Most baseball fans know of the amazing accomplishments Hall of Fame members achieved on the field, from Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak to Cy Young's 511 career wins. But few are as familiar with the ballplayers' lives away from the diamond-especially those icons who played before the Internet and 24/7 media coverage. Beyond their baseball statistics, what kind of individuals were they? How did they conduct themselves out of the spotlight? What made them tick? In Beyond the Ballpark: The Honorable, Immoral, and Eccentric Lives of Baseball Legends, John A. Wood looks at the personal lives of fifty members of the Hall of Fame, examining their childhoods, families, influences, life-changing events, defining moments, and more. The players range from the really good guys to bizarre characters and even the downright immoral. The author considers how tragedies may have impacted players, such as the shooting of Ty Cobb's beloved father by his own mother, and seeks to explain the dispositions of others, such as why the great Rogers Hornsby couldn't seem to get along with anybody. By taking a closer look at who the players were as men, Beyond the Ballpark captures the essence of these fifty Hall of Famers. Including such names as Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth, this book is for all fans who are interested in more than just a ballplayer's statistics.

Bursting onto the scene as a 20-year-old rookie, Arky Vaughan quickly established himself as the next great Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop. In 1935 his .385 batting average eclipsed even that of the immortal Honus Wagner, who was a steadying influence for Vaughan during his 10 seasons with the Pirates. Vaughan never hit under .300 with Pittsburgh and his versatility later made him an asset to the Brooklyn Dodgers. One of the quietest men in baseball, the nine-time All-Star eschewed the limelight but received plenty of attention for his on-field performance, for his one-man mutiny against Brooklyn manager Leo Durocher, and for walking away from the game to take care of his family and his beloved ranch during World War II. Drawing on dozens of articles, personal writings, recorded interviews and his daughter's unpublished biography, this book covers the life and career of an often overlooked Hall of Famer who died in a tragic boating accident at age 40.

Although very few baseball games end with a final score of one to zero, and such a score line might suggest a contest devoid of drama, nothing could be further from the truth. Since the 1876 inaugural season of professional baseball, many 1-0 games have proved as compelling as those featuring a parade of pitchers and a plethora of home runs. In Baseball's Iconic 1-0 Games Warren Wilbert has chronicled the tensest 1-0 nail-biters that have occurred since baseball's first professional season. Organized thematically, Baseball's Iconic 1-0 Games starts by examining 1-0 games achieved on Opening Day, with the finest selected from the more than 50 that have occurred since 1876. Regular season games, in which less than three percent result in a 1-0 score, are then detailed, including those games pitched by such greats as John "Jocko" Flynn and Randy Johnson. Championship play, from the first inning of playoffs to the final out of the World Series, has its own share of 1-0 drama, and this, too, is covered extensively. These chapters are then followed by a look at the elusive perfect 1-0 game, of which only eight have been pitched since 1871-seven with a single pitcher. Pitching titans such as Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Bert Blyleven, Christy Mathewson, Dean Chance, Ed Walsh, Guy White, and Cy Young have had more than their fair share of 1-0 victories, and an additional chapter examines these pitchers and their 1-0 games. Appendixes include a full list of pitchers to have thrown a no-hit 1-0 game, pitching greats who have amassed ten or more career 1-0 victories, and 1-0 games in both the Negro Leagues and the Japanese Major Leagues. Featuring more than 30 photographs, Baseball's Iconic 1-0 Games is sure to fascinate all baseball fans, players, and historians.

More than three decades ago, the film Field of Dreams made grown men cry with its tale of a son's quest to know his father through the magic of baseball. The mystical baseball field of that movie continues to attract thousands of visitors and here is the story of a make-believe place made real, its incredible lure, and its effect on the people who have stepped between its chalk lines.

In what is sure to be the definitive book on Eddie Collins's life and long career, author Rick Huhn covers the Hall of Fame player's experiences from childhood through his days at Columbia University; his tenure with the great Athletics clubs of 1906-1914, the highs and lows of a championship and scandal with the White Sox, and his return to the A's during their final run at greatness. By the time his 25-year playing career had ended, he had been a pivotal performer on five all-time great clubs, dominated his position like no one before (or since), and earned a reputation for intelligent, selfless play that followed him to Cooperstown. Also covered in detail is his tenure with the Boston Red Sox, a team he served variously as part owner, vice-president and general manager until 1951, when after 45 years in major league baseball a stroke effectively ended his career and, weeks later, his life.

More than 6 years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his ground-breaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them bestsellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves.
The Teammates is the profoundly moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons--when they were young and seemingly indestructible--to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the book is the friendship of these four very different men--Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams--who remained close for more than sixty years.
The book starts out in early October 2001, when Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved friend Ted Williams, whom they know is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group--"my guys," Williams used to call them--is unable to join them.This is a book--filled with historical details and first-hand accounts--about baseball and about something more: the richness of friendship.

