Download or read book Francona written by Terry Francona and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2013 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Francona explores his tenure in Boston, examining how the beleaguered Red Sox reached incredible highs and equally incredible lows under his management, including several championship victories.

Download or read book Our Team written by Luke Epplin and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The riveting story of four men—Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige—whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond. In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most meaningful seasons in baseball history. In intimate, absorbing detail, Luke Epplin's Our Team traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy. Together, as the backbone of a team that epitomized the postwar American spirit in all its hopes and contradictions, these four men would captivate the nation by storming to the World Series--all the while rewriting the rules of what was possible in sports.

Download or read book Moneyball The Art of Winning an Unfair Game written by Michael Lewis and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2004-03-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Lewis’s instant classic may be “the most influential book on sports ever written” (People), but “you need know absolutely nothing about baseball to appreciate the wit, snap, economy and incisiveness of [Lewis’s] thoughts about it” (Janet Maslin, New York Times). One of GQ's 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century Just before the 2002 season opens, the Oakland Athletics must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players and is written off by just about everyone—but then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins. How did one of the poorest teams in baseball win so many games? In a quest to discover the answer, Michael Lewis delivers not only “the single most influential baseball book ever” (Rob Neyer, Slate) but also what “may be the best book ever written on business” (Weekly Standard). Lewis first looks to all the logical places—the front offices of major league teams, the coaches, the minds of brilliant players—but discovers the real jackpot is a cache of numbers?numbers!?collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers, and physics professors. What these numbers prove is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information had been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics. He paid attention to those numbers?with the second-lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to?to conduct an astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win . . . how can we not cheer for David?

Download or read book Mind Gym written by Gary Mack and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2002-06-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for Mind Gym "Believing in yourself is paramount to success for any athlete. Gary's lessons and David's writing provide examples of the importance of the mental game." --Ben Crenshaw, two-time Masters champion and former Ryder Cup captain "Mind Gym hits a home run. If you want to build mental muscle for the major leagues, read this book." --Ken Griffey Jr., Major League Baseball MVP "I read Mind Gym on my way to the Sydney Olympics and really got a lot out of it. Gary has important lessons to teach, and you'll find the exercises fun and beneficial." --Jason Kidd, NBA All-Star and Olympic gold-medal winner In Mind Gym, noted sports psychology consultant Gary Mack explains how your mind influences your performance on the field or on the court as much as your physical skill does, if not more so. Through forty accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes--many of whom he has worked with--you will learn the same techniques and exercises Mack uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle." Mind Gym will give you the "head edge" over the competition.

Download or read book Good Economics for Hard Times written by Abhijit V. Banerjee and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.

Download or read book The Big Fella written by Jane Leavy and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Jane Leavy, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax, comes the definitive biography of Babe Ruth—the man Roger Angell dubbed "the model for modern celebrity." A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018 “Leavy’s newest masterpiece…. A major work of American history by an author with a flair for mesmerizing story-telling.” —Forbes He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. Like all the new-fangled gadgets then flooding the marketplace—radios, automatic clothes washers, Brownie cameras, microphones and loudspeakers—Babe Ruth "made impossible events happen." Aided by his crucial partnership with Christy Walsh—business manager, spin doctor, damage control wizard, and surrogate father, all stuffed into one tightly buttoned double-breasted suit—Ruth drafted the blueprint for modern athletic stardom. His was a life of journeys and itineraries—from uncouth to couth, spartan to spendthrift, abandoned to abandon; from Baltimore to Boston to New York, and back to Boston at the end of his career for a finale with the only team that would have him. There were road trips and hunting trips; grand tours of foreign capitals and post-season promotional tours, not to mention those 714 trips around the bases. After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Herald called it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times. Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man.

