Baseball books worthy

I’m late with my book reports, seeing as the school year is over, but, hey, the summer reading list still needs to be completed.

There are very few times when two sports books are in the top five of the New York Times bestseller list at the same time, but that is the case now. I liked them both, and for very different reasons.

David Halberstam’s “The Teammates” is less about baseball than about life’s precious gift of friendships. He says in the book that the idea for this work came to him when he learned that Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio, longtime friends and teammates of Ted Williams, were planning to take a drive to Florida for what they knew would be there last visit with their dying friend.

The stories that come from that trip comprise this book. For Red Sox fans it is a must read. For sports fans it is a unique look at what teammates can really mean. More importantly, for anyone, this is about why friendships must be treasured.

Halberstam says in his work that he thought there was material here for a little book about friends in sports. I don’t think he realized the wide impact the book would have on both sports fans and everyone else. Like Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie,” the book touches life at its core and the context just happens to be sports.

I wish the book were longer. How often does one say that? The stories ring so personal and so real that you want more.

As a Ted Williams fan, I am totally biased about the subject matter, but even if the hero had been another, the text is mighty.

Number 5 on the bestseller list is “Moneyball.” This is another baseball-based book, but again, the subject matter reaches beyond the game. Author Michael Lewis has dissected the work of Oakland GM Bill Beane and the new wave of how to manage a major league team when you don’t have the money to be the Yankees.

For Red Sox fans who are living through the bullpen by statistician Bill James experiment, this book will be of real interest. It was James who crunched the numbers that first moved Oakland to go more to the computer than the scouts in deciding whom to select in the baseball draft.

For those who would rather believe the game is played by the gut instincts of the managers and players, this book will grate a bit. For those who believe numbers are the answer to most matters in the world, this is an eye opener as to how they might fit in baseball.

There is palpable tension emitted from the pages of “Moneyball” when the old scouts are sitting around a table discussing the upcoming draft and the computer nerd is sitting in the corner spitting out the answers that the general manager uses to make decisions.

However you come down on the new management, this is the trend for the moment and the book makes the matter interesting and thought provoking.

Reading these two books consecutively starkly brings to the fore just how the face and faces of America’s pastime have been and are being altered.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.