Download or read book The Run to the Pennant written by Duane W Rockerbie and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-23 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A number of clubs in professional sports leagues exhibit winning streaks over a number of consecutive seasons that do not conform to the standard economic model of a professional sports league developed by El Hodiri and Quirk (1994) and Fort and Quirk (1995). These clubs appear to display what we term "unsustainable runs", defined as a period of two to four seasons where the club acquires expensive talent and attempts to win a league championship despite not having the market size to sustain such a competitive position in the long run. The standard model predicts that clubs that locate in large economic markets will tend to acquire more talent, achieve more success on the field and at the box office than clubs that are located in small markets. This book builds a model that can allow unsustainable runs yet retains most of the features of the standard model. The model is then subjected to empirical verification. The new model we develop in the book has as its central feature the possibility of generating two equilibria for a club. In the empirical sections of the book, we use time-series analysis to attempt to test for the presence of unsustainable runs using historical data from National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). The multiple equilibria model retains all of the features of the standard model of a professional sports league that is accepted quite universally by economists, yet it offers a much richer approach by including an exploration of the effects of revenues that are earned at the league level (television, apparel, naming rights, etc.) that are then shared by all of the member clubs, making this book unique and of great interest to scholars in a variety of fields in economics.
Download or read book Pennant Race written by Jim Brosnan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Brosnan obviously knows his baseball, writes about it wittily, informally and with irony. He is a cynical, tough professional athlete and his book makes wonderful reading.”—New Yorker From the author of The Long Season—considered by many to be the greatest baseball book of all time—comes another classic sports memoir by legendary pitcher Jim Brosnan, which chronicles how his team, the Cincinnati Reds, went on to win the 1961 National League pennant. In Pennant Race, Brosnan—with his trademark wise-guy wit and plain-spoken practicality—once again offers a refreshingly candid alternative to hackneyed baseball mythologizing. Day by day, game by game, Brosnan reveals the real lives of professional ballplayers: their exhilaration and frustration, hope and despair, chronic worry over job security, playful camaraderie, world-weary cynicism, and boyish—if cautious—optimism. Although the Reds would ultimately lose the World Series to the Yankees, for Brosnan and his teammates, this was a winning season. Pennant Race vividly captures a remarkable year in the life of a ball club and the golden age of one of Major League Baseball’s most memorable eras.
Download or read book Under Pallor Under Shadow written by Bill Felber and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Babe Ruth, in his first season with the Yankees in 1920, was on pace to break the single-season home run record. In August Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was beaned by a pitch thrown by the Yankees? Carl Mays during a game in New York and died the next day. In September a grand jury convened in Chicago, and four White Sox players were called to testify about fixing the 1919 World Series. ø Focusing on the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, and the New York Yankees, this book takes us back to a pivotal season when baseball was shaken by tragedy and scandal and when power shifted irretrievably from the teams? owners to a single commissioner. The struggle for the soul of baseball, both on the field and off, is the story of how the entire American League structure changed. Following the fortunes of baseball?s stars of 1920, Under Pallor, Under Shadow shows us how a unique opportunity for reform was squandered and how the result was the transfer of authority from one powerful dictator (Ban Johnson) to another (Judge K. M. Landis). The first book to tie together the disparate elements of the 1920 pennant race, Under Pallor, Under Shadow shows us America?s pastime at a critical moment in the nation?s cultural history.
Download or read book Pennant Races written by Dave Anderson and published by Galahad Books. This book was released on 1997-03-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist delivers dramatic descriptions of fifteen suspense-filled pennant races from 1908 to 1993, in this insightful look at the drama of America's pastime.
