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Baseball, Canadian travel and geography
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The Big 50: Toronto Blue Jays is an extensive and dynamic look at the 50 top moments and figures that…
make the Blue Jays the Blue Jays. In this revised and updated edition, longtime sportswriter Shi Davidi recounts the living history of the Blue Jays, counting down from No. 50 to No. 1. The Big 50: Toronto Blue Jays brilliantly brings to life the Blue Jays remarkable story, from Dave Stieb and Roy Halladay to the roller-coaster that was Roberto Alomar to Joe Carter's 1993 World Series–winning home run and the unforgettable 2016 postseason.
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Canadian travel and geography, Baseball
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Since their inception in 1977, the Toronto Blue Jays have been one of the most dynamic franchises in all of…
baseball. As an award-winning, longtime Jays columnist, Bob Elliott has witnessed more than his share of that history up close and personal. In If These Walls Could Talk: Toronto Blue Jays, Elliott provides insight into the Jays' inner sanctum as only he can. Readers will gain the perspective of players, coaches, and front office executives in times of greatness as well as defeat, making for a keepsake no fan will want to miss.
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Journals and memoirs, Baseball
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Spitball literary essays on the off-kilter joys, sorrows and wonder of North America’s national pastime. A collection of essays for…
ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It’s a sport that shows us what a human being might be capable of, with extreme dedication—whether we’re eating hot dogs in the stands, waiting out a rain delay in our living rooms, or practising the lost art of catching a stray radio signal from an out-of-market broadcast. From learning about America through ball-diamond visits to the most famous triple play that never happened on Canadian soil, Forbes invites us to witness the adult conversing with the O-Pee-Chee baseball cards of his youth. Tender, insightful, and with the slow heartbreak familiar to anyone who’s cheered on a losing team, The Utility of Boredom tells us a thing or two about the sport, and how a seemingly trivial game might help us make sense of our messy lives.
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Sports biography, Baseball, Sports and games
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One of the most beloved figures in Toronto Blue Jays history, John Gibbons, tells all about his life, sports career, and his time with the Jays.
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Arts and entertainment, General non-fiction, Lifestyle, Baseball, Sports and games
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Baseball has long been viewed as the Great American Pastime, so it is no surprise that the sport has inspired…
many Hollywood films and television series. But how do these works depict the game, its players, fans, and place in American society? This study offers an extensive look at nearly one hundred years of baseball-themed movies, documentaries, and TV shows. Film and sports scholar Aaron Baker examines works like A League of their Own (1992) and Sugar (2008), which dramatize the underrepresented contributions of female and immigrant players, alongside classic baseball movies like The Natural that are full of nostalgia for a time when native-born white men could use the game to achieve the American dream. He further explores how biopics have both mythologized and demystified such legendary figures as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and Fernando Valenzuela. The Baseball Film charts the variety of ways that Hollywood presents the game as integral to American life, whether showing little league as a site of parent-child bonding or depicting fans’ lifelong love affairs with their home teams. Covering everything from Bull Durham (1988) to The Bad News Bears (1976), this book offers an essential look at one of the most cinematic of all sports.
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General non-fiction, Baseball
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Sandlot Stats uses the national pastime to help students who love baseball learn—and enjoy—statistics.As Derek Jeter strolls toward the plate,…
the announcer tosses out a smattering of statistics—from hitting streaks to batting averages. But what do the numbers mean? And how can America’s favorite pastime be a model for learning about statistics? Sandlot Stats is an innovative textbook that explains the mathematical underpinnings of baseball so that students can understand the world of statistics and probability. Carefully illustrated and filled with exercises and examples, this book teaches the fundamentals of probability and statistics through the feats of baseball legends such as Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams—and more recent players such as Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Alex Rodriguez. Exercises require only pen-and-paper or Microsoft Excel to perform the analyses.Sandlot Stats covers all the bases, including• descriptive and inferential statistics• linear regression and correlation• probability• sports betting• probability distribution functions• sampling distributions• hypothesis testing• confidence intervals• chi-square distributionSandlot Stats offers information covered in most introductory statistics books, yet is peppered with interesting facts from the history of baseball to enhance the interest of the student and make learning fun.
