Baseball Books to Read During a Yankees–Dodgers World Series

Late October is one of the finest times of year for sports fans. Pro and college football are firmly entrenched weekend staples, hockey and basketball are just warming up, and baseball is winding down to its championship conclusion — the World Series. Whether you're a casual follower or a die-hard baseball fan, there's no denying that the World Series carries a sense of Americana that is simply not present in other sports.

And a Yankees–Dodgers World Series stirs up that Americana like no other matchup.

So what better way to cozy up inside the nostalgia of an old-fashioned Yankees–Dodgers clash than to open any of the thousands of books written about the sport and those classic teams? Here are a few to get you started this October:

The New York Game by Kevin Baker traces the origins of baseball in the Big Apple, including the birth of the Highlanders/Yankees in the Bronx and the "Trolley Dodgers" in Brooklyn. Read in-depth accounts of "Merkle's Boner" at the Polo Grounds and Mickey Owen's infamous World Series passed ball.

Considered one of the best baseball books ever written, The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn takes a sentimental view of the 1950s-era Dodgers, many of whom years later recount life in baseball-crazed Brooklyn, the long-awaited 1955 World Series championship over the Yankees and the team's subsequent departure from New York to Los Angeles.

For the most descriptive account of the sign-stealing scheme that culminated in the "Shot Heard 'Round the World," check out The Echoing Green by Joshua Prager. The author details how Giants manager Leo Durocher put the pieces in place — telescope, live electrical wire and all — for a spy plot that resurrected the team's middling 1951 season and set up a playoff tiebreaker against the hated Dodgers.