This is for the true baseball fan, who loves to talk about old-time baseball was so much better than the contemporary game, and who revels in the storytelling of the ball players of an earlier generation. Auker was noted for his submarine delivery and his offbeat and oftentimes hilarious stories. This book is ideal for the fan who remembers when ballplayers traveled by train and the game was played in the midafternoon. I love the anecdotes, and perhaps you will too.

I’ve never been an inside football guy;  as I am with inside baseball—but you can’t believe how entertaining and enlightening the anecdotes are on Bob Kraft, Tom Brady, and, of course, the maestro himself, Bill Belichik. You will learn more about these personalities than you ever thought you would know—and the ingredients of success of the Patriots’ dynasty can carry over into both public and private business organizations.

This characterization of what many Yankees fans think is the noblest of them all, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio of 56 games in a row fame, and his even-grater exploits with Marilyn Monroe. This biography of DiMaggio  will dazzle and astound you with his stories insights into the true Joe: a man who is less than a hero in his personal life, and who diminished himself through his  retirement activities. A must-read for all baseball aficionados intrigued about the roots of the Yankee dynasty  and into the Yankee personalities from the 1930s into the 1950s. Give this gift to Yankees fans. They may never forgive you.

The cleverest and nicest man in the Red Sox universe has written a book for all seasons, for all gift-giving possibilities. It’s impossible not to smile, and, at times, laugh uproariously, at the creative touches of the Poet Laureate Of The Boston Red Sox.

This book comes with a CD, and is a marvelous gift for your young ones just getting into baseball, and who would be intrigued by the history, the magnificent moments that bring both attendees and players to their feet in admiration and astonishment. This book is a wonderful pictorial history on the great moments of baseball, and will remind you, once again, why you love the game.

For golf nuts like myself this little book given to me by my nephew several years ago, will fill you with insights and reminders and solemn   thoughts on the beauty and grace of the game and why we love to play it.

This was one of the first of what we might refer to as an “inclusive biography” of the greatest hitter of all time. Ed Linn knew Ted for many years going back decades, and as editor of Sports Magazine he made Ted the cover story on numerous occasions. He covers the high points and low points of his career and is a good primer on Ted’s professional career and relationships.

This is my favorite biography on Ted, by the famed and always extremely brilliant and insightful former sports columnist of the Boston Globe. If you only want to read one book on Ted, this is probably the one. He covers his entire life, and the book is filled with memorable anecdotes and personality portraits, not only of Ted but of his teammates and the players he competed against—and has a few words on Ted’s relationship with the press as well.

This biography just came out this year. It will be featured in an upcoming Fenway Park Writers Series Zoom event. I recommend that you read the book in advance. As I was coming of age in my understanding of baseball in the 1960s, I found this book to be a great read.  You will receive an unvarnished portrait of Bouton and his Yankee contemporaries of the 1960s and what really happened in the Clubhouse. This book is a wonderful companion piece for those of us who read “Ball Four” several years ago. This is the best baseball biography I read this year. You won’t be disappointed.

This book we featured earlier in the fall, and for those of us who came alive with the Celtics in the 1950s this is a must-read as you will learn from the points of view of the Celtics’ greatest icons: Cousy and Russell, and what they experienced as teammates and as individuals in the hothouse of Boston race and politics of the 1950s and 60s. The anecdotes and the portraits of the enduring friendship between Cousy and Russell are crisply and, at times, excitingly drawn by the perceptive writing of Pomerantz. This is a must-read for Celtics fans.

This is another wonderful picture-book with great stories of the Red Sox and their first 100 years. This is a great gift book for your mature adolescents and teenagers who want to know where Red Sox madness came from—and for the younger generation who has only experience 4 World Championships this century—this book will remind them how lucky they’ve been not to experience the tears sand disappointments of previous generations. The stories and pictures are wonderful.

This is an offbeat book to recommend. I enjoyed it because Frank Sullivan, along with Jackie Jensen are the 1950s stars I most followed—aside from the Splendid Splinter, of course.   Frank spoke at a Bosox Club luncheon a number of years ago. He was retired in Hawaii at that time, along with his battery-mate Sammy White. His stories of his career and of Red Sox life in the 1950s are all priceless and all told from a personal point of view. Frank impressed us all at the Bosox Club with his humility and humor, and all that is included in his autobiography. A rare read on a precious period of Red Sox baseball lore.

For years I spoke to my sister Marilyn, and she couldn’t care a penny about anything to do with Williams; until she read this book. This is a very personal story as you can imagine. Claudia pulls no punches and tells it like it is—actually, like it was—growing up as Ted Williams’ daughter. Claudia impressed us all with her star turn at a Fenway Park Writers Series about five years ago. It’s a terrific gift for a daughter, or actually any fan interested in the effect that a superstar, one-of-a-kind athlete can have on the most personal relationships in his life.