Love'em or hate'em, there's no denying that the New York Yankees have won twenty-six world championships. No other team comes close to matching that record. Some clubs are fortunate enough to assemble a team that can be called a dynasty, most never come close -- the Yankees have had five.

Long before the 2000 World Series trophy was awarded, Alan Ross, a lifelong Yankees fan, began compiling a unique, concise treasury of quotations about the Yankees by the players, coaches, and sportswriters who called Yankee Stadium home. The result is an eloquent collection of pinstripe pride that should swell the heart of every Yankees fan. Sentiments from heroes past and present echo through the pages, from Ruth and Gehrig to Stengel and Mantle to Torre and Jeter. Not only are the voices heard of the greats whose names appear on the monuments beyond the left-center field fence at Yankee Stadium -- Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, Munson, Guidry, Jackson, Hunter, and Mattingly -- but also those of other Yankee heroes such as Charley Keller, Spud Chandler, Joe Gordon, Tommy Henrich, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Bobby Murcer, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Joe Pepitone, and Sparky Lyle.

This tribute to the Yankees also includes a brief history of the team, statistics from the successful World Series campaigns, and the lineups that amassed this legacy. In the end, it is a celebration of the greatness of the Yankees that spanned a century.

This is the kind of book a fan reads over and over. After all, that is the way their Yankees seem to collect world championships.

The strike of 1994 took a lot out of Major League Baseball. For the first time, a World Series was cancelled, something that hadn't even happened during World War II. When play resumed, people stayed away from the ballparks in droves, and attendance was at an all-time low.

Then, in the summer of 1998, balls started flying out of the ballparks in St. Louis and Chicago. Suddenly baseball was fun again. The Great Home Run Derby between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa resulted in both men breaking Roger Maris's 37-year-old record of 61 home runs in a single season. When the season was over, McGwire had hit 70 home runs and Sosa 66, and the New York Yankees had won the first of three consecutive World Series championships.

Among the fans in the ballparks that summer were two recent graduates of Stanford University who had decided that before launching into their careers they would indulge themselves in one of the ultimate baseball fantasies: to see a game in all thirty ballparks of Major League Baseball. To make matters interesting, they decided to view these thirty games and visit the thirty stadiums in less than forty days.

This is the chronicle of that adventure, the story of their experiences at the ballparks and at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the Louisville Slugger Museum, and the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. Each chapter offers a fan's-eye view of the stadiums and a description of their experiences at the ballparks -- Kaval and Null even give advice on what not to miss at each stadium. The notoriety the authors gained while making this pilgrimage earned them special treatment by representatives of the host teams, ballpark officials, and concessionaires.

These storiesfocus on all that is good and enjoyable in Major League Baseball. And they are illustrated throughout with photographs from The Summer That Saved Baseball.

At both the plate and in the field, Joe DiMaggio was one of baseball's most graceful athletes. During his thirteen seasons with the New York Yankees, he played in ten World Series and won nine world championships. For his career, he was a two-time batting champion, three-time Most Valuable Player, hit 361 home runs, and maintained a .325 batting average. His fifty-six-consecutive-game batting streak in 1941 has yet to be broken.

DiMaggio's baseball career began in 1932 when he filled in at shortstop at midseason for a minor league team. In 1934 he became the property of the New York Yankees, which marked the beginning of his road toward greatness in the nation's most famous city on one of the most hallowed fields in the sport. Off the field, his life was marked by a famous marriage to and divorce from Marilyn Monroe, a late-1960s popular song, and a somewhat unhappy retirement.

On baseball's one hundredth anniversary in 1969, he was voted the greatest living player of the game, and the Yankees erected a plaque to him among the memorials to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. On March 8, 1999, at the age of eighty-four, DiMaggio died after a five-month battle with cancer.

In I Remember Joe DiMaggio, dozens of the great ballplayer's contemporaries, teammates, coaches, fans, friends, and relatives recall their favorite memories and anecdotes of this man who became an icon of America. It is a warm, entertaining, and inspiring book about a man whose fame has been the stuff of legend for more than half a century.