Download or read book The Music and Mythocracy of Col Bruce Hampton written by Jerry Grillo and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Col. Bruce Hampton was a charismatic musical figure who launched and continued to influence the jam band genre over his fifty-plus years performing. Part bandleader, soul singer, storyteller, conjuror, poet, preacher, comedian, philosopher, and trickster, Col. Bruce actively sought out and dealt in the weird, wild underbelly of the American South. The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton is neither a true biography in the Boswellian sense nor a work of cultural studies, although it combines elements of both. Even as biographer Jerry Grillo has investigated and pursued the facts, this life history of Col. Bruce reads like a novel—one full of amazing tales of a musical life lived on and off the road. Grillo’s interviews with Hampton and his bandmates, family, friends, and fans paint a fascinating portrait of an artist who fostered some of the best music ever played in America. Grillo aims not so much to document and demystify the self-mythologizing performer as to explain why his fans and friends loved him so dearly. Hampton’s family history, his place in Atlanta and southeastern musical history, his significant friendships and musical relationships, and the controversies over personnel in his Hampton Grease Band over the years are all discussed. What emerges is a portrait of a P. T. Barnum of the musical world, but one who included his audience and invited them through the tent door to share his inside joke, with plenty of joy to go around.

Download or read book Baseball the Wright Way written by Clyde Wright and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No-hitters are rare in baseball. Father-and-son combinations are rarer. Baseball the Wright Way covers all those bases and then some. Two pitchers with vastly contrasting styles, both Clyde Wright and his son Jaret Wright discuss the art and craft of pitching with an authentic, straightforward sincerity that will captivate all baseball fans. In the mid-1960s, Clyde became the country boy from Tennessee who had his feet in LA when he made his debut with the California Angels. With his special brand of small-town, country charm, Clyde invites you to relive his journey from the farm to the major leagues, where he won one hundred games, tossed a no-hitter, made an all-star team, and played alongside and against many superstars and Hall of Famers in the backdrop of sunny Southern California. From there, Clyde spent three years pitching in Japan, forging many lifelong friendships in the Land of the Rising Sun. When his playing days were done, Clyde returned to Anaheim and launched a pitching school where he trained thousands of major-league-hopeful youths for decades. One of those hopefuls was his son Jaret, who later carved out an eleven-year major league pitching career of his own that included starting game 7 of the 1997 World Series as a twenty-one-year-old rookie for the Cleveland Indians. Jaret picks up the story where his dad leaves off and moves candidly and honestly through his time in the major leagues, where he quickly rose to prominence and played with and against many of the game's legends. If you are a baseball fan, this book is right in your wheelhouse. If you are not a baseball fan, then Clyde and Jaret Wright will convert you with fascinating tales of life before, during, and after baseball.

Download or read book Big Sexy written by Bartolo Colón and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The All-Star pitcher tells his incredible life story from picking coffee in the Dominican Republic to reaching MLB icon status in America. Legendary baseball pitcher Bartolo Colón—also known as Big Sexy—is one of the most beloved athletes to ever play the game. Honored with the Cy Young Award in 2005, Colón has won more games than any other Latin American–born pitcher. But more importantly, Big Sexy has captured the hearts of fans as well as the elite competitors he has played against. In Big Sexy: In His Own Words, he opens up as never before, telling the story of his life and his decades-long career. The result is a touching and deeply personal story of a truly unique baseball life.

Download or read book The Hidden Language of Baseball written by Paul Dickson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baseball is set apart from other sports by many things, but few are more distinctive than the intricate systems of coded language that govern action on the field and give baseball its unique appeal. During a nine-inning game, more than 1,000 silent instructions are given-from catcher to pitcher, coach to batter, fielder to fielder, umpire to umpire-and without this speechless communication the game would simply not be the same. Baseball historian Paul Dickson examines for the first time the rich legacy of baseball's hidden language, offering fans everywhere a smorgasbord of history and anecdote. Whether detailing the origins of the hit-and-run, the true story behind the home run that gave "Home Run" Baker his nickname, Bob Feller's sign-stealing telescope, Casey Stengel's improbable method of signaling his bullpen, the impact of sign stealing on the Giants' miraculous comeback in 1951, or the pitches Andy Pettitte tipped off that altered the momentum of the 2001 World Series, Dickson's research is as thorough as his stories are entertaining. A roster of baseball's greatest names and games, past and present, echoes throughout, making The Hidden Language of Baseball a unique window on the history of our national pastime.

