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Showing 1101 - 1120 of 1773 items
By Ken Korach, Susan Slusser, Dennis Eckersley. 2019
Throughout their history, the Oakland Athletics have been one of the most audacious and individual franchises in all of baseball.…
As the longtime radio voice of the A's, Ken Korach has called countless improbable, unforgettable moments. As the San Francisco Chronicle's veteran beat reporter, Susan Slusser has become the preeminent scribe of the A's modern era. Both have witnessed more than their share of team history up close and personal. In If These Walls Could Talk: Oakland A's, Korach and Slusser provide insight into the A's inner sanctum as only they 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.By Michael Burgan. 2018
By Shane Frederick. 2020
A pitcher reads his catcher's signal ... slider, down, and away. He winds up and releases. Swing and a miss!…
Young baseball fans will enjoy reading all about the daring pitches, hits, and plays of the World Series. Readers can easily follow the leveled text as they learn more about the history, stars, and moments of the ultimate baseball championship.By Leah Henderson. 2020
Mamie "Peanut" Johnson had one dream: to play professional baseball. She was a talented player, but she wasn't welcome in…
the segregated All-American Girls Pro Baseball League due to the color of her skin. However, a greater opportunity came her way in 1953 when Johnson signed to play ball for the Negro Leagues' Indianapolis Clowns, becoming the first female pitcher to play on a men's professional team. During the three years she pitched for the Clowns, her record was an impressive 33-8. But more importantly, she broke ground for other female athletes and for women everywhere.When the stakes are high, some players seize the moment and make themselves legends. From pitching heroics in Game 7…
of the World Series to pennant-clinching home runs, some of baseball's greatest moments are chronicled in vivid fashion here. You've got a front-row seat to the action.By Tyler Omoth. 2021
Baseball is fun watch, but even more fun to play! Kids can get in the game by learning about the…
rules of the sport, the equipment needed to play, and the importance of good sportsmanship. Then they can practice a key baseball skill to have even more fun on the diamond.By Gregg Lewis, Christine Burke, Tim Burke. 1994
By David Krell. 2021
In the watershed year of 1962, events and people came together to reshape baseball like never before. The season saw…
five no-hitters, a rare National League playoff between the Giants and the Dodgers, and a thrilling seven-game World Series where the Yankees, led by Mickey Mantle, won their twentieth title, beating the San Francisco Giants, led by Willie Mays, in their first appearance since leaving New York. Baseball was expanding with the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets, who tried to fill the National League void in New York but finished with 120 losses and the worst winning percentage since 1900. Despite their record, the &’62 Mets revived National League baseball in a city thirsty for an alternative to the Yankees. As the team struggled through a disastrous first year, manager Casey Stengel famously asked, &“Can&’t anybody here play this game?&” Earlier that year in Los Angeles, Dodgers owner Walter O&’Malley launched Dodger Stadium, a state-of-the-art ballpark in Chavez Ravine and a new icon for the city. For the Dodgers, Sandy Koufax pitched his first of four career no-hitters, Maury Wills set a record for stolen bases in a season, and Don Drysdale won twenty-five games. Beyond baseball, 1962 was also a momentous year in American history: Mary Early became the first Black graduate of the University of Georgia, First Lady Jackie Kennedy revealed the secrets of the White House in a television special, John Glenn became the first astronaut to orbit Earth, and JFK stared down Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Weaving the 1962 baseball season within the social fabric of this era, David Krell delivers a fascinating book as epochal as its subject.By Thom Henninger. 2021
The 1960s were a heady time to come of age. The British Invasion transformed pop music and culture. The fledgling…
space program offered a thrilling display of modern technology. The civil rights movement and Vietnam War drew young people to American politics, spurring them to think more critically about the state of the nation. And the assassinations Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 shook the United States to the core. During these turbulent times the Minnesota Twins were the pride of the North Star State—an elite team that advanced to the World Series in 1965 and played in dramatic pennant races in the years thereafter. After an uneven 1964 season the Twins set themselves up for a turnaround that would last the rest of the decade. At the end of his playing career with the Twins, Billy Martin was hired as third base coach in 1965, giving them a more aggressive base-running style. Mudcat Grant became the first African American pitcher to win at least twenty games in the American League, and Tony Oliva won his second batting title to help lead the Twins to the World Series, which they lost in seven games to the Dodgers. In 1967 rookie Rod Carew joined the Twins as they engaged in a historic pennant race but finished second to the Red Sox during their &“Impossible Dream&” season. In 1969 Martin took over as manager, and both Carew and Harmon Killebrew led the Twins to the American League Championship Series, only to lose to the Orioles, after which Martin was fired in part for a now-legendary bar fight. Bill Rigney took the helm in 1970 and steered the Twins to a second-straight division title and ALCS loss to the Orioles. In The Pride of Minnesota Thom Henninger details these pennant races, from the key moments and games to the personalities of the players involved, in the context of state and world events. Although the Twins won only one AL pennant in this stretch and failed to win the World Series, these memorable seasons, played in remarkable and compelling times, made for an important first decade in the team&’s early history.By Harry T Paxton. 2020
