22 all-star books about California baseball including the Dodgers, Angels, Padres and more

Given California’s awesome Major League Baseball legacy, it’s benignant of mind-blowing to recognize that, until conscionable 63 years ago, a “western roadworthy trip” successful MLB parlance meant a squad making a halt successful St. Louis by mode of Chicago oregon Milwaukee. 

Of course, the Dodgers and Giants transformed MLB geography everlastingly by moving westbound from New York pursuing the extremity of the 1957 season, their palmy relocations to Los Angeles and San Francisco paving the mode for MLB franchises successful Anaheim, Oakland and San Diego. Since then, the Golden State has produced immoderate of the astir iconic teams successful MLB history, including the Koufax-and-Drysdale Dodgers, the Oakland A’s “Mustache Gang,” and the three-time World Series champion Giants of the 2010s.

But California’s shot bequest extends acold beyond its large league franchises. Organized shot has been played successful San Francisco since astatine slightest 1860, and the Pacific Coast League — which was founded successful 1903 and existed successful assorted incarnations until it was disbanded earlier this twelvemonth — has a fascinating past each its own. And determination person been galore iconic MLB players whose California upbringing indelibly shaped their personalities and careers, adjacent if they ne'er played a crippled for immoderate of the state’s MLB teams. 

Not surprisingly, this wealthiness of root worldly has resulted successful an abundance of large books connected California’s galore connections and contributions to the National Pastime. Here are 22 indispensable California shot reads, arranged successful alphabetical order, covering everything from sandlot teams to satellite champions.

‘Baseball successful San Diego: From the Padres to Petco’ by Bill Swank (2004)

The Padres didn’t articulation the majors until 1969, but a PCL squad of the aforesaid sanction had been a fashionable San Diego fixture since 1936, and Swank’s tiny but lavishly illustrated publication pays nostalgic tribute to the city’s heavy shot roots.

‘The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse’ by Molly Knight (2015)

Knight’s profoundly insightful behind-the-scenes look astatine the Dodgers’ 2012-2015 seasons – a tumultuous and breathtaking play successful which the squad yet slipped the grip of shady proprietor Frank McCourt and began their tally of 8 consecutive NL West titles.

‘The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels’ by Gaylon H. White (2014)

Powered by beer-swilling, larger-than-life slugger Steve Bilko, the 1956 Angels were a colorful squad that wholly crushed their PCL competition. White’s publication nicely captures the low-budget thrills of L.A. shot successful the days close earlier the Dodgers arrived.

‘Bo: Pitching and Wooing’ by Maury Allen (1973)

In 1962, a twelvemonth aft the Angels joined the American League arsenic an enlargement team, rookie pitcher Bo Belinsky tossed the team’s archetypal no-hitter. Unfortunately, Bo was much funny successful chasing Hollywood starlets than throwing strikes, but his too-short MLB vocation makes for a deliciously entertaining biography.

‘City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles’ by Jerald Podair (2017)

Podair’s painstakingly researched publication details however the Dodgers’ accomplishment successful L.A. acceptable disconnected a pitched conflict betwixt nationalist and backstage interests, and explains wherefore that conflict inactive reverberates successful sports markets crossed America today.

‘Dock Ellis successful the Country of Baseball’ by Donald Hall (1976)

Though astir celebrated contiguous for his LSD-fueled no-hitter, Ellis was a charismatic and analyzable rival who needed a writer similar Hall to genuinely bash him justice. Though helium ne'er played for a California team, Dock grew up successful Gardena, and Hall’s publication vividly explores his L.A. roots.

‘Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s’ by Jason Turbow (2017)

The 1971-76 A’s were 1 of the astir breathtaking teams of each time, and besides the astir fractious – battling each different arsenic hard arsenic they battled proprietor Charlie O. Finley and their on-field opponents. Turbow’s roaring past of the A’s dynasty reads similar eye-popping fiction, but it’s each true.

‘Home Team: The Turbulent History of the San Francisco Giants’ by Robert F. Garratt (2017)

Though the Giants won 3 World Series championships successful the 2010s, their archetypal five-plus decades successful San Francisco were filled with strife and disappointment. Garratt delivers the definitive past of the Bay Area’s archetypal MLB club, with plentifulness of accent connected their long-burning rivalry with the Dodgers.

‘Japanese American Baseball successful California: A History’ by Kerry Yo Nakagawa (2014)

Head of the Nisei Baseball Research Project, Kerry Yo Nakagawa wrote this illuminating survey that reveals however shot (which was archetypal introduced to Japan successful the 1870s) helped Japanese Americans assimilate into U.S. culture, portion besides examining the important relation shot played for those imprisoned successful California’s incarceration camps during WWII.

‘The Last Baseball Town’ by Chuck Hildebrand (2009)

Between 1960 and 1987, the Silicon Valley metropolis of Campbell produced a whopping 14 younker shot World Series teams and sent 10 players to the large leagues. Hildebrand’s fantabulous publication explains however this middle-class suburb became synonymous with shot excellence — and wherefore that excellence yet slipped away.

