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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Baseball
The City by the Sea boasts an ambitious baseball history dating
back to the early days of America's favorite pastime. In 1897, the
Newport Colts became the first professional baseball team to ever
tie in a playoff series. By the 1900s, baseball was being played
daily on open fields and diamonds throughout Newport. The city has
sported six major ball fields, including Cardines Field, host to
the oldest continuously running amateur baseball team in the
country. Discover the humble beginnings of players like Newport
native Frank Corridon, who allegedly invented the now outlawed
spitball, and the legacy of the great Trojans baseball club. Team
up with baseball historian Rick Harris and walk through the history
of Newport baseball from amateur games to the major leagues and all
the strikes, homers and grand slams in between.
If there was ever a place in America where a city and its baseball
team were as close as family, it was Brooklyn. The legacy of this
relationship comes down to us in stories of childhoods spent at
Ebbets Field and in the stories of Jackie Robinson and Branch
Rickey, whose courage changed the face of America. Baseball in
Brooklyn goes back to the beginning of the sport, when a young city
embraced a new game and, like missionaries, carried it to the
nation. This book tells the story of that beginning and concludes
with the heart-wrenching move of the franchise to the West Coast
after the 1957 season.
Brooklyn Dodgers carries us from the birth of baseball in the
streets of Brooklyn through the decades in Flatbush when Ebbets
Field was the center of the Brooklyn community. That was a time
when the players lived in the neighborhoods not far from the
ballpark, side by side with their followers. Duke Snider, Pee Wee
Reese, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, and Johnny Podres all make
appearances in this exciting selection of photographs. A large part
of Brooklyn Dodgers is dedicated to those teams of the 1950s and
their irrepressible fans.
Dubbed "America's Game" by Walt Whitman, baseball has been enjoyed
in our nation's capital by everyone from young boys playing street
stickball to Presidents throwing out the inaugural first pitch of
the season. Just 13 years after Alexander Cartwright codified
baseball's rules, the Washington Nationals Baseball Club formed and
in 1867 toured the country spreading the "baseball gospel." By 1901
the team became one of the first eight major league teams in the
newly formed American League. Players such as Walter Johnson,
probably the greatest pitcher of all time, and other Senators under
the stewardship of owner Clark Griffith successfully led the club
in 1924 to what many consider to be the most exciting World Series
in baseball history. Later, the Homestead Grays played at Griffith
Stadium and fielded a team featuring legendary Negro League greats
such as Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard. The powerhouse Grays, during
a ten-year span, won nine Negro League World Championships, a
record that may never be equaled in any team sport again. When the
Grays disbanded, the original Senators left for Minnesota in 1960,
and the expansion Senators of the 1960s relocated, the city was
left without a professional baseball team. While many feared that
baseball in D.C. was over, a spirit remained on the diamond and is
still felt today as children and adults team up in one way or
another to play the national pastime in the nation's capital. Hopes
for a new professional team linger, and those remembering
baseball's heyday will enjoy this extensive and unusual collection
ofhistoric photos that celebrate a time when the crowds roared and
Washingtonians believed that the summer game would never end.
A TRUE STORY OF FINDING THE AMERICAN DREAM . . . ABROAD
India is a country with more than one billion people, a fanatical
national cricket obsession, and exactly zero talent scouts. There,
superstar sports agent J. B. Bernstein knew that he could find the
Yao Ming of baseball-- someone with a strong arm and enough raw
talent to pitch in the major leagues. Almost no one in India is
familiar with the game, but Bernstein had heard enough coaches
swear that if you gave them a guy who throws a hundred miles an
hour, they could teach him how to pitch. So in 2007, Bernstein flew
to Mumbai with a radar gun and a plan to find his diamond in the
rough. His idea was "The Million Dollar Arm," a reality television
competition with a huge cash prize and a chance to become the first
native of India to sign a contract with an American major-league
team.
The result is a humorous and inspiring story about three guys
transformed: Bernstein, the consummate bachelor and shrewd
businessman, and Dinesh and Rinku, the two young men from small
farming villages whom he brought home to California. "Million
Dollar Arm" is a timeless reflection on baseball and the American
dream, as well as a tale of victory over incredible odds. But,
above all, it's about the limitless possibilities inside every one
of us.