Download or read book Before the Machine written by Mark Schmetzer and published by Clerisy Press. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Big Red Machine dominated major league baseball in the 1970s, but the Cincinnati franchise began its climb to that pinnacle in 1961, when an unlikely collection of cast-offs and wannabes stunned the baseball world by winning the National League pennant. Led by revered manager Fred Hutchinson, the team featured rising stars like Frank Robinson, Jim O’Toole, and Vada Pinson, fading stars like Gus Bell and Wally Post, and a few castoffs who suddenly came into their own, like Gene Freese and 20-game-winner Joey Jay. In time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their pennant-winning season, the amazing story of the “Ragamuffin Reds” is told from start to finish in Before the Machine. Written by long-time Reds Report editor Mark J. Schmetzer and featuring dozens of photos by award-winning photographer Jerry Klumpe of the Cincinnati Post & Times Star, this book surely will be a winner with every fan in Reds country and coincides with an anniversary exhibit at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Through interviews and research, Before the Machine captures the excitement of a pennant race for a team that had suffered losing seasons in 14 of the past 16 years. Schmetzer also beautifully evokes the time and place—a muggy Midwestern summer during which, as the new song of the season boasts, “the whole town’s batty for that team in Cincinnati.” Led by regional talk-show star Ruth Lyons (the Midwest’s “Oprah”) fans rallied around the Reds as never before. The year didn’t begin well for the team. Budding superstar Frank Robinson was arrested right before spring training for carrying a concealed weapon, and long-time owner Powel Crosley Jr., died suddenly just days before the start of the season. Few experts—or fans—gave the Reds much of a chance at first place anyway. With powerhouse teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Milwaukee, the National League pennant was unlikely to fly over Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. But manager Hutchinson somehow galvanized his motley crew and led them to victory after victory. Joey Jay, who had languished with the Braves, mowed down hitters while his rotation mates O’Toole and knuckleballer Bob Purkey did the same. The team also featured a dynamic duo in the bullpen in Bill Henry and Jim Brosnan, whose book about the season, Pennant Race, became a national bestseller the following year. As the rest of the league kept waiting for the Reds to fade, Hutch’s boys kept winning—and finally grabbed the pennant. Though they couldn’t continue their magic in the World Series against the Yankees, the previously moribund Reds franchise did continue to their success throughout the decade, winning 98 games in 1962 and falling just short of another pennant in 1964. They established a recipe for success that would lead, a few years later, to the emergence of the Big Red Machine.
Download or read book The 1967 American League Pennant Race written by Cameron Bright and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-05-12 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1967, in the midst of a nail-biting six-week pennant race, the Red Sox, Tigers, Twins and White Sox stood deadlocked atop the American League. Never before or since have four teams tied for the lead in baseball's final month. The stakes were high--there were no playoffs, the pennant winner went directly to the World Series. Here, for the first time, all four teams are treated as equals. The author describes their contrasting skill sets, leadership and temperament. The stress of such stiff and sustained competition was constant, and there were overt psychological and physical intimidations playing a major role throughout the season. The standings were volatile and so were emotions. The players and managers varied: some wilted or broke, others responded heroically.
Download or read book Pitching to the Pennant written by Joseph Wancho and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1954 Cleveland Indians were one of the most remarkable baseball teams of all time. Their record for most wins (111) fell only when the baseball schedule expanded, and their winning percentage, an astounding .721, is still unsurpassed in the American League. Though the season ended with a heartbreaking loss to the New York Giants in the World Series, the 1954 team remains a favorite among Cleveland fans and beyond. Pitching to the Pennant commemorates the ’54 Indians with a biographical sketch of the entire team, from the “Big Three” pitching staff (Mike Garcia and future Hall of Famers Bob Lemon and Early Wynn), through notable players such as Bobby Avila, Bob Feller, Larry Doby, and Al Rosen, to manager Al Lopez, his coaches, and the Indians’ broadcast team. There are also stories about Cleveland Stadium and the 1954 All-Star Game (which the team hosted), as well as a season timeline and a firsthand account of Game One of the World Series at the Polo Grounds. Pitching to the Pennant features the superb writing and research of members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), making this book a must for all Indians fans and baseball aficionados.
Download or read book The Summer of 64 written by William A. Cook and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2002-06-13 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1964 season, highlighted by two significant trades, a game-winning home run, and three no-hitters, was a dramatic one for the National League. But even more thrilling was that season's final week and the race for the pennant. All the drama of the 1964 National League season through the Cardinals' league championship is in this book. It covers Johnny Callison's All-Star game-winning home run, Duke Snider's trade from the New York Mets to the San Francisco Giants and Lou Brock's trade from the Cubs to the Cardinals, Reds manager Fred Hutchinson's battle with cancer (and his replacement, and death in November 1964), the controversial remarks made by Giants manager Alvin Dark about African American and Latin players on his own team, the no-hitters pitched by Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers, Jim Bunning of the Phillies, and Ken Johnson of the Colt .45s (later the Astros), the opening of Shea Stadium, and the demolition of the Polo Grounds. Special attention is given to the final weeks of the season when the Phillies collapsed with a six and a half game lead and twelve games to go, while battling it out with the Cardinals and the Reds.
Download or read book The Year Mom Won the Pennant written by Matt Christopher and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2009-12-19 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: a The boys are all hesitant when one boy's mother is the only parent who volunteers to coach their Little League team, but there is quite a surprise in store for them.
