Baseball

by Carroll Conklin (Author)

These were the heroes who owned the summers of the 1960s. Johnny Callison and Jim Bunning. Tony Gonzalez and Jack Baldschun. Chris Short and Don Demeter. Clay Dalrymple and Dick Allen. During the summers of the 1960s, the heroes of Philadelphia wore Phillies uniforms. On their best days (which were, admittedly, too few), they were entertaining and inspiring. They smote hated rivals and sent their best to the All-Star game, in the decade when that mid-summer classic moved under the lights ... and into prime time. On their worst days, these Phillies heroes broke our hearts, squandering late-inning leads and pre-season hopes ... but they never lost our devotion. They were the heroes of our youth. Now their stories are collected in Phillies Heroes: Remembering the Philadelphia Phillies Who Helped Make the 1960s Baseball's Real Golden Age. The book profiles the best (and a few of the worst) of the Philadelphia Phillies of the 1960s. In all, there are 72 profiles of the infielders, outfielders, catchers and pitchers who played for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1960s. Do you remember ... The left-handed fireballer who struck out 237 batters in 1965, and was the team's only 20-game winner during the 1960s? (page 117) The slugging right fielder who was a 3-time All-Star in the 1960s and led the National League in triples twice (and doubles once)? (page 36) The shortstops who won back-to-back Gold Gloves? (page 56) The All-Star outfielder who was traded for a future Hall of Fame pitcher? (page 40) The hard-luck right-hander who posted winning records with only 2 teams ... one of them the Phillies? (page 84) The slugging first baseman who drove in 103 runs in 1966, and won his seventh Gold Glove? (page 28) The Phillies ace who won 57 games in 3 seasons, one of them perfect? (page 74) The hard-hitting third baseman who led the National League in runs and triples his rookie season? (page 8) The All-Star second baseman who finished in the top 10 in stolen bases 7 straight years? (page 26) The center fielder who twice led the League in fielding, but never won a Gold Glove, and 3 times garnered votes for MVP, but never was an All-Star? (page 42) Their stories are here. Enjoy the memories.

by Tim Munn (Author), Matt Vitticore (Author)

Ontario County: The Golden Age of Railroads and Baseball depicts much of Manchester, New York's, World War I and Depression-era history. Located among the finger lakes in Ontario County, Manchester is renowned for having once been home to the world's largest freight transfer yard. The Lehigh Valley Railroad provided the main source of employment for early Irish, Italian, and Syrian immigrants, as well as for many women in the community. In Manchester's heyday, attending Industrial League baseball games
was a Sunday tradition for residents. The Manchester Railroaders, a semi-professional team, was one of the top teams in the Northeastern United States, playing such worthy opponents as the Brooklyn Bushwicks, the Bronx Giants, the Buffalo Bisons, the Rochester Kay Pee's, the Syracuse Brownlites, the Toronto Leafs, the Sayre Colemans, and the Elmira Artics. This visual tour highlights the achievements of such athletes as Brooklyn native Bill Segbers, who brought his Ebbett's Field experience to Manchester, and Johnny Boardman, who played against
Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees in a 1923 exhibition game. Rare views of the great train disaster of 1911--the day no games were played--are also included in this fascinating new volume.

by Bob Luke (Author)

Among early 20th century baseball players, John Preston "Pete" Hill (1882-1951) was considered the equal of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker--only skin color kept him out of the majors. A capable manager, Hill captained the Negro League's Chicago-based American Giants, led two expansion teams and retired from the sport as manager of the Baltimore Black Sox. Drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts, this first ever biography of Hill recounts the career of a neglected Hall of Famer in the context of the turbulent issues that surrounded him--segregation, women's suffrage, Prohibition and the Spanish flu.

Author Biography

Bob Luke is the author of six books about baseball and race in America. He lives in Garrett Park, Maryland.

by Robert M. Goldman (Author)

When Curt Flood, all-star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, refused to be traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1968, he sent shock waves throughout professional baseball that ultimately reached the Supreme Court. Flood challenged the game's reserve clause system that bound players to teams as if they were property; and while others had previously spoken out against this arrangement, protected by Congress and the courts for a century, he was the first to pursue his grievance as doggedly or as far.

by Dale Tafoya (Author), Sandy Alderson (Foreword by)

Named a Best Baseball Book of 2023 by Sports Collectors Digest

Author Biography

Dale Tafoya is the author of Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's and Bash Brothers: A Legacy Subpoenaed (Potomac Books, 2008). His work has appeared in the New York Daily News, New York Post, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, Baseball Digest, and other noteworthy publications. Sandy Alderson is special advisor to the New York Mets after serving previously as their team president and general manager. He served as the Oakland A's general manager from 1983 to 1997.

by Terry Pluto (Author)

"A beautiful, absolutely unforgettable memoir." -- Booklist

A son, a father, a baseball team ... This remarkable baseball memoir will touch the heart of any baseball fan who has ever shared a love for the game with a parent or child.

Award-winning sportswriter Terry Pluto (The Curse of Rocky Colavito) tells the story of a son and a father and the relationship they shared through their resilient devotion to one particularly frustrating baseball team, the Cleveland Indians (who always seemed to need just one more run to win).

The story includes the joys and struggles of growing older together, of coping with a sick parent, and, finally, of burying the man who indelibly shaped his son's life. It also includes a lively history of the Cleveland Indians franchise, full of personal recollections about remarkable players and memorable moments from seasons past.

For so many people, baseball remains an important bridge across generations, sometimes the only topic of conversation when all other topics seem threatening. Absorbing his father's love for the game, and their team, Pluto grew to understand and respect the often distant man who allowed himself few pleasures besides baseball in a life built around laboring to provide for his family. This book celebrates our ability to make that connection through baseball.