Nestled at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers in the
first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory resides one
of the most dominant college baseball dynasties in the nation. The
Marietta College Pioneers - known as the 'Etta Express for the way
they've barreled over opponents for half a century - own a record
five NCAA Division III National Championships, including 2011.
Finally, the best kept secret in college sports springs to life as
author Gary Caruso digs into the personalities behind this
incredible success story to reveal the compelling human drama
that's made Marietta College baseball a treasure all readers are
sure to enjoy.
Shawn Green's career statistics can be found on the backs of
baseball cards in shoeboxes across America: 328 home runs, 1,071
RBIs, .282 career batting average, All-Star, Gold Glove, Silver
Slugger . . . but numbers tell only part of the story.
In the tradition of Phil Jackson's "Sacred Hoops, "Shawn Green
illustrates the spiritual practices that guided his career and
enabled him to "bring stillness into the flow of life." In "The Way
of Baseball, "he shares the secrets to remaining focused both on
and off the field, shedding light on a signature approach to living
by using his remarkable baseball experiences to exemplify how one
can find full awareness, presence, and, ultimately, fulfillment in
any endeavor.
"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." -- Babe Ruth Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero.
In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his later years, Creamer has drawn a classic portrait of an American original.
A collection of iconic, unbelievable, and intimate stories from
baseball history that celebrate the enduring impact of the national
pastime. Baseball--rooted as it is in tradition and
nostalgia--lends itself to the retelling of its timeless tales. So
it is with the stories in Classic Baseball, a collection of
articles written by award-winning journalist John Rosengren and
originally published by Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, Sports
on Earth, VICE Sports, and other magazines. These are stories about
the game's legends--Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Josh Gibson, Bob
Feller, Frank Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Kirby Puckett--and its
lesser-knowns with extraordinary stories of their own. They cover
some of the game's most famous moments, like Hank Aaron hitting No.
715, and some you've never heard of, like the time the Ku Klux Klan
played a game against an all-Black team. Whether it be the story of
John Roseboro forgiving Juan Marichal for clubbing him in the head
with a bat, Elston Howard breaking down the Yankees' systemic
racism to integrate America's team, or the national pastime played
on snowshoes during July in a remote Wisconsin town, these are
stories meant to be read and read again for their poignancy, their
humor, and their celebration of baseball.
Red Sox MVP Pedroia tells this feel-good story about his love of
baseball, overcoming the naysayers, and winning a World Series in
his first season.
Could Confucius hit a curveball? Could Yoda block the plate? Can the Dalai Lama dig one out of the dirt? No, there is only one Zen master who could contemplate the circle of life while rounding the bases. Who is this guru lurking in the grand old game? Well, he's the winner of ten World Series rings, a member of both the Hall of Fame and the All-Century Team, and perhaps the most popular and beloved ballplayer of all time. And without effort or artifice he's waxed poetic on the mysteries of time ("It gets late awful early out there"), the meaning of community ("It's so crowded nobody goes there anymore"), and even the omnipresence of hope in the direst circumstances ("It ain't over 'til it's over"). It's Yogi Berra, of course, and in What Time Is It? You Mean Now? Yogi expounds on the funny, warm, borderline inadvertent insights that are his trademark. Twenty-six chapters, one for each letter, examine the words, the meaning, and the uplifting example of a kid from St. Louis who grew up to become the consummate Yankee and the ultimate Yogi.
MILLIONS OF AMERICAN BASEBALL FANS KNOW, WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY,
that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job
badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong.
"As They See 'Em "is an insider's look at the largely unknown world
of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very
occasional woman) who make sure America's favorite pastime is
conducted in a manner that is clean, crisp, and true. Bruce Weber,
a "New York Times "reporter, not only interviewed dozens of
professional umpires but entered their world, trained to become an
umpire, then spent a season working games from Little League to big
league spring training. "As They See 'Em "is Weber's entertaining
account of this experience as well as a lively exploration of what
amounts to an eccentric secret society, with its own customs, its
own rituals, its own colorful vocabulary. Writing with deep
knowledge of and affection for baseball, he delves into such
questions as: Why isn't every strike created equal? Is the ump part
of the game or outside of it? Why doesn't a tie go to the runner?
And what do umps and managers say to each other during an argument,
really?
Packed with fascinating reportage that reveals the game as never
before and answers the kinds of questions that fans, exasperated by
the cliches of conventional sports commentary, pose to themselves
around the television set, Bruce Weber's "As They See 'Em "is a
towering grand slam.
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