Download or read book The Bullpen Gospels written by Dirk Hayhurst and published by Kensington Publishing Corp.. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the humble heights of a Class-A pitcher's mound to the deflating lows of sleeping on his gun-toting grandmother's air mattress, veteran reliever Dirk Hayhurst steps out of the bullpen to deliver the best pitch of his career--a raw, unflinching and surprisingly moving account of his life in the minors. I enjoyed the visualizations, maybe a little too much, and would stop only when I felt I'd centered myself. . .or after one of my teammates hit me in the nuts with the rosin bag while my eyes were closed. Hilariously self-effacing and brutally honest, Hayhurst captures the absurdities, the grim realities, and the occasional nuggets of hard-won wisdom culled from four seasons in the minors. Whether training tarantulas to protect his room from thieving employees in a backwater hotel, watching the raging battles fought between his partially paralyzed father and his alcoholic brother, or absorbing the gentle mockery of some not-quite-starstruck schoolchildren, Dirk reveals a side of baseball, and life, rarely seen on ESPN. My career has crash-landed on the floor of my grandma's old sewing room. If this is a dream come true, then dreams smell a lot like mothballs and Bengay. Somewhere between Bull Durham and The Rookie, The Bullpen Gospels takes an unforgettable trot around the inglorious base paths of minor league baseball, where an inch separates a ball from a strike, and a razor-thin margin can be the difference between The Show or a long trip home. "It's not often that someone comes along who is a good pitcher and a good writer." --King Kaufman, Salon "After many minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years spent in the bullpen, I can verify that this is a true picture of baseball." --Tim McCarver "There are great truths within, of the kind usually unspoken. And as he expresses them, Dirk Hayhurst describes himself as 'a real person who moonlights as a baseball player.' In much the same manner, while The Bullpen Gospels chronicles how all of us face the impact when we learn reality is both far meaner and far richer than our dreams--it also moonlights as one of the best baseball books ever written." --Keith Olbermann "A bit of Jim Bouton, a bit of Jim Brosnan, a bit of Pat Jordan, a bit of crash Davis, and a whole lot of Dirk Hayhurst. Often hilarious, sometimes poignant. This is a really enjoyable baseball read." --Bob Costas "Fascinating. . .a perspective that fans rarely see." --Trevor Hoffman, pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers "The Bullpen Gospels is a rollicking good bus ride of a book. Hayhurst illuminates a baseball life not only with wit and humor, but also with thought-provoking introspection." --Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated "Dirk Hayhurst has written a fascinating, funny and honest account on life in the minor leagues. I loved it. Writers can't play baseball, but in this case, a player sure can write." --Tim Kurkjian, Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine, analyst/reporter ESPN television "Bull Durham meets Ball Four in Dirk Hayhurst's hilarious and moving account of life in baseball's glamour-free bush leagues." --Rob Neyer, ESPN.com "If Holden Caulfield could dial up his fastball to 90 mph, he might have written this funny, touching memoir about a ballplayer at a career--and life--crossroads. He might have called it 'Pitcher in the Rye.' Instead, he left it to Dirk Hayhurst, the only writer in the business who can make you laugh, make you cry and strike out Ryan Howard." --King Kaufman, Salon "The Bullpen Gospels is a funny bone-tickling, tear duct-stimulating, feel-good story that will leave die-hard baseball fans--and die-hard human beings, for that matter--well, feeling good." --Bob Mitchell, author of Once Upon a Fastball

Download or read book The Sacred Clown written by Thunderhead and published by Thunderhead. This book was released on 2011-03-20 with total page 1642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book This Is Water written by Kenyon College and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-22 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in THIS IS WATER. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously' How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion' The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend. Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

Download or read book Queen of DC It s not just a boys game anymore BOOK ONE THE BEGINNING written by and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Do Overs written by Bill Munn and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2017-12-13 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever wonder if you could relive part of your life, to experience again the innocence of childhood or to correct a grievous mistake that has haunted you? Mack McCoy may have done just that unwittingly. Mack is a good man, captain in the Dallas Police Department who would describe his career as "in the weeds," thanks mainly to an incident in which he shot and killed two unarmed teenagers in the act of robbing a pizza restaurant. Though cleared of wrongdoing, he has become a pariah, busted back to captain from deputy chief. Mack is paired with a fire captain for a project they both perceived as dead-end with no potential growth for either of them and more importantly, no redemption for Mack. Just as it seems things couldn't get any worse, they do. A violent traffic accident kills Mack's best friend and leaves Mack fighting for his life. Through recovery, Mack begins to realize there are certain realities in his life that are quite different from the way he remembers them. People begin walking into his life that had passed or played a completely different roll in his life in the past. New people such as a homeless man and other unknowns that come and go in the shadows and call themselves "advocates" also become a part of his new reality. What happened to Mack while in surgery, and what childhood event could be a gateway that changed everything? No one expects a "Do-Over" in life. Mack didn't expect it. The question is, did he take it?