Comparing major league players has always been a popular topic among baseball fans. Debating the strengths and weaknesses of such greats as Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, or Tom Seaver and Greg Maddux continues to stir up controversy among fans eager to champion their heroes. In Baseball's Top 10, Bob Kuenster has compiled a ranking of the game's best players by position, highlighting the achievements of nearly 300 individuals. In addition to the top 10, Kuenster includes Honorable Mentions-players who were considered but didn't make the final list-and Dishonorable Mentions-players who were left off the rankings due to alleged steroid and performance enhancing drug use. Drawing upon original interviews conducted by the author, this ranking reveals the best players in major league history as seen through the eyes of former players, managers, and announcers. Player entries include biographical information, individual achievements, stats, and quotes. Organized by position-first base, second base, third base, shortstop, left field, center field, right field, catcher, designated hitters, multi-position players, right-handed starting pitchers, left-handed starting pitchers, and closers-280 outstanding players made the cut as the most elite pitchers, hitters, and fielders in MLB history. Baseball's Top 10 features interviews with some of baseball's greatest personalities-including players who have since passed, such as Al Lopez, Bob Feller, Stan Musial, Lou Boudreau, Andy Pafko, Ron Santo, Harry Caray and Harry Kalas. With over 50 photographs and a comprehensive list of suggested titles for further reading, this book is sure to interest baseball fans and historians who love to debate the many outstanding players who have appeared in the major leagues.

Who comprised the most productive pairs in the history of professional team sports? Joe Montana and Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers? Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls? What about the prolific hockey tandem of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier? And that all-time great New York Yankees twosome of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig can certainly not be excluded. Using various selection criteria-including longevity, level of statistical compilation, impact on one's team, and overall place in history-The 50 Most Dynamic Duos in Sports History attempts to ascertain which twosome truly established itself as the most dominant tandem in the history of the four major professional team sports: baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. Arranged and ranked by sport, this work takes an in-depth look at the careers of these 100 men, including statistics, quotes from opposing players and former teammates, and career highlights. Finally, all 50 duos are placed in an overall ranking. Covering every decade since the 1890s, this book will find widespread appeal among sports fans of all generations.And with photographs of many of the tandems, The 50 Most Dynamic Duos in Sports History is a wonderful addition to any sports historian's collection.

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.

Red Smith's writing is recognized as the best in the field. Here is a selection of his most memorable columns-175 of them, from 1941 to 1981. His prose...offers lasting lessons about matters journalistic and literary. -Robert Schmuhl, University of Notre Dame. The most admired and gifted sportswriter of his time.... Red Smith's work...tended to be the best writing in any given newspaper on any given day. -David Halberstam, New York Times Book Review

Of the 17,000-plus players who have donned major league uniforms over the years, not all were particularly nice or ethical. In fact, the actions of a handful were so heinous, they left an indelible mark on the sport. In Baseball's Most Notorious Personalities: A Gallery of Rogues, Jonathan Weeks thoroughly examines this dark side of our National Pastime. Liars, cheats, hotheads, even axe murderers-you'll find them all here in the Gallery. From scapegoats to maniacs, meddling managers to fanatical fans, this book profiles them all. Included are players such as Brooklyn outfielder Len Koenecke, who tried to crash a chartered plane in a maniacal suicide attempt; Ty Cobb, who was known to slide into bases with spikes flying and brawl with anyone who dared oppose him, including an attack on a fan who heckled him from the stands; and Marty Bergen, a talented catcher for the Boston Beaneaters who murdered his family with an axe. These are just a few of the many intriguing individuals found in this volume. Spanning three centuries of baseball-from the 1800s into the current decade-Baseball's Most Notorious Personalities covers various themes of notoriety. Though some of the stories may be familiar to the dedicated baseball enthusiast, even the most die-hard fan will be shocked and surprised by some of the actions of well-known and lesser-known players, managers, fans, and team owners contained in this book. Baseball's Most Notorious Personalities is a fascinating read for all baseball fans and historians.

Inspired and led by sporting magnate Albert Goodwill Spalding, two teams of baseball players circled the globe for six months in 1888-1889 competing in such far away destinations as Australia, Sri Lanka and Egypt. These players, however, represented much more than mere pleasure-seekers. In this lively narrative, Zeiler explores the ways in which the Spalding World Baseball Tour drew on elements of cultural diplomacy to inject American values and power into the international arena. Through his chronicle of baseball history, games, and experiences, Zeiler explores expressions of imperial dreams through globalization's instruments of free enterprise, webs of modern communication and transport, cultural ordering of races and societies, and a strident nationalism that galvanized notions of American uniqueness. Spalding linked baseball to a U.S. presence overseas, viewing the world as a market ripe for the infusion of American ideas, products and energy. Through globalization during the Gilded Age, he and other Americans penetrated the globe and laid the foundation for an empire formally acquired just a decade after their tour.

