Here’s a list of the five best sports books I read in 2016. By best, I do not mean I agree with everything in the books. Rather, I mean, I found the books thought provoking and helpful in stimulating my own thinking. Not all of the books were published in 2016, but I read each volume for the first time in 2016. The books will be listed alphabetically.
Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training. By Chris Lamb. Bison Books, 2006. 233 pp., ISBN 978-0803280472. US$16.95.
For the Glory. By Duncan Hamilton. Penguin Press, 2016. 400 pp., ISBN 978-1594206207. US$28.00
Jackie and Campy: The Untold Story of Their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball’s Color Line. By William Kashatus. University of Nebraska Press, 2014. 248 pp., ISBN 978-0803246331. US$24.95.
Joe Louis: Hard Times Man. By Randy Roberts. Yale University Press, 2012. 328 pp., ISBN 978-0300177633. US$32.00.
1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever. By Bill Madden. Da Capo Press, 2015. 320 pp., ISBN 978-0306823695. US$15.99.