It is a heartfelt, memorable tale.

by John Bell (Author)

Before television came along, baseball proved to be a primary source of entertainment in small towns around America. Carrollton, Georgia was no exception having had teams in the Georgia State League in 1920-21, and in the Georgia-Alabama League in 1928-30 and again in 1946-50. In this book, author John Bell has taken an in-depth look at each of these seasons as well as the "in-between" years when semi-pro and industrial league baseball provided the fans with their diamond entertainment.PICKLE IT! features a detailed recap of each season including league standings, team rosters, astounding baseball feats, on-field marriages, and fans attacking the umpire for making a bum call. There is also a Carrollton player statistics section that includes every player that took the field in a Carrollton uniform; a player register section with listings of all the different teams the Carrollton players played for; and league opponent rosters for each season. There is a photograph section with eighteen pages of rare photographs of the Carrollton teams through the years including a shot of Commissioner Happy Chandler on a visit in 1948, and a section of Carrollton team and league records. Learn about major leaguers who came through Carrollton such as Merrit "Sugar" Cain, Ed Chaplin, Carl East, Lou Finney, Paul Fittery, Charles "Red" Roberts, Jo-Jo White, Kemp Wicker, and others. Also learn about Bing Russell, actor Kurt Russell's father, and his playing days in Carrollton before he went on to star on the TV show Bonanza. And find out the answer to the burning question, "Why is the book called PICKLE IT!"If you're a fan of minor league baseball, you'll love reading PICKLE IT!--------------------------------------------------------------John Bell was born in Americus, Georgia in 1969 and lived there until 1995. He graduated from Americus High School in 1987 and earned a B.S. in Political Science with a minor in History from Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus in 1993. John is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.Now living in Carrollton, Georgia, John and his wife Virginia have two sons, Jacob and Andrew.John is also the author of the book "Shoeless Summer - The summer of 1923 when Shoeless Joe Jackson played baseball in Americus, Georgia."

by Jackson Wells (Author)

Calling all Philadelphia Phillies fans! Get ready to test your knowledge and prove yourself as the ultimate Phillies aficionado with "Philadelphia Phillies: The Supreme Quiz and Trivia Book." This captivating book is a treasure trove of fascinating facts, mind-boggling trivia, and challenging quizzes that will keep you entertained for hours on end.

by Lance Van Auken (Author), Robin Van Auken (Author)

On any given spring evening, 360,000 children around the world can be found on the dusty mounds and grassy fields of a Little League field. With more than four million people playing or volunteering in Little League games every year, Little League is the institutional rite of passage into the quintessential American pastime.

Play Ball! charts Little League's history from the earliest days and shows how, in many respects, its history parallels America's history: isolation in the beginning; rapid expansion; a civil war of sorts, followed by reconstruction; struggles over civil rights and gender equity; and foreign entanglements. A microcosm of American society, Little League reflects, and is affected by, cultural, political and historical trends.

The authors were given full access to the Little League Baseball archives and have created a comprehensive history. Play Ball! contains appendixes including winners of all Little League Baseball and Softball World Series, a year-by-year history of Little League, countries in Little League, and lists of some of the famous people who played the game as children, including Kevin Costner, Mark McGwire, and George W. Bush. Includes new chapter on John Grisham's movie, "Mickey," the Danny Almonte scandal, Tee Ball on the South Lawn, Pitch Counts and Arm Injuries, Child Protection Act, ESPN and the new World of Little League Museum.Play Ball! will interest parents, former players and coaches, fans of Little League Baseball, general baseball enthusiasts, and anyone who has ever picked up a ball and bat.

by J. Daniel (Author)

A lot happened in baseball in 1980. After being stabbed with a penknife in Mexico during spring training, the Indians' "Super Joe" Charboneau captured Cleveland's heart--and Rookie of the Year. Nolan Ryan became baseball's first Million Dollar Man, Reggie Jackson twice found himself looking down the wrong end of a gun, and George Brett posted the highest single-season batting average since 1941.

The Phillies and Expos battled up to the season's final weekend while the Dodgers tilted against the Astros in a one-game playoff for the division title. In the American League, Brett led Kansas City past the mighty Yankees and into the Series, where slugger Mike Schmidt and the Phillies awaited. This book covers it all.

Author Biography

J. Daniel has spent more than 20 years working in sports television. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana and works for Indiana University.

by John Montgomery Ward (Author)

First published in 1888, Play Ball Everything You Need To Become The World's Best Baseball Player is a classic manual of the Great American Pastime, written by a champion professional ballplayer, team captain and manager. John Montgomery ""Monte"" Ward was a man of tremendous talent and personal integrity, and a true sports hero for his own time and ours.

This latest Better Days Books Growing up Great Guide for American Boys is a practical and inspiring beginner's guide to understanding the ""nuts and bolts"" of America's favorite game (the rules, the layout of the field, the domain and duties of each position, etc.), and an indispensible handbook aspiring stars of the field, mound and batter's box can employ toward the achievement of their highest potential as players. Includes valuable tips on training and diet, how and when to steal bases (and how to know when to stay put ), the mechanics of pitching an unhittable curve ball and more

by David Block (Author)

Long before baseball became America's national pastime, English citizens of all ages, genders, and classes of society were playing a game called baseball. It had the same basic elements as modern American baseball, such as pitching and striking the ball, running bases, and fielding, but was played with a soft ball on a smaller playing field and, instead of a bat, the ball was typically struck by the palm of the hand. There is no doubt, however, that this simpler English version of baseball was the original form of the pastime and was the immediate forerunner of its better-known American offspring. Strictly a social game, English baseball was played for nearly two hundred years before fading away at the beginning of the twentieth century. Despite its longevity and its important role in baseball's evolution, however, today it has been completely forgotten.

Author Biography

David Block is a baseball historian and antiquarian. His book Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (Nebraska, 2005) was the recipient of the 2006 SABR Seymour Medal and the 2006 North American Society for Sport History Book Award, was named to the New York Times Reading List of sports books (2005), and was designated an Outstanding Academic Title of 2005 by the American Library Association.

by Steve Kettmann (Author)

Now in paperback--a cross between A Day in the Life and Moneyball--comes the inside, intertwining stories of famous, and not-so-famous people as their lives are affected by one day of baseball: August 30, 2003, Red Sox-Yankees at Fenway, during their most famous season ever.