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History, United States history, General non-fiction, Baseball
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How rural America shapes America’s favorite pastime.Winner of the SABR Baseball Research Award of the Society for American Baseball ResearchAnyone…
who has watched the film Field of Dreams can’t help but be captivated by the lead character’s vision. He gives his struggling farming community a magical place where the smell of roasted peanuts gently wafts over the crowded grandstand on a warm summer evening just as the star pitcher takes the mound. Baseball, America’s game, has a dedicated following and a rich history. Fans obsess over comparative statistics and celebrate men who played for legendary teams during the "golden age" of the game. In The Farmers' Game, David Vaught examines the history and character of baseball through a series of essay-vignettes. He presents the sport as essentially rural, reflecting the nature of farm and small-town life. Vaught does not deny or devalue the lively stickball games played in the streets of Brooklyn, but he sees the history of the game and the rural United States as related and mutually revealing. His subjects include nineteenth-century Cooperstown, the playing fields of Texas and Minnesota, the rural communities of California, the great farmer-pitcher Bob Feller, and the notorious Gaylord Perry. Although—contrary to legend—Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball in a cow pasture in upstate New York, many fans enjoy the game for its nostalgic qualities. Vaught's deeply researched exploration of baseball's rural roots helps explain its enduring popularity.
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General non-fiction, Baseball
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Statistics are the lifeblood of baseball. Managers pore over batting averages to determine game day lineups and batting orders; high…
number of runs batted in and low earned run averages receive praise from the press, higher salaries from the front office, and love from fans; and the fate of fantasy baseball players rises and falls with each statistical change. The prominence of the RC/27 and other more complex, formula-driven stats has made numbers even more important to understanding and appreciating the game. For all these baseball buffs and more, Frederick E. Taylor provides a new measure of hitting prowess that just might be a game changer. Taylor's potential runs per game (PRG) measure accounts for batters getting on base, advancing runners, and driving in runs, and it separates leadoff and second batters from those in the middle of the order. Taylor introduces the measure, explains how it works, and applies it to players past and present. He breaks the history of major league baseball into eight eras based on differences in runs scored per game. He systematically—player-by-player and position-by-position—compares the results of the PRG measure to those drawn from other statistics, such as on-base percentage and slugging average. Taylor shows that PRG is more accurate and that career clutch hitting is a myth.Sabermetricians, baseball fans of all stripes, and anyone who earns a living from the sport will find a wealth of information and a whole new set of stats to obsess over in The Runmakers. Measuring baseball will never be the same.
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Sports biography, Baseball
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A frank and often hilarious account of the baseball life from one of the game&’s great iconoclasts.From his first year…
in Rookie ball, when Tommy Lasorda ordered him to send a letter to the Dodgers&’ starting shortstop informing him that he should retire early to make way for the young phenom, to appearing in disguise in the Mets&’ dugout following an ejection, Bobby Valentine was a lightning rod for mischievous controversy, grabbing headlines wherever he went. Mavericks are seldom welcomed to upset the status quo, and Major League Baseball was no exception. In astonishing detail, Bobby Valentine reflects on the many remarkable moments that comprised his playing and managerial careers. From his wild times as a player in the early seventies, to his transition to coaching with the Mets after a catastrophic injury derailed his playing days; from managing the Texas Rangers in 1985, where he employed sabermetrics and witnessed the beginning of the steroid era, to his iconic stretch at Shea Stadium, when he led the Mets to the 2000 World Series while battling a dysfunctional front office and ownership; from his beloved time in Japan managing the Chiba Lotte Marines, who won the Japan Series, to the absolute disaster of a season in Boston, where he was greeted by a toxic clubhouse and fractured organization. Readers will be intrigued by his off-the-field exploits as well, from his early years as an international ballroom dancing champion to his post-playing days where he may have invented the wrap sandwich and the modern sports bar. Valentine has consistently overcome adversity and reinvented himself, regardless of the playing field. Along the way, he shares stories and insights on memorable moments and iconic personalities, including Nolan Ryan, Ichiro Suzuki, Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, Tom Seaver, Joe Torre, George Steinbrenner, Dustin Pedroia, and David Ortiz. Valentine&’s Way is a riveting look back on forty years of baseball, written with a novelist&’s mind and a journalist&’s memory, and in collaboration with legendary baseball author Peter Golenbock. A once-in-a-generation book that leaves no great story untold, this is an invaluable document for anyone wondering what it&’s really like to play and work in the rarified world of Major League Baseball.
