For baseball fans, or those who have been trying to figure out a baseball fan, this book is an extension of the conversations fans have all had. Often we are trying to answer that perennial question, ""Why do you love baseball?"" Or, we are comparing notes with fellows on our history and hopes for our game. We fans all have stories about how we've come to love baseball, and why we continue to love it so. In these pages we're sharing tales of developing an abiding relationship with baseball. Writers tell of youthful lessons, Spring Training adventures, the ways family and friends' relationships have settled around the culture of the game, the lifelong passions for baseball and the many ways they develop and change over a lifetime. The essays are organized like a baseball season - beginning with stories about the hope and eternal optimism of Spring Training, followed with the guts and the grind of the baseball season proper, and then winding up with writings about the anticipation, heartbreak, and glory of post-season play. The thirty contributors are from many walks of life, from throughout the U.S., and are fans of baseball everywhere.

The 1923 Yankees started the dynasty - with stars like Babe Ruth, Wally Pipp, Joe Dugan and Bob Meusel, they won the pennant by 16 games before claiming the franchise's first World Series title. Five Yankees pitchers won 16 games that year, led by Sam Jones (21-8), and the team finally defeated McGraw's Giants after losing to them in the Series two years in a row. This book covers that first Yankees championship team in great detail, taking the reader through the entire season, game-by-game.

While much has been written about the legendary players and managers of the Deadball Era (1901-1919), far less attention has been paid to baseball club owners like Charles Ebbets who put together the teams and built the era's legendary ball parks. In 1898, after a 15 year apprenticeship, Ebbets became president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, taking over a chronic second division team in poor financial condition. Over the next 25 years, he built four pennant winning clubs while making the franchise one of the most profitable in baseball. Even more impressively, Charles Ebbets gave Brooklyn two state of the art ball parks, something Hall of Famers, Branch Rickey and Walter O'Malley couldn't to do even once. Ebbets was also an effective steward of the national pastime, working tirelessly for innovations that would help all teams, not just his own. In spite of all his success, however, Ebbets' weaknesses also sowed the seeds for the destruction of what he had so painstakingly built. This first full length biography of Charles Ebbets provides an in depth look his life and baseball career while filling a gap in the history of the Deadball Era and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Boyer Brothers of Baseball is the story of the seven baseball-playing brothers from Western Missouri who in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s signed professional contracts. Led by oldest brother Cloyd, a pitcher, third baseman Ken Boyer, and third baseman Clete Boyer, three of the seven siblings in a family of 14, including the girls, reached the majors. This is the story of their hardscrabble upbringing and how they fought their way to success. Initially discouraged by arm injuries that curtailed his big-league career, Cloyd became a coach and manager at the minor-league and Major League levels and remained in the game for nearly a half century. The most accomplished of the brothers, Ken, became a perennial National League All-Star and won the 1964 Most Valuable Player award. For a period of time in the 1960s, Ken Boyer was the face of the St. Louis Cardinals and after his playing days ended he returned to manage the team. Clete Boyer gained prominence as a regular for the perennial American League-champion New York Yankees and competed in five World Series before starring in the National League and concluding his career in Japan. While they did not make it to the top, the four other brothers enrich the story with their own baseball histories and help illustrate how the closeness of the family helped everyone succeed.

A must-have book by acclaimed author and expert H.A. Dorfman that highlights the crucial mental components involved in hitting a baseball and playing the game, components that are as important, if not more so, than the intense physical regimen of an athlete."...helpful to hitters in little leagues or in the big leagues. The information is clear and to the point..." -- Charles Johnson, former catcher, Florida Marlins

Born in Austin, Texas in 1899, standing six feet in height, Bibb August Falk was a classic stereo type of a tall Texan; a man who brimmed with confidence and played the game of baseball with a swagger. He played three years of varsity football and baseball at the University of Texas before being signed by Chicago White Sox following graduation in 1920. Falk reported to the White Sox that summer without ever having played one game in the minor leagues. Little did he know that in just a couple of months after arriving on the south side of Chicago, he as an untested rookie, would be called upon to confront the daunting challenge of replacing the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson in the White Sox lineup when he was banned from organized ball for complicity in the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series. Retiring from major league baseball after a brilliant playing career following the 1931 season, Falk returned to the University of Texas in 1940 as head baseball coach and proceeded to become a Longhorn legend. During his twenty-five year stint as head coach, Falk's teams won two National Championships, fifteen Southwest Conference titles and four co-championships. When Bibb Falk died at the age of 90 in June 1989 he was the last surviving member of the 1920 Chicago White Sox.

