Download or read book The Baseball Starter written by W. George Scarlett and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-01-13 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an emphasis on instilling a love for the game, this handbook instructs parents and coaches on teaching the basics of baseball to young players. More than 80 photos demonstrate the proper techniques for hitting, fielding, and pitching, and appendices of games and drills reinforce the lessons in ways that youths will enjoy. Taking into account the differing needs of players by age, the authors provide separate discussions for young children and adolescents.
Download or read book The Evolution of Pitching in Major League Baseball written by William F. McNeil and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2006-03-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are today's major league baseball pitchers better than ever? Or do they pale in comparison to the great hurlers of 20, 30 or 40 years ago? This book tackles a debate that has been traveling baseball circles for several years. With changes in everything from the size of the playing field to the composition of the ball, it's a tall task to compare pitchers over the 170-year history of the sport in America. No stone is unturned as this work delves into every facet from the ancient roots of the game to the bigger size of today's players. The first chapters reach back to the first known "batting contests" in Egypt 5,000 years ago and bring readers to a popular 18th century English game called rounders, which evolved into organized baseball in 19th century America. The following chapters then pace through the changes in rules that helped mold baseball into its modern form, and discusses innovators like James 'Jimmy' Creighton and Asa Brainard, early stars like Cy Young and Walter Johnson, and modern day standouts such as Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood. The book explores rule changes, adaptations to pitching and pitching strategies, and the effect of pitcher injuries and conditioning, among other influences. Fourteen former major league players comment on the game. The final chapter reviews what has happened to major league pitching. Appendices give stats for major league starting pitchers with comparisons by era, list those with more than 5,000 career innings pitched, list relief pitchers and their single season save records, and a look at the increase in major league home runs from 1919 to 2004.
Download or read book Winning Baseball written by Trent Mongero and published by Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated. This book was released on 2011 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From age-appropriate drills to motivation strategies, this step-by-step guide to youth baseball offers all the information parents and coaches need to help young players reach their full potential.
Download or read book Dear Baseball Gods A Memoir written by Dan Blewett and published by Dan Blewett. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dear Baseball Gods, Why didn't you look out for him? Didn't he deserve better? He hustled, competed, and played the game the right way. What happened wasn't fair. A Second Comeback Dan sat by a tree, staring at the ground trying to decide what he would do next. The doctor had just explained that everything he worked for was now ruined. A second Tommy John surgery? Does anyone come back from that? Is my career over? Is this it? A Winding Road to the Top As a walk-on in college, Dan had to earn everything. He pitched on three hours sleep, lived in the clubhouse, played for a team that collapsed mid-season, and endured more arm pain than any kid should. A Way to Move On When finally forced to hang up his cleats, Dan looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the man peering back. If no longer a ballplayer...what would he do? What had been the point of it all? Who was he? The Deeper Side of Life as an Athlete In this philosophical memoir, written as a series of letters, you'll learn that the pinstripes don't wash off so easily.
Download or read book Squish the Bug written by Danny Jordan and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2006-10 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The landscape of amateur baseball has drastically changed over the last few years. In that time, we have forgotten to remind ourselves that we are dealing with children. Baseball is a game that does offer life lessons and promotes hard work and discipline. What place does joy, inexperience, and futile effort have in the game today? If understanding the game of baseball is such a vital part of achieving success, then, let us step back and simplify the teaching process. "Squish the Bug" A Beginners Guide to Baseball is focused on delivering a simple and positive introduction to baseball for players and parents alike. If we can develop a clear understanding of the necessary fundamentals, then improvement and enrichment will soon follow. Have fun with "Squish the Bug", A Beginner's Guide to Baseball, it may reveal that those closest to our youngsters could very be their best coaches.
Download or read book Ahead of the Curve written by Brian Kenny and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A delight for baseball lovers” (Kirkus Reviews) and “one of the most significant baseball books of the year” (Bob Costas) Ahead of the Curve uses stories from baseball’s present and past to examine why we sometimes choose ignorance over information, and how tradition can trump logic. Forget batting average. Kill the “Win.” Say goodbye to starting pitchers. And please, please stop bunting. MLB Network anchor and commentator Brian Kenny provides “an excellent, entertaining read for the all-around baseball fan” (Library Journal) and shows how baseball has been revolutionized—not destroyed—by analytical thinking. Most people who resist logical thought in baseball preach “tradition” and “respecting the game.” But many of baseball’s traditions go back to the nineteenth century, when the pitcher’s job was to provide the batter with a ball he could hit and fielders played without gloves. Instead of fearing change, Brian Kenny wants fans to think critically, reject outmoded groupthink, and embrace the changes that have come with the sabermetric era. In his entertaining and enlightening book, Kenny discusses why the pitching win-loss record, the Triple Crown, fielding errors, and so-called battling titles should be ignored. He also points out how fossilized sportswriters have been electing the wrong MVP’s and ignoring legitimate candidates for the Hall of Fame; why managers are hired based on their looks; and how the most important position in baseball may just be “Director of Decision Sciences.” “Prepare to have your brain and your assumptions challenged. Guided by data and a deep love of the game, Brian Kenny takes a cutting-edge look at where baseball is and where it is going” (Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated). Illustrated with unique anecdotes from those who have reshaped the game, Ahead of the Curve is “a great story about the game in the age of information and technology” (Billy Beane).
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 My First Book of Baseball written by The Editors of Sports Illustrated Kids and published by Sports Illustrated Kids. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My First Book of Baseball, the second Rookie Book from Sports Illustrated Kids, coaches young kids through the game of baseball with a visual retelling of an actual MLB game--from the first pitch to the game winning hit! Strikes, outs, steals, foul balls, home runs and more are all explained using a fun mix of Sports Illustrated action photography, simple text with engaging graphics, and a full glossary of essential baseball terms and phrases. An illustrated rookie player character also appears on every page, providing fun facts to help the next generation of fans better understand the game. Perfect for beginning readers, My First Book of Baseball is meant to be a shared reading experience between parents and their young minor league rookies before, during, and after the ball game.
Download or read book The Baseball Fanbook written by The Editors of Sports Illustrated Kids and published by Time Inc. Books. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everything You Need to Become a Hardball Know-It-All The next book in the Fanbook series from Sports Illustrated Kids, The Baseball Fanbook has all the nerdy-cool insider knowledge that fans ready for next-level, in-depth stats need to know to impress their friends, family, coaches, and any season ticket holders they may meet. Tailor-made for baseball fanatics ages 8 and up who know the basics of the sport they love, may play it, and are looking to become super fans, this new fanbook is filled with fun trivia, unique lingo, and illustrated behind-the-skills how-to's. Chapters include Team Tidbits (salient baseball facts about every MLB team), Think Like a Manager (essential strategies to understand), He Reminds Me Of (compares current players to legendary greats of AmericaÕs favorite pastime), and much more!
Download or read book Clean Your Cleats written by Dan Blewett and published by Dan Blewett. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Does it Take to Have a Great Baseball Career? You daydream about one day seeing your face on a baseball card. You live for pressure and the green grass beneath your cleats. But as your career progresses, the game gets harder. You slump and struggle. You get injured and overlooked. Your confidence plummets. Can you keep improving? Are your big dreams still within reach? A Handbook for the Dedicated Player Clean Your Cleats is filled with stories and advice learned the hard way, over a long career on the diamond. Develop better routines and improve your consistency. Handle the ups and downs with confidence and resolve. Strengthen relationships with teammates, parents and coaches. Learn mindset strategies to become the best version of you. Dan Blewett, in this practical guide, helps players understand all the little things in baseball that make a huge difference over a long career. Why clean your cleats? Because every detail matters.
Download or read book Absolute Beginner s Guide to Coaching Youth Baseball written by Tom Hanlon and published by Que Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you ready to coach the Cubs to a championship victory? How about a little league or T-ball championship? Not ready for either one? We can help! Absolute Beginner's Guide to Coaching Youth Baseball is a beginning youth baseball coach's ultimate reference guide. Your practice time is probably already limited, so don't waste it trying to figure out what to do. Plan ahead with our easy-to-follow chapters that cover: identifying your roles and expectations as a coach, tailoring instruction to your age group, creating a safe playing environment, knowing how to coach effectively during games, celebrating victories and much more. Our book web page will be a coaching resource as well, with downloadable practice plans, emergency information cards, injury reports, awards and certificates, and season evaluation forms. Go into day 1 as if its day 1001 of your coaching career with the help of Absolute Beginner's Guide to Coaching Youth Baseball.