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Writing, Customs and cultures, Baseball
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The campaign to desegregate baseball was one of the most important civil rights stories of the 1930s and 1940s. But…
most of white America knew nothing about this story because mainstream newspapers said little about the color line and still less about the efforts to end it. Even today, as far as most Americans know, the integration of baseball revolved around Branch Rickey&’s signing of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers&’ organization in 1945. This book shows how Rickey&’s move, critical as it may have been, came after more than a decade of work by Black and left-leaning journalists to desegregate the game. Drawing on hundreds of newspaper articles and interviews with journalists, Chris Lamb reveals how differently Black and white newspapers, and Black and white America, viewed racial equality. Between 1933 and 1945, Black newspapers and the communist Daily Worker published hundreds of articles and editorials calling for an end to baseball&’s color line, while white mainstream sportswriters perpetuated the color line by participating in what their Black counterparts called a &“conspiracy of silence.&” The alternative presses&’ efforts to end baseball&’s color line, chronicled for the first time in Conspiracy of Silence, constitute one of the great untold stories of baseball—and the civil rights movement.
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Baseball
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A comprehensive trivia book that enables readers to compete as they answer questions!In The New Book of Baseball Trivia, experienced…
baseball author Wayne Stewart includes 500 fun and engaging questions and answers on everyone's favorite former and active players and coaches. Readers are awarded a single, double, triple, or homer based on the difficulty level of the question, with the goal to score as many runs as possible by the end of the book. They are kept on their toes by answers head-scratchers such as:Which team became the first one ever to have three of its players hit 40+ homers in a season?Who was the shortest man ever to appear in a big-league game?Which two brothers combined for more lifetime home runs than any other brother act?When Shane Bieber won the 2020 Cy Young Award, he became the fifth Cleveland Indian to capture that honor. Name three of the other four men to accomplish this.Which two men bashed more home runs while teammates than any other teammate combo?And many more! This book makes the perfect gift for the baseball-loving fan!
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Sports biography, Baseball
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Dale Scott&’s career as a professional baseball umpire spanned nearly forty years, including thirty-three in the Major Leagues, from 1985…
to 2017. He worked exactly a thousand games behind the plate, calling balls and strikes at the pinnacle of his profession, working in every Major League Baseball stadium, and interacting with dozens of other top-flight umpires, colorful managers, and hundreds of players, from future Hall of Famers to one-game wonders. Scott has enough stories about his career on the field to fill a dozen books, and there are plenty of those stories here. He&’s not interested in settling scores, but throughout the book he&’s honest about managers and players, some of whom weren&’t always perfect gentlemen. But what makes Scott&’s book truly different is his unique perspective as the only umpire in the history of professional baseball to come out as gay during his career. Granted, that was after decades of remaining in the closet, and Scott writes vividly and movingly about having to &“play the game&”: maintaining a facade of straightness while privately becoming his true self and building a lasting relationship with his future husband. He navigated this obstacle course at a time when his MLB career was just taking off—and when North America was consumed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Scott&’s story isn&’t only about his leading a sort of double life, then opening himself up to the world and discovering a new generosity of spirit. It&’s also a baseball story, filled with insights and memorable anecdotes that come so naturally from someone who spent decades among the world&’s greatest baseball players, managers, and games. Scott&’s story is fascinating both for his umpiring career and for his being a pioneer for LGBTQ people within baseball and across sports.