Love'em or hate'em, there's no denying that the New York Yankees have won twenty-six world championships. No other team comes close to matching that record. Some clubs are fortunate enough to assemble a team that can be called a dynasty, most never come close -- the Yankees have had five.Long before the 2000 World Series trophy was awarded, Alan Ross, a lifelong Yankees fan, began compiling a unique, concise treasury of quotations about the Yankees by the players, coaches, and sportswriters who called Yankee Stadium home. The result is an eloquent collection of pinstripe pride that should swell the heart of every Yankees fan. Sentiments from heroes past and present echo through the pages, from Ruth and Gehrig to Stengel and Mantle to Torre and Jeter. Not only are the voices heard of the greats whose names appear on the monuments beyond the left-center field fence at Yankee Stadium -- Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, Munson, Guidry, Jackson, Hunter, and Mattingly -- but also those of other Yankee heroes such as Charley Keller, Spud Chandler, Joe Gordon, Tommy Henrich, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Bobby Murcer, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Joe Pepitone, and Sparky Lyle.This tribute to the Yankees also includes a brief history of the team, statistics from the successful World Series campaigns, and the lineups that amassed this legacy. In the end, it is a celebration of the greatness of the Yankees that spanned a century.This is the kind of book a fan reads over and over. After all, that is the way their Yankees seem to collect world championships.

Named a Best Baseball Book of 2020 by Sports Collectors Digest New York Times 2020 Summer Reading List From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939-2019) was the sports world's deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative sports world and compelled it to catch up with a rapidly changing American society. In Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, Mitchell Nathanson gives readers a look at Bouton's remarkable life. He tells the unlikely story of how Bouton's Ball Four, perhaps the greatest baseball book of all time, came into being, how it was received, and how it forever changed the way we view not only sports books but professional sports as a whole. Based on wide-ranging interviews Nathanson conducted with Bouton, family, friends, and others, he provides an intimate, inside account of Bouton's life. Nathanson provides insight as to why Bouton saw the world the way he did, why he was so different from the thousands of players who came before him, and how, in the cliquey, cold, bottom-line world of professional baseball, Bouton managed to be both an insider and an outsider all at once.

The St. Louis Cardinals, despite winning more World Series than any Major League franchise except for the New York Yankees, have seen their share of dry spells when they were shut out of the postseason. Like the American economy, the Cardinals have seen their fortunes cycle through prolonged ups and downs, with booms in 1885-1888, 1926-1946, 1964-1968, 1982-1987 and 1996-2011, and busts in 1889-1925, 1947-1963, 1969-1981 and 1988-1995. Drawing on years of research, this book chronicles the Cardinals' periods of success and failure and explains the reasons behind them.

Their names were chanted, crowed, and cursed. Alone they were a shortstop, a second baseman, and a first baseman. But together they were an unstoppable force. Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance came together in rough-and-tumble early twentieth-century Chicago and soon formed the defensive core of the most formidable team in big league baseball, leading the Chicago Cubs to four National League pennants and two World Series championships from 1906 to 1910. At the same time, baseball was transforming from small-time diversion into a nationwide sensation. Americans from all walks of life became infected with "baseball fever," a phenomenon of unprecedented enthusiasm and social impact. The national pastime was coming of age. Tinker to Evers to Chance examines this pivotal moment in American history, when baseball became the game we know today. Each man came from a different corner of the country and brought a distinctive local culture with him: Evers from the Irish-American hothouse of Troy, New York; Tinker from the urban parklands of Kansas City, Missouri; Chance from the verdant fields of California's Central Valley. The stories of these early baseball stars shed unexpected light not only on the evolution of baseball and on the enthusiasm of its players and fans all across America, but also on the broader convulsions transforming the US into a confident new industrial society. With them emerged a truly national culture. This iconic trio helped baseball reinvent itself, but their legend has largely been relegated to myths and barroom trivia. David Rapp's engaging history resets the story and brings these men to life again, enabling us to marvel anew at their feats on the diamond. It's a rare look at one of baseball's first dynasties in action.

Interest in Sabermetrics has increased dramatically in recent years as the need to better compare baseball players has intensified among managers, agents and fans, and even other players. The authors explain how traditional measures-such as Earned Run Average, Slugging Percentage, and Fielding Percentage-along with new statistics-Wins Above Average, Fielding Independent Pitching, Wins Above Replacement, the Equivalence Coefficient and others-define the value of players. Actual player statistics are used in developing models, while examples and exercises are provided in each chapter. This book serves as a guide for both beginners and those who wish to be successful in fantasy leagues.

