid.

The movie "Rudy" is an enjoyable piece of complete fiction. Makes it difficult to enjoy if you realize how much of a self-aggrandizing POS the actual Rudy is, but enjoyable as fiction.

I left out the Grishams, because its a pretty well known book. He also has one called Bleachers.

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The movie "Rudy" is an enjoyable piece of complete fiction. Makes it difficult to enjoy if you realize how much of a self-aggrandizing POS the actual Rudy is, but enjoyable as fiction.

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Well, that would be find and dandy, if this were about movies.

Not fiction, but Gay Talese and George Plimpton did some of the finest sports writing you'll ever read. In Plimpton's case, some greet books.

Sorry for dragging up a thread from 2 weeks ago, but I just saw this. I would also add Carl Deuker's books. I really enjoyed them because they had pretty good sports content but also talked about real life issues like teenage drinking, bullying, and the effects of things like crime and deaths on a family. Just about all of his stuff is for high school kids so I don't know how much enjoyment most of the posters here would get from them, but of you have kids or somebody that age that's interested in sports fiction, I would recommend his stuff.

I LOVED the Matt Christopher books when I was a kid....here are a couple of others I've read:

The Pitcher by Zane Grey

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch by George Plimpton

[This message has been edited by AgRyan04 (edited 2/27/2013 10:40p).]

Great thread. My Dad read the John R Tunis sports books in the 50s, then they were re-released in the 80s and I read them, and I hope my kids will be interested in them soon.

My favorites were the series on the Brooklyn Dodgers, starting with the Kid from Tomkinsville.

Dan Jenkins has some great sports fiction books

Dan Jenkins FTW - his football and golf books are hilarious, while being mostly realistic depictions of professional athletes' lives

The best non-fiction sports book I recently read is Twelve Mighty Orphans about the great Masonic Home football teams of the 20s and 30s. Fantastic.

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Great thread. My Dad read the John R Tunis sports books in the 50s, then they were re-released in the 80s and I read them, and I hope my kids will be interested in them soon.

My favorites were the series on the Brooklyn Dodgers, starting with the Kid from Tomkinsville.

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Thank you! I loved those books.

Is there a book about Te'o and Lennay?

Only Lennay is fiction.

"The Art of Fielding" is barely about baseball, and it's poorly written. I wouldn't recommend it.

Its not bad. But you are correct, it goes well beyond baseball.