This is the story of the Troy Haymakers, a pioneer baseball team legendary for their exploits on and off the field. Formed in 1860 in Troy, New York - an industrial city experiencing rapid growth - the team was embraced by the tough-minded Trojans as emblematic of their vigorous boomtown, which rivaled larger, better-established communities. The Haymakers were a strong amateur club before becoming a charter member of baseball's first major league, the National Association, and subsequently being awarded a franchise in the National League. Reflecting the working-class nature of the city, team rosters were filled with characters and scalawags along with talented players, including four future Hall of Famers. After losing its National League franchise in 1882, Troy fielded minor league teams for 34 years - with a wistful eye to Haymaker history.

When major league baseball cancelled its 1994 season following a player strike, fans were shocked that the national pastime could be brought to a standstill by a collective bargaining dispute. The strike was largely responsible for bringing the economics of the game into sports discussions and raising questions about the business of baseball. Will players' rising salaries destroy baseball? How will revenue-sharing and luxury taxes affect competitive balance? Should taxpayers subsidize their local team? This volume answers the basic questions about the economics of the sport, from salary arbitration to baseball's antitrust exemption, in a clear style geared for readers with no formal background in economics.

When professional baseball returned to Brooklyn in 2001, fans were jubilant and the media swarmed. After losing the Brooklyn Dodgers to California 44 years ago, Brooklyn baseball fans could once again claim a team of their own: the Cyclones, a Class A affiliate of the New York Mets. The Brooklyn Cyclones: Hardball Dreams and the New Coney Island recounts that first season of the Cyclones. From the construction of the incredible Keyspan Park at Coney Island to their improbable successes on the field, Ben Osborne tells the story of the Cyclones' delicate first year of operation. We see the story up close and personal through the eyes of two very different young men. The first is Anthony Otero, who was raised in a Coney Island housing project and loves baseball, but has never seen a game in person until the Cyclones land in his neighborhood. The second is Brett Kay, a young man from California who has never been to New York, until he becomes the catcher for the Brooklyn Cyclones. From the plans of politicians like Rudy Giuliani and Howard Golden, to the poverty of Coney Island's citizens, The Brooklyn Cyclones reveals the stories behind the headlines to show that the reality of creating a new sports team often involves broken promises and shattered dreams. Osborne includes chapters on the Cyclones' rivalry with the Staten Island Yankees, the Cyclones' chances of capturing the New York-Penn League title, and an epilogue updating Kay's, Otero's, and the Cyclones' progress through the 2003 season. Ultimately, Ben Osborne shows how, for these two young men, the Brooklyn Cyclones created dreams the same way the Brooklyn Dodgers allowed the boys of Flatbush to dream about one day playing in the Big Leagues.

The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2013-2014 is an anthology of seventeen scholarly essays that utilize the national game to examine topics whose import extends beyond the ballpark. The anthology is divided into six parts. Baseball Poetry, Music, and Literature considers the congruence of culture and baseball. The Ballpark: Place and Atmosphere examines the importance of venue distinctiveness. Myths, Legends, and Icons of the Game provides perspectives on protagonists of the baseball imagination. Asian and Asian-American Baseball explores international and ethnic variations on the game. Museums: Baseball Exhibits, Standards, and Preservation analyses the craft and goals of baseball curators. Contracts, Jurisprudence, and the Pastime contextualizes the games' rules of play and labour. Each of the six parts contains essays related by theme and topic. Baseball, Casey, and Me by Frank Deford, Senior Contributing Writer for Sports Illustrated, for example, discusses the challenges and opportunities presented when writing about baseball's signature poem, Casey at the Bat.Back to the Future: Building a Ballpark, Not a Stadium by Janet Marie Smith, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Senior Vice President for Planning and Development, discusses her role in the construction of Orioles Park at Camden Yards and the renovation of Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium, Turner Field, and other iconic venues. A Strategic Approach for Baseball to Flourish in Modern China by Keith Spalding Robbins, who served as Vice President, Director of Design, and Lead Design Principal of a Chinese-owned planning and design studio headquartered in Shanghai, offers analysis and policy proposals for establishing a Chinese Major League.