Download or read book Games of the Heart written by Kristen Ashley and published by Kristen Ashley. This book was released on 2012-03-16 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the balcony of his house, Mike Haines can see the quiet, commonplace beauty of the Holliday farm. But what he remembers is the little sister of his high school girlfriend, Dusty who grew up there. As a teen, Dusty had gone off the rails but when she was a kid, she was sweet, she was funny and she had a special bond with Mike. But after high school, she took off and Mike never saw her again. Then tragedy strikes Dusty’s family, she comes back into town and Mike thinks she hasn't changed back to the sweet, funny girl he knew but instead continued to be selfish and thoughtless, leaving her family alone to deal with their mourning. So he seeks her out and confronts her in an effort to understand what went wrong and to force her to sort herself out. He finds out quickly he’s wrong about Dusty Holliday. Very wrong. And right after Mike discovers that, the bond they had years before snaps back into place in ways he would never suspect. But Mike Haines had a bad marriage then he played games of the heart for a good woman. And lost. In order to protect himself and his kids, he’s cautious, he’s careful to read the signs and he’s not interested in finding a woman he has to fix. Then he learns what happened to Dusty and he thinks she needs to be fixed. He swings, he misses and in this new game of hearts, for Dusty, Mike just got strike three.

Download or read book Hip Check written by Deirdre Martin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Esa Saari is a hockey player for the New York Blades with a bad-boy rep both on and off the ice. But when he suddenly becomes the guardian of his eight-year-old niece, Nell, he knows his excessive lifestyle is about to get body checked. So he hires a live-in nanny. Her name is Michelle Beck, and she gets along great with Nell. What surprises him, though, is that he instantly hits it off with her, too. Getting romantically involved would be a bad idea, but he’s finding it impossible to ignore the intense connection between them. Michelle, however, takes her job very seriously, and must decide whether to listen to her head or her heart. And Esa’s got to decide if he can give up his bad- boy image for the love of a good woman…

Download or read book Ice Emperor s Back to School Previous book written by Three minutes Heat and published by Project Blue, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-10-24 with total page 861 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The family's scum, the city's shame, the typical waste material. Whether it is the pride of outstanding achievements, or muddling through the fop, all look down on him, he is the complete and utter waste. A strange encounter, created the emperor of the cold, play around the city. The world gave me the cold, let me use the ice cold to send back ....

Download or read book All Wrapped Up written by Kimberly Kincaid and published by Zebra Books. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas is a postcard perfect scene for a second chance at love in this contemporary romance by the USA Today bestselling author. Christmas is coming to Pine Mountain—and it’s stirring up memories, good and bad. Nick Brennan may be smooth as good whiskey when it comes to managing the Double Shot bar, but his past is a hot mess. When he runs into a burning building to save a little boy, some people start thinking there’s more to his heroism than holiday spirit. To make things worse, the local reporter assigned to the story is Ava Mancuso, the gorgeous girl who got away. Ava has her reasons for keeping a professional distance. But the changes she sees in Nick set off more than journalistic curiosity. His warm eyes and gruff charm have her instincts fired up. Still, all the chemistry in the world doesn’t erase history, even when Nick invites her to his little sister’s mistletoe wedding. Does he have a heart under all those secrets? Or is this going to be just another Christmas past?

Download or read book Executive Documents Annual Reports written by Ohio and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Long Walk Home written by A.M. Keen and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2017-11-08 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In one single day the entire UK changed, and could never revert back to normality. Bombs detonated in every major city across England, releasing the little known ‘Non Compos Mentis Virus,' and with it destroying seventy-five percent of the population. However, the virus didn't kill those who contracted it, but instead infected their minds and senses, turning them in to violent psychopaths that can feel no pain and also gave them a new goal in life; to destroy anyone who does not carry the same virus. Bucky Jackson awakes from a minibus crash that killed most of his school cricket team. Rescued by his friend Johnny, the remaining kids and teachers seek sanctuary inside a hardware shop in a small, Northamptonshire town. As the days pass, they decide to try for a safe zone at a football stadium a few towns away. With every step danger lurks, not only from the zombies that swarm the area in their thousands, but more so from the handful of people who survived the virus outbreak. As their journey continues, Bucky is looked to as a leader to help them reach their destination. They encounter killer clowns, hordes of the undead and an organised crime outfit as well as dealing with treachery within their own group. Bucky must learn to unite his team and teach them to rely on each other, as their journey may be longer than anticipated….

