The list of must-read books about the Baseball Hall of Fame is small. For whatever reason, an institution that's inspired numerous coffee table and picture books is short on novel-length books.Entering this year, there were maybe four must-read Hall of Fame books. In the order of familiarity to fans, they are:"The Politics of Glory / Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?" by Bill James: The 1994 tome from the Godfather of Stats has been the gold standard for more than 20 years for analyzing who's in and out of Cooperstown and looking at how some of the more dubious selections got there."Cooperstown Confidential," by Ze'ev Chafets: Similar to James' work, Chafets' book offers a particular focus on the 2007 election."Baseball's Hall of Fame," by Ken Smith: Older fans might have grown up with this in their bookshelf. Smith served at one point as director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. His book, originally published in 1952, laid down a lot of institutional history about Cooperstown, as well as a comprehensive look at early honorees."A Legend for the Legendary," by James A. Vlasich: Bill James touted this book in The Politics of Glory, writing that Vlasich masterfully covered the Hall of Fame's founding. Having read Vlasich's book based on James' recommendation, I can say it's true. Vlasich got acce Ben Zobrist Jersey s in the 1980s to the personal papers of Alexander Cleland, the founding secretary of the Hall of Fame. Vlasich used this to produce an …