Vintage major league baseball book tells the story of the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies National League Champion baseball club, as reported…
by a Philadelphia sportswriter who covered the team.The team had a number of young players: the average age of a member of the Whiz Kids was 26.4 The team won the 1950 National League pennant but failed to win the World Series.After owner R. R. M. Carpenter, Jr. built a team of bonus babies, the 1950 team won for the majority of the season, but slumped late, allowing the defending National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers to gain ground in the last two weeks. The final series of the season was against Brooklyn, and the final game pitted the Opening Day starting pitchers, right-handers Robin Roberts and Don Newcombe, against one another. The Phillies defeated the Dodgers in extra innings in the final game of the season on a three-run home run by Dick Sisler in the top of the tenth inning. In the World Series which followed, the Whiz Kids were swept by the New York Yankees, who won their second of five consecutive World Series championships.By William T. Tilden. 2020
William T. Tilden II was an American tennis player and is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of…
all time. Tilden was the World No. 1 player for six years from 1920 through 1925. He won 15 Major singles titles including ten Grand Slam events, one World Hard Court Championships and four Pro Slam tournaments. He was the first American to win Wimbledon in 1920.By Casey Stengel. 2020
Legendary Baseball manager Casey Stengel recounts his memoirs in his inimitable style.Baseball's clown genius, Casey Stengel (1890-1975) was known as…
much for his hilarious double-talk as he was for managing the New York Yankees and Mets. Nicknamed “The Old Perfessor,” Stengel hid a fierce competitive drive behind his practical jokes and rambling monologues. His 14-year playing career was overshadowed by his 25-year career managing some of the best and worst teams in history.When Yankees owner George Weiss picked Casey Stengel to take over as manager in 1948, reporters ridiculed his choice. During Stengel's playing days, he was known more for his antics than his baseball acumen. In nine years managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves, his teams had nine losing seasons. But Weiss's choice proved inspired. Stengel became the most popular and influential manager in baseball, a star in New York City and a national celebrity. Along the way, he won more World Series games than any manager in history.By Joe Morgan. 1999
Nobody loves baseball more than Joe Morgan. He's proved it with his hall-of-fame performance on the field and his brilliant…
color commentary in the broadcast booth. Bob Costas says, "There may not be anyone alive who knows more about baseball than Joe Morgan.In his playing days, Morgan was a key cog in the Big Red Machine, and he saw the game at its zenith. From his perch in the broadcast booth he watched as baseball self-destructed, culminating in the devastating strike of 1994. And in 1998, he saw the game come back with baseball's electrifying resurgence in the season of McGwire, Sosa, and the Yankees. But as great as '98 was, Joe knows that baseball still has a lot of problems. And while baseball may be back, Joe wants the fans, the players, and the owners to know that some serious changes still need to be made. In Long Balls, No Strikes, Morgan draws on three decades' experience and passion as he dissects what has gone wrong and right for baseball. Some of his insights may seem unorthodox, some will be controversial, but that's never stopped Joe Morgan before. How do we improve the game on the field?Raise the moundAbolish the designated hitter foreverMake the umpires learn the strike zoneAnd that's only the beginning. . . .How do we improve the game off the field?Erase the invisible color line that keeps African-Americans from holding management positionsExpand the talent pool by sending more scouts to the inner citiesHave all teams share equally from the same profit poolAnd that's not all. . . .Joe Morgan doesn't believe in "the good old days." Tomorrow's game can be even better than yesterday's. But at the end of the century, the game stands at a crossroads. One path leads right back to the troubles that nearly destroyed the game forever in 1994. The other leads to a new Golden Age. If baseball wants to continue to thrive, some changes must be made. But before there are changes, we need to ask the right questions. And if Joe Morgan doesn't know the answers, then no one does.From the Hardcover edition.By Larry Tye. 2009
He is that rare American icon who has never been captured in a biography worthy of him. Now, at last,…
here is the superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy "Satchel" Paige.Through dogged research and extensive interviews, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher. Here is the stirring account of the child born to a poor Alabama washerwoman, the boy who earned his nickname from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, and the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reform school before becoming the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues.In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him in breaking the Majors' color barrier, emerged at the improbable age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. ("Age is a case of mind over matter," he said. "If you don't mind, it don't matter.")Rewriting our history of baseball's integration with Paige in the starring role and separating truth from legend, Satchel is a story as large as this larger-than-life man.By Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Lonnie Wheeler. 2009
