Download or read book Why Baseball Matters written by Susan Jacoby and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baseball, first dubbed the “national pastime” in print in 1856, is the country’s most tradition-bound sport. Despite remaining popular and profitable into the twenty-first century, the game is losing young fans, among African Americans and women as well as white men. Furthermore, baseball’s greatest charm—a clockless suspension of time—is also its greatest liability in a culture of digital distraction. These paradoxes are explored by the historian and passionate baseball fan Susan Jacoby in a book that is both a love letter to the game and a tough-minded analysis of the current challenges to its special position—in reality and myth—in American culture. The concise but wide-ranging analysis moves from the Civil War—when many soldiers played ball in northern and southern prisoner-of-war camps—to interviews with top baseball officials and young men who prefer playing online “fantasy baseball” to attending real games. Revisiting her youthful days of watching televised baseball in her grandfather’s bar, the author links her love of the game with the informal education she received in everything from baseball’s history of racial segregation to pitch location. Jacoby argues forcefully that the major challenge to baseball today is a shortened attention span at odds with a long game in which great hitters fail two out of three times. Without sanitizing this basic problem, Why Baseball Matters remind us that the game has retained its grip on our hearts precisely because it has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to reinvent itself in times of immense social change.

Download or read book The Extra 2 written by Jonah Keri and published by ESPN. This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens—the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history. In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail. Together with “boy genius” general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the “devil” from the team’s nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the game’s intangibles—that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing one—they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant. A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your life’s passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.

Download or read book Double Play written by Ben Zobrist and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2014 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Star baseball player Ben Zobrist (Tampa Bay Rays) and his wife, recording artist Julianna Zobrist, share their inspiring real-life stories and how God stays at the core of their marriage and family.

Download or read book Try Not to Suck written by Bill Chastain and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2018-04-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his irreverant personality, laid-back approach, and penchant for the unexpected, Joe Maddon is a singular presence among Major League Baseball managers. Whether he's bringing clowns and live bear cubs to spring training or leading the Chicago Cubs to their first World Series victory in 108 years, Maddon is always one to watch. In Try Not to Suck, ESPN's Jesse Rogers and MLB.com's Bill Chastain fully explore Maddon's life and career, delving behind the scenes and dissecting that mystique which makes Maddon so popular with players and analysts alike. Packed with insight, anecdotes, and little-known facts, this is the definitive account of the curse-breaker and trailblazer at the helm of the Cubs' new era.

Download or read book Baseball Junkie written by Aubrey Huff and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Diamond Dishes written by Julie Loria and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty top Major League Baseball players share stories about life off the field and their favorite foods—with nearly 100 full-color photos and more than 60 easy-to-make recipes Baseball and food are two of life’s uncomplicated pleasures, stirring up sizzling passion across all generations. Now, for the first time, baseball fans and food lovers get a behind-the-scenes look into the kitchens of twenty of their favorite Major League All Stars. Author Julie Loria shares their stories, from memorable meals growing up, to their current fitness routines, food rituals, and guilty food pleasures. And within these pages you will even discover quite a few amusing anecdotes about life beyond the diamond, and so much more. And, oh what great food! America’s favorite game not only brings together people from around the world but also blends a wonderful variety of cuisines—including classic dishes native to all corners of the United States and spicy Latin American fare. Julie recreates and collects the down-home family recipes, favorite authentic meals, and top dishes from on-the-road eateries of today’s top players—from Derek Jeter’s buttermilk pancakes and Dustin Pedroia’s pasta primavera to Albert Pujols’ Home Run Chicken and Ryan Howard’s macaroni and cheese. An official Major League Baseball publication, Diamond Dishes is more than a cookbook. It’s a singular and scrumptious backstage look at ballplayers flexing their culinary muscles and discussing the roles of family, friends, and food in their lives. With exclusive, full-color photos of Major League stars at home and in their kitchens, and more than sixty easy-to-prepare recipes, this book is a treasure trove of sights, sounds, tastes, and aromas that penetrate the hearts and souls of the players and their fans alike. -- Players featured in the book include: Lance Berkman, St. Louis Cardinals Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies Derek Jeter, New York Yankees Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees Johan Santana, New York Mets Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies David Wright, New York Mets VIDEOS: Book trailer Behind the Scenes: Players During the Photo Shoots Martha Stewart Television MLB Network Local NBC Miami News

