A Baseball Book of Days
Almost anywhere on a calendar you can pinpoint the date of a memorable baseball moment: Jackie Robinson's first game, Eddie Gaedel's only game, the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees and the clause that might have prevented it. These and dozens more are recounted in this book chronicling hallmark days. From the first no-hitter in modern baseball (maybe) to the deep roots for the first night game in the major leagues, this book provides a detailed narrative of the game's most important moments, told in 31 singular, remarkable days. Covering the long path to integration, the rise of Dominican players in the game and the infamous banning of the spitter, this calendar of the diamond covers baseball from every angle and in every month of the year.
The Little Book of Patrick Mahomes
With over 14,000 career passing yards and 121 touchdown passes in just four seasons, Patrick Mahomes has redefined the quarterback position and become a true icon of the game. From his record-breaking MVP season to leading the Kansas City Chiefs to victory in Super Bowl LIV, Mahomes' impact on the football world is undeniable. Explore the highs and lows of his career, from his college days at Texas Tech University to his meteoric rise to NFL superstardom, and delve into unique playing style, infectious energy, and unwavering dedication to excellence. This captivating collection of quotes and facts dives into the extraordinary journey of the NFL sensation, filled with insightful quotes from teammates, coaches, and Mahomes himself. Whether you're a devoted Chiefs fan or simply a lover of football, this book offers a compelling glimpse into the life and career of one of the NFL's most dynamic players.
Interstate '85
For 40 years now, the 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals has been largely overlooked, save for the enduring notoriety of umpire Don Denkinger's infamous missed call in Game 6 that helped galvanize a walk-off Royals victory that forced a Game 7, in which the Royals won in a blowout. Seizing upon the imagery of the famed Interstate Highway 70 that connects Kansas City and St. Louis, Interstate '85 goes beyond "The Call" and recasts the 1985 Series as a unique and deeply compelling chapter in baseball history. In this blend of baseball and cultural history, Garvey defines the "I-70 Showdown Series" not only by the literal highway that links the two teams' home cities but the individual and collective roads travelled by the players and others who took part in the event, both before the Series began and well after the last cheers faded. In addition to gripping human stories and vivid descriptions of on-field action long overshadowed by Denkinger's monumental blunder, Garvey's work captures the provincial spectacle of the "Show-Me Series" throughout the state of Missouri. Featuring 27 new interviews conducted by the author, including with George Brett, Ozzie Smith, Don Denkinger, Bud Black, Andy Van Slyke, Ricky Horton, and Mark Gubicza, Interstate '85 is baseball history writing at its deepest and most captivating.
Makeshift Fields
Makeshift Fields is a snapshot of grassroots baseball in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. Played as it is in the rain and cold, on temporary diamonds that are sometimes less than ideal, baseball is still fragile in these places. This book is the story of people who love the game, the story of people who believe that baseball can flourish where it's been planted, with each location contributing its own idiosyncrasies.On one hand, baseball is baseball, and what is depicted is not dissimilar to what one might see in North America. On the other hand, it feels different. More precarious, yes, but also more communal. This is baseball played for its own sake, played in public parks by people who have fallen in love with the game, or people who are searching for a piece of home.
The Funniest Rangers Quotes... Ever!
From Jim Baxter to Walter Smith, Rangers players and managers have kept us entertained with mad, wacky and outrageous sound bites over the years. In this comprehensive collection, author Gordon Law has compiled more than 200 side-splitting quotes and quips from Glasgow Rangers FC. Packed with loads of bonkers remarks, wise-cracks, verbal volleys and mixed metaphors, this book will have Rangers fans chuckling throughout the season.
