Zev Chafets’ Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame is one of the best baseball books that I have read this year – and is one that I would now consider to be a worthy addition to my personal picks for any essential baseball library.

With Cooperstown Confidential, Chafets provides a candid and no holds barred examination behind the history, politics and other inside workings of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (in Cooperstown, New York). And, he does it in a manner that’s intelligent and entertaining. In addition, Cooperstown Confidential also profiles the windfall for the modern player who is elected into the Hall of Fame. Lastly, with this book, Chafets makes an interesting case for how Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame should handle the players who have been linked to using Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Now, the book is not dead-solid-perfect, as I did catch two small editing flaws. On page 69, it refers to Steve Garvey being traded to the San Diego Padres (when, in reality, he signed with them as a free agent). And, on a footnote on page 104, it refers to Kevin Youkilis as “Euclis, the Greek God of Walks” (when, in the book Moneyball, he was actually referred to as “Youkilis, the Greek God of Walks”). But, these are two minor miscues that take nothing away from the reading and learning experience one gets from this book.

I truly feel that even an erudite baseball fan will learn something from reading Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I know that it has changed the way that I look at the Hall of Fame (and I thought that I was already fairly well read on the subject matter). Zev Chafets work here is a quick read (197 pages). But, it packs a lot. I highly recommend this book.