"One of the best baseball books ever written. It is probably one of the best American diaries as well."—New York Times
A timeless classic from baseball's golden era, legendary pitcher Jim Brosnan's witty and candid chronicle of the 1959 Major League Baseball season, which set the standard for all sports memoirs to follow.
The Long Season was a revelation when it was first published in 1960. Here is an insider's perspective on America's national pastime that is funny, honest, and above all, real. The man behind this fascinating account of baseball and its players was not a sportswriter but a self-proclaimed "average ballplayer"—a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Called "Professor" by his teammates and "Meat" by his wife, Jim Brosnan turned out to be the ideal guide to the behind-the-scenes world of professional baseball with his keen observations, sharp wit, and clear-eyed candor.
His player's diary takes readers on the mound and on the road; inside the clubhouse and most enjoyably inside his own head. While solving age-old questions like "Why can't pitchers hit?" and what makes for the best chewing tobacco, Brosnan captures the game-to-game daily experiences of an ordinary season, unapologetically, "the way I saw it"—from sweating it out in spring training to blowing the opening game to a mid-season trade to the Cincinnati Reds. 
In The Long Season, Brosnan reveals, like no other sportswriter before him, the human side of professional ballplayers and has forever preserved not only a season, but a uniquely American experience.

The Long Season: The Classic Inside Account of a Baseball Year, 1959

Biographies & Memoirs

Brosnan, Jim

Leaders & Notable People

Harper Paperbacks

“Brosnan obviously knows his baseball, writes about it wittily, informally and with irony. He is a cynical, tough professional athlete and his book makes wonderful reading.”—New Yorker
From the author of The Long Season—considered by many to be the greatest baseball book of all time—comes another classic sports memoir by legendary pitcher Jim Brosnan, which chronicles how his team, the Cincinnati Reds, went on to win the 1961 National League pennant.
In Pennant Race, Brosnan—with his trademark wise-guy wit and plain-spoken practicality—once again offers a refreshingly candid alternative to hackneyed baseball mythologizing. Day by day, game by game, Brosnan reveals the real lives of professional ballplayers: their exhilaration and frustration, hope and despair, chronic worry over job security, playful camaraderie, world-weary cynicism, and boyish—if cautious—optimism. Although the Reds would ultimately lose the World Series to the Yankees, for Brosnan and his teammates, this was a winning season. 
Pennant Race vividly captures a remarkable year in the life of a ball club and the golden age of one of Major League Baseball’s most memorable eras.

Pennant Race: The Classic Game-by-Game Account of a Championship Season, 1961

A National League pitcher records his experience during one championship season

The Long Season

Literature & Fiction

Penguin??Books

The companion piece to his baseball classic The Long Season, Jim Brosnan's Pennant Race recounts the game-by-game lives of the Cincinnati Reds during their pennant-winning 1961 seasonâ€”as only Mr. Brosnan could write it. He was a pitcher with Cincinnati that season, but also (as The Long Season had proved) one of the sharpest and wittiest writers baseball ever produced. His insider's account concentrates on how and why the Reds won the pennant that year. But as with The Long Season, Mr. Brosnan displays an uncanny knack for capturing the alternating excitement and tedium of a baseball season, its colorful characters, and the droll and uproarious aspects of everyday baseball. "One of the best baseball books ever written. If we allow it to be called a diary, it is probably one of the best American diaries as well. Jim Brosnan is a gifted observer.... His book is beautifully constructed, helped no end by the essential unity and chronology of a baseball season, and strengthened by a central theme: the increasing possibility that the Reds will win the pennant.... The book bristles with pungent dialogue, some of it hilarious, some bitter."â€”Arnold Hano, New York Times Book Review. "As the Samuel Pepys of the league champions, Brosnan obviously knows his baseball, writes about it wittily, informally and with irony. He is a cynical, tough professional athlete and his book makes wonderful reading for anyone who knows the difference between Chris Pelekoudas and Charles McCabe."â€”William Hogan, San Francisco Chronicle.

Pennant Race

Great rookies of the major leagues

Random House]

Little League to big league (Little League library)

Great Baseball Pitchers

Ron Santo, 3B (Putnam sports shelf)

Children's Books

PUTNAM

The Ted Simmons Story (Putnam Sport Shelf)

A biography of the outspoken catcher-hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Ted Simmons story (Putnam sport shelf)

The classic inside account of a baseball year by a major league pitcher. It begins, appropriately, with the winter doldrums and "sweating out" a new contract, then follows the author and his family to spring training in Florida and through the full season's schedule to October. "One of the best baseball books ever written. It is probably one of the best American diaries as well." -New York Times Book Review.

Long Season

Sports & Outdoors

Baseball

Holtzman Pr

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