Download or read book Miracle Ball written by Brian Biegel and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nothing short of mind-blowing . . . Just amazing stuff"—Newsday "A fast-paced, fascinating tale that combines shoe leather, high-tech forensics and some healthy dollops of luck….Biegel makes a compelling case that he's solved the mystery…his book is a home run." – Associated Press October 3, 1951. Giants third baseman Bobby Thomson hit the most dramatic home run in the history of baseball. The moment occurred in the bottom of the ninth inning of a sudden-death playoff game between the New York Giants and their arch rivals from Brooklyn, the Dodgers. People across the nation watched on their new TV sets, and the home run became known as “the Shot Heard ’Round the World.” But after clearing the left-field wall, the central artifact of the play—the ball itself—inexplicably went missing. The mystery of what happened to the legendary baseball has remained unsolved for a half century. Until now. Miracle Ball is the gripping account of author Brian Biegel’s two-year effort to unravel the mystery that experts said could never be solved. A sports story for the ages, an engrossing mystery narrative, and a moving account of a man’s unbreakable bond with his family and of his struggles to save himself, Miracle Ball delivers both heart and headlines.
Download or read book The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant written by Robin Roberts and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every generation or so, a team comes along whose march toward victory is so improbable that you can't help but root them along. The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies was that kind of team; young and spirited, the Whiz Kids played a raw, emotional brand of baseball, nipping the Brooklyn Dodgers on the final day of the season to bring the National League's perennial doormat its first title in 35 years. Hall-of-Fame member Robin Roberts, the team's ace starter, peppers his recollections with snippets of oral history from his teammates to produce a book as lively as the team itself.--
Download or read book In Pursuit of Pennants written by Mark Armour and published by University of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-04-01 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage.
Download or read book Terrace Legends The Most Terrifying And Frightening Book Ever Written About Soccer Violence written by Cass Pennant and published by Kings Road Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet the men who, for decades, have ruled the football terraces. They are the faces behind the biggest firms in football history; behind the rucks, the rules and the respect. They have caused chaos for the public and the press and struck fear into rival fans that have crossed their path. In this book, the men behind the mobs have joined forces to reveal their experiences as key figures in the most notorious terrace fights. From the bovver boys of the sixties and seventies to the football casuals of the eighties, the names central to the biggest firms - the names that were to become the stuff that terrace legends were made of - have all been tracked down and interviewed. They tell their stories in this book.
Download or read book Swinging 73 written by Matthew Silverman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest and attendance were dropping, and football was ascending. Stuck in a rut, baseball was dying. Then Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, a second-division club with wife-swapping pitchers, leaving the House That Ruth Built not with a slam but a simper. He vowed not to interfere—before soon changing his mind. Across town, Tom Seaver led the Mets’ stellar pitching line-up, and iconic outfielder Willie Mays was preparing to say goodbye. For months, the Mets, under Yogi Berra, couldn’t get it right. Meanwhile, the A’s were breaking a ban on facial hair while maverick owner Charlie Finley was fighting to keep them underpaid. But beneath the muttonchops and mayhem, lay another world. Elvis commanded a larger audience than the Apollo landings. A Dodge Dart cost $2,800, gas was a quarter per gallon. A fiscal crisis loomed; Vietnam had ended, the vice president resigned, and Watergate had taken over. It was one of the most exciting years in the game’s history, the first with the designated hitter and the last before arbitration and free agency. The two World Series opponents went head-to-head above the baby steps of a dynasty that soon dwarfed both league champions. It was a turbulent time for the country and the game, neither of which would ever be the same again.
Download or read book The Pitch That Killed written by Mike Sowell and published by Lyons Press. This book was released on 2015-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ESPN the Magazine calls The Pitch That Killed "The best baseball book no one has read." This new edition with a foreword by TK introduces to a new generation of readers this classic account of baseball's only death at bat--how the popular Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians w...
Download or read book A Moment in Time written by Ralph Branca and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Branca is best known for throwing the pitch that resulted in the historic home run that capped an incredible comeback and won the pennant for the Giants in 1951. He was on the losing end of what many consider to be baseball's most thrilling moment, but that notoriety belies a profoundly successful life and career.
Download or read book Vintage Pennant Price Guide II written by mike egner and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second edition of the Vintage Pennant Price Guide. It has been updated with prices and now has over 2,200 baseball and football pennants spanning 348 pages. A must have for any collector or dealer. This is also available in full color for Kindle or eBook for desktop or tablet. "The Vintage Pennant Price Guide II is a tremendous resource for all collectors! Vintage pennants are a difficult area for research. This guide is comprehensive. It provides illustrations and notes and values for over 2,200 pennants. It is THE guide for this popular area of collecting. The Vintage Pennant Price Guide has a permanent place in our reference library." Robert Lifson, President, Robert Edward Auctions, LLC "Absolutely tremendous resource guide that is a must have for anyone who ever wants to buy or sell pennants. You did a tremendous job with it and we look forward to using it for every auction we run!" Josh Wulkan, Vice President, Huggins and Scott Auctions