Download or read book Ready to Roll 3 in 1 written by Suzanne Brockmann and published by Suzanne Brockmann. This book was released on 2023-07-23 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two Izzy-Centric Shorts and a Zanella Novella Suzanne Brockmann returns to the action-packed world of her bestselling Troubleshooters series with a special 3-in-1 anthology: two shorts and a novella featuring U.S. Navy SEAL Izzy Zanella, his extended family, and his kickass teammates in SEAL Team Sixteen. Free Fall What should be an easy HAHO training jump for SEAL Team Sixteen goes wrong, forcing Navy SEAL Izzy Zanella to do what he does best: Improvise. At thirty thousand feet. Home Fire Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn!) Navy SEAL Dan Gillman’s wife, Jenn, goes into early labor while stranded in the California desert, as he, Izzy Zanella, and most of Team Sixteen are mission ready, overseas. Meanwhile, left behind with a recent knee injury and faced with impending surgery and rehab, Chief Jay Lopez decides that the timing might be exactly right for a romantic interlude with a pretty fifth grade teacher . . . Hijinks definitely ensue. Ready to Roll BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training is known for being the toughest, meanest, most physically punishing program in the entire U.S. Navy, and a new crop of tadpoles have arrived in Coronado eager to prove their worth—to make it through Hell Week and become U.S. Navy SEALs. Although Izzy Zanella prefers assignments out in the “real world,” he’s happy enough to be TDY as an instructor for the current BUD/S class, because it allows him to spend time at home with his wife, Eden, and her lively and lovable extended family. Eden’s sixteen-year-old brother, Ben, is dealing with a new crush and a homophobic bully in his high school, but it soon appears that things are not as they seem. As Ben deals with the type of too-serious high school drama that could involve a body count, Izzy is fascinated by “Boat Squad John,” a misfit team of young SEAL candidates all named John, including the intriguing young Seagull, his swim buddy Timebomb, and Seagull’s nemesis Hans. Does Seagull have what it takes keep Boat Squad John still standing when the dust of BUD/S Hell Week settles, or will they ring out? The only easy day is yesterday. In Free Fall, Home Fire Inferno, and Ready to Roll, Brockmann delivers what she does best: stories celebrating the U.S. Navy SEALs—and the women and men who wholeheartedly love and support them. (80,000 words)

Download or read book Collier s written by and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 948 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Little Life written by Hanya Yanagihara and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

Download or read book Greater New York written by and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 1002 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hip Hop Genius 2 0 written by Sam Seidel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many educators already know that hip-hop can be a powerful tool for engaging students. But can hip-hop save our schools—and our society? Hip-Hop Genius 2.0 introduces an iteration of hip-hop education that goes far beyond studying rap music as classroom content. Through stories about the professional rapper who founded the first hip-hop high school and the aspiring artists currently enrolled there, Sam Seidel lays out a vision for how hip-hop’s genius—the resourceful creativity and swagger that took it from a local phenomenon to a global force—can lead to a fundamental remix of the way we think of teaching, school design, and leadership. This 10-year anniversary edition welcomes two new contributing authors, Tony Simmons and Michael Lipset, who bring direct experience running the High School for Recording Arts. The new edition includes new forewords from some of the most prominent names in education and hip-hop, reflections on ten more years of running a hip-hop high school, updates to every chapter from the first edition, details of how the school navigated the unprecedented complexities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd, and an inspiring new concluding chapter that is a call to action for the field.

Download or read book Her Christmas SEAL written by Anne Marsh and published by Anne Marsh. This book was released on 2015-11-20 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dear Santa: For Christmas this year, no men. Love, Holly. I may be newly divorced, stranded in a small mountain town, and working as an elf at a cut-your-own-Christmas-tree farm, but I’m finally rid of my ex and putting food on the table. Independence rocks, and I’ve got zero interest in the former-SEAL-turned-firefighter who literally falls out of the sky and lands at my feet. Okay. Not zero interest. Jacks Benson is the foul-mouthed, irritating, way-too-sexy bad boy who tormented me through high school. He’s a player who got any girl he wanted… and now he claims he wants a second chance. A chance at me. If Jacks is my Christmas present, he’d better come with a gift receipt… because he’s on my naughty list and this is definitely not a case of finders-keepers. Her Christmas SEAL is a standalone novella in the Strong, California series. 22,000 words. The Strong, California Home Series Smoking Hot (Book #1 -- Tye and Katie) Sweet Burn (Book #2 -- Mack and Mimi) Yours for Christmas (Book #3 -- Zack and Bree) Heated (Book #4 -- Joey and Mercedes) One Hot SEAL (Book #5 -- Luke and Deelie) Her Firefighter SEAL (Book #6 -- Kade and Abbie) Her Christmas SEAL (Book #7 -- Jacks and Holly)