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Sports biography, Baseball
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Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the YearTrue is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie…
Robinson, one of baseball's—and America's—most significant figures.For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball’s singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half-century since Robinson’s death, letters come to his widow, Rachel, by the score. But Robinson’s impact extended far beyond baseball: he opened the door for Black Americans to participate in other sports, and was a national figure who spoke and wrote eloquently about inequality.True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy is an unconventional biography, focusing on four transformative years in Robinson's athletic and public life: 1946, his first year playing in the essentially all-white minor leagues for the Montreal Royals; 1949, when he won the Most Valuable Player Award in his third season as a Brooklyn Dodger; 1956, his final season in major league baseball, when he played valiantly despite his increasing health struggles; and 1972, the year of his untimely death. Through it all, Robinson remained true to the effort and the mission, true to his convictions and contradictions.Kennedy examines each of these years through details not reported in previous biographies, bringing them to life in vivid prose and through interviews with fans and players who witnessed his impact, as well as with Robinson's surviving family. These four crucial years offer a unique vision of Robinson as a player, a father and husband, and a civil rights hero—a new window on a complex man, tied to the 50th anniversary of his passing and the 75th anniversary of his professional baseball debut.
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Business and economics, Baseball
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The inside story of how the Dodgers won their first championship in more than thirty years—but helped cripple the sport…
of baseball in the processAfter years of frustrating playoff runs, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally reclaimed the World Series trophy after more than thirty years, led by star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, electric outfielder Mookie Betts, and a bevy of impressive young players assembled by team president Andrew Friedman. No team is better positioned to win now and in the future.Yet winning at modern baseball is nothing like it was even twenty years ago. In the years since the famous Moneyball revolution, baseball has grown to look less like a sport than a Wall Street firm that traded its boiler room for a field. Teams relentlessly chase every tiny advantage to win games and make money, even as it hurts fans, TV ratings, and players, courting bigger problems in the long run.This dramatic and insightful book takes you into the clubhouse with the championship players, as well as into the offices where teams constantly seek new ways to win—even when it hurts the game. How to Beat a Broken Game shows not only what it takes to win, but what it will take to save the sport.
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Sports biography, Arts and entertainment, Baseball
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This beautifully illustrated volume celebrates the career of the legendary Yankee shortstop featuring iconic full-color images from The New York…
Times.After twenty major league seasons—all with the New York Yankees—Derek Jeter retired from the game at the conclusion of the 2014 campaign. The Yankees’ captain since 2003, the shortstop is considered the greatest Yankee of his generation. Jeter’s teams won five World Series, including three in a row in 1998, 1999, and 2000. The all-time postseason leader in hits, doubles, and triples, Jeter earned the nickname “Captain Clutch” for his game-changing performances during the Yankees’ championship era. Through stories and powerful images from the pages of the New York Times, Derek Jeter: Excellence and Elegance celebrates the career of this New York icon from Jeter’s debut in 1995 through his final game in 2014. This full-color pictorial keepsake also features an introduction by Tyler Kepner, the Times’ award-winning baseball reporter.
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Sports biography, Baseball
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This fun and fiery New York Times bestselling memoir tells the life story of All Star Yankee and five-time World…
Champion, Paul O&’Neill, like you&’ve never seen him before. In Swing and Hit, O&’Neill elaborates on his most important hitting principles, lessons, and memories—exploring those elements across ten chapters (to align with the nine innings of a baseball game and one extra inning). Here, O&’Neill, with his intense temperament, describes what he did as a hitter, how he adjusted to pitchers, how he boosted his confidence, how he battled with umpires (and water coolers), and what advice he would give to current hitters. O&’Neill has always been a tough out at the plate. Recalling how he started to swing at bat as a two-year-old and kept swinging it professionally until he was thirty-eight, O&’Neill provides constant insights into the beauty and frustration of playing baseball. The legendary Ted Williams said using a round bat to hit a round ball is the most difficult thing to do in sports. Naturally, O&’Neill, who once received a surprise call from Williams that was filled with hitting advice, agrees. Swing and Hit features O&’Neill&’s most thoughtful revelations and offers clubhouse stories from some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball—hitters, managers, and teammates like Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Pete Rose, and Bernie Williams. Remember, O&’Neill, ever the perfectionist, was the type of hitter who believed that pitchers didn&’t ever get him out. For that incredible reason and so many others, Swing and Hit is essential reading for any baseball fan.
