Nailed!: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra


Christopher Frankie - 2013
    He was the toast of the business world before his litany of crimes were detected and his empire began to unravel in 2009, leading to a conviction and prison sentence in 2012 with more charges pending.Through compelling storytelling supported by extensive research and documentation-including interviews with many of Dykstra's friends, family, and business associates-Nailed! Peels back the layers to reveal that the criminal charges of grand theft auto, identity theft, vandalism, lewd behavior, sexual assault, are just the tip of the iceberg. This is an engaging read of a sports and business hero gone bad.

Yaz: Baseball, the Wall, and Me


Carl Yastrzemski - 1968
    

A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone


Roger Angell - 2002
     There is no big league pitcher who is more respected for his skill than David Cone. In his stellar career Cone has won multiple championships andcountless professional accolades. Along the way, the perennial all-star has had to adjust to five different ballclubs, recover from a career-threatening arm aneurysm, cope with the lofty expectations that are standard for the games highest paid players, and overcome a humbling three-month, eight-game losing streak in the summer of 2000. Cone granted exclusive and unlimited access to baseballs most respected writer Roger Angell of the New Yorker. The result is just what baseball fans everywhere would expect from Angell: an extraordinary inside account of a superstar.

All My Octobers: My Memories of Twelve World Series When the Yankees Ruled Baseball


Mickey Mantle - 1994
    He also speaks candidly about overcoming his lifelong addiction to alcohol, and the friends, family and thousands of fans who helped him do it.

Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir


Paul O'Neill - 2003
    O'Neill epitomized the team's motto of hard work and good sportsmanship, traits instilled in him by his friend, confidant, lifelong model, and biggest fan: his dad, Chick O'Neill.In Me and My Dad, O'Neill writes from the heart about the man who inspired in him a love for the game and a determination to always play his best. O'Neill remembers the highlights of his own amazing career: the Cincinnati Reds calling him up to the majors, his first World Series, being traded to the Yankees -- and taking part in their recent championship wins. He also reflects on his father's untimely death during the 1999 World Series and on the farewell tribute his fans gave him during his last game in Yankee Stadium.

Stranger to the Game: 2the Autobiography of Bob Gibson


Bob Gibson - 1994
    From Gibson's early days in the Jim Crow South to his glory days as a World Series-winning pitcher, Stranger to the Game is the candid memoir of one of the game's greatest pitchers and most outspoken black players.

Throwing Heat


Nolan Ryan - 1988
    Here, in Nolan Ryan's own words, is the remarkable story of a skinny kid from Texas with a dynamite arm who grew up to be baseball's premier power pitcher.

The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality


Jeff Pearlman - 2009
    Called “exceptional” by Time magazine, The Rocket That Fell to Earth is a stunning portrait of a sports legend equally loved and loathed by fans and colleagues, his life and his storied career, and his place at the dead center of professional baseball’s shocking steroid controversy.

The Coach


Patrick Mouratoglou - 2017
    The Coach is Patrick Mouratoglou's hugely motivational and inspirational story. As a child, he was full of suffering, enduring anxiety attacks at night. In his own words "puny and very timid, paralysed by the shame of not being able to do better". Now, as one of the world's leading tennis coaches he is responsible for transforming the career of Serena Williams and helping her become the greatest of all times. His story is a great example of trial over adversity.

The Fall of the Roman Umpire


Ron Luciano - 1986
    Illustrated with 16 pages of photographs.

Watching Baseball, updated & revised: Discovering the Game within the Game


Jerry Remy - 2004
    Jerry Remy's name and face are already known to millions of fans. Every night during the baseball season, 400,000 or more households tune in to listen to his broadcast of the Red Sox game. But fans learned to love him years ago, when he was traded to the Red Sox in 1978, earning a trip to the All-Star Game in his first year with the team; Remy hit .278, scored eighty-seven runs, and stole thirty bases. Injured in 1984, Remy never played another game. In 1988, he began his work as an announcer, working color commentary for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN, which is a basic cable channel throughout New England and available by satellite across the country. He covers more than 150 games per season for NESN and broadcast television, plus regular assignments on the national Fox Game of the Week. But the best part of Jerry Remy is his easy style: listeners feel like they're having a beer with a friend while they're watching the game.If spectators just follow the ball, they are missing much of the game. Baseball is a lot more complex than that. Everyone talks about second-guessing the manager; and there's a lot of fun in that for everyone except the manager. Those opinions can be heard all day on the sports talk shows and read in the newspaper columns. But if the people are really going to get into the game, they need to start first-guessing. That's what this book is all about.

Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson


Timothy M. Gay - 2010
    Interracial contests took place during the off-season, when major leaguers and Negro Leaguers alike fattened their wallets by playing exhibitions in cities and towns across America. These barnstorming tours reached new heights, however, when Satchel Paige and other African- American stars took on white teams headlined by the irrepressible Dizzy Dean. Lippy and funny, a born showman, the native Arkansan saw no reason why he shouldn't pitch against Negro Leaguers. Paige, who feared no one and chased a buck harder than any player alive, instantly recognized the box-office appeal of competing against Dizzy Dean's "All-Stars." Paige and Dean both featured soaring leg kicks and loved to mimic each other's style to amuse fans. Skin color aside, the dirt-poor Southern pitchers had much in common. Historian Timothy M. Gay has unearthed long-forgotten exhibitions where Paige and Dean dueled, and he tells the story of their pioneering escapades in this engaging book. Long before they ever heard of Robinson or Larry Doby, baseball fans from Brooklyn to Enid, Oklahoma, watched black and white players battle on the same diamond. With such Hall of Fame teammates as Josh Gibson, Turkey Stearnes, Mule Suttles, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, and Bullet Joe Rogan, Paige often had the upper hand against Diz. After arm troubles sidelined Dean, a new pitching phenom, Bob Feller--Rapid Robert--assembled his own teams to face Paige and other blackballers. By the time Paige became Feller's teammate on the Cleveland Indians in 1948, a rookie at age forty-two, Satch and Feller had barnstormed against each other for more than a decade.These often obscure contests helped hasten the end of Jim Crow baseball, paving the way for the game's integration. Satchel Paige, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Feller never set out to make social history--but that's precisely what happened. Tim Gay has brought this era to vivid and colorful life in a book that every baseball fan will embrace.

The Rotation: A Season with the Phillies and the Greatest Pitching Staff Ever Assembled


Jim Salisbury - 2012
    Plus, the Philadelphia Phillies' 2011 rotation also happens to include Cole Hamels--the 2008 NLCS and World Series MVP--and an alternating fifth starter. This awe-inducing rotation has been the talk of baseball since coming together in December 2010. They were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2011 baseball- preview edition, interviewed on the MLB Network on opening day of spring training, covered in the New York Times Magazine, and mentioned in numerous newspapers and magazines nationwide.Authored by two of the most knowledgable and connected Phillies beat writers, The Rotation is a remarkably detailed day-in-the-life story of one complete season with a Major League Baseball starting-pitching staff. The authors offer deep daily access to the Phillies players, coaches, and front-office staff, as well as the players and staff of other major league teams and the national baseball media.With firsthand reporting and extensive interviews, plus two full-color photo inserts, this is a fascinating and detailed look into the day-to-day operation of what is arguably the greatest pitching rotation ever assembled. It is a must-read for Phillies fans and general baseball fans alike.

A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant


Tony Massarotti - 2005
    Yet, following New York’s comeback victory in scintillating Game 7, both the Red Sox and Yankees entered the off-season without a world title--and with renewed conviction to finish the job in 2004.In A Tale of Two Cities, respected baseball writers John Harper (New York Daily News) and Tony Massarotti (Boston Herald) chronicle the Yankees and Red Sox in parallel story lines through the summer of 2004. The authors take you behind the scenes with the teams, cities, and media during one of the most intense baseball seasons in history.

What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All


Yogi Berra - 2002
    In 26 unique chapters Berra shares his Yogisms about everything from the meaning of life and death to the ultimate spiritual conundrum. (Philosophy)