Download or read book High Fives Pennant Drives and Fernandomania written by Paul and published by Santa Monica Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Dodger fans, the years 1977 to 1981 mark the team’s glory days, and High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania chronicles the highlights and disappointments that marked those four tumultuous seasons. Told from lifelong fan Paul Haddad’s perspective, the story of the Dodgers during this time period is enhanced by transcripts of radio and TV calls that are woven into his personal recollections, capturing famed Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully at the top of his game. From Jerry Ruess’s no-hitter and Rick Monday’s epic homer against Montreal to the magical rookie year of Fernando Valenzuela and the 1981 World Series, all of the famous Dodger moments are commemorated in great detail. In addition to the chronological narrative, each chapter contains lists, trivia, sidebars, and interesting statistics that make the exciting culture and fan frenzy that surrounded the Dodgers’ last great dynasty come to life.
Download or read book Freewaytopia How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles written by Paul Haddad and published by Santa Monica Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles explores how social, economic, political, and cultural demands created the web of expressways whose very form—futuristic, majestic, and progressive—perfectly exemplifies the City of Angels. From the Arroyo Seco, which began construction during the Great Depression, to the Simi Valley and Century Freeways, which were completed in 1993, author Paul Haddad provides an entertaining and engaging history of the 527 miles of road that comprise the Los Angeles freeway system. Each of Los Angeles’s twelve freeways receives its own chapter, and these are supplemented by “Off-Ramps”—sidebars that dish out pithy factoids about Botts’ Dots, SigAlerts, and all matter of freeway lexicon, such as why Southern Californians are the only people in the country who place the word “the” in front of their interstates, as in “the 5,” or “the 101.” Freewaytopia also explores those routes that never saw the light of day. Imagine superhighways burrowing through Laurel Canyon, tunneling under the Hollywood Sign, or spanning the waters of Santa Monica Bay. With a few more legislative strokes of the pen, you wouldn’t have to imagine them—they’d already exist. Haddad notably gives voice to those individuals whose lives were inextricably connected—for better or worse—to the city’s freeways: The hundreds of thousands of mostly minority and lower-class residents who protested against their displacement as a result of eminent domain. Women engineers who excelled in a man’s field. Elected officials who helped further freeways . . . or stop them dead in their tracks. And he pays tribute to the corps of civic and state highway employees whose collective vision, expertise, and dedication created not just the most famous freeway network in the world, but feats of engineering that, at their best, achieve architectural poetry. Finally, let’s not forget the beauty queens—no freeway in Los Angeles ever opened without their royal presence.
Download or read book 10 000 Steps a Day in L A written by Paul Haddad and published by Santa Monica Press. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 52 Walking Adventures is for urban adventurers with a passion for healthy living who are also hungry to explore L.A.’s hidden, unsung, and sometimes quirky side. This unique guidebook provides everything readers need to venture out and tackle the city’s 500 square miles. The book is based on a concept that first took hold in Japan—that if people walked 10,000 steps each day, they would burn 20 percent of their caloric intake through that activity alone. Now an ingrained part of the American lifestyle, the 10,000 steps phenomenon is taking the country by storm; it is now a recognized daily goal by a number of major insurance companies like Kaiser Permanente and health institutes such as the World Health Organization, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the American Heart Foundation. In this first-ever book to explore the 10,000 steps concept in the City of Angels, these walks take readers through the terrain that makes Los Angeles the envy of many a metropolis—beaches, mountains, rivers, and reservoirs, not to mention the nation’s largest urban park, Griffith Park—all while immersing them in the city’s history and lore, offbeat locales, and popular landmarks. 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. promises three things: 10,000 steps in each walk, a blueprint for doing it each weekend of the year (52 walks equals a year’s worth of weekends), and a sense of fun and discovery about L.A. that will only make the 10,000 steps goal that much easier to attain. Readers need bring only their feet—pedometers optional.
Download or read book Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue written by Tom Van Riper and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-04-13 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Call it the forgotten rivalry. The Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers may not share geographical boundaries, and today they don’t even play in the same division, but for a period of time in the 1970s Dodgers vs. Reds was the best rivalry in Major League Baseball. They boasted the biggest names of the game—Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey, Pete Rose, Don Sutton, and Ron Cey, to name a few—and appeared in the World Series seven out of nine years. In Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue: Baseball's Greatest Forgotten Rivalry, Tom Van Riper provides a fresh look at these two powerhouse teams and the circumstances that made them so pivotal. Van Riper delves into the players, managers, executives, and broadcasters from the rivalry whose impact on baseball continued beyond the 1970s—including the first recipient of Tommy John surgery (Tommy John himself), the all-time hit king turned gambling pariah (Pete Rose), and two young announcers who would soon go on to national prominence (Al Michaels and Vin Scully). In addition, Van Riper recounts in detail the 1973 season when both teams were at or near their peak form, particularly the extra-inning nail-biter between the Reds and Dodgers that took place on September 21 and effectively decided the divisional race. Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue includes never-before-published interviews with former players from the rivalry, providing a personal and in-depth look at this decade in baseball full of upheaval and change. Baseball’s realignment in 1994 may have rendered this great rivalry nearly forgotten, but its story is one that will be enjoyed by baseball fans and historians of all generations.
