Ted Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. This Red Sox legend's batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit over 500 home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball for nearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in World War II and Korea. He hit home runs as far as or farther than any player before him – and traveled a long way himself, as Ben Bradlee, Jr.'s, grand biography reveals. Born in 1918 in San Diego, Ted would spend most of his life disguising his Mexican heritage. During his 22 years with the Boston Red Sox, Williams electrified crowds across American–and shocked them, too: His notorious clashes with the press and fans threatened his reputation. Yet while he was a God in the batter's box, he was profoundly human once he stepped away from the plate. His ferocity came to define his troubled domestic life. While baseball might have been straightforward for Ted Williams, life was not. "The Kid" is biography of the highest literary order, a thrilling and honest account of a legend in all his glory and human complexity. In his final at-bat, Williams hit a home run. Bradlee's marvelous book clears the fences, too.

    Bill was also one of the most influential broadcasters of all time, an inspiration to legions of his fellow broadcasters who looked up to him. No less an authority than John Madden tells Ken Korach in this 80,000-word testament to Bill’s uniqueness that when he turned from coaching to broadcasting, no one was more of an influence on him than Bill. But this was true of Bill the man as well, not merely Bill the broadcaster. “We all wanted to live vicariously through Bill. The things that he did, we wished we could do,” Madden tells Ken Korach. Korach, longtime voice of the A’s and Bill’s partner for ten seasons until King’s death in 2005, is the perfect one to bring Bill to life on the page. A half-century ago, Ken Korach was a kid in Los Angeles, spinning the night dial to tune in Warriors basketball games from faraway San Francisco for one reason: He just had to hear Bill. Now, in Holy Toledo – Lessons from Bill King, Renaissance Man of the Mic, he tells the remarkable story of King the legendary baseball, basketball and football broadcaster. Bill was a student of Russian literature, a passionate sailor, a fan of eating anything and everything from gourmet to onions and peanut butter, a remarkable painter. Korach draws on a lifetime of listening to and learning from King – as well as extensive research, including more than fifty interviews with King’s family members, colleagues, friends and associates – to create this rich portrait, eagerly awaited by thousands of fans who have flocked to the Holy Toledo Facebook page and heard about the book through Ken’s media appearances.Holy Toledo features a moving foreword by Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller, previously of ESPN, and a brilliant cover by Mark Ulriksen, internationally recognized for his New Yorker magazine covers, that captures King’s flair and personality.Billy Beane“The best part about Bill wasn’t just that he was so good at his job but that he was so interesting outside of his job. His mustache epitomized that. He looked eccentric and he was eccentric, in a good way.”Bob Welch“If I had a hitter I had trouble with, I’d ask Bill how I should pitch him. He always had a good answer.”Greg Papa“Bill King was the greatest radio broadcaster in the history of the United States.”Tom Meschery“Talking with Bill was like talking with an encyclopedia.… If you wanted to talk sports, literature – when Bill talked you listened, because he always had something interesting to talk about.”Al Attles“He didn’t sugarcoat it. Bill was a departure from the way it was. If a player from the Warriors made a mistake, Bill told it like it was.”Ed Rush“I’d put the radio out the window and keep turning it to certain angles and it would go in and go out. I’d listen to the Warriors and the Raiders. To do all three sports like he did, he was phenomenal. He was out of this world.”Tom Flores“Bill made some of the great plays in the history of the Raiders even greater with his description. Those moments were kept alive in his voice.”Jason Giambi“He was such an incredible man. I had so much fun with him and he would always ask how my family was doing and I have the fondest memories of him. We would talk about life and all the things he had seen. He made me well rounded.”Rick Barry“He had the ability to see a game, a basketball game, and express what was happening in eloquent terms, at times instantaneously. When he was saying something, it was happening.”

    A. Dickey became one of the game’s best pitchers. He had humble beginnings, and as a child kept a terrible secret. But at a local prep school, coaches saw talent in him and fostered his skills as a player. Dickey went on to pitch in the Olympics while at the University of Tennessee, but his Major League hopes took a downturn when an X-ray revealed a major problem with his throwing arm. It would seem his future in baseball was over before it even began.But R.A. knew better. Through faith, hope, and determination, he achieved his dreams and made it into the major leagues. Now, he’s one of the most respected pitchers in the game, a Cy Young Award winner, and he's changed the way people view the knuckleball – and himself. An inspiring true story about beating the odds, R.A. is proof that with hard work and devotion, anyone can overcome whatever life throws at them.

    From the arrival at the stadium to the last goodnight, Goodnight Baseball is a sweet, nostalgic tale—told in gentle, fun rhyme—about the thrill of the game and a day at the ballpark.For ages 4-7.* Delightful picture book depicting America's favorite pastime* Created in partnership with Sports Illustrated Kids* Introduces kids to all of the sights and sounds at a baseball game

    rank on the list of the best shortstops? At third base, would you rather have Mike Schmidt or Brooks Robinson? Is Fenway or Wrigley the better ballpark?This book will end many arguments-and start some new ones. Sports Illustrated's has polled its Major League Baseball experts to determine the ultimate Top 10 in more than 20 categories. The rankings appear alongside stunning photography and classic stories from SI's archives. This is the best of the best in the major leagues, or, more simply, Baseball's Greatest.

    Baseball Prospectus 2013 brings together an elite group of analysts to provide the definitive look at the upcoming season in critical essays and commentary on the thirty teams, their managers, and more than sixty players and prospects from each team.Contains critical essays on each of the thirty teams and player comments for some sixty players for each of those teamsProjects each player's stats for the coming season using the groundbreaking PECOTA projection system, which has been called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model" (Sports Illustrated)From Baseball Prospectus, America's leading provider of statistical analysis for baseballNow in its eighteenth edition, this New York Times bestselling insider's guide remains hands down the most authoritative and entertaining book of its kind.

