A captivating history of the baseball reformers and revolutionaries who challenged their sport and society--and in turn helped change America. Athletes have often used their platform to respond to and protest injustices, from Muhammad Ali and Colin Kaepernick to Billie Jean King and Megan Rapinoe. Compared to their counterparts, baseball players have often been more cautious about speaking out on controversial issues; but throughout the sport's history, there have been many players who were willing to stand up and fight for what was right. In Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers' Rights and American Empire, Robert Elias and Peter Dreier reveal a little-known yet important history of rebellion among professional ballplayers. These reformers took inspiration from the country's dissenters and progressive movements, speaking and acting against abuses within their profession and their country. Elias and Dreier profile the courageous players who demanded better working conditions, battled against corporate power, and challenged America's unjust wars, imperialism, and foreign policies, resisting the brash patriotism that many link with the "national pastime." American history can be seen as an ongoing battle over wealth and income inequality, corporate power versus workers' rights, what it means to be a "patriotic" American, and the role of the United States outside its borders. For over 100 years, baseball activists have challenged the status quo, contributing to the kind of dissent that creates a more humane society. Major League Rebels tells their inspiring stories.

A look at baseball data from a statistical modeling perspective! There is a fascination among baseball fans and the media to collect data on every imaginable event during a baseball game and this book addresses a number of questions that are of interest to many baseball fans. These include how to rate players, predict the outcome of a game or the attainment of an achievement, making sense of situational data, and deciding the most valuable players in the World Series. Aimed at a general audience, the text does not assume any prior background in probability or statistics, although a knowledge of high school abgebra will be helpful.

Inspired by the author's career as a sportswriter for the Washington Post, Squeeze Play tells the story of female reporter A. B. Berkowitz, who is assigned to cover the men of the Washington Senators -- the worst team in major league baseball. Life in the locker room shows her not just the players'…um…assets but also their all-too-human frailties. Love for the game and love for the newspaper business are the stars in this hilarious and heartbreaking novel that "will have you singing a rousing chorus of 'Take Me Out to the Locker Room'"(People).

The 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers were past their prime but still boasted a powerful roster with iconic names like Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. They did not achieve greatness-they finished third in the National League-but did achieve legendary status as the last of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and marked the end of a fantastic era of baseball, when the New York Yankees, the New York Giants, and the Dodgers were the epicenter of the game's Golden Age. Baseball would never be quite the same. Documenting the fabled team's final season in New York, this book focuses on the games, the player's stories and the down-to-the-wire struggle by Brooklynites and politicians to keep the club from relocating to Los Angeles in 1958. Detailed biographies of each player and coach, and manager Walter Alston are included.

Cy Young Award winners spanning fifty years of baseball history reflect on their iconic seasons, keys to success, and most memorable moments. In Pinnacle on the Mound: Cy Young Award Winners Talk Baseball, ten pitchers who were recognized as the best in the game share fascinating stories from their years in the majors. Featuring pitchers such as Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley and five-time Gold Glove Award winner Ron Guidry, this book offers captivating insight into the players' different approaches to the game, how they honed their skills, and what was happening behind the scenes in their award-winning seasons. From fastballs to sinkers, curveballs to knuckleballs, this diverse group of pitchers found success in many different ways, whether it was mastering a new pitch or taking on the role of a closer. Including All-Stars Jim Lonborg, Mike McCormick, Randy Jones, Ron Guidry, LaMarr Hoyt, Dennis Eckersley, Jack McDowell, Barry Zito, R.A. Dickey, and Corey Kluber, Pinnacle on the Mound makes fifty years of baseball history come alive.

A left-handed batter in the NCAA's Division 1, Max Gordon still had a lot to live for, provided he would live at all. Facing a devastating loss-the death of his brother, Nick-and a life-threatening physical injury, he went on a transformative personal journey that united his family through the most difficult time they had ever faced. In this intimate narrative about the healing power of sports, a family is made whole again through the determination of a son who lost his brother, proving that in life as in baseball, no matter the score, as long as you have one more at bat, you're still in the game. The authors, brothers Jacob and Dylan Kornhauser, tell the story from a familiar perspective of having shared relationships with the Gordon brothers.

Major League Baseball has had a long and storied history, but perhaps no era has been as competitive and unpredictable as the past 25 years, with an expanded postseason making for an unexpected and entertaining end to each season. In America's Game in the Wild-Card Era: From Strike to Pandemic, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a compelling examination of Major League Baseball since the 1994 players' strike. He reveals how the last quarter century has been the most dynamic in MLB history and argues that bringing wild-card teams and the division-series round into the postseason mix have fundamentally changed how dynasties should be perceived. Following the major storylines for all 30 teams, along with the division races and state of dynasties over the past 25 years, America's Game in the Wild-Card Era is a captivating look into a new age of baseball. America's Game in the Wild-Card Era, together with Soderholm-Difatte's America's Game, Tumultuous Times in America's Game, and The Reshaping of America's Game, form the author's complete, definitive history of Major League Baseball.

