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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Baseball
Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team
shortstop, played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs and a
Gold Glove Award, and twice led the Major Leagues in home runs and
runs batted in. His signature phrase, "Let's play two," has entered
the American lexicon and exemplifies an enthusiasm and optimism
that endeared him to fans everywhere. But Banks's public display of
good cheer was also a mask that hid a deeply conflicted and complex
man. He spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs, who fielded
some of baseball's worst teams, and became one of the greatest
players never to reach the World Series. He endured poverty and
racism as a young man, and the scorn of Cubs manager Leo Durocher
as an aging superstar. Yet Banks smiled through it all, never
complaining and never saying a negative word about his
circumstances or the people around him. Based on numerous
conversations with Banks, and on more than a hundred interviews
with family, teammates, friends, and associates--as well as oral
histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and
sources--Let's Play Two tells Banks's story along with that of the
woebegone Cubs teams he played for. This fascinating chronicle
features Buck O'Neil, Philip K. Wrigley, the Bleacher Bums, the
doomed pennant race of 1969, and much more from a long lost
baseball era.
A driving ambition linked Oakland and Kansas City in the 1960s.
Each city sought the national attention and civic glory that came
with being home to professional sports teams. Their successful
campaigns to lure pro franchises ignited mutual rivalries in
football and baseball that thrilled hometown fans. But even Super
Bowl victories and World Series triumphs proved to be no defense
against urban problems in the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. Matthew
C. Ehrlich tells the fascinating history of these iconic sports
towns. From early American Football League battles to Oakland's
deft poaching of baseball's Kansas City Athletics, the cities
emerged as fierce opponents from Day One. Ehrlich weaves a saga of
athletic stars and folk heroes like Len Dawson, Al Davis, George
Brett, and Reggie Jackson with a chronicle of two cities forced to
confront the wrenching racial turmoil, labor conflict, and economic
crises that arise when soaring aspirations collide with harsh
realities.Colorful and thought-provoking, Kansas City vs. Oakland
breaks down who won and who lost when big-time sports came to town.
Whether you're a major league couch potato, life-long season
ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, "Watching Baseball
Smarter "leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny
fan's guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting,
running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes
that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national
pastime.
What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?
At which stadium did "The Wave" first make an appearance?
How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?
Which positions are never" "played by lefties?
Why do some players urinate on their hands?
Combining the narrative voice and attitude of Michael Lewis with
the compulsive brilliance of "Schott's Miscellany," "Watching
Baseball Smarter "will increase your understanding and enjoyment of
the sport-no matter what your level of expertise.
Zack Hample is an obsessed fan and a regular writer for
minorleaguebaseball.com. He's collected nearly 3,000 baseballs from
major league games and has appeared on dozens of TV and radio
shows. His first book, "How to Snag Major League Baseballs, " was
published in 1999.
Nineteen sixty-two-it's been called "the end of innocence," as
America witnessed the Cuban Missile Crisis and the following year
saw the Kennedy assassination and the early stirrings of Vietnam.
In baseball, 1962 was a thrilling season. Five years prior, the
Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had migrated west to Los
Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, leaving New York to the
Yankees. In 1962, those same Giants and Dodgers faced off to see
who would advance to the World Series. Waiting to do battle were
the Yankees, who were also battling for allegiance in New York with
the Mets'debut. The old Subway Series had gone cross-country. Just
as it was the end of innocence, it was an end of an era for the
Yankees. Winners of eleven World Series titles in twenty years,
they would go fifteen years-a record for the modern-era Bombers at
the time-until their next championship. They appeared in the next
two World Series, but by the end of the decade it was those upstart
Mets' amazin' fans. The Dodgers would break through the following
year and again in 1965 while the Giants-convinced they'd be back
many times- have yet to win a title on the West Coast. Mickey
Mantle and Whitey Ford, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, Sandy
Koufax and Don Drysdale, Casey Stengel. Steven Travers details
Hollywood's adoration of the Dodgers, San Francisco's battle
between inferiority and superiority, and New York, rulers of sport
and society, experiencing the beginnings of a changing of the
guard. Three cities, five teams, and one great year are all here in
"A Tale of Three Cities".
A Booklist Top 10 Sports & Recreation Book Finalist for the
2022 CASEY Award Born and raised in rural Mississippi and the even
balmier climes of central Florida, Red Barber, at the age of
thirty-two, became one of New York City's most influential citizens
as the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he
arrived in 1939, Barber brought the down-home drawl and idioms of
his southern roots to the borough, where residents said they could
walk down any street and never miss a pitch because his voice
wafted out of every window and every passing car. From his colorful
expressions like "rhubarb" and "sitting in the catbird seat" to his
vivid use of similes-a close game was "tighter than a new pair of
shoes on a rainy day"-Barber's influence on his contemporaries and
the many generations of broadcasters who followed him cannot be
overstated. But behind all the base hits, balls, and strikes lies a
compelling story that dramatizes the shifting expectations and
roles of a public figure-the sports broadcaster-as he adapted to
complex cultural changes throughout the course of twentieth-century
American life. Red Barber follows the trajectory of Barber's long
career from radio and television play-by-play man for the
Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, and New York Yankees to his work
calling college and professional football games, his nine-year
tenure as director of sports for CBS Radio, and his second acts as
an Episcopal lay reader, sportswriter, and weekly guest with Bob
Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition. This talented public figure was
also a private man committed to rigorous self-examination and
willing to evolve and grow under the influence of changing times.
When the Dodgers first signed Jackie Robinson and smashed the color
barrier in Major League Baseball, Barber struggled to overcome the
racism he had absorbed from his culture as a child. But after
observing the vicious abuse Robinson endured from opposing fans,
Barber became an ardent supporter of him and the many Black players
who followed. Barber was also bothered deeply by the strains that
his single-minded careerism imposed on his family. He was
challenged to navigate longtime family tensions after his only
child, Sarah, came out as a lesbian. And his primary role during
the later years of his life was caretaking for his wife, Lylah,
during her decline from Alzheimer's disease, at a time when the
ailment was something many families concealed. Ultimately Red
Barber traces the career of a true radio and television pioneer who
was committed to the civic responsibility of mass media. Barber
firmly believed the most important role of a broadcaster was
telling the truth and promoting public well-being.
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