    Angell brilliantly captures the nation’s most beloved sport through the 1960s, spanning both the winning teams and the “horrendous losers,” and including famed players Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, and more. With the panache of a seasoned sportswriter and the energy of an avid baseball fan, Angell’s sports journalism is an insightful and compelling look at the great American pastime.In Five Seasons, New Yorker sportswriter Roger Angell calls 1972 to 1976 “the most important half-decade in the history of the game.” The early to mid-1970s brought unprecedented changes to America’s ancient pastime: astounding performances by Nolan Ryan and Hank Aaron; the intensity of the “best-ever” 1975 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox; the changes growing from bitter and extended labor strikes and lockouts; and the vast new influence of network television on the game. Angell, always a fan as well as a writer, casts a knowing but noncynical eye on these events, offering a fresh perspective to baseball’s continuing appeal during this brilliant and transformative era.And in Season Ticket, Roger Angell once again journeys through five seasons of America’s national pastime—chronicling the larger-than-life narratives and on-field intricacies of baseball from 1982 to 1987. Angell’s collected New Yorker essays, written in his unique voice as a fan and baseball aficionado, cover the development of the game both on the diamond and off. While diving into subjects such as Sparky Anderson’s ’84 Detroit Tigers, the legendary 1986 World Series and the Curse of the Bambino, and the increasingly pervasive issue of player drug use, Angell reveals the craft and technique of the game, and the unforgettable stories of those who played it.

    Rather than predicting batting average, for instance, this resource looks at the elements of skill that make up any given batter’s ability to distinguish between balls and strikes, his propensity to make contact with the ball, and what happens when he makes contact—reverse engineering those skills back into batting average. The result is an unparalleled forecast of baseball abilities and trends for the upcoming season and beyond.

    Analyzing Baseball Data with R provides an introduction to R for sabermetricians, baseball enthusiasts, and students interested in exploring the rich sources of baseball data. It equips readers with the necessary skills and software tools to perform all of the analysis steps, from gathering the datasets and entering them in a convenient format to visualizing the data via graphs to performing a statistical analysis.The authors first present an overview of publicly available baseball datasets and a gentle introduction to the type of data structures and exploratory and data management capabilities of R. They also cover the traditional graphics functions in the base package and introduce more sophisticated graphical displays available through the lattice and ggplot2 packages. Much of the book illustrates the use of R through popular sabermetrics topics, including the Pythagorean formula, runs expectancy, career trajectories, simulation of games and seasons, patterns of streaky behavior of players, and fielding measures. Each chapter contains exercises that encourage readers to perform their own analyses using R. All of the datasets and R code used in the text are available online.This book helps readers answer questions about baseball teams, players, and strategy using large, publically available datasets. It offers detailed instructions on downloading the datasets and putting them into formats that simplify data exploration and analysis. Through the book's various examples, readers will learn about modern sabermetrics and be able to conduct their own baseball analyses.

    Using hundreds of hours of new interviews with players, coaches, broadcasters, and fans and combing through newspapers and magazines, Josh Suchon takes a new generation of Dodgers fans back to their memorable 1988 championship season. From the end of Don Sutton’s Hall of Fame career and the memorable 46-day stretch of pitching by Hershiser that hasn’t been equaled since to unlikely playoff heroes Mike Scioscia, Mickey Hatcher, and Mike Davis, Miracle Men encapsulates the fever and fervor that surrounded the team and the city of Los Angeles in the summer and fall of 1988.

    That's because he's been pitching in the bigs for all those years. With his trademark three pitches - slow, slower, and slowest - the left-handed Moyer is a pinpoint specialist whose won-lost record actually got better as he got older -- from his 20s to his 30s and into 40s. He's only a few wins shy of 300 for his amazing career. But this is where the book takes an unusual turn. Moyer was just about finished as a big leaguer in his mid-20s until he fatefully encountered a gravel-voiced, highly confrontational sports psychologist named Harvey Dorfman. Listening to the "in-your-face" insights of Dorfman, Moyer began to re-invent himself and reconstruct his approach to his game. Moyer went on to become an All-Star and also a World Series champion. Yogi Berra once observed that "Half of this game is 90% mental." And Moyer's memoir proves it.

    They have won 11 World Series titles and some of the most famousplayers in the history of the game have worn the storied “Birds on the Bat”uniform.While thaton-field success has been well documented, IntentionalWalk is the first book which goes beyond the story of what happens on thefield to take an in-depth look at the men inside the Cardinal uniforms, andexamine how their strong Christian faith is one of the driving forces behindtheir success.Intentional Walk features the stories of AdamWainwright, David Freese, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, JasonMotte and other members of the 2012 Cardinals, written as those players and therest of the team tried to repeat the 2011 world championship. The book talksabout how they became Christians and offers their testimony about what it meansfor them to have God play such a prominent role in their lives.Playing forfirst-year manager Mike Matheny, a strong Christian as well, these men talkabout their success and failure, about the challenges that come from playingbaseball at the highest level, and how thankful and blessed they are to havethat God-given ability. In the end, however, what is far more important to themis their life-long relationship they have established with Jesus Christ.