Download or read book The Baseball Codes written by Jason Turbow and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider’s look at baseball’s unwritten rules, explained with examples from the game’s most fascinating characters and wildest historical moments. Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. All aspects of baseball—hitting, pitching, and baserunning—are affected by the Code, a set of unwritten rules that governs the Major League game. Some of these rules are openly discussed (don’t steal a base with a big lead late in the game), while others are known only to a minority of players (don’t cross between the catcher and the pitcher on the way to the batter’s box). In The Baseball Codes, old-timers and all-time greats share their insights into the game’s most hallowed—and least known—traditions. For the learned and the casual baseball fan alike, the result is illuminating and thoroughly entertaining. At the heart of this book are incredible and often hilarious stories involving national heroes (like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) and notorious headhunters (like Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale) in a century-long series of confrontations over respect, honor, and the soul of the game. With The Baseball Codes, we see for the first time the game as it’s actually played, through the eyes of the players on the field. With rollicking stories from the past and new perspectives on baseball’s informal rulebook, The Baseball Codes is a must for every fan.
Download or read book Skinny White Freak written by Paul Haddad and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-07-11 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los Angeles, 1978. Skateboarding and tanned bods rule the SoCal landscape. Compared to his groovy peers, 13-year-old Adam Lipsitz is an outcast. He is too skinny, too pale, too brainy. To make matters worse, just as his parents are separating, he's cast off to Kamp Kickapoo, where he faces the prospect of being tormented by a bully named "Worm" for six interminable weeks. Then... a horrific event rocks Adam's world. And there's no turning back. How Adam deals with being bullied forms the core of Skinny White Freak. By summer's end, Adam will make the journey from kid to young adult, striving to replace fear with courage, cynicism with empathy, and low self-esteem with self-acceptance.
Download or read book Dodgerland written by Michael Fallon and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1977–78 Los Angeles Dodgers came close. Their tough lineup of young and ambitious players squared off with the New York Yankees in consecutive World Series. The Dodgers’ run was a long time in the making after years of struggle and featured many homegrown players who went on to noteworthy or Hall of Fame careers, including Don Sutton, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Steve Yeager. Dodgerland is the story of those memorable teams as Chavez Ravine began to change, baseball was about to enter a new era, and American culture experienced a shift to the “me” era. Part journalism, part social history, and part straight sportswriting, Dodgerland is told through the lives of four men, each representing different aspects of this L.A. story. Tom Lasorda, the vocal manager of the Dodgers, gives an up-close view of the team’s struggles and triumphs; Tom Fallon, a suburban small-business owner, witnesses the Dodgers’ season and the changes to California's landscape—physical, social, political, and economic; Tom Wolfe, a chronicler of California’s ever-changing culture, views the events of 1977–78 from his Manhattan writer’s loft; and Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’s mayor and the region’s most dominant political figure of the time, gives a glimpse of the wider political, demographic, and economic forces that affected the state at the time. The boys in blue drew baseball’s focus in those two seasons, but the intertwining narratives tell a larger story about California, late 1970s America, and great promise unrealized.
Download or read book Paradise Palms written by Paul Haddad and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is October 1957. A time of Eisenhower conformity, police and mob strongholds, and Red Scare paranoia. A relic of Hollywood's Golden Age, the aging Paradise Palms Hotel is on the brink of change. David Shapiro-eldest son of recently widowed Max Shapiro-has assumed a leadership role. But the more he digs into the hotel's business, the more he questions who his father is. It's not just the tenuous ties to gangster Mickey Cohen, who is trying to commandeer "the Palms," but also the sudden appearance of a mysterious African American guest named Rae Lynn, who improbably rises in stature. As long-buried secrets come to light, David's battle to keep the family intact takes a tragic turn. His actions mirror an America lurching from the surface simplicity of the '50s to the turmoil of the 1960s in this riveting neo-noir family saga.