Perhaps more has been written about the New York Yankees than about any other sports team. And the magic that has played out on the field over the years has been rivaled only by baseball scribes' prowess on the page. Excellence breeds excellence, and for 100 years some of the best writers in America have chronicled the New York Yankees, taking a single swing or game and somehow making it singular. This brand-new anthology from the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing and author of Yankees Century collects the best writing about the Yankees over the course of their long history. Published to coincide with the team's centenary celebration, this is a must-have volume for fans the world over who claim the New York Yankees as their own.

This vivid portrait of Bart Giamatti encompasses his entire eventful life but focuses especially on his years at Yale University (1966-1986) and his brief career as a major league baseball executive (1986-1989). As scholar, teacher, and then university president, Giamatti was an admired and respected figure on campus. He forged his academic career during turbulent decades, and his tenure in baseball was no less contentious, for as commissioner of baseball he oversaw the banishment of Cincinnati's Pete Rose from the game for gambling. The book draws on Giamatti's numerous writings and speeches to illuminate the character and complexities of the man and to understand the values that motivated his leadership.
Bart Giamatti was a cultural conservative and institutional moderate at a time when such values were out of favor and under attack. At Yale, as a baseball executive, and indeed in all things, Giamatti championed the related values of freedom and order. Robert P. Moncreiff places Giamatti in the context of major events at Yale, recounts in detail the legal context in which the Pete Rose affair unfolded, and arrives at a nuanced understanding of this memorable man's life.

The Cincinnati Reds are recognized as one of the great teams in baseball history. Left fielder George Foster-an integral part of the Reds' back-to-back World Championships in 1975-1976-has never received proper credit for his contribution to their legacy. In 1977, Foster became the most feared slugger in the National League, batting .320, with 52 home runs and 149 runs batted in to win the NL MVP Award, establishing a new single-season home run record for the Reds' franchise that still stands. Yet Foster's big year was not enough to stem the emergence of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who roared out of the gate and ran away with the NL West Division pennant. This book tells the story of Foster's record-setting season and puts his pre-steroid era achievements in proper perspective. The author chronicles the subsequent decline of the Big Red Machine and the rest of Foster's big league career, including his disappointing tenure with the New York Mets.

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.

George Edward "Rube" Waddell was one of the zaniest characters ever to play baseball. The legendary Connie Mack, who saw quite a few cards during his nearly seven decade stint in the majors, once observed that no other screwball he ever saw could hold a candle to Rube. Mack also said that Rube's curveball was the best he'd ever seen. Indeed, Waddell was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game. Rube won 191 games in 13 seasons, had four straight 20-win seasons for Mack and the Philadelphia A's, and claimed six consecutive strikeout titles. In 1904 he struck out 349 batters, a record that held for six decades. This biography traces his early life in western Pennsylvania, the fits and starts of his first years in professional baseball, his big years with the A's, and his subsequent fade into obscurity and his early death in a sanatorium on April Fool's Day, 1914.

Part sports journalism, part history, part memoir, this many-sided narrative follows one season with the Blue Devils of Moscow, Idaho-a rural American Legion baseball team. Showcasing baseball's enduring place in American life, the author draws on the lore ofthe game, and conversations with diverse fans and players-an outdoorsman juggling his son's game schedule with bear hunting; a bewildered German college student, holding a baseball for the first time; former St. Louis Cardinal pitcher and Yale baseball coach John Stuper; and the proud owner of a Derek Jeter jersey in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania, to name a few.

Offers a first hand description by the players themselves of historic moments that helped shape our national game. There is an examination of social events with interviews of former Negro League players such as Larry Doby, the first African American player to break the color line in the American league. We also hear from Jim "Mudcat" Grant who in 1965 became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game in the junior circuit. Hank Aaron explains the challenge of breaking Babe Ruth's home run record wasn't only on the diamond. There is an examination of the war years when 500 major-league players served in the armed forces during WWII. Prominent players such as Bob Feller, Cecil Travis, Tommy Henrich and Jerry Coleman talk about their experience and sacrifice without fanfare. Bobby Thompson and Ralph Branca address the "Shot Heard Round the World" in the Giants vs Dodgers playoff of 1951. Bill Mazeroski tells us what went through his mind as he watched his game seven walk off home run win the fall classic for his Pittsburgh Pirates, and Pitcher Bob Gibson brings you back to 1968 and the year of the pitcher when he finished with an ERA of 1.12. It is certainly an All - Star lineup of not only great baseball players but outstanding men who were gracious enough to look back at a time when they displayed talent and heart for the game.