    His legs were among the quickest of his era. His throwing arm was one of the strongest, gunning down base runners from right field with incredible frequency. He would spend a career fighting for respect and finally achieve it after a historic World Series performance and a second half of a career that would have him mentioned with greats like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle.But what Roberto Clemente did off the field made him an equally great humanitarian. One of the first athletes who understood how the power of sports could be used to transform not just a handful of lives but many thousands of them, he would die following his heart and conscience by helping others. Clemente was on an aircraft loaded with supplies for an earthquake-stricken Nicaragua when the plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.Forty years after that tragic day, the widow and sons of this regal athlete and consummate humanitarian open up for the first time about the husband and father they lost. Featuring an extensive array of rare and never-before-seen photos of Clemente on the field and off, this powerful memoir tells his inspiring story from the voices of those who knew him best.INCLUDES PHOTOS

    Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings in Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation." Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail 1963Anybody who is familiar with the Civil Rights movement knows that 1964 was a pivotal year. And in Birmingham, Alabama - perhaps the epicenter of racial conflict - the Barons amazingly started their season with an integrated team. Johnny "Blue Moon" Odom, a talented pitcher and Tommie Reynolds, an outfielder - both young black ballplayers with dreams of playing someday in the big leagues, along with Bert Campaneris, a dark-skinned shortstop from Cuba, all found themselves in this simmering cauldron of a minor league town, all playing for Heywood Sullivan, a white former major leaguer who grew up just down the road in Dothan, Alabama. Colton traces the entire season, writing about the extraordinary relationships among these players with Sullivan, and Colton tells their story by capturing the essence of Birmingham and its citizens during this tumultuous year. (The infamous Bull Connor, for example, when not ordering blacks to be blasted by powerful water hoses, is a fervent follower of the Barons and served as a long-time broadcaster of their games.) By all accounts, the racial jeers and taunts that rained down upon these Birmingham players were much worse than anything that Jackie Robinson ever endured.More than a story about baseball, this is a true accounting of life in a different time and clearly a different place. Seventeen years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color line in the major leagues, Birmingham was exploding in race riots....and now, they were going to have their very first integrated sports team. This is a story that has never been told.

    The Prospect Handbook profiles in-depth analysis and statistics of 900 players, provides a detailed amateur draft report card, a list of the top 100 prospects, and a ranking of the Major League Baseball player development programs. The Prospect Handbook is the must-have resource for information regarding the leading minor leaguers throughout baseball and is a valuable tool for fans, fantasy leaguers, and anyone who wants to know more about the player development process.

    Marty has always loved baseball and is known as "Smarty Marty" to her friends at school because she knows more about baseball than most grown-up baseball fans. However, her younger brother, Mikey, couldn't be bothered and just doesn't get it...UNTIL, Marty and Mikey attend a real baseball game, where Marty gradually teaches Mikey the ins and outs of baseball, the lingo, strategy, and more, often using real-life examples so Mikey can better understand. Before long, Mikey is no longer solely interested in the salted pretzels and garlic fries of the ballpark but is soon engrossed in the game and cheering along with his older sister. Amy G's story appeals to both boys and girls and also defies the strong gender stereotypes that Amy herself has battled in her 16-year career as a sports journalist and reporter.

    One common goal. Fasten your seatbelt for a thrilling ride through the San Francisco Giants' rollercoaster season! Original essays by the team's stars explore the highs and lows encountered on their way through the regular season and the playoffs. These stories, plus more than 150 action-packed photos, weave an intimate story about the sacrifice, determination and teamwork that defined the 2012 World Series Champions.

    All the stories are written Craig T. Wright, the Dean of Baseball Storytellers, who has hosted a radio show and website of the same name for many years.

    Tunis’s novels about the Brooklyn Dodgers, engrossing stories of integrity and strength against all oddsIn The Kid from Tomkinsville, Roy Tucker—a small-town kid from Tomkinsville, Connecticut—has quit his job at the drugstore and packed up for Dodgers training camp in Clearwater, Florida, hoping to make the team as a rookie pitcher. He expects the field to be competitive and realizes he might not pass muster, but after just one practice, he discovers just how difficult a goal he has set. But the Dodgers are an aging team, and owner Jack MacManus is getting tired of the smart remarks from sports reporters and the manager of the rival Giants, Bill Murphy. With a little coaching and encouragement from Dave Leonard, the oldest catcher in the big leagues, this kid from Tomkinsville might be just what the team needs.In Keystone Kids, the Brooklyn Dodgers have been flagging, dropping through the ranks as the Pittsburgh Pirates take the league. When a scout brings Spike and Bob Russell up from the minor leagues, the “Keystone Kids” quickly prove their worth. With Spike at shortstop and Bob at second base, the future starts to look a little brighter—but Spike sees the slumping team begin to fall apart again the following year. Exasperated and tired of being in last place, owner Jack MacManus unexpectedly promotes Spike to manager, hoping to shake his team of its losing habit.And in World Series, the Brooklyn Dodgers have finally made it to the World Series, after years of losing seasons and disappointments. Roy Tucker, the kid from Tomkinsville, is excited about the series, and also about the prospect of a little extra money to send home to his grandmother in Connecticut. The Cleveland Indians are now all that stands between the Dodgers and their first-ever championship. But this seven-game series could be the longest they’ve ever played, plagued by injuries, setbacks, and early losses. Will Tucker and his Brooklyn teammates finally have their moment of glory?

    A former high-school pitching ace with a 93 mph fastball, Mason decided to form a Little League team to help boys avoid the street life that had claimed his youth and mobility. Predictably, the players struggle—they endure poverty, unstable family lives with few positive male role models, failing schools, and dangerous neighborhoods—but through the fists and tears, lopsided losses and rare victories, this bunch of misfits becomes a team, and in doing so gives the community something to root for. With in-depth reporting, fascinating characters, and vivid prose, Jonathan Schuppe’s book is both a penetrating, true-to-life portrait of what’s at stake for kids growing up poor in America’s inner cities and a portrait of Newark itself, a struggling city that has recently known great hope as well as failure.http://us.macmillan.com/achancetowin/...

    However they all contributed to making the game of baseball the greatest game in the world.If you are a baseball fan and love baseball history, you will enjoy The Cracker Jack Collection: Baseball's Prized Players

    Chad tries to make peace by giving Solomon a rarely issued “umpire card”—but the ump blows his top. He thinks Chad is making fun of his weight. It’s going to be a long nine innings!