Author Biography

Steve Kettmann has reported from more than twenty countries on five continents for publications including the New York Times, the New Republic, the Village Voice, GQ, and Salon.com; he was a San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter for nearly a decade. He conceived and edited Game Time, Roger Angell's collection of baseball writing. This is his first b

by Jerry Johnson (Author)

The 1983 University of Texas Longhorn Baseball Team had one of the best collegiate pitching staffs of all time returning from the previous year's team - but only 2 position players returning. Coach Cliff Gustafson had to put together a team from a disparate group of veterans, junior college transfers, and freshmen that could hopefully compete with the other good teams in the Southwest Conference, and then try and beat the best from the rest of the country.

After struggling early in the season, the Texas team finally found its focus and will to win as conference play started. But the team was not perfect, and they had to fight their way back through the loser's bracket in their Regional. Winning it all in Omaha was the goal - and this is the story of how the '83 team captured that year's College World Series championship.

by Phil S. Dixon (Author)

The "Greatest Baseball team of all-time" easily describes the 1931 Homestead Grays. They remain a team never to be forgotten-a team that rates with the greatest teams in all of baseball history. Organized in 1910, baseball's Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-an exclusively African-American team-held claim to a regional championship and also a legitimate claim to baseball's World Championship. The Grays' well-known leader was Hall of Famer Cumberland "Cum" Posey. His 1931 Grays featured among others; Hall of Fame third baseman Jud Wilson, Hall of Fame infielder Oscar Charleston, a Hall of Fame catcher in Josh Gibson and two Hall of Fame pitchers in Willie Foster and Joseph "Smokey Joe" Williams-a total of five legendary players. Paced by young Josh Gibson, age 18 and the most powerful home run hitter in baseball, Posey's 1931 Homestead Grays finished with a magnificent 143-29-2 record. This is their story told here for the first time. Included within the text are written accounts for every game from the Homestead Grays' entire 1931 schedule of nearly 175 contest, with scores, attendance figures and player biographies. The work includes score and locations on more than 300 additional games played by the Kansas City Monarchs, Hilldale, Baltimore's Black Sox, the Cuban House of David, New York's Harlem Stars and other African-American teams in operation during that same 1931 season. The comparative scores and their related histories are a resourceful and entertaining aid for further analysis and assessment on the participation of African-American athletes in baseball as best represented from the perspective of a single championship season.

Author Biography

Author Phil S. Dixon is a pioneer in the study of Negro League baseball history. For the past thirty years he has recorded the African-American baseball experience with a vast array of skill and accuracy. Creative, innovative and detailed, Dixon has researched baseball history and documented the careers of Negro Baseball's greatest players.

by Cliff Kirkpatrick (Author), Pat Casey (Foreword by), Darwin Barney (Introduction by)

In the postseasons of 2005, 2006 and 2007, the Oregon State Beavers baseball team achieved a seemingly impossible dream and forever changed the culture of Northwest sports. After nearly a century of dismissal as a wet-weather team, unable to compete with the southern baseball belt on the national stage, a run of three College World Series appearances and back-to-back titles earned the Beavers national respect. Inspired by his own coverage of the dramatic seasons, Corvallis Gazette-Times" sportswriter Cliff Kirkpatrick recounts the program's rise to prominence and lasting legacy. Filled with firsthand insights from players and coaches and photos of pivotal moments and stands filled with orange and black, this retrospective captures the magic of Oregon State's three-season run."

by Aaron Pribble (Author)

It was the first (and last) season of professional baseball in Israel. Aaron Pribble, twenty-seven, had been out of Minor League Baseball for three years while he pursued a career in education when, at his coach's suggestion, he tried out for the newly formed Israel Baseball League (IBL). Of Jewish descent (not a requirement, but definitely a plus) and former pro, Pribble was the ideal candidate for the upstart league. In many ways the league resembled the ultimate baseball fantasy camp with its unforgettable cast of characters: the DJ/street artist third baseman from the Bronx, the wildman catcher from Australia, the journeymen Dominicans who were much older than they claimed to be, and, of course, seventy-one-year-old Sandy Koufax, drafted in a symbolic gesture as the last player. After falling in love with a beautiful Yemenite Jew, enduring an alleged terrorist attack on opening day, witnessing a career-ending brain injury caused by improper field equipment, participating in a strike, and venturing into the West Bank despite being strongly advised against it, Pribble must decide whether to forgo a teaching career in order to become the first player from the IBL to sign a pro contract in the United States. His is a story of coming of age spiritually and athletically in one short season in the throes of romance, Middle Eastern politics, and the dreams of America's pastime far, far afield from home.
Learn about Holy Land Hardball, a documentary on the Israel Baseball League.

Author Biography

Aaron Pribble played collegiate baseball at the University of Hawaii, then professionally in the Western and Central Baseball Leagues, in France, and in the Israel Baseball League. He holds a master's degree in political science and teaches at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. Pribble lives in San Francisco.

by Gerald Early (Author), National Baseball Hall of Fame (Author), Dave Winfield (Foreword by)

"A vital and gripping" (The Washington Post) exploration of how Black Americans have shaped baseball from its emergence after the Civil War to the Negro Leagues and Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier, up to today's game--by award-winning author Gerald Early in collaboration with the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Author Biography

Gerald Early is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the African and African American Studies Department at Washington University in St. Louis. An award-winning essayist and culture critic, Early has published extensively, winning a National Book Critics Circle Award. He has been a consultant on the Ken Burns documentaries Baseball, Jazz, The Tenth Inning, Unforgivable Blackness, The War, The Roosevelts, and Jackie Robinson. In 2013, President Obama appointed Early to a five-year term at the National Council on the Humanities.