Download or read book Fantasy Life written by Dave Eggers and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Bigger Than the Game written by Dirk Hayhurst and published by Kensington Books. This book was released on 2014 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best writer in a baseball uniform." --Tyler Kepner, The New York Times After nearly a decade in the minors, Dirk Hayhurst defied the odds to climb onto the pitcher's mound for the Toronto Blue Jays. Newly married, with a big league paycheck and a brand new house, Hayhurst was ready for a great season in the Bigs. Then fate delivered a crushing hit. Hayhurst blew out his pitching shoulder in an insane off-season workout program. After surgery, rehab, and more rehab, his major-league dreams seemed more distant than ever. From there things got worse, weirder, and funnier. In a crazy world of injured athletes, autograph-seeking nuns, angry wrestlers, and trainers with a taste for torture, Hayhurst learned lessons about the game--and himself--that were not in any rulebook. Honest, soul'searching, insightful, hilarious, and moving, Dirk Hayhurst's latest memoir is an indisputable baseball classic. Praise for The Bullpen Gospels and Out of My League "Dirk Hayhurst writes about baseball in a unique way. Observant, insightful, human, and hilarious." --Bob Costas "A fun read. . .This book shows why baseball is so often used as a metaphor for life." --Keith Olbermann "Entertaining and engaging. . .reminiscent of Jim Bouton's Ball Four." --Booklist "A rare gem of a baseball book." --Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated "A humorous, candid, and insightful memoir of Hayhurst's rookie season in the majors. . .Grade: Home Run." --Cleveland Plain Dealer

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 Wherever I Wind Up written by R.A. Dickey and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect gift for baseball fans, now with a new epilogue by author R.A. Dickey, winner of the 2012 Cy Young award. "An astounding memoir—haunting and touching, courageous and wise."—Jeremy Schaap, bestselling author, Emmy award-winning journalist, ESPN In 1996, R.A. Dickey was the Texas Rangers’ much-heralded No. 1 draft choice. Then, a routine physical revealed that his right elbow was missing its ulnar collateral ligament, and his lifelong dream—along with his $810,000 signing bonus—was ripped away. Yet, despite twice being consigned to baseball’s scrap heap, Dickey battled back. Sustained by his Christian faith, the love of his wife and children, and a relentless quest for self-awareness, Dickey is now the starting pitcher for the Toronoto Blue Jays (he was previously a star pitcher for the New York Mets) and one of the National League’s premier players, as well as the winner of the 2012 Cy Young award. In Wherever I Wind Up, Dickey eloquently shares his quintessentially American tale of overcoming extraordinary odds to achieve a game, a career, and a life unlike any other.

Download or read book Beyond Belief written by Josh Hamilton and published by FaithWords. This book was released on 2008-10-13 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was destined to be one of those rare "high-character " superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a 4-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball. BEYOND BELIEF details the events that led up to the derailment. Josh explains how a young man destined for fame and wealth could allow his life to be taken over by drugs and alcohol. But it is also the memoir of a spiritual journey that breaks through pain and heartbreak and leads to the rebirth of his major-league career. Josh Hamilton makes no excuses and places no blame on anyone other than himself. He takes responsibility for his poor decisions and believes his story can help millions who battle the same demons. "I have been given a platform to tell my story" he says. "I pray every night I am a good messenger."

Download or read book Why We Love Baseball written by Joe Posnanski and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES bestseller Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year National Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year An NPR "Book of the Day" #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’s catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot, and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player—these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth. Posnanski’s previous book, The Baseball 100, portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers’ duels to breaking the sport’s color line in the ’40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski’s illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love—and thought we knew. Why We Love Baseball is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.