    Semipro baseball was highly competitive in the 1930s, so competitive that even out on the Great Plains a lot of money got bet on games between rival towns. Car dealer Neil Churchill managed Bismarck, North Dakota's team. He began muscling up by luring players from the Negro Leagues, the biggest prize being the great-but-perpetually-unpredictable Satchel Paige, who shocked the baseball establishment by heading west to where the buffalo roam. Paige pitched for Bismarck at the tail end of 1933 and all of 1935. The focal point of the book is that 1935 season, when events take an odd turn toward Kansas. COLOR BLIND is written with an eye beyond baseball. The narrative touches upon moonshine, gambling, Depression hard times, Dakota pioneer days and, of course, racial discrimination. Sitting Bull, Franklin Roosevelt, and Carl Sandburg are among the famous faces who make cameo appearances.

    His one major sports victory is a world championship in roller basketball, which is basketball on in-line skates. More than ten years ago, he started pursuing his own bucket list and embarked on a hilarious and insightful journey into the furthest reaches of the sports world."Man versus Ball" follows Hart s adventures around the country as he undertakes new missions, often with unexpected results. He becomes a pro wrestler, learning fake moves that all but land him in the hospital after a body slam went awry. He plays an entire season for a championship semipro football team, suits up as a U.S. Open ball boy for three years, and is an amateur caddie for a Professional Golfers Association tournament. After attending mascot school, he performs in a neon gorilla suit in front of several thousand fans at a minor league hockey game. He works as a vendor at several venues around the country, hawking concessions while fending off drunken fans. He even earns a bit of glory for himself, leading his roller basketball league in rebounds for two consecutive seasons. Feeling confident, he takes part in the World Cup of roller soccer, which is soccer on in-line skates. All this prepares him for his moment of truth: a race up the 1,576 stairs of the Empire State Building.A George Plimpton style excursion into the athletic unknown, "Man versus Ball" will delight and inspire readers who have secretly yearned to cross fun items off their life s to-do list.

    And if the majority of Americans have only the vaguest sense of what antitrust law is, most know one thing aboutit-that baseball is exempt.In The Baseball Trust, legal historian Stuart Banner illuminates the series of court rulings that resulted in one of the most curious features of our legal system-baseball's exemption from antitrust law. A serious baseball fan, Banner provides a thoroughly entertaining history of the game as seenthrough the prism of an extraordinary series of courtroom battles, ranging from 1890 to the present. The book looks at such pivotal cases as the 1922 Supreme Court case which held that federal antitrust laws did not apply to baseball; the 1972 Flood v. Kuhn decision that declared that baseball isexempt even from state antitrust laws; and several cases from the 1950s, one involving boxing and the other football, that made clear that the exemption is only for baseball, not for sports in general. Banner reveals that for all the well-documented foibles of major league owners, baseball hasconsistently received and followed antitrust advice from leading lawyers, shrewd legal advice that eventually won for baseball a protected legal status enjoyed by no other industry in America.As Banner tells this fascinating story, he also provides an important reminder of the path-dependent nature of the American legal system. At each step, judges and legislators made decisions that were perfectly sensible when considered one at a time, but that in total yielded an outcome-baseball'sexemption from antitrust law-that makes no sense at all.

    It’s also the worst. The players are washed up, lazy, and should have retired a long time ago. Tommy is the team’s biggest fan. He goes to every home game, watches the away games on TV, and even blogs about the Riptide. He knows everything there is know about baseball but is the worst player in his local Little League. So how did he end up on baseball’s biggest stage? Will Panzell is the owner of the team. He’s also completely nuts. He lies, cheats, and schemes to sell tickets to Riptide games. His latest stunt is so bananas it has the whole world shocked, and it might just be crazy enough to work. When Will and Tommy’s worlds collide, baseball may never be the same again.

    Sportswriter Rob Miech was "embedded" with the team—in the dugout and locker room and on team buses and in motel rooms—to provide a warts-and-all account of a boy among men playing like a man among boys. Amid fascinating personal stories including the dynamics between a veteran coach and Harper's overprotective father, the jealousies of teammates and opponents, and the sudden descent of press armies on a tiny college field, the author chronicles a season-long experiment that culminates in Harper leading the Coyotes to the Junior College World Series and signing a $9.9 million contract negotiated by notorious agent Scott Boras. Sporting a fresh cover and a bonus chapter that covers Harper's award-winning rookie season with the Washington Nationals, this expanded edition of Phenom (originally published as The Last Natural) gives fans an all-access pass to baseball's newest rising star.

    For nearly a decade, the two celebrated coaches shared an office and developed a close friendship that lasted 35 years until Wooden’s passing. Adams’s heartwarming narrative details discussions they shared about heroes, history, life, and their mutual favorite pastime—baseball. The book also reflects on Wooden’s core philosophies and the guiding principles behind his numerous basketball successes, including his election into two halls of fame as a player and a coach, winning 10 National College Athletic Association (NCAA) National Championships in a 12-year period, and being named NCAA College Basketball Coach of the Year six times. Recollections from Major League Baseball stars Eric Karros, David Roberts, and Chase Utley are also included, along with quotes from other athletes and associates of UCLA.

    More than 40 clubs and hundreds of pioneer players from the first hotbeds of New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are profiled by leading experts on baseball's early years. The subjects include legendary clubs such as the Knickerbockers of New York, the Eckfords and Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Athletics of Philadelphia, and Harvard's first baseball clubs, and fabled players like Jim Creighton, Dickey Pearce, and Daniel Adams, but space is also given to less well remembered clubs such as the Champion Club of Jersey City and the Cummaquids of Barnstable, Massachusetts. What united all of these pioneers was that their love of baseball during its early growth pains helped to make it the national pastime.