Ernie Banks is the best-known ballplayer in the history of the Chicago Cubs-a man as famous for his personality and trademark phrases as for his accomplishments on the field. Nicknamed "Mr. Cub," Banks won two National League Most Valuable Player awards and slugged 512 home runs, all while battling discrimination and poverty. His conduct away from the field was so exemplary he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Based on interviews conducted with Banks, the author details the life of this Texas-born shortstop and first baseman from his childhood playing softball to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame to his death in 2015.

How did Reggie Jackson go from superstar to icon? Why did Joe DiMaggio's nickname change from "Deadpan Joe" to "Joltin' Joe"? How did Seinfeld affect public perception of George Steinbrenner? The New York Yankees' dominance on the baseball diamond has been lauded, analyzed and chronicled. Yet the team's broader impact on popular culture has been largely overlooked-until now. From Ruth's called shot to the Reggie! candy bar, this collection of new essays offers untold histories, new interpretations and fresh analyses of baseball's most successful franchise. Contributors explore the Yankee mystique in film, television, theater, music and advertising.

Despite the big market, bright lights and World Series rings, many Hall of Fame level players from the Mets and Yankees have been passed over by voters, often by good margins. The biggest reason: they didn't accumulate those traditional lifetime stats in hits, home runs or wins that typically punch Hall of Fame tickets. New York fan favorites Keith Hernandez, Ron Guidry, David Cone and others had the misfortune of playing before today's accepted measurement tools like on-base percentage, slugging percentage and ERA-plus (adjusting a pitcher's earned run average to the league norm in a given year) became commonplace. Some players were overshadowed by bigger personalities who were better able to take advantage of the New York spotlight. This book makes an in-depth case for the induction of seven Mets and Yankees, and evaluates many more who have been looked over for a spot in the Hall of Fame. Giving these players a fresh look, it uses advanced stats that weren't around when these men were playing and places traditional stats in the context of their era.

In the winter that followed the 1926 season, baseball became enveloped in scandal. Two of baseball's biggest stars, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, were accused of fixing and betting on games. Sportswriters called the scandal worse than that of the infamous "Black Sox." The reputation of baseball was in tatters. In Baseball at the Abyss, Dan Taylor reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how baseball was saved after the banishment of Cobb and Speaker. It was all set in motion by one unlikely individual-Christy Walsh, the business manager for Babe Ruth and baseball's first player agent. Taylor follows Walsh and Ruth as the agent arranges for the Babe to star in a motion picture and presses for Ruth to hire a fitness guru, change his habits, and train while in Hollywood. The results were astonishing. A reinvigorated Babe Ruth enjoyed his greatest season in 1927, slugging 60 home runs and powering his New York Yankees to heights never seen before. Baseball at the Abyss features fascinating details of the 1926 scandal and the incredible resurgence of the national pastime when it seemed the game was permanently tarnished. It's the story of a remarkable year in baseball history and the men who restored glory to a troubled game.

Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium was home to baseball's College World Series from 1950 until 2010. Future Major League stars played pro ball there in all but seven seasons during the same period. The venue also hosted barnstorming games, football games, concerts and a variety of novelty events in its lifetime. The history of the stadium is told by people who lived it. Essays and recollections by players and coaches who competed there, organizers of the Series and other events, and fans who enjoyed more than six decades of entertainment establish Rosenblatt's place in the American cultural landscape.

Widely acknowledged as the preeminent gathering of baseball scholars, the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture has made significant contributions to baseball research. This collection of 15 new essays selected from the 2017 and the 2018 symposia examines topics whose importance extend beyond the ballpark. Presented in six parts, the essays explore baseball's cultural and social history and analyze the tools that encourage a more sophisticated understanding of baseball as a game and enterprise.

The Infield Fly Rule is the most misunderstood in baseball, and perhaps in all of sports. That makes it also the most infamous rule. Drawing on interviews with experts, legal arguments and a study of every infield-fly play in eight Major League seasons, this book tells the complete story of the Rule and its place in the National Pasttime. This author covers its history from 19th century to the modern game, its underlying logic and arguments for keeping it as part of baseball, recent criticisms and calls for repeal, the controversies and confusion it creates and its effect on how the game is played.