by Phil S. Dixon (Author)

Philadelphia's African-American Giants were organized in 1902 by Harry A. Smith and H. Walter Schlichter. Smith, a former baseball player and writer for the Philadelphia Tribune, had conceived the idea of organizing a team and approached Schlichter, the sports editor of the Philadelphia Evening Item, for financial backing. Veteran player/manager Solomon 'Sol' White was hired as captain of the newly organized Giants and immediately placed in charge of player recruitment. By continually fazing out the old ballplayers and introducing new ones, Smith, Schlichter and White built the Philadelphia Giants into one of the strongest baseball teams in the country. Their record of games won was unparalleled. In 1904 this same Philadelphia Giants team defeated the Cuban X Giants to claim their first Worlds Championship, a title that they held for many years. As an independent organization, one that was totally seperated from National and American League connections, the Philadelphia Giants operated with the utmost of integrity and sportsmanship from 1902-1910. In honor of the 1905 Philadelphia Giants' contribution to our American pastime, Dixon's American Baseball chronicles has compiled statistics and game notes from the entire championship season of 1905. This series, the first of its kind, is a unique offering of an in-depth series of publications about the greatest baseball teams in African-American sports history. What makes this work unique is it's easy to read format and depth of information. Included within the book are written accounts for every game from the Philadelphia Giants' entire 1905 schedule of nearly 158 contest, with scores, attendance figures and other seldom revealed information. The work includes aditional information on more than 300 additional games played by the Cuban X Giants, Chicago Leland Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants and other African-American teams in operation during that same 1905 season, as well as additional historic information as it related to the National and American baseball Leagues. The comparative scores and their related histories are a resourceful and entertaining aid for further analysis and assessment on the participation of African-American athletes in baseball as best represented from the perspective of a single Championship season.

by Andrew North (Editor), Len Levin (Editor), Bill Nowlin (Editor)

Canadian baseball has a rich, diverse, and deeply rooted history, one that spans fully two centuries. As was true in the United States, the stories reflect the competitive and entrepreneurial spirits of a rapidly changing time. Baseball's development north of the border was shaped by the same social and economic influences, and at roughly the same times, as it was to the south. Arranged chronologically, the essays in his volume tell the tales of the influential figures and milestone events that defined and directed the game's growth in Canada. The articles shine a spotlight on the movers and shakers, the pioneers, the leagues and games and tournaments, and the regions all across the country that hosted them.

Crowds as large as 10,000 viewed matches between London and Guelph in the 1870s, at a time when the combined population of the two cities was less than 27,000. Thousands flocked to Vancouver's Powell Street Grounds in the 1920s and 1930s to watch their local heroes, the Asahi, a team of Japanese Canadians. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team played their first game in 1895. Almost 100 years later, over four million people would spin the turnstiles to see the Toronto Blue Jays. Canadians played in the Negro Leagues and in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGBPL), and Canada has been home to both affiliated minor leagues and "outlaw" leagues.

This book is an initiative of the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research and the Hanlan's Point (Greater Toronto) Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research. It is the collaborative effort of more than 30 SABR members, almost all of them Canadian.

by Mike Towle (Author)

Dozens of the people who know the legendary baseball player best-teammates, opposing players, friends, fans, hometown acquaintances, and baseball experts and observers-share their memories of the man and the player in this penetrating biography.

by Todd Pearl (Illustrator), Tom Hanson (Author)

A young baseball player is frustrated beyond belief... and on the verge of choking away a dream... when a mysterious man appears and offers coaching beyond the player s wildest imagination.As the drama unfolds you ll discover... How to make total confidence as easy as ABC The hidden Law right now governing your success in everything How to eliminate negative thoughts and feelings in 5 minutes or less What really causes you to under-perform... and how to fix it 5 simple steps to breaking through to the next level Dr. Tom Hanson is on the leading edge of sports psychology. His knowledge goes way beyond the conventional and traditional. His teachings have been extremely helpful, not only in my career, but in my life in general. Carlos Pena, First Baseman, Chicago Cubs

by J. J. McDaniel (Author)

FOREWORD by Bobby Richardson [New York Yankees, 1955-1966]This publication is a tribute to the passion of baseball card collecting. It is an historical novel, love story and inspirational book in one obsessive compilation. The nostalgic author highlights the unique history of card collecting, expresses his love for the hobby and arouses others to embrace the cardboard compulsion.PAPYROPHILIA: (N.)An obsessive love for paper.

by Chris Ballard (Author)

"One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational. . . . This isn't merely a book about baseball. It's a book about heart."
--Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won

In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats, defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to represent the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There the Ironmen would play against a Chicago powerhouse in a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.

In this gripping, cinematic narrative, Chris Ballard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet: a hippie, dreamer, and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966, bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era. Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over the ragtag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Together they embarked on an improbable postseason run that buoyed a small town in desperate need of something to celebrate.

Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, and it reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town.

"Macon's run at the title reminds us why sports matter and why sportswriting has such great power to inspire. . . . [It's] one hell of a good story, and Ballard has written one hell of a good book." --Jonathan Eig, Chicago Tribune

Author Biography

Chris Ballard is a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated. In his ten years at the magazine he's written features, columns and bonus-length stories and covered a range of subjects, from the NBA and MLB to high-stakes pigeon racing and bass fishing. His work has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series and he has twice been nominated by SI for a National Magazine Award. Ballard has also written a number of stories for the New York Times Magazine and is the author of three books: Hoops Nation (Holt, 1998), The Butterfly Hunter (Doubleday, 2006) and The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA (Simon &amp Schuster/SI Books, 2009). He lives in Berkeley, CA.

by Jeremy Beer (Author)

• Winner of the SABR Seymour Medal
• Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball Magazine
• Winner of SABR's Larry Ritter and Robert Peterson Awards

Author Biography

Jeremy Beer is a founding partner at American Philanthropic in Phoenix. He is the author of The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity, and his writing on sports, society, and culture has appeared in the Washington Post, National Review, First Things, and the Baseball Research Journal, among many other venues.