    Louis Cardinals General Manager Buy now and get your VIP access to CoachingBaseball101.com There are some books that teach coaches what to do in practice and how to run certain drills. This book goes into extra innings and explains why and how to create a situational practice. Plus, you will learn strategic coaching skills that will put your team in the best position to win during games.What count is the best to steal a base? Should a batter be walked to allow for a force-out even if the next batter is an RBI leader? This up-to-date book covers everything you need to do to help your players succeed. COACH LIKE A CHAMPION gives you sample practice schedules for all ages PLUS special "FOR THE BULLPEN IN YOUR BRAIN" and "COACHING HINTS" sections that will prepare you for any curveball thrown your way.Buy now and you will immediately have that drive and passion you need to make this the best season you have ever coached.COACHING AMERICA'S PASTIME...RESPONSIBLE FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE*** A COACH'S GUIDE TO PRACTICE, PLAYING and PARENTS ***There is only one championship team at the end of each season... are you coaching your team to be its best? If you only practice hitting, if you only practice fielding and if you only practice throwing then you will only be the best "practice team." This book will teach you how to prepare your team for games and preparing for game situations separates the "practice teams" from The Championship Team.In addition to learning baseball drills, plans for practices and learning how to get parents on your side...you will be learning how to be a STRATEGIC COACH during games and no other book will do this for you the way this one will.Whether you are new to coaching baseball or looking for creative ways to lead your team, this book is a unique look into coaching America's Pastime and Future. This book is the innovator at getting the most out of your players by keeping it simple...in practice and in games.Coaching baseball is a human chess match and you will learn proven strategies for coaching baseball players who are 5-19 years old. You will learn how to establish their Individual Baseball Plan (IBP) so you can maximize each player's potential. And, you will learn to love coaching baseball more than you already do.Throughout the world, there is something truly special about baseball. The sound of the ball hitting the bat. The sound of the pitch crashing into the catcher's glove. The sound of sunflower seeds being eaten or stepped on. The sound of the crowd. The sound of the umpire. The sound of little brothers and sisters playing tag next to the bleachers. There's the smell of popcorn, of hot dogs, of wet grass during a rain delay. There's the joy of a hit, of a great play, of a victory. There's the hurt from making an error, from striking out, from not winning. There is something truly special about baseball that reaches all of our senses.Keep it simple. Keep it fun. And, keep the players coming back for more.Coaching youth baseball...there's nothing quite as fun!

    Most Reds fans have taken in a game or two at the Great American Ball Park, have seen highlights of the Big Red Machine, and remember the team’s surprising triumph in the 1990 World Series. But only real fans know which 15-year-old took the mound for the Reds in 1944, can name the pitcher who gave up Pete Rose’s 4,192nd hit, or remember how many dogs owner Marge Schott owned. 100 Things Reds Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the perfect book for any fan of Reds baseball, whether a die-hard booster from the days of Ted Kluszewski or a new supporter of Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto, and Aroldis Chapman.

    In Wrigley Field: The Centennial, Les Krantz tells the story of Wrigley’s first 100 years—from the origins of the ivy on the outfield walls and ballpark traditions such as throwing back home run balls to Ruth’s called shot in the 1933 World Series and unforgettable moments featuring stars Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ryne Sandberg, Greg Maddux, and more. Featuring numerous photographs, Wrigley’s first century is beautifully documented and an originally produced DVD narrated by Lou Boudreau Jr. and Ron Santo Jr. features footage from throughout the stadium’s history and interviews with Jack Brickhouse, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and others.

    This book provides it. The narrative of events has been crafted from surviving fragments of the judicial record, contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the proceedings, museum archives and, occasionally, the literature of the Black Sox scandal. Preceding the account of judicial events are a brief overview of the baseball gambling problem, a summary of the 1919 Series, and a discussion of post-Series events that presaged revelations of the Series fix. The grand jury proceedings, the criminal trial, and ensuing civil suits initiated by various of the banned players against the White Sox are then recounted in detail, accompanied by copious source citations. The book concludes with a survey of how Black Sox-related legal proceedings have been treated in scandal literature. The book does not purport to be the definitive account of the Black Sox scandal. Rather, it uniquely presents how the matter played out in court.

    The years 1930-1970 were the Golden Age of both American sports and American comic strips, when giants strode their respective fields--Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Hank Aaron in one, George (Krazy Kat) Herriman, Milton (Steve Canyon) Caniff, Walt (Pogo) Kelly in the other--and Mullin was there, straddling both fields, recording every major player and event in the mid-20th-century history of baseball. Mullin was to baseball players what Bill Mauldin was to soldiers: advocate and critic, investing them with personality, humanity, dignity, and poignancy; Mauldin had Willie & Joe and Mullin had the Brooklyn Bum, his affectionate 1939 character representing the bedraggled figure of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Willard Mullin's Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934-1972 collects for the first time Mullin's best drawings devoted to baseball--depictions of players like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, and Sandy Koufax, legendary managers like Casey Stengel and George Steinbrenner, and events like Lou Gehrig's emotional retirement speech on July 4, 1939, for which Mullin not only drew a portrait but composed a poem (which he often incorporated into his cartoons). Mullin's fluid line and delicate but vigorous brushwork are shown to beautiful effect, with many drawings reproduced from original art. See why millions of baseball fans from the '30s to the '70s looked forward to Mullin's cartoons in their daily paper. Mullins was voted "Sports Cartoonist of the Century" upon his retirement by his peers, and his legacy has been summed up by New Yorker cartoonist Bob Staake, who wrote, "Mullin defined the modern sports cartoon by combining representative portraiture, cartoonish doodlery, and editorial commentary--part news account, part personal observation, his cartoons celebrated sport for its entertainment, cultural, and artistic value."