"An exciting and engrossing book with stories that are worth telling. This work will engage fans of Charlie O. Finley and the Oakland Athletics, along with anyone captivated by baseball history." -- Library Journal, starred review The Oakland A's of the early 1970s: Never before had an entire organization so collectively traumatized baseball's establishment with its outlandish behavior and business decisions. The high drama that played out on the field--five straight division titles and three straight championships--was exceeded only by the drama in the clubhouse and front office. Under the visionary leadership of owner Charles O. Finley, the team assembled such luminary figures as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue, and with garish uniforms and revolutionary facial hair, knocked baseball into the modern age. Finley's insatiable need for control--he was his own general manager and dictated everything from the ballpark organist's playlist to the menu for the media lounge--made him ill-suited for the advent of free agency. Within two years, his dynasty was lost. A sprawling, brawling history of one of the game's most unforgettable teams, Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic is a paean to the sport's most turbulent, magical team, during one of major league baseball's most turbulent, magical times.

In 1903, a small league in California defied Organized Baseball by adding teams in Portland and Seattle to become the strongest minor league of the twentieth century. Calling itself the Pacific Coast League, this outlaw association frequently outdrew its major league counterparts and continued to challenge the authority of Organized Baseball until the majors expanded into California in 1958. The Pacific Coast League introduced the world to Joe, Vince and Dom DiMaggio, Paul and Lloyd Waner, Ted Williams, Tony Lazzeri, Lefty O'Doul, Mickey Cochrane, Bobby Doerr, and many other baseball stars, all of whom originally signed with PCL teams. This thorough history of the Pacific Coast League chronicles its foremost personalities, governance, and contentious relationship with the majors, proving that the history of the game involves far more than the happenings in the American and National leagues.

The early Deadball Era featured landmark achievements, great performances by several of baseball's immortals, and the presence of a delightful array of characters. John McGraw won his first pennant as a manager and repeated the following year with the team he later called his greatest. His Giants were highly praised for their playing ability and widely criticized for their rowdy behavior. Meanwhile the Cubs were putting together the greatest team in franchise history, emphasizing speed on the bases, solid defense, and outstanding pitching. Jack Chesbro won 41 games in 1904 employing a new pitch, the spitball. Other pitchers began using it, accelerating the trend toward lower batting averages. The White Sox entered baseball lore as the "Hitless Wonders," winning the 1906 pennant through adroit use of "scientific baseball" tactics. Each team had its own story and memorable players. For instance, Cardinals fans enjoyed the last years of under-appreciated Hall-of-Famers Kid Nichols and Jake Beckley. In Detroit fiery young Ty Cobb fought opponents and teammates alike, while Germany Schaefer brought chuckles with his zany antics. Elsewhere, slugging Charlie Hickman, speedy Billy Maloney and curmudgeonly Jack Taylor brought cheers and jeers with their distinctive talents and personalities.

When the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season, many impassioned fans grew indifferent to baseball. Others-Namely car dealer Bud Selig-decided to fight for the beloved sport. Selig formed an ownership group with the goal of winning a new franchise. They faced formidable opposition-American League President Joe Cronin, lawyer turned baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and other AL team owners would not entertain the notion of another team for the city. This first ever history of baseball's return to Milwaukee covers the owners, teams and ballparks behind the rise and fall of their Braves, the five-year struggle to acquire a new team, the relocation of a major league club a week prior to the 1970 season and how the Brewers created an identity and built a fan base and a contending team.

New and expanded edition that includes signatures studies of all hall of famers from the 19th century to the present day. Newly added studies of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the infamous black sox. Roger Maris, Gil Hodges, and the top 50 non hall of fame autographs are also explored in depth. Richly illustrated with nearly 1,000 examples of autographs and forgeries of the hall of famers and stars from yesteryear. Also found within is a new price guide examining values of various signed mediums. A market population grid of the rare and seldom seen signatures tops off the book. Collectors can compare signatures to the examples to determine the genuiness of autographs and assist them in the purchase of that cherished baseball treasure.