Download or read book Pulling Starters written by Duncan Finigan and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We study a fundamental strategic decision in baseball: when (if at all) to make the “call to the bullpen” and pull the starting pitcher. We first use a simple theoretical model to show that at the optimal time to pull the starter, the pitching change should yield a strict improvement in current pitching quality (i.e., a strict decrease in runs allowed in the current inning). We then use detailed pitch-level data from the 2008-2017 seasons to estimate the effects of pulling the starter on both runs allowed in the current inning and on win probability. We argue that the pulling starter decision is plausibly “as good as random” conditional on the large set of included covariates, but acknowledge the lack of true randomization. We find that the predicted effect of pulling the starter on runs allowed is indeed negative, but the effect on win probability is a precise zero. We then examine how these choices are affected by game situations and recent game events, including a measure of lucky hitting performance, and find only scattered and limited evidence of biases. We interpret the results to imply that call to the bullpen decisions are approximately Bayesian-optimal. However, there was a steady downward trend in the mean inning that starters were pulled over a period of decades prior to our sample time-frame. Thus, even if managers make approximately Bayesian-optimal choices now, this is likely due to not only learning from their own experiences, but also learning from prior generations and the long-term stability of the baseball context.
Download or read book Starting and Closing written by John Smoltz and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Smoltz was one of the greatest Major League pitchers of the late twentieth / early twenty-first century—one of only two in baseball history ever to achieve twenty wins and fifty saves in single seasons—and now he shares the candid, no-holds-barred story of his life, his career, and the game he loves in Starting and Closing. A Cy Young Award-winner, future Baseball Hall of Famer, and currently a broadcaster for his former team, the Atlanta Braves, Smoltz delivers a powerful memoir with the kind of fascinating insight into game that made Moneyball a runaway bestseller, plus a heartfelt and truly inspiring faith and religious conviction, similar to what illuminates each page of Tim Tebow’s smash hit memoir, Through My Eyes.
Download or read book Pitching Isn t Complicated written by Dan Blewett and published by . This book was released on 2013-12 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many complexities in pitching, but the complexities are the last ten percent, not the first ninety. The first 90% - the things every good pitcher does - are simple. Pitching. Isn't. Complicated. is a concise explanation of the pitching maxims that every pitcher must exhibit. Covered are mechanics, mindset, mental training, situational pitching, holding runners, and more. The author has combined his playing experience with innovative training techniques to become one of the most successful young pitching coaches in the country. The methods in this book are not sensational and there are no fads, no superfluous exercises and no gimmicks. Rather, the goal is to provide only the best drills, teaching methods and concepts that comprise the optimal dose of training. Pitching. Isn't. Complicated. is a concise, layman and actionable book written to give coaches, parents and pitchers a holistic understanding of elite pitching. With a mountain of conflicting information available on the Internet, the development of pitchers has become more confusing than ever; this book will change that.
Download or read book K A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches written by Tyler Kepner and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From The New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today. The baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration can turn an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation. From the earliest days of the game, when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach, pitchers have never stopped innovating. In K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart. Filled with priceless insights from many of the best pitchers in baseball history--from Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Nolan Ryan to Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw--K will be the definitive book on pitching and join such works as The Glory of Their Times and Moneyball as a classic of the genre.
Download or read book Out of My League written by Dirk Hayhurst and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestseller from the author of The Bullpen Gospels. “A humorous, candid and insightful memoir . . . Grade: Home Run.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer After six years in the minors, pitcher Dirk Hayhurst hopes 2008 is the year he breaks into the big leagues. But every time Dirk looks up, the bases are loaded with challenges—a wedding balancing on a blind hope, a family in chaos, and paychecks that beg Dirk to ask, “How long can I afford to keep doing this?” Then it finally happens—Dirk gets called up to the Majors, to play for the San Diego Padres. A dream comes true when he takes the mound against the San Francisco Giants, kicking off forty insane days and nights in the Bigs. Like the classic games of baseball’s history, Out of My League entertains from the first pitch to the last out, capturing the gritty realities of playing on the big stage, the comedy and camaraderie in the dugouts and locker rooms, and the hard-fought, personal journeys that drive our love of America’s favorite pastime. “A rare gem of a baseball book.”—Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated “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 “The book is a terrific read. If you loved Bullpen Gospels (I’d have a hard time believing you are a baseball fan if you didn’t) you will love Out of My League too.”—Bluebird Banter
Download or read book The Starting Pitcher written by Rob Trucks and published by Clerisy Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No position on the field receives more attention from fans than the starting pitcher, and yet it is one of the most misunderstood positions in all of baseball. Author Rob Trucks conducted dozens of interviews with major league hurlers, from past greats like Jim Kaat and Bill Spaceman Lee to today's top pitchers, including Bronson Arroyo and Jake Peavy, to give baseball fans an insider's look at this key position.