    Fewer still have then rallied to win the World Series. In the early twentieth century, the Cleveland Indians brought the world championship to their city of passionate fans in a spectacular style that has yet to be replicated. The Best They Could Be recaps the compelling story of the ballplayers and team owner who resurrected this proud but struggling franchise. Although the Cleveland ball club had been an active part of professional baseball from the late 1860s and a charter member of the American League, by 1915 the team was on the brink of collapse. Into this dejected atmosphere came new owner James C. Dunn, who, lacking baseball experience, nonetheless had the business savvy to bring his club to the forefront, acquiring superstar center fielder Tris Speaker, Larry Gardner, and other great players. But during the rise of the franchise, the outbreak of World War I interrupted baseball. Then, in 1920, as the Indians were leading the pennant race, shortstop Ray Chapman died after a pitch fractured his skull. The outpouring of sorrow from teammates and fans alike made the Indians more determined than ever to fight their way to the top. Scott H. Longert’s entertaining and poignant narrative traces the rise, fall, and rebirth of one of America’s most beloved baseball teams.

    It all began when the chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley decided to build the world’s greatest ball club in the nation’s Second City. In this Jazz Age center, the maverick Wrigley exploited the revolutionary technology of broadcasting to attract eager throngs of women to his renovated ballpark.Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club transports us to this heady era of baseball history and introduces the team at its crazy heart—an amalgam of rakes, pranksters, schemers, and choirboys who take center stage in memorable successes, equally memorable disasters, and shadowy intrigue. Readers take front-row seats to meet Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Joe McCarthy, Lewis “Hack” Wilson, Gabby Hartnett. The cast of characters also includes their colorful if less-extolled teammates and the Cubs’ nemesis, Babe Ruth, who terminates the ambitions of Mr. Wrigley’s ball club with one emphatic swing.

    (In many instances, the various baseball encyclopedias list only their names and one other word: deceased.) Some of these mysterious players had negligible professional careers and their time on a major league diamond was more the result of good fortune than anything else; others were stars in their day and then vanished. The Biographical Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research is committed to finding them and award-winning researcher Peter Morris tells the story of some of the most remarkable of the searches that resulted, many of which featured twists so surprising no mystery writer could have invented them.

    This is the first in a series of three books covering this fascinating new science that has already changed the game at every level. This series is about answering some questions that have been a mystery since the very first at bat in organized baseball. Major League pitchers, hitters, pitching coaches and managers have embraced Effective Velocity to help them enhance their approach to the game sine 2004. Collegiate coaches in both baseball and softball have revamped both their hitting and pitching philosophies based on this exciting new concept. NCAA championships - MLB Division Championships and countless other milestones have been accomplished using the laws that govern the confrontation between pitcher and hitter; Effective Velocity. Discover the reason why pitchers can execute a pitch in what is thought of as a perfect location and it ends up a homerun. Find out why hitters swing and miss belt high fastballs right down the middle of the plate one day and hit out of the park the next. Are taller pitchers really more Filthy? Is outside fastball really the best pitch in baseball? Is movement the most crucial factor in a pitcher's success? These and many other answers await you in this series describing this brand new paradigm for baseball and softball.

    At a time when the New York Yankees were in free fall, having failed to win a World Series in 17 years and had not played in one in 14 years—the Bronx Bombers’ longest drought since before the days of Babe Ruth—along came four young players whose powerful impact returned the franchise to its former glory. They were a diverse group from different parts of the globe: Mariano Rivera, a right-handed pitcher from Panama, who was destined to become the all-time record holder in saves and baseball’s greatest closer; Derek Jeter, a shortstop raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who would become the first Yankee to accumulate 3,000 hits; Jorge Posada, an infielder-turned-catcher from Puerto Rico, who would hit more home runs than any Yankees catcher except the legendary Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; and Andy Pettitte, a left-handed pitcher born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who would win more postseason games than any player in baseball history. Together they formed the “Core Four,” and would go on to play as teammates for 13 seasons during which time they would help the Yankees advance to the postseason 12 times, win the American League pennant seven times, and take home five World Series trophies. This book follows these phenoms from the minor leagues to the present, detailing their significant contributions to a winning major league franchise.

    From the "prisoner of war" game that took place among captive Union soldiers during the Civil War (immortalized in a famous lithograph), to the first intercollegiate game (Amherst versus Williams), to the first professional no-hitter, the games in this volume span 1833–1900 and detail the athletic exploits of such players as Cap Anson, Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, Charlie Comiskey, Mike "King" Kelly, and John Montgomery Ward. Lavishly illustrated with almost 200 photos and images from the era. 42 SABR members contributed chapters to the effort, including Bill Felber, Bill Nowlin, Bob Bailey, Bob Tiemann, Casey Tibbitts, Charles Faber, Cliff Blau, Craig Waff, David Arcidiacano, Dick McBane, Donald Jensen, Edward Achorn, Frank Vaccaro, Greg Rhodes, Irv Goldfarb, James Rygelski, Jean-Pierre Caillault, Jeff Samoray, Jerry Casway, Jerry Grillo, Jim Overmyer, Jimmy Keenan, Joanne Hulbert, John Bauer, John Husman, John Thorn, John Zinn, Jon Barnes, Kathy Torres, Lyle Spatz, Mark Pestana, Mike Harrington, Parker Bena, Patricia Millen, Paul Browne, Peter Mancuso, Phil Dixon, Rich Bogovich, Richard Hershberger, Terry Gottschall, W. Lloyd Johnson, and William Lamb. Special thanks to Skip McAfee.