How good was Negro League Baseball (1920-1948)? Some experts maintain that the quality of play was equal to that of the American and National Leagues. Some believe the Negro Leagues should be part of Major League Baseball's official record and that more NL players should be in the Hall of Fame. Skeptics contend that while many players could be rated highly, NL organizations were minor league at best. Drawing on the most comprehensive data available, including stats from more than 2000 interracial games, this study finds that black baseball was very good indeed. Negro leaguers beat the big leaguers more than half the time in head-to-head contests, demonstrated stronger metrics within their own leagues and excelled when finally allowed into the majors. The author documents the often duplicitous manner in which MLB has dealt with the legacy of the Negro Leagues. A detailed history of early pro black ball is included, along with the stories of several legendary players and teams.

For many Americans, Opening Day was, and remains, the true marker of each year's beginning. Here we relive the Opening Days of baseball's most storied and glamorous team, the New York American League club that began as the Highlanders and achieved glory as the Yankees. As we watch the Yankees year by year, we watch them, as well as baseball and the social fabric of America, change gradually, and at times radically. We begin early in the century, when the team played at Hilltop Park and follow them as their opening day venue shifted to the Polo Grounds, the gigantic new Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, back to the renovated Yankee Stadium, and finally in the new Yankee Stadium. We also see them open in historic Fenway Park, fondly remembered Shibe Park and Griffith Stadium, and all around the expanded leagues after 1961. We see the first game in which Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio played against each other, the only game in which Williams shared the diamond with Lou Gehrig. We ponder the fact that, with that Opening Day of 1939, the Yankees entered the era of broadcast baseball with no expectation that the tail would eventually be wagging the dog. We see the teams of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Derek Jeter gradually give way, each to the next. We watch the annual opening-day celebration modified and affected by wars, by economic depression and expansion, by the shift of populations West and to the suburbs, and by political protest. We see presidents and mayors, actors and singers, and of course, managers and owners and players. We see protesters at Opening Day, 1945, demanding that black men, so vital to the war effort in Europe and the Pacific, be allowed to play in the major leagues. Eleven years later, we see President Eisenhower, eating peanuts and staying for the whole game as he watched the integrated New York and Washington teams open the 1956 season.

Orioles Magic is a phrase fans still associate with the 1979-1983 seasons, Baltimore's last championship era, when they played excellent, exciting ball with a penchant for late-inning heroics. This book analyzes the Orioles not just as a great team but as the team to be marked by the fabled ""Oriole Way,"" an organizational commitment to fundamentally sound baseball that guided them for nearly 30 years. The Magic years are discussed in the context of Baltimore sports, fan culture and baseball history, recalling the thrills of a splendid squad that delighted fans and reminding us why Peter Gammons called the 1979-1983 Orioles one of the major league's ""last fun teams.

Baseball Photography Classics"It's a great addition to your coffee table, or as a gift to the baseball fan in your life." baseballmusings.com #1 New Release in Photojournalism, Photo Essays, Statistics, History, Sports Photography, and Sports Picturing America's Pastime celebrates baseball through a unique photography collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's unmatched archive of baseball photos. Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations is the mission of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Now, with this unequaled collection of photos from baseball history, you can revel in the moments we share at the ballpark, the grand sweep of the stadium, the drama of the game, and classic images of baseball greats. Celebrate the history of baseball and baseball photography. Go beyond the standard highlights of baseball history in this collection of rarely seen photos that reveals the full landscape of our national pastime as no other collection can. Selected by the historians and curators at the Baseball Hall of Fame, the photographs reveal the rich relationship between photography and the game. Each image includes an historic quote and a detailed caption, often highlighting little-known information about the photographers and techniques used across the 150 plus years covered in the book. Experience the storied history of this great game through iconic images: Panoramic photos of historic stadiums A thoughtful Honus Wagner studying his bat Early African American team portraits and photos of such greats as Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and Orestes "Minnie" Minoso And much more! If you have enjoyed baseball photography books such as The Story of Baseball: In 100 Photographs, 100 Year in Pinstripes: The New York Yankees in Photographs, or Baseball: An Illustrated History, you will love The National Baseball Hall of Fame's Picturing America's Pastime.