California’s love affair with baseball comes alive in a multitude of books

STORY BY DAN EPSTEIN

Illustration

BY JEFF DURHAM

Given California’s impressive Major League Baseball legacy, it’s kind of mind-blowing to realize that until just 63 years ago, a “western road trip” in MLB parlance meant a team making a stop in St. Louis by way of Chicago or Milwaukee.

Of course, the Giants and the Dodgers transformed MLB geography forever by moving west from New York following the end of the 1957 season, their successful relocations to San Francisco and Los Angeles paving the way for MLB franchises in Oakland, Anaheim and San Diego. Since then, the Golden State has produced some of the most iconic teams in 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 baseball legacy extends far beyond its major league franchises. Organized baseball has been played in San Francisco since at least 1860, and the Pacific Coast League — which was founded in 1903 and existed in various incarnations until it was disbanded in 2020 — has a fascinating history all its own. And there have been numerous iconic MLB players whose California upbringing indelibly shaped their personalities and careers, even if they never played a game for any of the state’s MLB teams.

Not surprisingly, this wealth of source material has resulted in an abundance of great books on California’s many connections and contributions to the national pastime. Here are some essential California baseball reads, arranged in alphabetical order, covering everything from sandlot teams to world champions.

“A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants” by Andrew Baggarly (2011)

Baggarly captures the anticipation, memories and celebrated relief of the season when it finally came together for the Giants and their fans, and more than five decades after moving to the West Coast, the Giants finally brought a World Series title to San Francisco.

“Baseball in San Diego: From the Padres to Petco” by Bill Swank (2004)

The Padres didn’t join the majors until 1969, but a PCL team of the same name had been a popular San Diego fixture since 1936, and Swank’s small but lavishly illustrated book pays nostalgic tribute to the city’s deep baseball roots.

“The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse”

by Molly Knight (2015)

Knight’s deeply insightful behind-the-scenes look at the Dodgers’ 2012-2015 seasons — a tumultuous and exciting period in which the team finally slipped the grip of shady owner Frank McCourt and began their run of eight straight NL West titles.

“The Big 50: San Francisco Giants: The Men and Moments that Made the San Francisco Giants” by Daniel

Brown (2016)

Longtime Bay Area sportswriter Brown o ers the living history of the Giants, counting down from No. 50 to No. 1, from Willie McCovey and Will Clark to the roller-coaster that was Barry Bonds to the team’s run of three World Series, titles capped by Madison Bumgarner shutting down the Royals in the 2014 Series.

“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 team that completely crushed their PCL competition. White’s book nicely captures the low-budget thrills of L.A. baseball in the days right before the Dodgers arrived.

“Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A’s” by Dale Tafoya (2020)

Tafoya captures the colorful Martin’s homecoming to the Bay Area in 1980, instantly reviving a foundering franchise and fan base with his aggressive style of play that came to be known as Billy Ball, followed by the inevitable breakup.

“Bo: Pitching and Wooing” by Maury Allen (1973)

In 1962, a year after the Angels joined the American League as an expansion team, rookie pitcher Bo Belinsky tossed the team’s first nohitter. Unfortunately, Bo was more interested in chasing Hollywood starlets than throwing strikes, but his too-short MLB career makes for a deliciously entertaining biography.

“Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball” by Donald

Hall (1976)

Though most famous today for his LSD-fueled no-hitter, Ellis was a charismatic and complex competitor who needed a poet like Hall to truly do him justice. Dock played briefly for the A’s in 1977 but grew up in Gardena, and Hall’s book 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 one of the most exciting teams of all time and also the most fractious — battling each other as hard as they battled owner Charlie O. Finley and their on-field opponents.

Turbow’s roaring history of the A’s dynasty reads like eye-popping fiction, but it’s all true.

“From The Stick to The Cove: My Six Decades with the San Francisco Giants” by Mike Murphy and Chris Haft (2020)

Murphy, the beloved longtime clubhouse manager, reflects on more than six decades of incredible memories, from his start as a bat boy and meeting his idol, Willie Mays, to unexpected celebrity encounters to his role as a father figure for more recent

The Oakland Oaks — including manager Johnny Vergez, Bill Rigney, Bill Raimondi and Marv Gudat — did their spring training in Napa in 1942.

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“Home Team: The Turbulent History of the San Francisco Giants”

by Robert F. Garratt (2017)

Though the Giants won three World Series championships in the 2010s, their first fiveplus decades in San Francisco were filled with strife and disappointment. Garratt delivers the definitive history of the Bay Area’s first MLB club, with plenty of emphasis on their long-burning rivalry with the Dodgers.

“If These Walls Could Talk: Oakland A’s: Stories from the Oakland A’s Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box”

by Ken Korach and Susan Slusser (2019)

The longtime broadcaster and longtime beat writer team up to share the perspectives of A’s players, coaches and front o ce executives in times of greatness, as well as defeat.

“Japanese American Baseball in California: A History”

by Kerry Yo Nakagawa (2014)

generations of Giants.

“Home Field Advantage Oakland, CA: The City that Changed the Face of Sports” by Paul Brekke-Miesner (2013)

The Oakland native details how race, class, world wars and geography conspired to produce several athletes from this relatively small city who literally changed the face of American sports. The book features Rickey Henderson, Frank Robinson, Ernie Lombardi, Joe Morgan, Curt Flood and many more.