by Mark L. Armour (Author), Daniel R. Levitt (Author)

An essential experience of being a baseball fan is the hopeful anticipation of seeing the hometown nine make a run at winning the World Series. In Paths to Glory, Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt review how teams build themselves up into winners. What makes a winning team like the 1900 Brooklyn Superbas or the 1917 White Sox or the 1997 Florida Marlins? And how are these teams different? What makes each championship team a unique product of its time? Armour and Levitt provide the historical context to show how the sport's business side has changed dramatically but its competitive environment remains the same. Utilizing new statistics to evaluate a player's value and career patterns, Armour and Levitt explore the teams that took risks, created their own opportunities, and changed the game. How did the Washington Senators achieve the unthinkable and blow past Babe Ruth's Yankees in 1924 and 1925? How did the 1965 Minnesota Twins quickly rise to the top and why did they just as suddenly fall? Did Charlie Finley assemble the last old-fashioned championship team before free agency, or was the Moustache Gang another example of winning by building from within? Why did the star-laden Red Sox of the 1930s keep falling short? In exploring these teams and more, Armour and Levitt analyze the players, the managers, and the executives who built teams to win and then lived with the consequences.

by Jeremy Beer (Author)

2020 SABR Seymour Medal
2019 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

Author Biography

Jeremy Beer is a founding partner at American Philanthropic in Phoenix. He is the author of The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity and his writing on sports, society, and culture has appeared in the Washington Post, National Review, First Things, and the Baseball Research Journal, among many other venues.

by David Wells (Author), Chris Kreski (Author)

Baseball's most beloved bad-ass offers a smart, wildly entertaining, jaw-droppingly honest look at the game he knows, loves, and lived.

On May 17th 1998, David "Boomer" Wells became the 14th man in Major League Baseball History to ever throw a perfect game. He stands as the only man to accomplish the feat half-drunk and severely hung-over after partying all night with the cast of Saturday Night Live.

Blowing away the industry standard of sanitized memoirs and stifling retrospectives, his memoir throws baseball a hilariously nasty curve. There are no weepy/sleepy tales of substance abuse here, no pompous lectures on "playing hard" or "overcoming adversity," and under no circumstances will readers find even one Vaseline-smeared, gauze-softened tale of some long-lost, fairy-tale boys of summer.

Written with unfiltered authenticity, and truckloads of locker-room humor, Perfect I'm Not sets loose the single most outspoken and entertaining player in the game at the time, allowing him to take both casual baseball fans and hardcore fanatics where they've never been allowed before: deep inside the real world of life as a major leaguer.

Back Jacket

This is a guy who ...

• Grew up among Hell's Angels, taking their Harleys for solo joyrides at age eleven ...
• Prepares for every outing by blasting Metallica, AC/DC, and Godsmack at eardrum-bursting levels in the Yankees' locker room ...
• Regularly tried to coerce attractive women in the stands into lifting up their shirts from the Toronto Blue Jays' bullpen ...
• Endured huge, cortisone-loaded hypodermic shots straight into the spine to avoid missing scheduled pitching starts ...
• Was the 1998 ALCS MVP and the 2002 ALDS goat ...
• Has become legendary for his brawling, beer-drenched, no-holds-barred or punches-pulled lifestyle off the mound ...

by William Kirwin (Editor), William Kirwin (Introduction by)

For nearly fifteen years NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture has been a leading scholarly journal of baseball history. Covering the cultural and historical implications of America's national pastime, NINE has explored baseball from the earliest matches and little-known players of the 1800s to the modern billion-dollar industry and its superstars of today. Here, gathered for the first time, are the best essays from NINE that center on the complex and multifaceted topic of African Americans in baseball. This diverse collection offers an enlightening look at African American baseball in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Negro Leagues, and the turmoil surrounding the integration of baseball by Jackie Robinson and others. Influential figures such as the Negro League team owner Effa Manley, the writer Sol White, and the player Don Newcombe are explored, along with Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. The book features an introduction by NINE founder and editor Bill Kirwin. Represented as well are other respected baseball historians, including the late Jerry Malloy, considered by many to be the leading scholar on nineteenth-century black baseball. Out of the Shadows addresses such themes as the importance of baseball to the African American community, the personal hardships faced by early integrators Robinson and Newcombe, the influence of female owners on the Negro Leagues, and the early days of barnstorming before integration, thereby providing a balanced and engaging overview of African American baseball history.

Author Biography

Bill Kirwin is a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Calgary-Edmonton. He is the editor of the journal NINE, published by the University of Nebraska Press.

by George Rose (Author)

There have been over 15,000 players in the game of Major League Baseball since its beginning in the 1800's. In One Hit Wonders, George Rose introduces you to a very small group of these players. They belong to a club whose membership only numbers about 200, more select than even the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is the One Hit Wonders Club--former Major Leaguers who have had one, and only one, big league hit.

Rose takes you through the sometimes uplifting, often heartbreaking, but always fascinating tales of 75 members of this club. The hits are as varied as the players themselves, from routine singles in April to a game-winning home run in the middle of a pennant race. Meet six-figure bonus babies and thirty-something veterans trying to hang on to their dream as Rose leads you on a journey through eight decades of baseball history, through the eyes of the players who lived them. Their struggles, triumphs, and experiences--both on and off the field--will leave you inspired to keep swinging in life until you, too, get your own hit.

by Aaron Pribble (Author)

It was the first (and last) season of professional baseball in Israel. Aaron Pribble, twenty-seven, had been out of Minor League Baseball for three years while he pursued a career in education when, at his coach's suggestion, he tried out for the newly formed Israel Baseball League (IBL). Of Jewish descent (not a requirement, but definitely a plus) and former pro, Pribble was the ideal candidate for the upstart league. In many ways the league resembled the ultimate baseball fantasy camp with its unforgettable cast of characters: the DJ/street artist third baseman from the Bronx, the wildman catcher from Australia, the journeymen Dominicans who were much older than they claimed to be, and, of course, seventy-one-year-old Sandy Koufax, drafted in a symbolic gesture as the last player. After falling in love with a beautiful Yemenite Jew, enduring an alleged terrorist attack on opening day, witnessing a career-ending brain injury caused by improper field equipment, participating in a strike, and venturing into the West Bank despite being strongly advised against it, Pribble must decide whether to forgo a teaching career in order to become the first player from the IBL to sign a pro contract in the United States. His is a story of coming of age spiritually and athletically in one short season in the throes of romance, Middle Eastern politics, and the dreams of America's pastime far, far afield from home.
Learn about Holy Land Hardball, a documentary on the Israel Baseball League.