Download or read book If These Walls Could Talk Los Angeles Dodgers written by Houston Mitchell and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, the Dodgers have had an eventful—and frequently successful—history. From playing in the 100,000-seat Coliseum to five World Series titles, from Fernandomania to Mannywood, and from Sandy Koufax to Clayton Kershaw, the Boys in Blue have long been a team to watch. This history of the Dodgers provides a closer look at the great moments and the lowlights that have made them one of the seminal teams in the major leagues. Through multiple interviews conducted with current and former players, readers will meet the athletes, coaches, and management and share in their moments of triumph and defeat. The author recalls key moments in Dodgers history such as the building and breakup of the Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey infield, the sad decline of Steve Howe, the amazing comeback at the tail-end of the 1980 season, and the Frank McCourt saga. If These Walls Could Talk: Los Angeles Dodgers brings the storied history of the team come to life.
Download or read book Shameful Victory written by John H. M. Laslett and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On May 8, 1959, the evening news shocked Los Angeles residents, who saw LA County sheriffs carrying a Mexican American woman from her home in Chavez Ravine not far from downtown. Immediately afterward, the house was bulldozed to the ground. This violent act was the last step in the forced eviction of 3,500 families from the unique hilltop barrio that in 1962 became the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. John H. M. Laslett offers a new interpretation of the Chavez Ravine tragedy, paying special attention to the early history of the barrio, the reform of Los Angeles's destructive urban renewal policies, and the influence of the evictions on the collective memory of the Mexican American community. In addition to examining the political decisions made by power brokers at city hall, Shameful Victory argues that the tragedy exerted a much greater influence on the history of the Los Angeles civil rights movement than has hitherto been appreciated. The author also sheds fresh light on how the community grew, on the experience of individual home owners who were evicted from the barrio, and on the influence that the event had on the development of recent Chicano/a popular music, drama, and literature.
Download or read book Brothers in Arms written by Jon Weisman and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, with enduring legacies both on and off the diamond. Chief among the hallmarks of the organization is an unparalleled pitching dominance; Dodger blue and white brings to mind brilliance on the mound and the Cy Young Awards that followed. In Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers' Extraordinary Pitching Tradition, acclaimed Dodgers writer Jon Weisman explores the organization's rich pitching history, from Koufax and Drysdale to Valenzuela and Hershiser, to the sublime Clayton Kershaw. Weisman delves deep into this lineage of excellence, interviewing both the legends that toed the rubber and the teammates, coaches, and personalities that witnessed their genius.
Download or read book Sergeant Rex written by Mike Dowling and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thrilling and inspiring story of a U.S. Marine and his dog Rex, a bomb sniffing German Shepard, who forged a bond of trust and loyalty while serving on the war-torn streets of Iraq's most dangerous city. Called "a deeply affecting tale of courage and devotion in the cauldron of war" by Publishers Weekly, Sergeant Mike Dowling's heart-pounding account of an unbreakable bond between man and dog takes us into the searing 130-degree heat, the choking dust, and the ever-present threat of violent attack in Iraq's infamous Triangle of Death. In 2004, Dowling and his military working dog Rex were part of the first Marine Corps military K9 teams sent to the front lines of combat since Vietnam. It was Rex's job to sniff out weapons caches, suicide bombers, and IEDs, the devastating explosives that wreaked havoc on troops and civilians. It was Mike's job to lead Rex into the heart of danger. An extraordinary chronicle of loyalty in the face of terrible adversity, Sergeant Rex is an unforgettable story of sacrifice, courage, and love.
Download or read book A Small Town Love Story Colonial Beach Virginia written by Sherryl Woods and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part memoir, part oral history, #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods gives us a rare and intimate look at Colonial Beach, Virginia. Rich in narrative history and local color, A Small Town Love Story: Colonial Beach, Virginia is an homage to the town of Sherryl Woods’s summers, a place that stole her heart long ago and provided the basis for the many fictional small towns in her bestselling novels. True to Woods’s signature style of focusing on characters who are at the center of their communities, here she has woven together the stories of the very real people who helped shape this seaside Virginia town. She takes us back to the days of her own family gatherings, artfully capturing the unique essence of Colonial Beach and making us yearn for small-town life. Woods’s own memories frame the true stories she features—from the unique history of Colonial Beach itself to some firsthand accounts of the Oyster Wars that once consumed the community, to the stories of neighborhood merchants who made it a point to know just about every customer by name. From farmers to restauranteurs and hoteliers, from pastors to librarians and military folk, Woods’s research and interviews give life to the personalities of a very special place.