    

    In fact, the actions of a handful were so heinous, they left an indelible mark on the sport. In Baseball's Most Notorious Personalities: A Gallery of Rogues, Jonathan Weeks thoroughly examines this dark side of our National Pastime. Liars, cheats, hotheads, even axe murderers-you'll find them all here in the Gallery. From scapegoats to maniacs, meddling managers to fanatical fans, this book profiles them all. Included are players such as Brooklyn outfielder Len Koenecke, who tried to crash a chartered plane in a maniacal suicide attempt; Ty Cobb, who was known to slide into bases with spikes flying and brawl with anyone who dared oppose him, including an attack on a fan who heckled him from the stands; and Marty Bergen, a talented catcher for the Boston Beaneaters who murdered his family with an axe. These are just a few of the many intriguing individuals found in this volume. Spanning three centuries of baseball-from the 1800s into the current decade-Baseball's Most Notorious Personalities covers various themes of notoriety. Though some of the stories may be familiar to the dedicated baseball enthusiast, even the most die-hard fan will be shocked and surprised by some of the actions of well-known and lesser-known players, managers, fans, and team owners contained in this book. Baseball's Most Notorious Personalities is a fascinating read for all baseball fans and historians.

    Acclaimed Sports Illustrated and Major League Baseball photographer Brad Mangin has captured this historic season with breathtaking photographs that evoke the Giants' relentless spirit of passion and persistence in 2012. Brian Murphy, beloved Bay Area sports radio personality, tells the story of the Giants' championship season in great detail, highlighting this never-say-die attitude that empowered the Giants to overcome adversity throughout the regular and postseason and ultimately led them to an epic four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.Never. Say. Die. is truly an art book in form and in function. Featuring over 125 awe-inspiring photographs, this book provides a rare view of one team's championship season seen through the lens of one photographer, Brad Mangin, resulting in a beautiful baseball photo monograph that San Francisco Giants' fans and baseball fans around the world are sure to relish. The book's design and format go above and beyond the typical sports photo book, emphasizing the grit and edge of the Giants' character throughout the season. As a result, Never. Say. Die. stands out uniquely among others in the field.

    Topics include complete coverage of the 2013 season, special focus on some of the biggest team and player surprises (and busts), unique takes on baseball history and cutting-edge sabermetric analysis.When you read The Hardball Times Annual 2014 you'll discover:- How the Pirates and Dodgers put their teams together- What was behind Chris Davis' great season, and why we should worry about his future- Some fundamental differences between pitching and hitting prospects- How the strike zone has changed in the past five years (spoiler alert: a lot)- Where Roger Clemens ranks in the list of all-time best pitchers- How teams are creatively employing the shift against certain hitters.If you're a baseball fan yearning to keep that flame burning during the offseason, The Hardball Times Annual is for you. As Sports Weekly said, "There are several baseball books that come out every year for the holiday season, but none as well-rounded and complete as The Hardball Times Baseball Annual."

    After graduating from high school in 1946 and serving two tours of duty with the U.S. Marines, Schneider acquired a degree in English from Baldwin Wallace University. Following a brief (but uneventful) season as a minor league player, Schneider became a sportswriter and columnist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He covered the Indians daily from 1964 through 1977 and became nationally known as the chronicler of the Indians' fortunes and history. That experience provided Schneider with the opportunity to meet and befriend the icons of the Tribe--among them, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby, Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, and others.This beautiful coffee-table book features forty twentieth-century Indians legends, beginning with the era when they were the Cleveland Blues. Schneider has divided the Indians' history into quartercentury periods, selecting ten players from each as stars of this historic franchise. Illustrator Tom Denny, known for his dynamic and creative images in oil, watercolor, and mixed media, has created portraits and action scenes for each of the forty iconic players. Napoleon Lajoie, Tris Speaker, and Jim Bagby Sr. from 1901-1925; Mel Harder, Bob Feller, and Lou Boudreau from 1926-1950; Larry Doby, Rocky Colavito, and Bob Lemon from 1951-1975; and Omar Vizquel, Jim Thome, and Kenny Lofton from 1976-2000 are some of the forty outstanding players selected. Also included are highlights of each player's career, biographical information, and career statistics.Sure to be treasured by sports enthusiasts and baseball lovers everywhere--especially Indians fans--Cleveland Indians Legends is a handsome and informative addition to the history of baseball.

    When a shoulder injury at age 39 forces him from the mound, his playing days are seemingly over. Two years later he attempts a comeback pitching for a minor league team in Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln is also the hometown of Toni, his ex-wife, and Buddy, the teenage daughter he has rarely seen since his divorce years earlier. Further complicating matters is the presence of Cole, Toni’s menacing new boyfriend. As Zane struggles to regain his mound proficiency, his efforts to reconnect with Buddy and his feelings for Toni draw him into a game off the field that he never intended to play.

    A history of the Oregon State Beavers baseball program and the team's road to three College World Series and back-to-back championship titles in 2006 and 2007.

    Features include scouting reports for all players, batter skills ratings, pitch repertoires, performance trends, major league equivalents, and expected major league debuts. A complete sabermetric glossary is also included. This one-of-a-kind reference is ideally suited for baseball analysts and those who play in fantasy leagues with farm systems.

    During his career, which lasted from 1896 to 1916, he was regularly called the King of Ballplayers and was widely regarded as the greatest baseball player of all time before Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth came along. Colorful, competitive, and often unpredictable, Lajoie was so popular that the Cleveland team was called the Naps in his honor while he played for them. He was a multiple batting champion, the American League's first Triple Crown winner, and the third member of the 3,000 hits club. This book is the first ever full-length biography of this long ago superstar.

    For nearly two decades, he brought his surly disposition to the pitcher's mound. His life-or-death mentality resulted in a reputation as one of the game's great competitors and a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Along the way he suited up for eight different ball clubs and played alongside a record 36 Hall of Famers. Grimes spent more than half a century in professional baseball as a player, manager, coach and scout. This biography covers all aspects of his life, from his childhood in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, to his twilight years in that same town. In between are World Series highs and lows, brawls, five marriages, a near-death experience and 270 major league victories.