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Humour, Baseball
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A treasury of witty quotes and wild stories covering decades of baseball history.Baseball is a funny game. No other sport…
can compare to the national pastime’s vast catalog of silly quotations, unforgettable characters, memorable nicknames, and inventive pranks.Alphabetized by topic, The Funniest Baseball Book Ever captures the game in all its humorous glory. It’s simply the most complete, contemporary resource for over a century of the sport’s history. Also included are short profiles of such colorful characters as Casey Stengel, Bill Veeck, Jim Bouton, and Bill Lee. With over ninty percent of its material never before collected in a single volume, The Funniest Baseball Book Ever will entertain and surprise everyone from casual fans to diehards, from newcomers to veterans.
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Baseball
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Bill King, longtime voice of the A’s, Warriors and Raiders, was a beloved figure in California for decades, celebrated for…
his passion and precision in calling a game and for his colorful life away from sports, an utterly original figure who lives today in the hearts and memories of countless fans. 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. Ken 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 he tells the remarkable story of King the legendary baseball, basketball and football broadcaster, the student of Russian literature, the passionate sailor, the fan of eating anything and everything from gourmet to onions and peanut butter, the 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. 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."
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Sports biography, Baseball
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Lefty and Tim is the dual biography of Hall of Fame pitcher Steve &“Lefty&” Carlton and catcher Tim McCarver, detailing…
their relationship from 1965, when they played with the St. Louis Cardinals, through 1980, when they played for the Philadelphia Phillies. Along the way McCarver became Carlton&’s personal catcher, and together they became the best battery in baseball in the mid-to-late 1970s. At first glance Carlton and McCarver appear like an odd couple: McCarver was old school, Carlton new age. At the beginning of his career, McCarver believed that the catcher called the pitches, encouraged the pitcher when necessary, and schooled the pitcher when he deviated from the game plan. But Lefty, who pioneered the use of meditation and martial arts in baseball, was stubborn too. He wanted to control pitch selection. Over time, Carlton and McCarver developed a strong bond off the diamond that allowed them to understand and trust each other. In the process, Steve Carlton became one of the greatest left-handers in the history of Major League Baseball, an achievement that would not have been possible without Tim McCarver as his catcher. Not only did McCarver mentor Carlton as a young hurler with the Cardinals, but he helped resurrect Carlton&’s career when they were reunited in Philadelphia midseason in 1975. Carlton won his second Cy Young Award with McCarver behind the plate in 1977. Told in the historical context of the time they played the game, Lefty and Tim recounts the pair&’s time in the tumultuous sixties, with the racial integration of the St. Louis Cardinals and the dominance of pitching, and in the turbulent seventies, characterized by MLB&’s labor tensions, the arrival of free agency, and the return of the lively ball that followed the lowering of the pitcher&’s mound in 1969.
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Sports biography, Baseball
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You don&’t know the history of the Chicago Cubs until you know the story of Charles Webb Murphy, the ebullient…
and mercurial owner of this historic franchise from 1905 through 1914. Originally a sportswriter in Cincinnati, he joined the New York Giants front office as a press agent—the game&’s first—in 1905. That season, hearing the Cubs were for sale, he secured a loan from Charles Taft, the older half-brother of the future president of the United States, to buy a majority share and become the team&’s new owner. In his second full season, the Cubs won their first World Series. They won again in 1908, but soon thereafter Murphy&’s unconventional style invited ill will from the owners, his own players, and the press, even while leading the team through their most successful period in team history. In Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman behind the Chicago Cubs, Jason Cannon explores Murphy&’s life both on and off the field, painting a picture of his meteoric rise and precipitous downfall. Readers will get to know the real Murphy, not the simplified caricature created by his contemporaries that has too frequently been perpetuated through the years, but the whirling dervish who sent the sport of baseball spinning and elevated Chicago to the center of the baseball universe. Cannon recounts Murphy&’s rise from the son of Irish immigrants to sports reporter to Cubs president, charting his legacy as one of the most important but overlooked figures in the National League&’s long history. Cannon explores how Murphy&’s difficult teenage years shaped his love for baseball; his relationship with the Tafts, one of America&’s early twentieth-century dynastic families; his successful and tumultuous years as a National League executive; his last years as an owner before the National League Board of Directors ousted him in 1914; and, finally, Murphy&’s attempt to rewrite his legacy through the construction of the Murphy Theater in his hometown of Wilmington, Ohio.