Baseball Photography Classics"It's a great addition to your coffee table, or as a gift to the baseball fan in your life." baseballmusings.com #1 New Release in Photojournalism, Photo Essays, Statistics, History, Sports Photography, and Sports Picturing America's Pastime celebrates baseball through a unique photography collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's unmatched archive of baseball photos. Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations is the mission of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Now, with this unequaled collection of photos from baseball history, you can revel in the moments we share at the ballpark, the grand sweep of the stadium, the drama of the game, and classic images of baseball greats. Celebrate the history of baseball and baseball photography. Go beyond the standard highlights of baseball history in this collection of rarely seen photos that reveals the full landscape of our national pastime as no other collection can. Selected by the historians and curators at the Baseball Hall of Fame, the photographs reveal the rich relationship between photography and the game. Each image includes an historic quote and a detailed caption, often highlighting little-known information about the photographers and techniques used across the 150 plus years covered in the book. Experience the storied history of this great game through iconic images: Panoramic photos of historic stadiums A thoughtful Honus Wagner studying his bat Early African American team portraits and photos of such greats as Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and Orestes "Minnie" Minoso And much more! If you have enjoyed baseball photography books such as The Story of Baseball: In 100 Photographs, 100 Year in Pinstripes: The New York Yankees in Photographs, or Baseball: An Illustrated History, you will love The National Baseball Hall of Fame's Picturing America's Pastime.

How far is it from the three point line to the basket? What is the difference in diameter between a basketball and the rim? How do you calculate a basketball player s field goal percentage? With every bounce of the ball and swish of the net, math makes its way to the court "

On September 6, 1967, in the midst of a pressure-filled six-week pennant race, the Red Sox, Tigers, Twins and White Sox stood together atop the American League. Never before or since have four teams tied for the lead in baseball's final month. On three subsequent occasions including the season's final day, three of them tied again. In 1967 the stakes were high because there were no playoffs. The pennant winner went directly to the World Series. The size, consistent tightness and duration of this pennant race make it unique. Here, for the first time, all four teams and their players are treated equally. The teams provide wonderful contrasts with substantial differences in skill sets, leadership and temperament. Overt psychological and physical intimidation played a major role throughout the season. The standings were volatile, and so were emotions. The stress of competing against so many other teams for so long was constant. Its effects on players, managers and teams were visibly corrosive in some cases and galvanizing in others. Tragically, some wilted or broke. Others responded heroically.

Beginning in 1912, Detroit's Tiger Stadium provided unmatched access for generations of baseball fans. Based on a classic grandstand design, it expanded throughout the 20th century reflecting the booming industrial city around it. Emphasising utility over adornment and offering more fans affordable seats near the field than any other venue in sports, it was in every sense a working-class ballpark that made the game the central focus. Drawing on the perspectives of historians, architects, fans and players, the authors describe how Tiger Stadium grew and adapted and then, despite the efforts of fans, was abandoned and destroyed. It is a story of corporate welfare, politics and indifference to history pitted against an enduring love of place. Chronological diagrams illustrate the evolution of the playing field.

Recent advances in sabermetrics have made it possible to assess the exact contribution of each player to the success of failure of his team. Using the simple metric Wins Above Average-the number of wins that the 2016 Red Sox, for example, added to their total because they had Mookie Betters in right field instead of an average player (5)-David Kaiser leads us on a fascinating tour through the history of major league baseball from 1901 through 2016, analyzing all the greatest players and teams of the past and showing exactly why they enjoyed the success that they did. Along the way, he identifies the 15 or 20 greatest players of every generation, using simple metrics that allow him to compare the impact of players from Ty Cobb through Ted Williams to Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson and Barry Bonds, and pitchers from Christy Mathewson to Roger Clemens. The book also says a great deal about short- and long-term strategies for organizational success. Along the way, Kaiser takes on a good many tenets of diamond faith.. The importance of pitching, he argues, has been vastly exaggerated since the beginning of baseball time, and great pitching has almost never been the key to a dynasty. Many Hall of Fame pitchers and some hitters as well, he finds, have reached Cooperstown almost entirely on the backs of their teammates. Accurate metrics also reveal that a few over-qualified players are still awaiting selection to Cooperstown. Last but hardly least, Kaiser shows that baseball is threatened by an unprecedented shortage of great players, and challenges MLB to do something about it.

Base Ball is a peer-reviewed journal published annually. Offering the best in original research and analysis, the journal promotes study of baseball's early history, from its protoball roots to 1920, and its rise to prominence within American popular culture.

In the early 1930s, the Motor City was sputtering from the Great Depression. Then came a talented Detroit Tigers team, steered by player-manager Mickey Cochrane, to inject new pride into the Detroit psyche. It was a cast of colorful characters, with nicknames like Schoolboy, Goose, Hammerin' Hank and Little Tommy. Over two seasons in 1934 and 1935, the team powered its way to the top of the baseball world, becoming a symbol of a resurgent metropolis and winning the first-ever Tigers championship. This exhaustively researched account provides an in-depth look into a remarkable period in baseball history.

For 52 years, Boston was a two-team Major League city, home to both the Red Sox and the Braves. This comprehensive study focuses on the two team's period of coexistence and competition for fan allegiance. The author analyzes the Boston fan base through trends in transportation, communication, geography, population and employment. Tracing the pendulum of fan preference between the two teams over five distinct time periods, a deeper understanding emerges of why the Red Sox remained in Boston and the Braves moved to Milwaukee.

During the 1890s, Cleveland's National League team, called the Blues and later the Spiders, built a reputation as baseball's roughest, toughest club. Baseball became a war in the Gay Nineties, full of cheating, intimidation, and violence on and off the field, from which the concept of sportsmanship had virtually disappeared. The Spiders were the rowdiest team of all. Managed by Oliver (Patsy) Tebeau, a hard-charging, quick-fisted infielder, the Spiders cut a swath through the National League. They fought with umpires, opposing players, and fans at home and on the road, and though they never won a pennant, their battles with the Baltimore Orioles became the stuff of legend. Their story is not all unpleasant. Cy Young, who won more games than any pitcher who ever lived, spent his first nine seasons with the Spiders. They were also ahead of their time from a racial perspective when they signed Louis Sockalexis, the first recognized Native American in major league ball. The Spiders ended their run on a sour note when the 1899 club compiled the worst record in major league history, winning only 20 of 154 games. Shortly afterward, the Spiders were no more. They left a complicated legacy, but an interesting one.

The emergence of baseball as the ""national pastime"" established the dynamics of spectator sports. Evolving in an urban landscape, the game attracted a dedicated fan base and enshrined the sports hero as a national celebrity. The game's allure was colored by the ethnic ambitions of the players and their supporters. Ethnic tensions were magnified when players began to see the game as a vehicle for individual rather than group achievement. The effect Irish-American players had on how the game was played and their support of Jim Crow culture shaped baseball into the next century. Players' salaries and off-season occupations were not overlooked by the public, who questioned their entitlement to the fruits of notoriety and derided their gratifying lifestyles. This book examines the development of baseball as 19th-century popular culture and as an institution that reinforced ideas about race, masculinity and American exceptionalism.

Baseball and law have intersected from the very beginnings of the sport in America. In 1791, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance prohibited ball playing near the town's meeting house. A 1794 Pennsylvania statute barred ball playing on Sundays. That intersection has continued unabated to the present day. In 2015 alone, a federal court held that baseball's exemption from antitrust laws applied to franchise relocations, another overturned the conviction of Barry Bonds for obstruction of justice, and a third denied a request by rooftop entrepreneurs to enjoin the construction of a massive video board at Wrigley Field. By recounting the long history of law's close relationship with the National Pastime-with stories about lawyers like Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Branch Rickey, the use of copyright to protect not only equipment but also ""Take Me Out to the Ball Game,"" the frequent litigation between players and owners over contracts and the reserve clause, and so many other instances in which law in some form has intertwined with baseball-this exhaustive and detailed chronology documents the profound effect law has had on the sport, both on and off the field. It makes a convincing case that knowledge of when and how baseball and law have come together is essential for anyone wishing to understand not only the game's past and present, but also its future.

Here is an eye-opening look at one of baseball's most intriguing and little known stories: the many-faceted relationship between Jews and black baseball in Jim Crow America. In Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert explores how Jewish sports entrepreneurs, political radicals, and a team of black Jews from Belleville, Virginia called the Belleville Grays-the only Jewish team in the history of black baseball-made their mark on the segregated world of the Negro Leagues. Through in-depth research, Alpert tells the stories of the Jewish businessmen who owned and promoted teams as they both acted out and fell victim to pervasive stereotypes of Jews as greedy middlemen and hucksters. Some Jewish owners produced a kind of comedy baseball, akin to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters-indeed, Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein was very active in black baseball-that reaped financial benefits for both owners and players but also played upon the worst stereotypes of African Americans and prevented these black "showmen" from being taken seriously by the major leagues. But Alpert also shows how Jewish entrepreneurs, motivated in part by the traditional Jewish commitment to social justice, helped grow the business of black baseball in the face of the oppressive Jim Crow restrictions, and how radical journalists writing for the Communist Daily Worker argued passionately for an end to baseball's segregation. In fact, the campaign to convince manager Branch Rickey to integrate the Brooklyn Dodgers was initiated by Daily Worker sports writer Bill Mardo, in an open letter in the paper. Deftly written and meticulously researched, Out of Left Field offers a unique perspective on the economic and social negotiations between blacks and Jews in the first half of the 20th century, shedding new light on the intersection of race, religion, and sports in America.

Perhaps familiar today as an answer to sports trivia questions, Ken Williams (1890-1959) was once a celebrity who helped bring about a new kind of power baseball in the 1920s. One of the great sluggers of his era (and of all time), he beat Babe Ruth for the home run title in 1922, and became the first to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season that year. Later recognized for his accomplishments, he was considered for but not inducted into the Hall of Fame. This first ever biography of Williams covers his life and career, from his small town upbringing, to his unlikely foray into pro baseball, to his retirement years, when he served as a police officer and ran a pool hall in his hometown.

The 1960s were a heady time to come of age. The British Invasion transformed pop music and culture. The fledgling space program offered a thrilling display of modern technology. The civil rights movement and Vietnam War drew young people to American politics, spurring them to think more critically about the state of the nation. And the assassinations Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 shook the United States to the core. During these turbulent times the Minnesota Twins were the pride of the North Star State-an elite team that advanced to the World Series in 1965 and played in dramatic pennant races in the years thereafter. After an uneven 1964 season the Twins set themselves up for a turnaround that would last the rest of the decade. At the end of his playing career with the Twins, Billy Martin was hired as third base coach in 1965, giving them a more aggressive base-running style. Mudcat Grant became the first African American pitcher to win at least twenty games in the American League, and Tony Oliva won his second batting title to help lead the Twins to the World Series, which they lost in seven games to the Dodgers. In 1967 rookie Rod Carew joined the Twins as they engaged in a historic pennant race but finished second to the Red Sox during their "Impossible Dream" season. In 1969 Martin took over as manager, and both Carew and Harmon Killebrew led the Twins to the American League Championship Series, only to lose to the Orioles, after which Martin was fired in part for a now-legendary bar fight. Bill Rigney took the helm in 1970 and steered the Twins to a second-straight division title and ALCS loss to the Orioles. In The Pride of Minnesota Thom Henninger details these pennant races, from the key moments and games to the personalities of the players involved, in the context of state and world events. Although the Twins won only one AL pennant in this stretch and failed to win the World Series, these memorable seasons, played in remarkable and compelling times, made for an important first decade in the team's early history.

Baseball's spread across Illinois paralleled the sport's explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of "base ball on the brain" raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where local teams and civic ambition went hand in hand and teams of paid professionals displaced gentlemen's clubs devoted to sporting fair play. This preoccupation with competition sparked rules disputes and controversies over imported players while the game itself mirrored society by excluding Black Americans and women. The new era nonetheless brought out paying crowds to watch the Rock Island Lively Turtles, Fairfield Snails, and other teams take the field up and down the state. A first-ever history of early baseball in Illinois, Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins adds the Prairie State game's unique shadings and colorful stories to the history of the national pastime.

Former Major League pitcher and mental skills coach for two of baseball's legendary franchises (the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants) Bob Tewksbury takes fans inside the psychology of baseball. In Ninety Percent Mental, Bob Tewksbury shows readers a side of the game only he can provide, given his singular background as both a longtime MLB pitcher and a mental skills coach for two of the sport's most fabled franchises, the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. Fans watching the game on television or even at the stadium don't have access to the mind games a pitcher must play in order to get through an at-bat, an inning, a game. Tewksbury explores the fascinating psychology behind baseball, such as how players use techniques of imagery, self-awareness, and strategic thinking to maximize performance, and how a pitcher's strategy changes throughout a game. He also offers an in-depth look into some of baseball's most monumental moments and intimate anecdotes from a "who's who" of the game, including legendary players who Tewksbury played with and against (such as Mark McGwire, Craig Biggio, and Greg Maddux), game-changing managers and executives (Joe Torre, Bruce Bochy, Brian Sabean), and current star players (Jon Lester, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew Miller, Rich Hill). With Tewksbury's esoteric knowledge as a thinking-fan's player and his expertise as a "baseball whisperer", this entertaining book is perfect for any fan who wants to see the game in a way he or she has never seen it before. Ninety Percent Mental will deliver an unprecedented look at the mound games and mind games of Major League Baseball.

Oscar ""Happy"" Felsch was a rising star weaned on sandlot fields of Milwaukee who threw away his promising career for a few bucks after participating in the throwing of the 1919 World Series. Did Felsch really play to lose the series, or just say that he did for fear of retribution from crooked gamblers? None of the banned eight talked about the scandal more than Felsch, and this book analyzes how his three interviews revealed his ultimate gullibility, and why getting drawn into futile greed was easier than chasing down a fly ball. His rampant contradictions on the subject served as a metaphor for the entire scandal. Felsch's jovial, child-like exuberance for the game served him well as a player, but his lack of formal education became his downfall. On the field, Felsch was hitting his peak as a ballplayer in 1920, the year the scandal hit the newspapers. His speed, run-producing power, and stellar defensive prowess earned comparisons to the great Tris Speaker; all attributes that might have garnered him Hall of Fame consideration. Instead, he settled on playing fallen hero to far away, remote baseball enclaves of Montana and Canada.

The Detroit Tigers gave a memorable performance in the pennant race against the New York Yankees in 1961, the American League's first expansion season. Starting faster, the Tigers held first place for more than half the season, until the Yankees caught up in late July. They met in a climactic three-game series at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx Bombers swept all three, winning the pennant for the eleventh time in 13 seasons. But the 18 games the Tigers and Yankees played against each other were some of the most exciting contests of '61. The Yankees' saga is well known but the Tigers' tale has largely been ignored. This book chronicles the season highlights, such as the home run duel between Roger Maris, who slugged a record 61, and Mickey Mantle, who hit a personal best 54. Other outstanding performances were given by the Tigers' Norm Cash, who led the league with a .361 average, and Rocky Colavito, who hit 45 home runs.

In Ninety Percent Mental, Bob Tewksbury shows readers a side of the game only he can provide, given his singular background as both a longtime MLB pitcher and a mental skills coach for two of the sport's most fabled franchises, the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. Fans watching the game on television or even at the stadium don't have access to the mind games a pitcher must play in order to get through an at-bat, an inning, a game. Tewksbury explores the fascinating psychology behind baseball, such as how players use techniques of imagery, self-awareness, and strategic thinking to maximize performance, and how a pitcher's strategy changes throughout a game. He also offers an in-depth look into some of baseball's most monumental moments and intimate anecdotes from a "who's who" of the game, including legendary players who Tewksbury played with and against (such as Mark McGwire, Craig Biggio, and Greg Maddux), game-changing managers and executives (Joe Torre, Bruce Bochy, Brian Sabean) and current star players (Jon Lester, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew Miller, Rich Hill). With Tewksbury's esoteric knowledge as a thinking-fan's player and his expertise as a "baseball whisperer", this entertaining book is perfect for any fan who wants to see the game in a way he or she has never seen it before. Ninety Percent Mental will deliver an unprecedented look at the mound games and mind games of Major League Baseball.

Women have been involved in baseball from the game's early days, in a wide range of capacities. This ambitious encyclopedia provides information on women players, managers, teams, leagues, and issues since the mid-19th century. Players are listed by maiden name with married name, when known, in parentheses. Information provided includes birth date, death date, team, dates of play, career statistics and brief biographical notes when available. Related entries are noted for easy cross-reference. Appendices include the rosters of the World War II era All American Girls Professional Baseball League teams; the standings and championships from the AAGPBL; and all women's baseball teams and players identified to date.

This book provides a basis for a good, solid survey of college mathematics for students in non-technical fields. It covers a variety of topics that are applicable to real life in ways that college algebra may not be for those majoring in the liberal arts. The book can also be used for a high school course once students have had algebra and geometry. Since mathematics is often a challenge for students in the non-technical majors, this book seeks to make it more palatable by finding the motivation for all of its topics in sports, primarily baseball. Topics covered include Logical Fallacies, Unit Conversions, Statistics, Probability/Combinatorics, Finance, Geometry, Modeling, and Voting Theory.

When we think of baseball, we think of sunny days and leisurely outings at the ballpark--rarely do thoughts of death come to mind. Yet during the game's history, hundreds of players, coaches and spectators have died while playing or watching the National Pastime. In its the second edition, this ground breaking study provides the known details for 150 years of game-related deaths, identifies contributing factors and discusses resulting changes to game rules, protective equipment, crowd control and stadium structures and grounds. Topics covered include pitched and batted-ball fatalities, weather and field condition accidents, structural failures, fatalities from violent or risky behavior and deaths from natural causes.

The impact of antitrust law on sports is in the news all the time, especially when there is labor conflict between players and owners, or when a team wants to move to a new city. And if the majority of Americans have only the vaguest sense of what antitrust law is, most know one thing about it-that baseball is exempt. In The Baseball Trust, legal historian Stuart Banner illuminates the series of court rulings that resulted in one of the most curious features of our legal system-baseball's exemption from antitrust law. A serious baseball fan, Banner provides a thoroughly entertaining history of the game as seen through the prism of an extraordinary series of courtroom battles, ranging from 1890 to the present. The book looks at such pivotal cases as the 1922 Supreme Court case which held that federal antitrust laws did not apply to baseball; the 1972 Flood v. Kuhn decision that declared that baseball is exempt even from state antitrust laws; and several cases from the 1950s, one involving boxing and the other football, that made clear that the exemption is only for baseball, not for sports in general. Banner reveals that for all the well-documented foibles of major league owners, baseball has consistently received and followed antitrust advice from leading lawyers, shrewd legal advice that eventually won for baseball a protected legal status enjoyed by no other industry in America. As Banner tells this fascinating story, he also provides an important reminder of the path-dependent nature of the American legal system. At each step, judges and legislators made decisions that were perfectly sensible when considered one at a time, but that in total yielded an outcome-baseball's exemption from antitrust law-that makes no sense at all.