    Trading Bases explains how he did it. After the fall of Lehman Brothers, Joe Peta was out of a job. He found a new one but lost that, too, when an ambulance mowed him down. In search of a way to cheer himself up while he recuperated in a wheelchair, Peta started watching baseball again, as he had growing up. That’s when inspiration hit: Why not apply his outstanding risk-analysis skills to improve on sabermetrics, the method made famous by Moneyball—and beat the only market in town, the Vegas betting line? Why not treat MLB like the S&P 500? In Trading Bases, Peta shows how to subtract luck—in particular “cluster luck,” as he puts it—from a team’s statistics to best predict how it will perform in the next game and over the whole season. His baseball “hedge fund” returned an astounding 41 percent in 2011—and has never been down more than 5 percent. Peta takes readers to the ballpark in San Francisco, trading floors and baseball bars in New York, and sports books in Vegas, all while tracing the progress of his wagers. Often humorous, occasionally touching, and with a wink toward the sheer implausibility of the whole project, Trading Bases is all about the love of critical reasoning, trading cultures, risk management, and baseball. And not necessarily in that order.

    The first and most comprehensive review of the 2013 MLB season, with complete team and players lifetime statistics and initial projections for 2014 from baseball guru Bill James and his team of analysts.

    But whether you go only once in your lifetime or make the pilgrimage annually, you’ll never be able to see every treasure in the museum’s collections. With Inside the Baseball Hall of Fame, readers can go behind the scenes to see seldom- or never-displayed items from among the 40,000 treasures in Cooperstown, in addition to some of the most important and popular items on exhibit at the museum—all gorgeously photographed in color. Captions written by Hall of Fame experts explain each object’s significance and relate unique stories associated with it. Here are just a few highlights from the nearly 200 objects in this beautiful book: -An 1887 ball-strike indicator from the only season when it took five balls to walk and four strikes to strike out -Pitcher Harvey Haddix’s glove from the 1959 game when he pitched 12 perfect innings—and lost 1–0 in the 13th -Shoeless Joe Jackson’s shoes -The Wonderboy bat and trombone case that Robert Redford used in The Natural -Rube Waddell’s glove from his 4–2, 20-inning victory over Cy Young on July 4, 1905 -A promissory note from the sale of Babe Ruth by Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee to New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert -The bat Joe Carter used to hit his 1993 World Series–ending home run -The oldest known photograph of two baseball teams, the New York Knickerbockers and the Brooklyn Excelsiors, taken on a ball field in 1859 Whether you’re a dedicated student of the game’s history or a newcomer to our National Pastime, Inside the Baseball Hall of Fame will fascinate you. You’ll find a surprising photograph or a story you didn’t know, complete with new insight into America’s game and culture. Take the trip of a lifetime inside baseball’s national museum and discover the game’s fabulous history—or reawaken beloved memories.

    In So You Think You Know Baseball?, lifelong baseball enthusiast Peter E. Meltzer catalogues every noteworthy baseball rule from the Major League rulebook and illustrates its application with actual plays, from the historical to the contemporary.You can read the book from start to finish or consult it while watching a game to understand the mechanics of a play or how it should be scored. Meltzer analyzes the entire Official Baseball Rules using hundreds of Major League plays involving both plays on the field situations and plays which have involved the official scorer. This is the first book ever written which analyzes the entire rulebook in this fashion and which is based on actual plays.With Meltzer’s unique and thoroughly entertaining guide in hand, which includes a foreword by baseball rules expert Rich Marazzi, you’ll never have to scratch your head over an umpire or scorekeeper’s call again.

    Louis Browns were nothing short of spectacular ... when it came to futility. Whatever promise or hope or grandeur dreams held by the franchise and its fans after a second place finish in its inaugural season in St. Louis was quickly replaced by this abysmal reality: the Browns were dead last in the eight-team American League ten times in 52 seasons. Then in 1954 the club began play in Baltimore and its new owners shed the “Browns” and every imaginable link to the club’s past. It’s not that the Orioles don’t respect history … it’s that from the very beginning Baltimore was intent on making its own history. And to that end the franchise has been extraordinarily successful. In St. Louis, the Browns had more 100-loss seasons than any team in baseball history—in Baltimore, it barely took Earl Weaver a decade to manage the Orioles to five 100-win seasons. In St. Louis, the Browns backed into one Pennant in five decades. In Baltimore, the Orioles built a powerhouse that dominated the better part of two decades and won six Pennants. There have been ups-and-downs obviously—like every franchise—and plenty of lean years to go with the championships, but with its successes and the many legends its produced since 1954, the Orioles have achieved the same “status” if you will as its division rivals New York and Boston as being one of baseball’s truly great franchises. A virtual who’s who of baseball royalty spent time playing in Baltimore—from Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer, to Cal Ripken, Jr. and Eddie Murray, to today’s superstars Chris Davis and Manny Machado. You can’t discuss the game’s greatest moments without including the Orioles. You can’t tour the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown without seeing the influence of the Birds. This is a book of trivia and history. It’s meant for diehard baseball fans, but whether or not you count yourself part of Orioles fandom is irrelevant, because the history of the Birds is inextricably linked with the history of baseball—so sit back and reminisce with ten chapters of Baltimore Orioles history, baseball stories, and 200 brand new trivia questions that will wrack your brain and test your skills. It’s your Orioles IQ, the ultimate test of true fandom.

    The lore of baseball's first pioneers plays out in a real-life soap opera for this Western city. From the early Hall-of-Fame players to the storied baseball-talent barons of Denver's primitive days, baseball has always been on the forefront of the Denver sports horizon. From Tinker to Satchel Paige to "The Babe" himself, the Mile High City has been a barnstormer's oasis in a town that was nothing short of the Wild West. The Denver Post Tournament and the rich history of the Denver Bears are highlighted, as well as the many fields and landmarks throughout the city. With the inception of the Colorado Rockies, Denver once again set the stage for big-league baseball, which many of Denver's local baseball legends have been no stranger to.