From Mack to Charlie O: Oakland Athletics Books
w/ Philadelphia (and Kansas City!) Athletics Books
The Athletics are easily the sneakiest successful franchise in the Majors. Besides notching the 3rd most World Series victories of all-time (now tied with Boston) at 9, they always seem to find themselves on precipice of baseball’s most defining moments. From Connie Mack being an instrumental cog to the creation and survival of the early American League, to Billy Beane and the most cliché baseball phrase today: “Moneyball,” Oakland has, quite miraculously brought us to the current version of modern day baseball. Pretty impressive for the team that has one of the greatest dynasties that never gets talked about (looking at you 1970s Athletics). There is an incredibly rich history of Athletics baseball to get lost in. From both coasts (and a landlocked state), there are shenangians everywhere from Rube, to Charlie O, to Rollie. And of course the book that brought nerds out of the basement and into the Front Offices: Money Ball. Since the book was so groundbreaking, it is very easy to forget that Moneyball was actually about the Oakland A’s, and how Billy Beane changed the landscape of player analysis and team building. One of the most important books about baseball to come out, ever…
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
The Philadelphia Athletics
The Ultimate Philadelphia Athletics Reference Book 1901-1954 by Ted Taylor
The Philadelphia Athletics by William C. Kashatus
Athletics Album: A Photo History of the Philadelphia Athletics by Mark Stang
Baseball in Philadelphia: A History of the Early Game, 1831-1900 by John Shiffert
Halfway-Point: Kansas City Athletics
The Kansas City Athletics: A Baseball History, 1954-1967 by John E. Peterson
The Kansas City Athletics by Ernest Mehl
Finally Made It: Oakland Athletics
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s by Jason Turbow
The A’s: A Baseball History by David M. Jordan
Battle of the Bay: Bashing A’s, Thrilling Giants, and the Earthquake World Series by Gary Peterson
Mustaches and Mayhem: Charlie O’s Three-Time Champions: The Oakland Athletics: 1972-74 by Chip Greene
Aces : The Last Season on the Mound with the Oakland A’s Big Three: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito by Mychael Urban
Baseball’s Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Oakland A’s by Bruce Markusen
Biographies
Connie Mack Books- Complete with his own Page
Connie Mack’s First Dynasty (pre-1915)
Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist by Alan H. Levy
Rube Waddell: King of the Hall of Flakes by W.G. Braund
Just a Big Kid: The Life and Times of Rube Waddell by Paul Proia
Eddie Collins: A Baseball Biography by Rick Huhn
Gettysburg Eddie: The Story of Eddie Plank by Lawrence Knorr
Jack Coombs: A Life in Baseball by John P. Tierney
Money Pitcher: Chief Bender and the Tragedy of Indian Assimilation by William C. Kashatus
Chief Bender: A Baseball Biography by Robert Peyton Wiggins
Chief Bender’s Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star by Tom Swift
Frank “Home Run” Baker: Hall of Famer And World Series Hero by Barry Sparks
Mack’s Second Dynasty (post 1920)
Jimmie Foxx: The Pride of Sudlersville by Mark R. Millikin
The Last Baseball Fan Of Jimmie Foxx by Jimmy Flynt
Jimmie Foxx: The Life and Times of a Baseball Hall of Famer, 1907-1967 by W. Harrison Daniel
Lefty Grove: American Original by Jim Kaplan
Lefty Grove and the 1931 Philadelphia Athletics by Robert P. Broadwater
Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker
Mickey Cochrane: The Life of a Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher by Charlie Bevis
Charlie O
Finley Ball: How Two Baseball Outsiders Turned the Oakland A’s into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever by Nancy Finley
Charlie O by Herb Michelson
Charlie O. and the Angry A’s by Bill Libby
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball’s Super Showman by Roger D. Launius
Mr. October: Reggie Jackson
Reggie: The Autobiography by Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson: The Life and Thunderous Career of Baseball’s Mr. October by Dayn Perry
Becoming Mr. October by Reggie Jackson and Kevin Baker
Reggie: A Season with a Superstar by Reggie Jackson
Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk About How the Game Is Played by Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, and Lonnie Wheeler
Mr. October: The Reggie Jackson Story by Maury Allen
Rickey Henderson
Off Base: Confessions of a Thief by Rickey Henderson and John Shea
The Dawg Days of Summer: Rickey Henderson’s Year as a Surf Dawg by Tami Belmain
The Rickey Henderson Story (Baseball Comics) by Mitsi Herrera
The Handlebar: Rollie Fingers
The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible: Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats by Rollie Fingers and Christopher Ritter
Rollie’s Follies: A Hall of Fame Revue of Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats from Baseball’s Most Famous Moustache by Rollie Fingers and Yellowstone Ritter
Other Athletics Collections
If These Walls Could Talk: Oakland A’s: Stories from the Oakland A’s Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box by Ken Orach and Susan Slusser
100 Things A’s Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Susan Slusser
A’s Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Real Fan! by Steven Travers
50 Years of Oakland A’s Baseball by Rickey Henderson, Billy Beane, and Pedro Gomez
THE BASEBALL READER 