The Last Manager
"Baseball books don't get any better than this...Earl Weaver has at last been given his due." --George F. Will The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver--who has been described as "the Copernicus of baseball" and "the grandfather of the modern game"--The Last Manager is a wild, thrilling, and hilarious ride with baseball's most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters. Long before the Moneyball-era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History's feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968-1982. When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving 6'4" Cal Ripken, Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, including Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and hundreds of other big brain baseball types would later present as innovation. Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. Weaver's outbursts offered players cathartic relief from their own frustration, signaled his concern for the team, and fired up fans. In his frequent arguments with umpires, he hammed it up for the crowds, faked heart attacks, ripped bases out of the ground, and pretended to toss umpires out of the game. Weaver also fought with his players, especially Jim Palmer, but that creative tension contributed to a stunning success, and a hilarious clubhouse. During his tenure as major league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1979, each time winning over 100 games. The Last Manager uncovers the story of Weaver's St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and "desk contracts" to the modern era of free agency, video analysis, and powerful player agents. Weaver's career is a critical juncture in baseball history. He was the only manager to hold a job during the five years leading up to, and five years after, free agency upended baseball in 1976. Weaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. In his retirement, he even admitted that "if he had been an umpire, he would have thrown himself out of more games than he actually was." Belligerent, genius, infamous--The Last Manager tells the story of one man who left his mark on the game for generations.
Baseball Before We Knew It
Winner of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research Winner of the North American Society for Sport History Book Award A Choice Outstanding Academic Title When Baseball before We Knew It was first published in 2005, it shattered many long-held assumptions about the pastime's origins. No, baseball was not original to America. No, baseball did not come from the English game rounders. Yes, of course, the Doubleday story was in fact a myth, but for the first time its secret backstory had been revealed. Beyond all its myth busting, Baseball before We Knew It traveled back in time to uncover the true roots of the sport, exploring the many antecedent ball games from Britain and elsewhere that contributed bits of themselves to baseball's evolution. Now, in this twentieth anniversary edition of his classic work, David Block fills in more of baseball's origin story by summarizing the discoveries and advancements he and his fellow historians have accomplished over the past two decades. Other new contributions also appear for the first time in this 2025 edition, including a new foreword by John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball; an expanded annotated bibliography of books relating to baseball's origins from before the Civil War; and two new essays from the author. Baseball before We Knew It is a comprehensive, reliable, and readable account of baseball's history before it became America's national pastime.
Classic Derbies and Epic Rivalries
Andy Bollen explores the history, tradition and violent nature of football's biggest clashes.In unravelling the history of these infamous feuds, Bollen gets to the crux of each conflict, exploring why the fans dislike each other so vehemently.Football is often a search for political identity, as in Spain's El Cl獺sico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, while in Buenos Aires' Supercl獺sico, it's poverty and privilege at the heart of the rivalry between working-class Boca Juniors and bourgeois River Plate.Whether it's the Cairo derby with Al Ahly and Zamalek, the Croatian chaos of Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split or Turkey's Intercontinental derby with Galatasaray and Fenerbah癟e, these clashes are a potent mix of fanatical zealot, political rally and crazed ultras preparing for war.Showcasing and detailing football's great games, names and most memorable moments, Bollen has penned an important work on classic derbies and epic rivalries.
The Umpire Is Out
Dale Scott's career as a professional baseball umpire spanned nearly forty years, including thirty-three in the Major Leagues, from 1985 to 2017. He worked exactly a thousand games behind the plate, calling balls and strikes at the pinnacle of his profession, interacting with dozens of other top-flight umpires, colorful managers, and hundreds of players. Scott has enough stories about his career on the field to fill a dozen books, but what makes Scott's book truly different is his unique perspective as the only umpire in the history of professional baseball to come out as gay during his career, after decades of maintaining a public facade of straightness. He navigated this obstacle course at a time when his MLB career was just taking off--and when North America was consumed by the AIDS epidemic. Scott's story isn't only about leading a double life, then opening himself up to the world and discovering a new generosity of spirit. It's also a baseball story, filled with insights and memorable anecdotes that come so naturally from someone who spent decades among the world's greatest baseball players, managers, and games. Scott's story is fascinating both for his umpiring career and for his being a pioneer for LGBTQ people within baseball and across sports.