Download or read book Modern Data Science with R written by Benjamin S. Baumer and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-03-31 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a review of the first edition: "Modern Data Science with R... is rich with examples and is guided by a strong narrative voice. What’s more, it presents an organizing framework that makes a convincing argument that data science is a course distinct from applied statistics" (The American Statistician). Modern Data Science with R is a comprehensive data science textbook for undergraduates that incorporates statistical and computational thinking to solve real-world data problems. Rather than focus exclusively on case studies or programming syntax, this book illustrates how statistical programming in the state-of-the-art R/RStudio computing environment can be leveraged to extract meaningful information from a variety of data in the service of addressing compelling questions. The second edition is updated to reflect the growing influence of the tidyverse set of packages. All code in the book has been revised and styled to be more readable and easier to understand. New functionality from packages like sf, purrr, tidymodels, and tidytext is now integrated into the text. All chapters have been revised, and several have been split, re-organized, or re-imagined to meet the shifting landscape of best practice.

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 The Jewish Phenomenon written by Steve Silbiger and published by Taylor Trade Publications. This book was released on 2000-05-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With truly startling statistics and a wealth of anecdotes, Silbiger reveals the cultural principles that form the bedrock of Jewish success in America.

Download or read book Incredible Women of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League written by Anika Orrock and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book chronicles the history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the stories of the first women to play professional baseball in a league of their own. In 1941, the world was at war, and with able-bodied American men fighting overseas, professional baseball was in danger of becoming a quaint relic—until women stepped up to the plate. In this heartwarming illustrated history, the League's story is told by the ones who know it best: the players. Author Anika Orrock collects a variety of funny, charming, wince-worthy, and powerful vignettes told by the players themselves about their time playing the American pastime. • Features stories of grit and perseverance against all odds, told by the players themselves • Filled with player statistics, historical beats, headlines, and more; and fully illustrated in Anika's vibrant style • A visually engaging, readable women-led history book Written in an approachable manner and beautifully illustrated, The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is a one-of-a-kind story told through the women's own voices and their own perspectives. This book ultimately proves that the incredible women of the AAGPBL truly were in a league of their own. • A unique celebration of a specific moment in women's and sports history • A great read for experienced and new sports fans alike, readers young and old, baseball fans • Perfect accompaniment to books like Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky, Strong is the New Pretty by Kate T. Parker, and Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future! by Kate Schatz

Download or read book Paris Without End written by Gioia Diliberto and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A bittersweet modern love story [that] reads as easily as a novel.” —Vogue “Fascinating. . . . A detailed, grittier portrait of the woman Hemingway loved and left.” —Newsday Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway were the golden couple of Paris in the twenties, the center of an expatriate community boasting the likes of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and James and Nora Joyce. In this haunting account of the young Hemingways, Gioia Diliberto explores their passionate courtship, their family life in Paris with baby Bumby, and their thrilling, adventurous relationship—a literary love story scarred by Hadley’s loss of the only copy of Hemingway’s first novel and ultimately destroyed by a devastating ménage à trois on the French Riviera. Compelling, illuminating, poignant, and deeply insightful, Paris Without End provides a rare, intimate glimpse of the writer who so fully captured the American imagination and the remarkable woman who inspired his passion and his art—the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving.

Download or read book Patterns for College Writing written by Laurie G. Kirszner and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-12-22 with total page 837 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, authors with nearly thirty years of experience teaching college writing, know what works in the classroom and have a knack for picking just the right readings. In Patterns for College Writing, they provide students with exemplary rhetorical models and instructors with class-tested selections that balance classic and contemporary essays. Along with more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patterns has the most comprehensive coverage of active reading, research, and the writing process, with a five-chapter mini-rhetoric; the clearest explanations of the patterns of development; and the most thorough apparatus of any rhetorical reader, all reasons why Patterns for College Writing is the best-selling reader in the country. And the new edition includes exciting new readings and expanded coverage of critical reading, working with sources, and research. It is now available as an interactive Bedford e-book and in a variety of other e-book formats that can be downloaded to a computer, tablet, or e-reader. Read the preface.

Download or read book The New York Times Index written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 2194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: