Finalist for the 2022 SABR Seymour Medal Grover Cleveland Alexander was one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, with 373 career victories during twenty seasons in the Major Leagues. Elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938, the right-hander remains a compelling-and tragic-figure. "Pete" Alexander's military service during World War I was the demarcation line between his great seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and his years of struggle and turmoil with the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals after the Great War. Indeed, Alexander's service during World War I has all but been forgotten, even though it dramatically changed his life-and his game. Alexander served in the 342nd Field Artillery Regiment, which included big leaguers and star athletes among its officers and men. Naturally, the regiment fielded an outstanding baseball team, but it also faced hard service during the final weeks of the war. After the armistice in November 1918, the unit undertook occupation duty in Germany. The Best Team Over There examines this crucial period closely: where Alexander was stationed, how he was trained, how he withstood the effects of combat and shelling, how he interacted with his fellow athletes and soldiers, and how the war changed his baseball career, revealing for the first time the little-known details of this critical stage in the legendary pitcher's life and career. We can't truly understand Alexander and his enduring appeal to baseball fans without also understanding his life as a gunner and soldier.

The only book of its kind to tell the history of baseball, from its inception to the present day, through 100 key objects that represent the major milestones, evolutionary events, and larger-than-life personalities that make up the game A History of Baseball in 100 Objects is a visual and historical record of the game as told through essential documents, letters, photographs, equipment, memorabilia, food and drink, merchandise and media items, and relics of popular culture, each of which represents the history and evolution of the game. Among these objects are the original ordinance banning baseball in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1791 (the earliest known reference to the game in America); the 'By-laws and Rules of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club,' 1845 (the first codified rules of the game); Fred Thayer's catcher's mask from the 1870s (the first use of this equipment in the game); a scorecard from the 1903 World Series (the first World Series); Grantland Rice's typewriter (the role of sportswriters in making baseball the national pastime); Babe Ruth's bat, circa 1927 (the emergence of the long ball); Pittsburgh Crawford's team bus, 1935 (the Negro Leagues); Jackie Robinson's Montreal Royals uniform, 1946 (the breaking of the color barrier); a ticket stub from the 1951 Giants-Dodgers playoff game and Bobby Thomson's 'Shot Heard 'Round The World' (one of baseball's iconic moments); Sandy Koufax's Cy Young Award, 1963 (the era of dominant pitchers); a 'Reggie!' candy bar, 1978 (the modern player as media star); Rickey Henderson's shoes, 1982 (baseball's all-time-greatest base stealer); the original architect's drawing for Oriole Park at Camden Yards (the ballpark renaissance of the 1990s); and Barry Bond's record-breaking bat (the age of Performance Enhancing Drugs). A full-page photograph of the object is accompanied by lively text that describes the historical significance of the object and its connection to baseball's history, as well as additional stories and information about that particular period in the history of the game.

A loving look at the old ball game, from the cartoonists at "The New Yorker"

America's national pastime engages fans and fanatics across the country and around the world. Across the magazine's eight decades, the artists at "The New Yorker" have captured the emotional essence of the game, and "The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons, Second Edition" brings an all-star lineup of cartooning greats together in one delightful collection.Collects over 100 drawings that present a playful view of the all-American sportIncludes an introduction by Michael CrawfordFeatures classic cartoons by "New Yorker" legends from Charles Addams to Jack Ziegler

Selected by Robert Mankoff, acclaimed cartoonist and cartoon editor of "The New Yorker," "The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons" is a home run for baseball fans of all ages.

Buzzie and the Bull chronicles a baseball year in the lives of two lifelong friends who couldn't be more different: Buzzie Bavasi, the legendary general manager of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, and Al "the Bull" Ferrara, bon vivant, fountain of joy, and bench player. Their 1965 baseball journey encompassed a thrilling pennant race settled on the final day of the season, a city engulfed in flames, a perfect game, and a GM who extolled his friend the Bull as a hero in May and then banished him from the team to the depths of public purgatory in July. The partnership of these two characters-the general manager who valued fearlessness above all else and the crazy player who loved living on the edge-became the embodiment of champions who never choked in the clutch. Over seventeen years, Bavasi's teams won eight pennants and four World Series titles. His approach deserves review, and his friendship with Ferrara illustrates the ground on which he staked his baseball career. The summer of 1965 proved Bavasi's thesis that champions are built on players with one core characteristic: nerves of steel. Buzzie and the Bull offers a counterpoint to today's focus on advanced statistical analysis that may be crowding out the important work of discovering a player's unique human qualities: the intangibles. Gauge those intangibles correctly and you get an edge-and edges help win championships.