Author Biography

Aaron Pribble played collegiate baseball at the University of Hawaii then professionally in the Western and Central Baseball Leagues, in France, and in the Israel Baseball League. He has a master's degree in political science and teaches at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. Aaron lives in San Francisco.

by Jerry Johnson (Author)

The 1983 University of Texas Longhorn Baseball Team had one of the best collegiate pitching staffs of all time returning from the previous year's team - but only 2 position players returning. Coach Cliff Gustafson had to put together a team from a disparate group of veterans, junior college transfers, and freshmen that could hopefully compete with the other good teams in the Southwest Conference, and then try and beat the best from the rest of the country.

After struggling early in the season, the Texas team finally found its focus and will to win as conference play started. But the team was not perfect, and they had to fight their way back through the loser's bracket in their Regional. Winning it all in Omaha was the goal - and this is the story of how the '83 team captured that year's College World Series championship.

by Luke Epplin (Author)

The riveting story of four men--Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige--whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond.

Author Biography

Luke Epplin's writing has appeared online in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, GQ, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and The Paris Review Daily. Born and raised in rural Illinois, Luke now lives in New York City.

by Dave Heller (Author)

Before Shohei Ohtani and Babe Ruth there was Robert Lee "Parisian Bob" Caruthers (1865-1911). A wunderkind pitcher and right fielder known throughout the country, he was the star on the mound for five league championships in 10 years, and one of two players in history--along with Ruth--to lead the Major Leagues in ERA+ (adjusted earned run average) and OPS+ (on-base plus slugging plus).

Coming from a wealthy family, Caruthers had something other players didn't--leverage. This resulted in several holdouts, including one which took him to Europe. This first full-length biography rediscovers one of baseball's most interesting characters and first two-way stars.

Author Biography

Dave Heller has written and reported on sports for more than 30 years and is the author of multiple books on sports history. He lives in Henderson, Nevada.

by Glenn Burke (Author), Erik Sherman (Author)

Before Jason Collins, before Michael Sam, there was Glenn Burke. By becoming the first--and only--openly gay player in Major League Baseball, Glenn would become a pioneer in his own way, nearly thirty years after another black Dodger rookie, Jackie Robinson, broke the league's color barrier. This is Glenn's story, in his own words . . .

Author Biography

Glenn Burke, a former center fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics over a span of five seasons, appeared in the 1977 World Series. Burke made history by becoming the first Major League Baseball player to announce his homosexuality. He died of AIDS in 1995.

by Christy Mathewson (Author), Chad Harbach (Foreword by), Red Smith (Afterword by)

An inside baseball memoir from the game's first superstar, with a foreword by Chad Harbach

Christy Mathewson was one of the most dominant pitchers ever to play baseball. Posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of the "Five Immortals," he was an unstoppable force on the mound, winning at least twenty-two games for twelve straight seasons and pitching three complete-game shutouts in the 1905 World Series. Pitching in a Pinch, his witty and digestible book of baseball insights, stories, and wisdom, was first published over a hundred years ago and presents readers with Mathewson's plainspoken perspective on the diamond of yore--on the players, the chances they took, the jinxes they believed in, and, most of all, their love of the game. Baseball fans will love to read first-hand accounts of the infamous Merkle's Boner incident, Giants manager John McGraw, and the unstoppable Johnny Evers and to learn how much--and just how little--has really changed in a hundred years.

Author Biography

Christy Mathewson (1880-1925) was the first national baseball superstar through his seventeen-year major league career, mostly with the New York Giants.

by Christy Mathewson (Author), Eric Rolfe Greenberg (Introduction by)

Christy Mathewson (1880-1925) was the greatest baseball pitcher of his day, a hero with appeal reaching beyond sports. A college-educated player from Pennsylvania farm country, he restored respectability to a game tarnished by the rowdies who had dominated baseball in the 1890s.

Author Biography

Introducing this Bison Books edition is Eric Rolfe Greenberg, whose acclaimed novel The Celebrant (1993), also a Bison Book, portrays the immortal Christy Mathewson.

by Lance Van Auken (Author), Robin Van Auken (Author)

On any given spring evening, 360,000 children around the world can be found on the dusty mounds and grassy fields of a Little League field. With more than four million people playing or volunteering in Little League games every year, Little League is the institutional rite of passage into the quintessential American pastime.

Play Ball! charts Little League's history from the earliest days and shows how, in many respects, its history parallels America's history: isolation in the beginning; rapid expansion; a civil war of sorts, followed by reconstruction; struggles over civil rights and gender equity; and foreign entanglements. A microcosm of American society, Little League reflects, and is affected by, cultural, political and historical trends. Includes new chapter on John Grisham's movie, "Mickey," the Danny Almonte scandal, Tee Ball on the South Lawn, Pitch Counts and Arm Injuries, Child Protection Act, ESPN and the new World of Little League Museum.