Legendary baseball players Jackson and Gibson never faced each other on the field. However, in this work they team up…
to offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to understand America's pastime from their unique insider perspectives.By Cari Meister. 2021
Softball is exciting to watch, but it’s even more fun to play! Kids can take the field by learning the…
rules of the sport, the equipment and skills needed to play, and the importance of good sportsmanship. A simple activity helps kids strengthen a basic softball skill.By Bill Littlefield, Richard A. Johnson. 2004
Long before there was the Super Bowl, the NBA Championship, the Final Four, or the World Cup, there was the…
World Series. In the beginning, men in derbies sat in the outfield and marveled at Mathewson and McGraw. Today, fans congregate in sports bars, staring at screens big enough to see which players have shaved that day. For a century, the World Series has captured the nation’s imagination. The drama has included Willie Mays’s catch, of course, and Reggie Jackson’s home runs, and the gratifying day when Walter Johnson finally won. But the plot lines have also featured the audacious fixing of the 1919 Series and the unlikely heroics of various journeymen never much heard of before the span of a few brilliant autumn days, and never much heard of since. There has been one perfect game. There have been any number of perfectly inexplicable managerial decisions, not all of them made by managers of the Red Sox. There has been drama, comedy, and pathos. Fall Classicsis a collection of the best writing about the World Series in its first hundred years. Certainly it is a kind of history of the event. It is also a catalog of the work of some of the most accomplished and entertaining writers of the past century, since the World Series has drawn to itself not only our best sports scribblers, but many writers who wouldn’t have dreamed of writing about the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Final Four, or even the Super Bowl. Here you’ll find Jimmy Breslin telling Damon Runyon’s fantastic story of how he got the scoop on where Grover Cleveland Alexander spent the first innings of a seventh game he eventually won. (Hint: It wasn’t the bullpen. ) Satchel Paige recalls his experience of finally getting to pitch in the Series in 1948. Red Smith writes about Willie Mays’s last hurrah with the Mets in 1973 against the A’s. And Peter Gammons and Roger Angell give their takes on the two most famous game sixes of all, Gammons on 1975 and Angell on 1986. The games and the memories go on. For every fan whose heart yearns for a bleacher seat, a ballpark frank, and a slice of October Americana,Fall Classicsis a treasure. From the Hardcover edition.By Dave Bidini. 2004
In the spring of 2002, Dave Bidini set off for Nettuno, Italy, with his wife, Janet, and their two small…
children, in search of his favourite summer game, baseball. Nettuno was his destination because this town, south of Rome, has been the baseball capital of Italy since 1944, when the game was introduced by the American GIs who liberated the region. Bidini wanted to spend time in a town where everyone is as nuts about the game as he is, and in Nettuno, they love the game so much that they hand out baseball gloves and bats to children taking their first communion. For six months Bidini followed the fortunes of the Serie B Peones, Nettunese to the core. At the same time he was also learning about his own heritage, having spent his youth vigorously ignoring his Italianness. The result of his summer in Italy is vintage Bidini: a funny, perceptive, and engrossing book that takes readers far beyond the professional sport to the game that people around the world love to play.By S. A. Kramer. 1995
By Bill Lee, Richard Lally. 2006
The return of a sports classic with a new foreword by the author Finally back in print after many years,…
here is Bill Lee's classic tale of his renegade life on and off the mound. Whether walking out on the Montreal Expos to protest the release of a valued teammate or telling sportswriters eager for candid and offbeat comments more about the game than his bosses wanted anyone to know, pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee became celebrated as much for his rebellious personality as for his remarkable talent. Add to the mix his affinity for Eastern religions and controversial causes, and you can see why Lee infuriated the establishment while entertaining his legion of fans. In this wildly funny memoir that became a massive bestseller in the United States and Canada when it was first published, Lee recounts the colorful story of his life--from the drugged-out antics of his college days at USC (where he learned that "marijuana never hammered me like a good Camel") to his post-World Series travels with a group of liberal long-distance runners through Red China (where he discovered that conservatives don't like marathons because "it's much easier to climb into a Rolls-Royce"). Lee also describes his minor league days, joining the Reserves during the Vietnam War, his time with the Red Sox, and the 1975 World Series. He spares no detail while recalling his infamous falling-out with Red Sox management that led to his trade to Montreal. Full of irreverent wit, and an inherent love of the game, The Wrong Stuff is a sports classic for a new generation. From the Trade Paperback edition.