‘The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ by Michael Leahy (2016)

Though connected its aboveground 1960s shot seemed wholly removed from the taste upheaval occurring elsewhere successful America, the players themselves were hardly immune. Leahy’s superb publication follows a divers array of Dodgers (including Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills and Wes Parker) arsenic they effort to navigate the era’s galore changes and challenges.

‘Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador’ by Dennis Snelling (2017)

O’Doul was a two-time NL batting champ, but arsenic Snelling’s massively entertaining bio reveals, the San Francisco native’s post-playing vocation was adjacent livelier He managed his hometown’s Seals to 5 PCL championships, opened a SF watering spread truthful fashionable it lasted decades aft his death, and was truthful fashionable arsenic a shot ambassador to Japan that he’s present enshrined successful that country’s shot hallway of fame. 

‘Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball’ by Dan Taylor (2021)

The Hollywood Stars were seldom the champion squad successful the PCL, but they were easy its astir glamorous, with a roster of personage stockholders that included George Burns, Clark Gable and Cecil B. DeMille. As Taylor’s past of the Stars reveals, they were besides the PCL’s archetypal squad to broadcast location games connected television, the archetypal to person groundskeepers expanse the infield during the game, and the archetypal to deterioration batting helmets. And they besides wore shorts for 4 seasons!

‘Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game’ by Michael Lewis (2003)

The astir influential shot publication of the 21st century, ‘Moneyball’ showed however the Oakland A’s beforehand bureau — led by wide manager Billy Beane — employed precocious statistical investigation to support the squad competitory contempt its constricted budget. Despite howls of derision from shot traditionalists, the publication (and Beane’s success) inspired akin “sabermetric” approaches successful beforehand offices crossed the majors… arsenic good arsenic a movie starring Brad Pitt.

‘Mover & Shaker: Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers, & Baseball’s Westward Expansion’ by Andy McCue (2014)

Reams person been written astir the Dodgers’ determination to L.A., but this is the champion publication retired determination connected the antheral down it. McCue cuts done the story and vilification that surrounded O’Malley during his beingness (and afterward) to overgarment a affluent and nuanced representation of 1 of the astir important figures successful California shot history.

‘The Pacific Coast League 1903-1988’ by Bill O’Neal (1990)

More than conscionable a insignificant league, the PCL stretched from San Diego to Seattle successful its heyday, delighting West Coast fans with its charismatic players and precocious (if not rather MLB-) level of play. O’Neal’s publication remains the definitive enactment connected this fascinating section successful shot history.

‘Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy’ by Jane Leavy (2002)

Still the definitive representation of “The Left Arm of God,” Leavy’s publication offers up a elaborate relationship of Koufax’s mound greatness, portion besides providing penetration into wherefore the Dodger southpaw’s fable continues to resonate adjacent among fans who ne'er saw him pitch.

‘San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock and a Third-Place Baseball Team’ by Lincoln Mitchell (2019)

1978 was a harrowing twelvemonth of calamity and governmental upheaval successful San Francisco, but determination were besides immoderate agleam spots — including a burgeoning punk stone country and a Giants squad that spent overmuch of the summertime atop the NL West — and Mitchell ties it each unneurotic successful this compulsively readable tome.

‘Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers and the Lives Caught successful Between’ by Eric Nusbaum (2020)

Nusbaum’s publication digs into the quality toll of the Dodgers’ determination to L.A., diligently dissecting however a operation of the “Red Scare” and a hunger for a large shot franchise led the metropolis to merchantability retired 3 Mexican American communities successful and astir Chavez Ravine.

‘Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero’ by Leigh Montville (2004)

The antheral who aspired to beryllium “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived,” Williams grew up successful San Diego and played his archetypal 2 seasons of pro shot with the PCL Padres, experiences which loom ample successful Montville’s revealing bio.

‘The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw’ by Michael Sokolove (2006)

An often-heartbreaking look astatine however the members of the 1979 Crenshaw High Cougars — a tremendously talented precocious schoolhouse squad that featured aboriginal MLB All-Stars Darryl Strawberry and Chris Brown — ran headfirst into the realities of being mediocre and Black successful municipality America. 

‘The Wrong Stuff’ by Bill Lee and Dick Lally (1985)

The archetypal MLB subordinate to publically advocator the usage of marijuana, the Burbank-born Bill “Spaceman” Lee was ne'er shy astir letting his California freak emblem fly, and “The Wrong Stuff” remains 1 of the astir hilariously left-of-center shot reads ever printed.

Dan Epstein is an award-winning journalist, popular civilization historian, and avid shot instrumentality who has written for Rolling Stone, FLOOD, Mojo, and dozens of different publications. He is the writer of the acclaimed “Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America successful the Swinging ‘70s,” “Stars and Strikes” and “The Captain & Me: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson” (with Ron Blomberg).