Today, Little League is played on 12,000 fields in every U.S. state and in 103 other countries on six continents. Little League also sanctions play in softball, Tee Ball, and baseball for disabled children-called the Challenger Division. The Little League Baseball World Series, played annually in Williamsport, is watched by crowds of 40,000 each year in person, and by more than ten million on ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Play Ball! will interest parents, former players and coaches, fans of Little League Baseball, general baseball enthusiasts, and anyone who has ever picked up a ball and bat.

by Joe Bonomo (Author)

Legendary New Yorker writer and editor Roger Angell is considered to be among the greatest baseball writers. He brings a fan's love, a fiction writer's eye, and an essayist's sensibility to the game. No other baseball writer has a through line quite like Angell's: born in 1920, he was an avid fan of the game by the Depression era, when he watched Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit home runs at Yankee Stadium. He began writing about baseball in 1962 and continued through the decades, blogging about baseball's postseasons until his death in 2022.

Author Biography

Joe Bonomo teaches in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Field Recordings from the Inside: Essays; Conversations with Greil Marcus; Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America's Garage Band; and Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found.

by Brenda Ponnay (Author), Brenda Ponnay (Illustrator)

We Can Readers: Nat Plays Baseball Batter up! Nat is ready to play baseball. He has all the moves and can show them off for young readers. In this very simple 8-page reader, short sentences are paired with fun illustrations to get kids reading about Nat and all of the things he can do. Sample Text: Nat can throw. Nat can catch. This book is part of the We Can Readers series from Brenda Ponnay. We Can Readers are Guided Reading Level A, feature diverse characters, and are ideal for kids just learning to read.

by Ian Olio (Author)

An Amazing Alphabet Book about Baseball. This ABCs Book combines letters with awesome pictures and Baseball elements.This alphabet book is specifically for toddlers it's more than an information book. It is perfect for kids ages 1-4!

by William Bourne (Author)

William Bourne grew up loving baseball, playing in an under-eighteen league in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his brother. As an adult, he traced the history of Minor League baseball, traveling to various baseball towns - mostly with his brother, Jim, and son, Michael. They chose Single A teams because it gave them the chance to visit small, remote towns. Over a period of years, they traveled almost 36,000 miles via airplanes and rented cars, seeing dozens of games in twenty-two states, plus western Canada. They avoided Southern states as they were usually traveling in July and August when it was hot. Seattle was their most western point, and Portland, Maine, was the most eastern. Each trip was spontaneous, and they regularly ran into interesting people and situations. Driving into Hannibal, Missouri, introduced the author to Mark Twain, prompting him to read three of his novels as well as a biography. He learned Twain often snuck out of his house at midnight to meet his buddies down by the Mississippi River's edge, which is where he no doubt did much of his dreaming. Join the author as he celebrates his love of baseball, family, and America, traveling through quaint villages.

Author Biography

Bill Grew up in Greenwich, Ct. after World War 11. He was an active sports player in Baseball, Tennis, Squash, Hockey and Golf. He graduated from University of Notre Dame 1958, majoring in Finance. He traveled throughout Europe that summer for two months. Entered the US Army at Fort Dix, N.J. for six months. Took another two month excursion to Europe after serving in the Service. Started work on Wall Street, and later became a portfolio manager until retirement in 2010. During the 1990s and the following decade, he joined a group of 15 friends to bike in a different country each year for a few weeks in Europe for several years.

by James D. Baker (Author), Herbert Howell (Author), Marie a. Cordero (Author)

Baseball began in the New Mexico pueblos before 1900. The game was learned by watching soldiers and settlers and by playing in the Indian schools throughout the country. The first competition was with Albuquerque teams, mining teams, other pueblo teams, and the state penitentiary. Today, the game has evolved into a family and tribal tradition. The games are played on barren fields with enthusiastic spectator support. The players' objective is to win that game, with little thought of individual achievement; they are playing for family and tribe.

by Robert McKenna (Author)

Thank you for picking up my poetry book, "My wife knows Revenge is only a baseball moon" The title showcases three poems in the book, the first, middle and last poem. "My wife knows what is red and what is right" is a poem about the genocidal methods taken up against Native peoples. My wife is of Maidu heritage. "Revenge" is a tongue and cheek look at Medusa, with a chorus of lyrics of a hard rock song. The final poem is "It's only a baseball moon" about a relationship seen through baseball terminology by an avid, hockey fan. If you like this poetry book, check out my other two poetry books, "Stolen Poems Carried by Canoe to Blind Man's Bluff" and "Someone is making Kartoffelkloesse for Chicken Scratch Christmas".

by David Furgess (Author)

New York-Penn League Archives (1939-2015) is the most comprehensive book ever released on the Class A New York-Penn League. The book covers every team in league history and also provides post-season results, records and more. This is the 2015 edition. The book will be revised every year.

by Robert F. Burk (Author)

America's national pastime has been marked from its inception by bitter struggles between owners and players over profit, power, and prestige. In this book, the first installment of a highly readable, comprehensive labor history of baseball, Robert Burk describes the evolution of the ballplaying work force: its ethnocultural makeup, its economic position, and its battles for a place at the table in baseball's decision-making structure.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the growing popularity of baseball as a spectator sport and the dramatic upsurge of America's urban population created conditions that led to franchise competition, the development of rival leagues, and trade wars, in turn triggering boom-and-bust cycles, franchise bankruptcies, and league mergers. According to Burk, players repeatedly tried to use these circumstances to better their economic positions by playing one team off against another. Their successes proved short-lived, however, because their own internal divisions, exploited by management, undercut attempts to create collective-bargaining institutions. By 1920, owners still held the upper hand in the labor-management battle, but as today's sports pages show, owners did not secure a long-term solution to their labor problems.

Author Biography

Robert F. Burk, author of "Much More Than a Game: Players, Owners, and American Baseball since 1921," is professor and chair of the history department at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio.

by Scott H. Longert (Author)

The Cleveland Indians of 1928 were a far cry from the championship team of 1920. They had begun the decade as the best team in all of baseball, but over the following eight years, their owner died, the great Tris Speaker retired in the face of a looming scandal, and the franchise was in terrible shape. Seeing opportunity in the upheaval, Cleveland real estate mogul Alva Bradley purchased the ball club in 1927, infused it with cash, and filled its roster with star players such as Bob Feller, Earl Averill, and Hal Trosky. He aligned himself with civic leaders to push for a gigantic new stadium that-along with the team that played in it-would be the talk of the baseball world.