At six feet, four inches and more than 220 pounds, Roger Clemens (1962- ) was a major figure in baseball for nearly a quarter century. The best pitcher of his generation, his 4,672 strikeouts rank third all-time. He dominates modern statistical analysis: all-time first in base-out runs saved, situational wins saved, win probability added and base-out wins saved. High strung and temperamental, Clemens got into a barroom brawl during his first semester at University of Texas and once was jailed for punching out a Houston police officer. He endured sports writers heckling his inarticulate English and hostile fans decrying his aggressive pitching style. He retired in 2007 amid the infamous Mitchell Report doping scandal. Questioned by a Congressional committee about his alleged use of steroids, Clemens was accused of perjury but later acquitted. This book covers his life and his sensational but controversial career.

During the mid-1950s, an unlikely star stood alongside baseball standouts Mickey Mantle, Henry Aaron and Willie Mays--a slugger with a funny name and muscles so bulging that he had to cut the sleeves off his uniform to swing freely. Ted Kluszewski played little baseball in his youth, making a name for himself instead as a hard-hitting football player at Indiana University before showing potential on the diamond and being signed by the Cincinnati Reds. Between 1953 and 1956, no other player in major league baseball hit more home runs than Kluszewski. If not for a back injury, he may have gone down in major league history as one its greatest players. With detailed statistics from both his football and baseball careers, this biography chronicles the unusual odyssey that took Kluszewski to the big leagues and ultimately made him an icon during the 1950s.

For more than a century Johnny Evers has been conjoined with Chicago Cubs teammates Frank Chance and Joe Tinker, thanks to eight lines of verse penned by a well-known New York columnist. He has been caricatured as a scrawny, sour man who couldn't hit and who owed his fame to that poem. In truth Johnny Evers was the heartbeat of one of the greatest teams of the 20th century and the fiercest competitor this side of Ty Cobb. He was at the centre of one of baseball's greatest controversies, a chance event that sealed his stardom and stole a pennant from John McGraw and the New York Giants in 1908. Six years later, following a stunning set of reversals and tragedies that resulted in his suffering a nervous breakdown, he made a comeback with the Boston Braves and led that team to the most improbable of championships. Spanning the time from his birth in Troy, New York, to his death less than a year after his election to the Hall of Fame, this is the biography of a man who literally wrote the book about playing his position and set the standard for winning baseball.

For three decades, Louis Norman "Bobo" Newsom (1907-1962) was one of the most well-known pitchers in baseball. Frequently quoted by sportswriters, he appeared in all the popular sports publications as well as on Wheaties boxes and bubblegum cards, and was the undisputed star of the 1940 World Series. Despite his success, he was sold or traded 14 times during his 20-year career. He pitched for nine of 16 Major League teams - including five stints with the Washington Senators - and made sports headlines nearly every year for holding out, being suspended or traded. In an era when players seldom changed teams more than once and rarely defied authority, Newsom seemed always at odds with the powers that be. Drawing on interviews with family, friends and former teammates, this first full-length biography of Newsom takes an entertaining look at the life and career of one of sports' most memorable characters. Despite his nickname and nonstop antics, Bobo was much more than a clown, and gave more to the game than he ever got from it.

Spring training is a time of renewal for baseball, when teams and fans descend on Florida and Arizona to begin the ever hopeful new season. The pace is a little slower, the fans are closer to the action, and the players are more accessible: the sport returns to its idyllic roots. When the first edition of this book was released, 18 of the MLB teams trained in Florida and 12 in Arizona. As 2013 arrives each league consists of 15 teams; together they utilise 14 parks in Florida and 10 in Arizona. This heavily illustrated work dedicates a chapter to each park, including modern Cactus League marvels like Camelback Ranch and Salt River Fields, and Grapefruit League bastions like Joker Marchant Stadium and McKechnie Field. Florida's Fenway Park replica, which opened in 2012, is included. In addition to profiling the five parks that have opened since the first edition, the author has updated the other chapters. Each provides a description of the park, and a recounting of its history, followed by a summary of the home team or teams' spring history. Next is a review of the park's seating, concessions and fan traditions. Each chapter concludes with information about nearby baseball landmarks and attractions.

Selected from the two most recent proceedings of the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture (2019 and 2021), this collection of essays explores subject matter centered both inside and beyond the ballpark. Fifteen contributors offer critical commentary on a range of topics, including controversial decisions on the field and in Hall of Fame elections; baseball's historical role as a rite of passage for boys; two worthy catchers who never received their due; the genesis and development of the minor leagues; and baseball's place in popular culture.