A comprehensive trivia book that enables readers to compete as they answer questions! In The New Book of Baseball Trivia, experienced baseball author Wayne Stewart includes 500 fun and engaging questions and answers on everyone's favorite former and active players and coaches. Readers are awarded a single, double, triple, or homer based on the difficulty level of the question, with the goal to score as many runs as possible by the end of the book. They are kept on their toes by answers head-scratchers such as: Which team became the first one ever to have three of its players hit 40+ homers in a season? Who was the shortest man ever to appear in a big-league game? Which two brothers combined for more lifetime home runs than any other brother act? When Shane Bieber won the 2020 Cy Young Award, he became the fifth Cleveland Indian to capture that honor. Name three of the other four men to accomplish this. Which two men bashed more home runs while teammates than any other teammate combo? And many more! This book makes the perfect gift for the baseball-loving fan!

The Burden of Over-representation artfully explores three curious racial moments in sport: Jackie Robinson's expletive at a Dodgers spring training game; the transformation of a formality into an event at the end of the 1995 rugby World Cup in South Africa; and a spectral moment at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Grant Farred examines the connotations at play in these moments through the lenses of race, politics, memory, inheritance and conciliation, deploying a surprising cast of figures in Western thought, ranging from Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche to Judith Butler, William Shakespeare, and Jesus-the-Christ. Farred makes connection and creates meaning through the forces at play and the representational burdens of team, country and race. Farred considers Robinson's profane comments at black Dodgers fans, a post-match exchange of "thank yous" on the rugby pitch between white South African captain Francois Pienaar and Nelson Mandela, and being "haunted" by the ghost of Derrida on the occasion of the first FIFA World Cup on African soil. In doing so, The Burden of Over-representation provides a passionate, insightful analysis of the social, political, racial, and cultural consequences of conciliation at key sporting events.

The crack of the bat on the radio is ingrained in the American mind as baseball takes center stage each summer. Radio has brought the sounds of baseball into homes for almost one hundred years, helping baseball emerge from the 1919 Black Sox scandal into the glorious World Series of the 1920s. The medium gave fans around the country aural access to the first All-Star Game, Lou Gehrig's farewell speech, and Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World." Red Barber, Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Ernie Harwell, Bob Uecker, and dozens of other beloved announcers helped cement the love affair between radio and the national pastime. Crack of the Bat takes readers from the 1920s to the present, examining the role of baseball in the development of the radio industry and the complex coevolution of their relationship. James R. Walker provides a balanced, nuanced, and carefully documented look at radio and baseball over the past century, focusing on the interaction between team owners, local and national media, and government and business interests, with extensive coverage of the television and Internet ages, when baseball on the radio had to make critical adjustments to stay viable. Despite cable television's ubiquity, live video streaming, and social media, radio remains an important medium through which fans engage with their teams. The evolving relationship between baseball and radio intersects with topics as varied as the twenty-year battle among owners to control radio, the development of sports as a valuable media product, and the impact of competing technologies on the broadcast medium. Amid these changes, the familiar sounds of the ball hitting the glove and the satisfying crack of the bat stay the same.

This book describes the physics of baseball and softball, assuming that the reader has a basic background in both physics and mathematics. The physics will be explained in a conversational style, with words and illustrations, so that the explanations make sense. The book provides an excellent opportunity to explain physics at a relatively simple level, even though the primary objective is to explain the many subtle features concerning the physics of baseball. For those readers who already know quite a bit of physics and who will be comfortable with mathematical equations, additional material of this nature will be provided in appendices. The latest research findings and statistical data have been incorporated by the author. The book also contains many simple experiments that the reader can perform to convince themselves that the effects described do indeed exist.