Then came the stock market crash of 1929. Municipal Stadium was built, despite the collapse of the industrial economy in Rust Belt cities, but the crowds did not follow. Always the shrewd businessman, Bradley had engineered a lease agreement with the city of Cleveland that included an out clause, and he exercised that option after the 1934 season, leaving the 80,000-seat, multimillion-dollar stadium without a tenant.

In No Money, No Beer, No Pennants, Scott H. Longert gives us a lively history of the ups and downs of a legendary team and its iconic players as they persevered through internal unrest and the turmoil of the Great Depression, pursuing a pennant that didn't come until 1948. Illustrated with period photographs and filled with anecdotes of the great players, this book will delight fans of baseball and fans of Cleveland.

Author Biography

Scott H. Longert is the author of six books (including four Ohio University Press titles) on Cleveland baseball history from the post-Civil War era through the middle of the twentieth century. He has an MA in American history from Cleveland State University and has appeared on numerous broadcast media shows and baseball documentaries. Longert is a lifetime resident of Cleveland, where he lives with his wife, Vicki, and several dogs and cats.

by Jan Sumner (Author)

Years after his baseball career was derailed by a violent accident, our national pastime reappeared in his life - and has remained to this day. What follows is his extraordinary journey - baseball has taken him on a ride from the little leagues to the major leagues, and all stops in between. Jan's memoir, Once Upon a Time in Baseball: My Pastime Summers, is a nostalgic look back at the golden age of baseball through the eyes of a young boy growing up in the 1950s, to a man in his fifties throwing batting practice for the newest entry in MLB, the 1993 Colorado Rockies. The book starts on the playground when, as a passionate fan, Jan was learning to play the game, and trading baseball cards, including the time he literally gave away one of the most valuable cards of all time. In high school, college and semi-pro, he discovered his talent as a pitcher, throwing a number of no-hitters. His dream was coming true - in the game he loved so much, and was on track for what he hoped would be a career in the big leagues. Then the summer following his sophomore year in college he was almost killed in a car wreck which ended his major-league dreams, or so he thought. Decades later he found himself back on the hill, throwing batting practice for the Rockies for six years, including throwing at Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field, and culminating in the honor of presenting his book, Legacy of a Monarch - an American Journey, the biography of an all-star shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs, at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2006. Once Upon a Time in Baseball is a look back at the glory days of baseball, when it was sports king in America. Everyone who lived and loved the game back then will find this story brings back longing memories of days gone by.

by Bill Brady (Author)

This Notebookl For Proud Softball Dad is a perfect bound notebook/journal with a matte finish.

This notebook journal has 120 ruled pages to write in.

It makes a perfect gift for special life occasions like a sports event, anniversary, birthday, summer camp, and other important holidays or vacation trips.

Use this notebook for:

Special souvenirs for your sports accomplishment & success

.It can also be used for the following activities:

You can note down thanks, write down tasks, goals, priorities, notes, ideas, recipes, instructions, tips, secrets, important dates, deadlines, meetings, shopping lists, short term and long term items, the progress of any activity, memory joggers, daily things to do or to achieve. This list is endless and you can use your own imagination to come up with things that you can note down on a daily basis in order to become
more productive and organized.

It can be applied to specific skills and habits to track your progress like a sports activity or workout journal.

Track the progress to stay motivated on a daily basis is key to a successful outcome no matter what activity
or lifestyle you choose.

Like a travel journal, you can use it to record souvenirs and memories while on the road traveling.

As a Goal journal you can use it to set daily, monthly, and yearly goals and to keep track of all of them so that you know exactly where your strength and weaknesses are.

As a stress release journal to help you become relaxed and zen.

As a journal for your daily or weekly devotions, prayers, meditation and zen time.

As a journal for your kids, you can use it to educate them about the importance of
applying the process of writing or journaling.

As a Notebook for your daily ideas, quotes of the day, and funny or inspirational
moments of the day.

As a souvenir of your life, it can be used in the future to go back in time to re-enjoy
many happy moments that you spent with your loved ones. You can even show it
to the next generation. Paste in some photos and turn it into a scrapbook type souvenir book.

And much more...

the sky is the limit of what you can do with this Journal Notebook.

Never forget a highlight of your life again with this beautiful notebook journal and start a
daily writing or journaling habit no matter what you are using it for.

All that matters is that you are going to develop a skill and a habit that will help you out throughout a lifetime and during good and bad times.

Journaling and writing are going to help you become a better person in general because you will go through the process of self-discovery which will help you identify your good and bad personality traits and turn the good ones in ever better ones and the bad ones in good ones.

Start your journaling and writing process today and become a better You tomorrow!

FEATURES:

Premium Matte Finish Soft Cover

Printed on Bright White Paper

6"x9" Inches, 120 College Ruled Pages

by Rob Green (Author)

Are you a fan of baseball or looking for an inspiring read for your young ones? Look no further! Our biography of Mike Trout, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, is the perfect book for you. This book delves into the life and career of Mike Trout, from his early days growing up in New Jersey to his time as a star player in the major leagues. It's an easy and fun way for young readers to learn about Mike's journey to greatness and the hard work and dedication that has made him one of the best players in the league.

Not only this book covers his professional life but also his personal life, philanthropic efforts, and how he's become a role model for young players and fans alike. It's a great way to introduce young readers to the world of baseball and the importance of hard work and perseverance. With this book, your child will not only learn about one of the greatest players of all time but will also be inspired by his story.

We are confident that this book will be a hit with baseball fans of all ages, and will make a great addition to any library. So, don't wait any longer and order your copy today. It's an opportunity for your child to learn about one of the most dedicated and humble athlete and an inspiration for them to achieve their dreams.