This book analyzes and highlights the development and success of major league baseball teams in the National League and the American League, focusing on each team's performance in seasons and postseasons and to what extent each succeeded as a business enterprise despite competition for market share from other types of entertainment. The book discusses historical and financial information about the 30 major league franchises. Each chapter contains two core themes-Team Performances and Franchise Business. The former highlights which and how teams won division and league championships and World Series while the latter lists and compares financial data including their revenue, gate receipts, and operating income and describes interesting business topics. Each chapter also provides an overview of when each franchise organized and why it joined MLB, a brief profile of its current majority owner or ownership group, records of teams' special coaches and players, attendances at home games, and how their ballparks rank as a venue for fans. Baseball Business explains why particular teams located in large, midsized, or small markets win more games and titles than others and when and how frequently that occurs. Furthermore, it provides ways to compare franchises' financial success individually, by division, and by league. By linking and comparing the historical performances of MLB teams to financial information about them as business organizations, this book offers a unique contribution to the literature on the sports industry.

Despite his outstanding pitching record, James Francis ""Pud"" Galvin (1856-1902) was largely forgotten after his premature death. During his 17-year career pitching for Pittsburgh, Buffalo and St. Louis, he was one of the best-paid players in the game. He died penniless. The diminutive hurler was the first to reach 300 wins, long before that statistic was considered a benchmark of excellence. Only four pitchers have amassed more victories. But because he played in two leagues today not considered ""major,"" not all of his wins have been counted by the baseball establishment. Through the efforts of a determined researcher, Galvin's record was documented decades after his death and he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1965 with 365 wins. This book offers the first comprehensive telling of Galvin's story, covering his complete record and his use of a testosterone-based concoction-with eye-popping results-which earned him criticism as a pioneer of performance enhancing drugs.

I don't think you could find, in the history of baseball, any other player who suffered as many setbacks as Roy Sievers did, and still prevail to become one of the most feared and respected hitters in 1950's baseball. After having an award winning rookie season in 1949, Roy, from 1950 to 1953, suffered through a year and a half of a slump, a devastating, near career ending injury and a major position change, only to come back in 1954 and become the Washington Senators' franchise home run leader and the biggest gate attraction since Walter Johnson. Aside from a few short on-line biographies citing dry statistics, there has never been an in-depth look into Roy Sievers, the person. In my interviews with Roy and his teammates, I came to realize there was more to him than just numbers. Here was a baseball player who fought tremendous adversity to go on to lead a decrepit baseball franchise into some semblance of propriety, all the while remaining kind, humble, and considerate. It was the character, the essence of the man that prompted the writing of this book.

The St. Louis Cardinals are perhaps the most popular and successful franchise in National League history, having won more world championships than any other club in the league. Baseball greats such as Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, and Albert Pujols have all worn the Cardinals uniform. But which Cardinals are the finest in franchise history? Examining every player who has donned the Redbird uniform since 1892, Robert W. Cohen ranks the best of the best in The 50 Greatest Players in St. Louis Cardinals History. This book carefully examines the careers of the fifty men who made the greatest impact on one of the most successful franchises in the history of professional sports. Features include quotes from opposing players and former teammates, summaries of each player's best season, recaps of their most memorable performances, and listings of their notable achievements. Including players such as Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock, and Mark McGwire, this book is sure to fuel debate among Cardinals fans.

An unorthodox history of baseball told through the enthralling stories of the game's objects, equipment, and characters. No sport embraces its wild history quite like baseball, especially in memorabilia and objects. Sure, there are baseball cards and team pennants. But there are also huge balls, giant bats, peanuts, cracker jacks, eyeblack, and more, each with a backstory you have to read to believe. In THE 34-TON BAT, Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin tells the real, unvarnished story of baseball through the lens of all the things that make it the game that it is. Rushin weaves these rich stories - from ballpark pipe organs played by malevolent organists to backed up toilets at Ebbets Field - together in their order of importance (from most to least) for an entertaining and compulsive read, glowing with a deep passion for America's Pastime. The perfect holiday gift for casual fans and serious collectors alike, THE 34-TON BAT is a true heavy hitter.

One of the greatest pitchers of his era, William Arthur "Candy" Cummings was born in 1848, when baseball was in its infancy. As the game evolved through the 1870s, Candy's invention, the curveball, played a transformative role. His stamp on baseball earned him a place in the Hall of Fame. Drawing on extensive research, this first full-length biography traces Candy's New England heritage and chronicles his rise to the top, from pitching for amateur teams in mid-1860s Brooklyn to playing in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players-the first major league-and then the newly-formed National League. A critical examination of the evidence and competing claims reveals that Cummings was, indeed, the originator of the curveball.