Recent advances in baseball statistical analysis have made it possible to assess the totality of contribution each player makes to team success or failure.
George Altman grew up in the segregated South but was able to participate in the sport at more levels of competition than perhaps anyone else who has ever played the game, from the 1940s to the 1970s.
This account of the four baseball seasons of 1900 through 1903 seeks to capture the flavor of the period by providing yearly overviews from the standpoint of each team and by focusing more deeply on 30 or more players of the era--not only such legendary stars as Cy Young and Willie Keeler, but also relative unknowns such as Bill Keister and Kip Selbach.
Tom Gamboa played baseball professionally, coached, scouted, managed in the minors and in Puerto Rico and coached in the majors with the Cubs and Royals.
It was a novel experiment as baseball's leading men formed the National Association, bringing order to the hodgepodge of professional and amateur clubs that made up the sport from the end of the Civil War through 1870.
In the wake of the 1919 White Sox scandal and the suspension for life of eight players, baseball saw a precipitous decline in popularity, especially among America's youth.
Written by and for baseball fans (or those trying to live with one), this collection of essays joins a perennial conversation all fans have--"e;Why do we love baseball?
Rescued in 2010 from the small creek that runs next to Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, a simple baseball launched an epic quest that spanned the United States and beyond.
Providing a comprehensive history of the Baltimore Black Sox from before the team's founding in 1913 through its demise in 1936, this history examines the social and cultural forces that gave birth to the club and informed its development.
The 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers were past their prime but still boasted a powerful roster with iconic names like Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
Gib Bodet's 70-year love affair with baseball dates from his childhood in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and it has carried him through parts of six decades as a scout with the Red Sox, Tigers, Expos, Angels, Royals, and Dodgers.
The first book in the new Lyons Press GAME CHANGERS sports series answers the questions: What were the 50 most revolutionary personalities, rules, pieces of equipment, controversies, organizational changes, radio and television advancements, and more in the history National Pastime?
As the anchor titles in a new ';Time Machine' Lyons Press baseball series, The Ultimate Cleveland Indians Time Machine presents a timeline format that not only includes the Indians' greatest momentsincluding World Series appearances and individual achievementsbut would focus also on some very unusual seasons and events, such as the team's 20-134 season of 1899 (the absolute worst in baseball history), the Crybabies of 1940 (who received this nickname after complaining about their manager to such as extent that fans even turned on them), or the infamous ';Ten Cent Beer Night of 1974' (when thousands of drunken fans stormed the field and forced the team to forfeit).
Selected from the two most recent proceedings of the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture (2019 and 2021), this collection of essays explores subject matter centered both inside and beyond the ballpark.
This book is the result of one man's twenty-year quest to solve some of baseball's most enduring mysteries--the "e;cold cases"e; of major leaguers about whom virtually nothing is known.
Bestselling sportswriter Peter Golenbock knew Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Jim Bouton, Joe Pepitone, and many of Mantle's friends, family, and teammates.
This book covers the entirety of franchise history, from their birth and struggles as the Highlanders to the bludgeoning bats of Murderer's Row and the first Yankees dynasty to the juggernauts of the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, to the anomalous mediocrity that followed, to the championships and circus of the Steinbrenner, Jackson and Billy Martin era to, the run of crowns two decades later, to the years of frustration and missed opportunity through the second decade of the twenty-first century.
Before multimillion-dollar salaries, luxury boxes, and player strikes became synonymous with professional sports, there existed the belief in playing simply for the love of the game.
A brand new edition of the finalist for the 2008 Casey Award, presented annually to the best baseball book, 101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out profiles America's greatest baseball museums, shrines, sports bars, pop culture landmarks and ballpark sites.
This book carefully examines the careers of the fifty men who made the greatest impact on one of the most successful franchises in the history of professional sports.
The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Time Machine presents a timeline format that not only includes the Red Soxs greatest momentsincluding its nine World Series wins and individual achievementsbut focuses also on some very unusual seasons and events, such as the refusal of the New York Yankees to go up against them in the 1904 World Series, the derivation of its name, and of course the famous Curse of the Bambino.
The Ultimate Chicago Cubs Time Machine presents a timeline format that not only includes the Cubs' greatest momentsincluding their World Series appearance in 2016 and individual achievementsbut also focuses on some very unusual seasons and events, such as the 1872 season when the Great Chicago Fire destroyed their stadium and uniforms.
In the April of 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three black players in return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays.
One Sunday afternoon in August 1965, on a day when baseballs most storied rivals, the Giants and Dodgers, vied for the pennant, the national pastime reflected the tensions in society and nearly sullied two men forever.
A visually stunning road trip through pro baseball's wacky, wondrous, and revered ballpark attractionsExploding scoreboards, treetop seats, and neon skylines are just three of the more than 100 ballpark design features, field eccentricities, historic displays, traditions, concession items, and even super-fans and mascots profiled in this armchair baseball journey.
