When in 2000 the Baseball Writers Association of America elected the ever-durable Carlton Fisk to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, many fans quietly pointed to the Hall's omission of Fisk' greatest American League contemporary, Thurman Munson.
True professional baseball has not been played in Cuba since banned by the communist regime after the 1961 season, but there is a legacy of more than 70 years of continuous excellence by countless Cubans who played in the organized leagues of the island from 1878 to 1961.
On September 10, 1934, grizzled reliever Burleigh Grimes helped the Pittsburgh Pirates to an inconsequential 9-7 win over the New York Giants in the Polo Grounds.
This collection of well-crafted essays spans more than 40 years of franchise history but hews to a single theme: the experience--sometimes humorous, sometimes painful--of being a fan of the New York Mets.
As World War II depleted the available manpower available to the major and minor leagues, Chicago Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley came up with a plan to ensure baseball would continue in the war years: the creation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
Known today as "e;the Babe Ruth of the 1880s,"e; Hall of Famer Roger Connor was the greatest of the nineteenth-century home run hitters, his career total (138) having stood as the major league record for nearly 24 years--until it was broken by Ruth himself.
While the story of the Negro Leagues has been well documented, few baseball fans know about the Japanese American Nisei Leagues, or of their most influential figure, Kenichi Zenimura (1900-1968).
In early 1869, Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club made an announcement to the sporting press: the Red Stockings would be the first all-professional club in the history of the game.
Of baseball there have been countless books, but, surprisingly, relatively few about the owners, the men and women who invested their time--and, frequently, their fortunes--in baseball teams.
At least as far back as 1842 through about the late 1930s and mid-1940s, before baseball became commercialized and teams were able to hire one man to manage the entire team, it was not uncommon for one person to fill the roles of player and manager simultaneously.
Beginning with the premise that there is no other rivalry in team sports like that between the Cubs and the White Sox this work traces the history of the antagonism (and, at times, open hostility) between the fans of the two clubs.
Beginning in 1845, the New York Knickerbockers were the first fully organized base ball club to play the game with written rules similar to those used today.
This book traces the history of the New York Mets from the franchise's inauspicious beginnings--the 1962 team, led by Casey Stengel and made up of players like Rod Kanehl and Jay Hook, lost 120 games--through the miraculous championship season of 1969.
In 1947, after 18 major league seasons with the Browns, Senators, and Red Sox, Rick Ferrell retired as the longest playing catcher in the American League.
While most fans know that baseball stars Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg, and Bob Feller served in the military during World War II, few can name the two major leaguers who died in action.
Baseball scouts are often unseen, seldom recognized, and usually underappreciated by fans, but they have contributed enormously to the development and evolution of baseball at all levels, from the players they signed to the changes in the business climate of the game.
This ambitious study of major league managers since the formation of the National League applies a sabermetric approach to gauging their performance and tendencies.
This study considers the importance of location for new and relocated major league franchises in the more than 130 years since the National League was founded.
"e;My day-to-day existence,"e; writes Kathleen Lockwood, "e;rested on the ability of my husband to throw a tiny leather ball over ninety-five miles an hour past a large wooden bat.
Fred Hutchinson, the popular manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was at the top of his profession when he was suddenly diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in December 1963.
In 1911, decades before coast-to-coast travel became a fact of life in major league baseball, the Boston Red Sox embarked on the most ambitious spring training trip ever taken.
This book presents season-by-season information for the original South Atlantic Baseball League, which operated for 60 years in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
