Before the emergence of Roger Kahn as a significant voice in baseball literature, the landscape had already been shaped by influential authors like Ring Lardner and Bernard Malamud. Lardner's baseball stories, celebrated for their literary merit, and Malamud's publication of The Natural in 1952, set a high standard. Jim Brosnan's The Long Season in 1960 further enriched the genre with its candid, though mild, depiction of life in the major leagues. By the time Jim Bouton's Ball Four appeared in 1970, the public had been exposed to the inner workings of the game, leaving them relatively disenchanted with baseball’s behind-the-scenes narratives.

Despite entering a well-trodden field, Roger Kahn made a distinct impact with his seminal work, The Boys of Summer. This book offered a sophisticated blend of baseball lore, deep character exploration, and insightful social commentary, securing its place as a nonfiction work of high literary quality. Kahn’s comprehensive treatment of American popular culture not only captivated readers but also paved the way for subsequent high-caliber nonfiction works on baseball by writers like Roger Angell and Thomas Boswell.

Kahn revisited baseball several times throughout his career, each time approaching the subject with a fresh perspective. His 1977 work, A Season in the Sun, compiled a series of detailed articles covering various levels of baseball during the 1976 season. This book, dedicated to his mother, served as a sort of informal sequel to The Boys of Summer. Then, in 1982, Kahn released The Seventh Game, a boisterous baseball novel, followed by Good Enough to Dream in 1985, a personal account of his experiences as an owner of an independent minor league team. While only Good Enough to Dream achieved critical acclaim akin to The Boys of Summer, each work garnered a significant readership. Through these narratives, Kahn consistently celebrated the game of baseball, revealing it as a rich tapestry of universal human experiences.