Download or read book Never Settle written by Marty Smith and published by Twelve. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The amazing and blessed life of popular ESPN reporter and correspondent for College GameDay, Marty Smith, whose mission in this thoughtful and funny memoir is to return fans to the true soul of sports in this country. You know Marty right? The guy during College GameDay hanging off the back of a pickup truck while zooming around the Clemson athletic facilities. The guy who visits Nick Saban's lake house and somehow gets Coach to jump in the lake. The guy who sits down with Dale Jr. at Daytona to talk through tears about his miraculous return to racing. The guy who interviews Tiger Woods, Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning and Jimmie Johnson -- the guy who gets paid to live the fantasy of every sports fan in America. Never Settle is the funny but oh, it's true story of how Marty got here, and a revealing look at his journey. Never Settle includes all the best stories and behind-the-scenes moments from Marty's wild life, covering topics including: college football, racing, fathers and sons, how sports can bring us together, and how it all goes back to growing up on a farm and playing high school ball in Pearisburg, Virginia.
Download or read book Playing America s Game written by Adrian Burgos and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-06-04 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although largely ignored by historians of both baseball in general and the Negro leagues in particular, Latinos have been a significant presence in organized baseball from the beginning. In this benchmark study on Latinos and professional baseball from the 1880s to the present, Adrian Burgos tells a compelling story of the men who negotiated the color line at every turn—passing as "Spanish" in the major leagues or seeking respect and acceptance in the Negro leagues. Burgos draws on archival materials from the U.S., Cuba, and Puerto Rico, as well as Spanish- and English-language publications and interviews with Negro league and major league players. He demonstrates how the manipulation of racial distinctions that allowed management to recruit and sign Latino players provided a template for Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey when he initiated the dismantling of the color line by signing Jackie Robinson in 1947. Burgos's extensive examination of Latino participation before and after Robinson's debut documents the ways in which inclusion did not signify equality and shows how notions of racialized difference have persisted for darker-skinned Latinos like Orestes ("Minnie") Miñoso, Roberto Clemente, and Sammy Sosa.
Download or read book Full Count written by David Cone and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Met and Yankee All-Star pitcher David Cone shares lessons from the World Series and beyond in this essential New York Times bestselling memoir for baseball fans everywhere. "There was a sense about him and an aura about him. Even when he was in trouble, he carried himself like a pitcher who said, 'I'm the man out here.' And he usually was." -- Andy Pettitte on David Cone. To any baseball fan, David Cone was a bold and brilliant pitcher. During his 17-year career, he became a master of the mechanics and mental toughness a pitcher needs to succeed in the major leagues. A five-time All-Star and five-time World Champion now gives his full count -- balls and strikes, errors and outs -- of his colorful life in baseball. From the pitchers he studied to the hitters who infuriated him, Full Count takes readers inside the mind of a thoughtful pitcher, detailing Cone's passion, composure and strategies. The book is also filled with never-before-told stories from the memorable teams Cone played on -- ranging from the infamous late '80s Mets to the Yankee dynasty of the '90s. And, along the way, Full Count offers the lessons baseball taught Cone -- from his mistakes as a young and naive pitcher to outwitting the best hitters in the world -- one pitch at a time.
Download or read book Conversations with Durito written by Marcos (subcomandante.) and published by Autonomedia. This book was released on 2005 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'We are all Zapatistas.' Subcomandante MarcosThis book began in 1994, when Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos replied to a 10-year-old girl from Mexico City who had sent him a drawing. The ensuing collection of related tales about the warrior-beetle, narrated by his pipe-smoking, black-ski-masked human squire is an extraordinary account for the general reader of current global political struggle.Marcos created a humorous fictitious character, Don Durito, a beetle with Quixotic fantasies which regards Marcos as his Sancho Panza. In this book, Marcos creates a new political genre, so-called "postdata": ironical commentaries which he affixes to his formal communiqués or declarations. In one of them he even offers to perform a striptease for government negotiators.'We are the product of 500 years of struggle...They [Mexican government] don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads; no land, no work, no health care, no food, no education... nor is there peace nor justice for ourselves and our children. But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!' First EZLN declaration of war, December 31st 1993The Zapatistas are not Marxist, Rightists, or Anarchists. They seek not to replace one infrastructure of power with another, thus rejecting the normal goal of an armed struggle. They are armed but do not use violence as a tool to expand their aims. Although a localized rebellion, the Zapatistas are unified in a worldwide struggle that transcends the mainstream media's limited perspective through eloquent dictations distributed globally via the Internet.With a fresh perspective and tactics that have never been seen in relation to an armed insurrection, the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) has changed the definition of what revolution means. From the marginalized confines of the poorest region in Mexico, a new concept of revolutionary change with a new solution to societies woes is currently being proposed.
