🏏🥍⚾Cricket, Lacrosse, and summer Baseball

All Sports Books Issue #7 of 2025 🏏🥍⚾

Summer is arriving -peak sports book reading season. This edition has three recommendations of books I really enjoyed. Two are deep, long, histories of their sports with plenty to say about the roles the sports play in the wider world. The other is a more fun look at the business of sports at the lower levels - and how at the end of the day we all just want to be entertained. Happy reading!

🏏Test Cricket: A History by Tim Wigmore

Perhaps no sport has undergone as much evolution in recent decades as cricket. While the shorter forms of the game boom, test cricket (the multi-day format) remains the historic heart of the sport.

In telling the history of the Test format, Tim Wigmore traces the evolution of the sprot across each of the Test nations (very few countries are awarded ‘Test’ status). Through the matches between countries, the book traces the evolution of the sport through different eras as a combination of factors (not least tactics, social change, and individual genius) saw regular shifts in how the sport was played at the highest level.

What the book does exceptionally well is to combine the stories of teams, key players and historic games with the broader trends that emerged (both on and off the pitch) as the game developed. The details are vast but pitched at the perfect level. Wigmore excellently zooms in and out, managing to be comprehensive without being overwhelming.

It’s a big read, as such an ambitious project must be. But each chapter builds on what comes before, forming a consistent narrative of a sport that constantly grappled with balancing tradition and modernity. It is also a story of individuals and institutions who both pushed for and fought change in a sport as the empire with which it was intrinsically linked evolved and eventually crumbled. A really excellent book.

🥍An American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse by S.L. Price

A book on Lacrosse? Prior to reading this I knew absolutely nothing about Lacrosse except it was a game played by rich kids in American movies. This only made my list thanks to my love of S.L. Price’s previous books, especially Playing Through the Whistle. Like his other books, An American Game goes much deeper than just recounting stories and explores the meaning, mythology, and future of a uniquely American sport.

An American Game is a deep exploration of the sport from its origins among native Americans to its more recent present as a game dominated by elite colleges to its attempts to diversify, modernise and expand. It zooms in on key characters, famous games, and others involved in efforts to reform the sport.

An overarching narrative throughout the book is the participation of native American teams at a tournament in Israel, a trip rich with political undertones. Questions of identity and nationhood arise throughout the book as the sport’s role as a vehicle for native pride is explored.

It’s a big read that weaves through takes a winding road through the world of lacrosse. Ultimately it presents a deeply considered and fascinating history of a sport while shining a light on different facets of American life. Informative, passionate, highly readable. I loved it.

⚾ Baseball Like It Oughta Be by Tom Alesia

Baseball Like It Oughta Be tells the story of the Masdison Mallards, a summer collegiate baseball team that manages to outdraw the majority of minor league teams.

As much about sports marketing as baseball, Alesia recounts how Steve Schmitt, a successful shoe salesman, and Vern Stenman, a marketing guy, managed to make a successful business in the lowest rung of baseball. Collegiate summer baseball is a level where college players play for free (or even pay to play to keep themselves active and in view of scouts over the summer break.

The Mallards became a success (and continue to be one) through great marketing, clever gimmicks and leaning in to fun. It is an entertaining look at how to build an audience for a sports team when the result on the field is less important to many fans than the entertainment and atmosphere off of it. Plenty of interesting characters and wacky ideas but it worked!

Pretty sure it's the only sports book to mention Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Gary Coleman and Pete Alonso in the same book. A very fun read!