Download or read book The Universal Baseball Association Inc J Henry Waugh Prop written by Robert Coover and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1992-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Playing with the Enemy written by Gary W. Moore and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir of fathers and sons, baseball, a world at war, and second chances. “I loved [it]. You will, too” (Jim Morris, author of The Oldest Rookie). Gene Moore was a small-town Illinois farm boy whose passion for “America’s Pastime” made him a local legend. It wasn’t long before word spread, and the Brooklyn Dodgers came calling on the teenage phenom who could hit a ball a country mile. Headed for stardom, and his dream within reach, Gene’s future in the majors was cut short by World War II. In 1944, after joining the US Navy, Gene found himself on a top-secret mission: guarding German sailors captured from U-505, a submarine carrying one of the infamous Enigma decoders. Stuck with guard duty, he decided to bide the time by doing what he loved. Gene taught the POWs how to play baseball. It was a decision that would change Gene’s life forever. The story of a remarkable man told by his inspired son, “Gene’s journey from promise to despair and back again, set against a long war and an even longer post-war recovery . . . [is] a 20th-century epic that demonstrates how, sometimes, letting go of a dream is the only way to discover one’s great fortune” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Download or read book Off Speed written by Terry McDermott and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The lively and fascinating story of baseball’s 150-year hunt for the perfect pitch In August 2012, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays in what Terry McDermott calls “one of the greatest exhibitions of off-speed pitches ever put on.” For McDermott, a lifelong fan and student of baseball, the extraordinary events of that afternoon inspired this incisive meditation on the art of pitching. Within the framework of Hernandez’s historic achievement, Off Speed provides a vibrant narrative of the history and evolution of pitching, combining baseball's rich tradition of folklore with the wealth of new metrics from a growing legion of statisticians who are transforming the way we think about the game. Off Speed is also the personal story of a fan’s steadfast devotion, first kindled in McDermott by his father at the local diamond in small-town Iowa and now carried forward with the same passion by his own daughters. Approaching his subject with the love every fan brings to the park and the expertise of a probing journalist, McDermott explores with irrepressible curiosity the science and the romance of baseball.

Download or read book The Eastern Stars written by Mark Kurlansky and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intriguing, inspiring history of one small, impoverished area in the Dominican Republic that has produced a staggering number of Major League Baseball talent, from an award-winning, bestselling author. In the town of San Pedro in the Dominican Republic, baseball is not just a way of life. It's the way of life. By the year 2008, seventy-nine boys and men from San Pedro have gone on to play in the Major Leagues-that means one in six Dominican Republicans who have played in the Majors have come from one tiny, impoverished region. Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez, and legions of other San Pedro players who came up in the sugar mill teams flocked to the United States, looking for opportunity, wealth, and a better life. Because of the sugar industry, and the influxes of migrant workers from across the Caribbean to work in the cane fields and factories, San Pedro is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the Dominican Republic. A multitude of languages are spoken there, and a variety of skin colors populate the community; but the one constant is sugar and baseball. The history of players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many men who sought freedom from poverty through playing ball. The story of baseball in San Pedro is also that of the Caribbean in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and on a broader level opens a window into our country's history. As with Kurlansky's Cod and Salt, this small story, rich with anecdote and detail, becomes much larger than ever imagined. Kurlansky reveals two countries' love affair with a sport and the remarkable journey of San Pedro and its baseball players. In his distinctive style, he follows common threads and discovers wider meanings about place, identity, and, above all, baseball. Watch a Video

Download or read book Position to Win written by Dave Scheiber and published by Advance Ink Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-27 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dewayne Staats marks his 40th year as a Major League Baseball broadcaster with POSITION TO WIN, a book that chronicles his amazing journey through America's pastime - a fascinating career working alongside some of baseball's all-time great announcers and calling some of the memorable moments of the game. Many Tampa Bay Rays fans may only know Staats as a Fox Sports/Sun Sports fixture, and the only television play-by-play man in the 18-season history of the Tampa Bay franchise. But in Position to Win: A Look at Baseball and Life from the Best Seat in the House. Staats reflects on his vast experiences in the booth that include: Being a partner with three Hall of Fame announcers: Gene Elston with the Houston Astros, Harry Caray with Chicago Superstation WGN covering the Cubs and Tony Kubek with the MSG Network doing the games of the New York Yankees, as well as working as a national baseball broadcaster for ESPN. Calling nine no-hitters (among them Nolan Ryan's record-breaking fifth and one of the game's most dramatic - thrown by New York's inspirational, one-armed star Jim Abbott). A total of nearly 6,000 MLB broadcasts, with the unique distinction of being the announcer to make the call the first two of the three times in major league history a player has homered for his 3,000th hit (Wade Boggs in 1999 and Derek Jeter in 2011). Dewayne has collaborated with veteran Florida-based author and national award-winning journalist Dave Scheiber (co-author of "Covert" and "Surviving the Shadows"). The result is a lively book that will appeal to anyone who loves baseball or enjoys an engaging success story with a message: How hard work, preparation and persistence helped position him to achieve a childhood dream and rise to the top of his profession. It's a universal lesson that can apply to everyone, no matter what a person's passion or pursuit in life may be.