The conclusion of the Sandy Koufax Era 1964-1966 was a wild roller coaster ride for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Overly dependent on the fragile left arm of their brilliant Hall of Fame left-hander, they careened from their worst season since WWII in 1964 after losing him to injury in mid-August, to a World Series Championship in 1965 on the strength of his heroic shutout performance on short rest in Game 7 of the World Series with the Twins, to an ignominious World Series collapse to the Orioles in 1966 after he single-handedly saved the season for them on the last day of the regular season. After putting together one of the most prolific final 2-year runs in baseball history in which he averaged 27 complete games, 27 wins, and 350 strikeouts-and sixteen days after winning his second straight unanimous Cy Young Award- Koufax shocked the Dodgers and Major League Baseball by announcing his retirement. Like a brilliant supernova that had lit up the sports world for six years he flamed out and was gone at the age of thirty.

The Big Red Machine dominated major league baseball in the 1970s, but the Cincinnati franchise began its climb to that pinnacle in 1961, when an unlikely collection of cast-offs and wannabes stunned the baseball world by winning the National League pennant. Led by revered manager Fred Hutchinson, the team featured rising stars like Frank Robinson, Jim O'Toole, and Vada Pinson, fading stars like Gus Bell and Wally Post, and a few castoffs who suddenly came into their own, like Gene Freese and 20-game-winner Joey Jay. In time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their pennant-winning season, the amazing story of the "Ragamuffin Reds" is told from start to finish in Before the Machine. Written by long-time Reds Report editor Mark J. Schmetzer and featuring dozens of photos by award-winning photographer Jerry Klumpe of the Cincinnati Post & Times Star, this book surely will be a winner with every fan in Reds country and coincides with an anniversary exhibit at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Through interviews and research, Before the Machine captures the excitement of a pennant race for a team that had suffered losing seasons in 14 of the past 16 years. Schmetzer also beautifully evokes the time and place--a muggy Midwestern summer during which, as the new song of the season boasts, "the whole town's batty for that team in Cincinnati." Led by regional talk-show star Ruth Lyons (the Midwest's "Oprah") fans rallied around the Reds as never before. The year didn't begin well for the team. Budding superstar Frank Robinson was arrested right before spring training for carrying a concealed weapon, and long-time owner Powel Crosley Jr., died suddenly just days before the start of the season. Few experts--or fans--gave the Reds much of a chance at first place anyway. With powerhouse teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Milwaukee, the National League pennant was unlikely to fly over Cincinnati's Crosley Field. But manager Hutchinson somehow galvanized his motley crew and led them to victory after victory. Joey Jay, who had languished with the Braves, mowed down hitters while his rotation mates O'Toole and knuckleballer Bob Purkey did the same. The team also featured a dynamic duo in the bullpen in Bill Henry and Jim Brosnan, whose book about the season, Pennant Race, became a national bestseller the following year. As the rest of the league kept waiting for the Reds to fade, Hutch's boys kept winning--and finally grabbed the pennant. Though they couldn't continue their magic in the World Series against the Yankees, the previously moribund Reds franchise did continue to their success throughout the decade, winning 98 games in 1962 and falling just short of another pennant in 1964. They established a recipe for success that would lead, a few years later, to the emergence of the Big Red Machine.

Long-time fans of the National Pastime have known Moyer's name for more than 25 years. That's because he's been pitching in the bigs for all those years. With his trademark three pitches - slow, slower, and slowest - the left-handed Moyer is a pinpoint specialist whose won-lost record actually got better as he got older - from his 20s to his 30s and into 40s. He's only a few wins shy of 300 for his amazing career. But this is where the book takes an unusual turn. Moyer was just about finished as a big leaguer in his mid-20s until he fatefully encountered a gravel-voiced, highly confrontational sports psychologist named Harvey Dorfman. Listening to the 'in-your-face' insights of Dorfman, Moyer began to re-invent himself and reconstruct his approach to his game. Moyer went on to become an All-Star and also a World Series champion. Yogi Berra once observed that 'Half of this game is 90% mental.' And Moyer's memoir proves it.

At the time of Hank Aaron's birth in 1934, Babe Ruth reigned as baseball's home run king, and the Negro Leagues were an African American's only hope of playing professional baseball. Latent hopes for a different future thrived on Carver Park in Alabama, however, where a young Hank Aaron was soon to be seen perfecting the powerful stroke that would later make him one of the greatest hitters and most revered players in the history of the game. The owner of over 3,000 career base hits, the winner of two batting titles and one world championship, and the all time RBI leader and home run king, Hank Aaron began his historic career integrating the South Atlantic League, and spent much of his professional tenure as a member of the only major league team in the South. Despite the animosity that thus surrounded him both at home and on the road, Aaron never ceased to excel, and even achieved his most enduring feat-breaking Babe Ruth's career home run record-under threats to his own life. This enlightening biography provides a stunning portrait of one of the great hitters and great men of major league baseball history. 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 high school 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.