WITH A NEW AFTERWORD "Baseball fans of all loyalties will enjoy learning about [Ortiz's] unique experiences in and out of the game." --Library Journal David "Big Papi" Ortiz is a baseball icon and one of the most popular figures ever to play the game. A key part of the Boston Red Sox for fifteen years, Ortiz helped to win three World Series, bringing back a storied franchise from "never wins" to "always wins." He helped upend the doubters, the naysayers, and the nonbelievers, and, as he launched balls into the stands again and again and again, he captured the imagination of millions of fans. Ortiz made Boston and the Red Sox his home, his place of work, and his legacy. As he put it: This is our f*&#ing city. In Papi, his ultimate memoir, Ortiz opens up as never before. The result is a revelatory, fly-on-the-wall story of a career by a player with a lot to say at the end of his time in the game to which he gave so much and which gave so much to him. "The rise of Ortiz from scrap-heap bench player to Hall of Famer is an unlikely and entertaining story, and engagingly told . . . The memoir lives up to its 'no-holds-barred' billing." --Washington Post

Orlando Cepeda enjoyed a stellar baseball career in the late fifties and throughout the sixties, but after it ended in the mid-seventies, his life fell apart. In Baby Bull, Cepeda shares his story for the first time. He reflects on his baseball career and shares his twenty-year struggle to rebuild his life and regain his reputation.

When Stan "The Man" Musial retired after 22 years with the Cardinals (disrupted only by a year of service with the U.S. Navy during World War II), he held 17 Major League records, 29 National League records, and 9 All Star game records. His unwavering consistency with the bat still has no peer: he hit over .300 17 times in his career, and left the game 2nd all-time in total bases, 4th in hits, 5th in RBIs, and 6th in number of games played. Despite his extreme production at the plate-achieved, in fact, only after a shoulder injury forced him to drop his duties as a pitcher-he never achieved the fame or iconic status of a Joe DiMaggio in New York or a Ted Williams in Boston; but when he collected his last hit in 1963, he departed with one of the most magical and representative statistics in the history of the game: 1,815 hits at his home ballpark, and 1,815 hits away from home. His career is a testament to concentration and integrity, and to this day Stan Musial's statistics and legacy place him among the true greats of baseball's pantheon. It has been said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in professional sports. Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters presents biographies on Greenwood's selection for the 12 best hitters in Major League history, written by some of today's best baseball authors. These books present straightforward stories in accessible language for the student researcher and the general reader alike. Each volume includes a timeline, bibliography, and index. In addition, each volume includes a "Making of a Legend" chapter that analyses the evolution of the player's fame and (in some cases) infamy.

Widely considered the best black player of the 19th century, Hall-of-Famer Frank Grant challenged baseball's color barrier in the 1880s to play for all-white professional teams--two of which fought a legal battle for his services. This first full-length biography documents Grant's career highlights, including successful games against Major League teams and at-bats against Hall-of-Fame pitchers. Stories overlooked for more than a century are examined, including a falsified anecdote that obscured one of Grant's best games from history. New light is shed on the early years of the Cuban Giants, the first black pro ball club.

In the wake of the 1919 White Sox scandal and the suspension for life of eight players, baseball saw a precipitous decline in popularity, especially among America's youth. To combat this, a group of World War I veterans who were members of the newly formed American Legion created an organization to promote teenage interest in baseball. Led by John L. Griffith, who became the first commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, the Legion undertook the revival of baseball. In the 1920s and through the Great Depression and World War II, Legion baseball grew steadily. By 1950 it had become the principal training ground for major league players, boasting at its peak more than 16,000 teams across the country. Tracing the long history of this uniquely American institution, this work details each year's American Legion World Series and the ups and downs of participation over nearly a century.

In October 1969, the New York Mets stunned the sports world by defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in a memorable World Series. Their five-game triumph capped off a true Cinderella season, when the woebegone National League franchise rose from laughingstock to popular champions. The histories of both the Mets and Orioles are traced, along with their paths to the climactic '69 Series. A batter-by-batter recap of all five games gives a box seat view to a storied moment in baseball history.

The 1972 World Series was a terrific clash between two rising Major League franchises, the Oakland A's and the Cincinnati Reds. Neither had won the pennant in decades. Twice removed from their original home in Philadelphia and unappreciated in Oakland, the A's quietly played excellent ball, their long hair and mustaches symbols of rebellion. Led by manager Sparky Anderson, the clean-cut Reds--baseball's most conservative club--were becoming a powerhouse and were the favorites entering the Series. This book chronicles both the A's and the Reds' journeys to the memorable '72 Fall Classic--where six of seven games were won by a single run--with batter-by-batter coverage of the diamond exploits of Bench, Perez, Rose, Rudi, Odom, Tenace, and others.

Suitable for anyone who enjoys logic puzzles Could be used as a companion book for a course on mathematical proof. The puzzles feature the same issues of problem-solving and proof-writing. For anyone who enjoys logical puzzles. For anyone interested in legal reasoning. For anyone who loves the game of baseball.