Head of the Nisei Baseball Research Project, Kerry Yo Nakagawa wrote this illuminating study that reveals how baseball (which was first introduced to Japan in the 1870s) helped Japanese Americans assimilate into U.S. culture, while also examining the important role baseball played for those imprisoned in California’s incarceration camps during World War II.

“Joe DiMaggio : The Hero’s Life”

by Richard Ben Cramer (2001)

Pulitzer Prize winner Cramer presents a portrait of the complicated, enigmatic life of the native San Franciscan, the son of an immigrant who became a cultural icon.

“Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big”

by Jose Canseco (2006)

The former Bash Brother openly discussed his steroid use and made the then-controversial claim that 85 percent of players used performance-enhancing drugs — the book came out before the Mitchell report. Canseco implicated multiple players but definitely had a score to settle, so some of the stories may be a little suspect.

“The Last Baseball Town”

by Chuck Hildebrand (2009)

Between 1960 and 1987, the Silicon Valley city of Campbell produced a whopping 14 youth baseball World Series teams and sent 10 players to the big leagues. Hildebrand’s excellent book explains how this middle-class suburb became synonymous with baseball excellence — and why that excellence ultimately slipped away.

“Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador”

by Dennis Snelling (2017)

O’Doul was a two-time NL batting champ, but as Snelling’s massively entertaining bio reveals, the San Francisco native’s postplaying career was even livelier He managed his hometown’s Seals to five PCL championships, opened a San Francisco watering hole that was so successful, it lasted decades after his death, and was so popular as a baseball ambassador to Japan that he’s now enshrined in that country’s baseball hall of fame.

“Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball”

by Dan Taylor (2021)

The Hollywood Stars were rarely the best team in the PCL, but they were easily its most glamorous, with a roster of celebrity stockholders that included George Burns, Clark Gable and Cecil B. DeMille. As Taylor’s history of the Stars reveals, they were also the PCL’s first team to broadcast home games on television, the first to have groundskeepers sweep the infield during the game and the first to wear batting helmets. And they also wore shorts for four seasons!

“Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”

by Michael Lewis (2003)

The most influential baseball book of the 21st century, “Moneyball” showed how the Oakland A’s front o ce — led by general manager Billy Beane — employed advanced statistical analysis to keep the team competitive despite its limited budget. Despite howls of derision from baseball traditionalists, the book (and Beane’s success) inspired similar “sabermetric” approaches in front o ces across the majors … as well as a film starring Brad Pitt.

“Mover & Shaker: Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers, & Baseball’s Westward Expansion”

by Andy McCue (2014)

Reams have been written about the Dodgers’ move to L.A., but this is the best book out there on the man behind it. McCue cuts through the myth and vilification that surrounded O’Malley during his life (and afterward) to paint a rich and nuanced portrait of one of the most significant figures in California baseball history.

“Mustache Gang: The swaggering saga of Oakland’s A’s”

by Rob Bergman (1973)

Bergman covered the A’s for the Oakland Tribune from the moment they arrived in 1968 through the three straight World Series titles, and here he pulls no punches in taking the readers along for the Swingin’ A’s wild ride to their first title in 1972 and what it was really like playing for Charlie Finley.

“The Pacific Coast League 1903-1988”

by Bill O’Neal (1990)

More than just a minor league, the PCL stretched from San Diego to Seattle in its heyday, delighting West Coast fans with its charismatic players and high — if not quite MLB — level of play. O’Neal’s book remains the definitive work on this fascinating chapter in baseball history.

“Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy”

by Jane Leavy (2002)

Still the definitive portrait of “The Left Arm of God,” Leavy’s book o ers up a detailed account of Koufax’s mound greatness, while also providing insight into why the Dodger southpaw’s legend continues to resonate even among fans who never 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 year of tragedy and political upheaval in San Francisco, but there were also some bright spots — including a burgeoning punk rock scene and a Giants team that spent much of the summer atop the NL West — and Mitchell ties it all together in this compulsively readable tome.

“Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers and the Lives Caught in Between”

by Eric Nusbaum (2020)

Nusbaum’s book digs into the human toll of the Dodgers’ move to L.A., diligently dissecting how a combination of the “Red Scare” and a hunger for a major baseball franchise led the city to sell out three Mexican American communities in and around

Chavez Ravine.

“Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero” by Leigh

Montville (2004)

The man who aspired to be “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived,” Williams grew up in San Diego and played his first two seasons of pro ball with the PCL Padres, experiences which loom large in Montville’s revealing bio.

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

An often-heartbreaking look at how the members of the 1979 Crenshaw High Cougars — a tremendously talented high school team that featured future MLB All-Stars Darryl Strawberry and Chris Brown — ran headfirst into the realities of being poor and Black in urban America.

“The Wrong Stu ” by Bill Lee and Dick Lally (1985)

The first MLB player to publicly advocate the use of marijuana, the Burbank-born Bill “Spaceman” Lee was never shy about letting his California freak flag fly, and “The Wrong Stu ” remains one of the most hilariously left-of-center baseball reads ever printed.

Dan Epstein is an award-winning journalist, pop culture historian and avid baseball fan who has written for Rolling Stone, FLOOD, Mojo and dozens of other publications. He is the author of the acclaimed “Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s,” “Stars and Strikes” and “The Captain & Me: On and O the Field with Thurman Munson” (with Ron Blomberg).