Guide to Baseball Novels: P
- Parker, Robert B. Double Play. New York: Putnam's, 2004. Bodyguard watches Jackie Robinson's back.
Unsuccessful mix of the nostalgic and the hard-boiled. An elaboration of the short story "Harlem Nocturne"; derivative in some ways from Honig. See my review at lection.
- Parker, Robert B. Mortal Stakes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975. Private detective Spenser is hired by the Red Sox to see whether a star pitcher is throwing games.
Excellent entry in Parker's highly-acclaimed series of detective novels. 
- Perry, Thomas K. Just Joe: Baseball's Natural, as Told by His Wife. Clifton, VA: Pocol, 2007.
Highly sympathetic to Jackson, this first-person narrative fiction covers his years in baseball but emphasizes the long aftermath of the Black Sox scandal.
- Phillips, Carly. Hot Property. Don Mills, ON: HQN, 2008. Publicist helps major-league star get back on his feet after his luck springs a leak.
Final entry in the Hot Zone series of romances that match female publicists with interesting male clients.
- Pilek, Eugena. Cooperstown. New York: Touchstone, 2005. An ensemble cast struggles with the vicissitudes of life in the famous cradle of baseball.
- Platt, Randall Beth. The 1898 Baseball Fe-As-Ko. North Haven, CT: Catbird, 2000. Baseball comes to the Four Arrows Ranch, as Royal Leckner and his wife E.M. form a club around rock-throwing Leviticus and set out to challenge top clubs.
Platt's third "Fe-As-Ko" novel, a comic historical Western adventure.
- Plimpton, George. The Curious Case of Sidd Finch. New York: Macmillan, 1987. Burnt-out writer befriends pitching phenom who throws a truly otherworldly fastball.
An elaboration of Plimpton's famous joke piece for Sports Illustrated (1 April 1985). The novel is fairly plotless but light in tone, and it provides some laughs along the way. It acknowledges its own debts to stories like Valentine Davies's It Happens Every Spring.
- Pomeranz, Gary. Out at Home. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985. Wise guys, tough dames, and Cubs interact in 1950s Chicago.
Agreeable, unpretentious historical local-color novel.