Game, Set, Life
In 1969, tennis great Arthur Ashe, collaborating with others, founded the National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network. It aims to use tennis as a tool to teach young people how to be successful leaders, collaborative teammates, and productive citizens. In Game, Set, Life, author Albert Stark draws on his experiences as a national-level tennis player and then coach, mentor, and board member of NJTL of Trenton (New Jersey) to share personal stories from some of those most empowered by the organization. Each story in this history is a testament to how dedication can inspire dreams and unlock potential for every individual. Through the combined efforts of coaches, players, mentors, and volunteers, NJTL of Trenton has built a powerful community that makes a significant impact every day. Perfect for readers interested in sports, education, social justice, education, and the intersection of those, Game, Set, Life offers an example of an incredibly successful community effort: For the past fourteen years, every graduate from the NJTLT program has been admitted to a college or technical school, many with scholarships and grants. If you want to be both inspired and instructed about how to be a gift to the community, read this book.With Game, Set, Life as a blueprint, other NJTL chapters may also feel compelled to share their stories-or consider their own greater potential to fully realize the fundamental mission of NJTLT: to enrich the lives of under-resourced youth through innovative tennis, education, and mentoring programs.
Game, Set, Life
In 1969, tennis great Arthur Ashe, collaborating with others, founded the National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network. It aims to use tennis as a tool to teach young people how to be successful leaders, collaborative teammates, and productive citizens. In Game, Set, Life, author Albert Stark draws on his experiences as a national-level tennis player and then coach, mentor, and board member of NJTL of Trenton (New Jersey) to share personal stories from some of those most empowered by the organization.Each story in this history is a testament to how dedication can inspire dreams and unlock potential for every individual. Through the combined efforts of coaches, players, mentors, and volunteers, NJTL of Trenton has built a powerful community that makes a significant impact every day. Perfect for readers interested in sports, education, social justice, education, and the intersection of those, Game, Set, Life offers an example of an incredibly successful community effort: For the past fourteen years, every graduate from the NJTLT program has been admitted to a college or technical school, many with scholarships and grants.If you want to be both inspired and instructed about how to be a gift to the community, read this book.With Game, Set, Life as a blueprint, other NJTL chapters may also feel compelled to share their stories-or consider their own greater potential to fully realize the fundamental mission of NJTLT: to enrich the lives of under-resourced youth through innovative tennis, education, and mentoring programs.
Expensive Basketball
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - One of Barnes & Noble's Best Sports Books of 2025 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book and Basketball (and Other Things), a clever and inventive examination of some of basketball's most iconic players, moments, games, and more, with original illustrations by Ian Klarer. Everything in basketball is measured. Everything in basketball is counted, and quantified, and computed. And yet, no matter how expansive the list of various pinpoint-specific statistical categories gets, some basketball things remain uncountable, and unquantifiable. Some moments are more poetry than calculation; more art than numerical value; more feeling than data processing. And thus: Expensive Basketball. From the final 196 seconds of Kobe Bryant's playing career to the Sue Bird backpedal, from the erosive terror of Tim Duncan to the Larry Bird memory carousel, Expensive Basketball is an affirmation of feelings.
Kingdom on Fire
In the tradition of Blood in the Garden and Three-Ring Circus comes a bold history of the iconic UCLA Bruins championship teams led by legendary coach John Wooden--set against the turmoil of American culture in the 1960s and '70s. Few basketball dynasties have reigned supreme like the UCLA Bruins did over college basketball from 1965-1975 (seven consecutive titles, three perfect records, an eighty-eight-game winning streak that remains unmatched). At the center of this legendary franchise were the now-iconic players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton, naturally reserved personalities who became outspoken giants when it came to race and the Vietnam War. These generational talents were led by John Wooden, a conservative counterweight to his star players whose leadership skills would transcend the game after his retirement. But before the three of them became history, they would have to make it--together. Los Angeles native and longtime sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, Scott Howard-Cooper draws on more than a hundred interviews and extensive access to many of the principal figures, including Wooden's family, to deliver a rich narrative that reveals the turmoil at the heart of this storied college basketball program. Making the eye-opening connections between UCLA and the Nixon administration, Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali, and others, Kingdom on Fire puts the UCLA basketball team's political involvement and influence in full relief for the first time. "Perceptive and exciting, this is a slam dunk for college hoops fans" (Publishers Weekly).
Justice Batted Last
On May 1, 1951, Orestes "Minnie" Mi簽oso took the field for the Chicago White Sox and broke the color line for Chicago major league baseball. Ernie Banks integrated the Chicago Cubs two years later. The future Hall of Famers began their Chicago baseball careers against the backdrop of a 1951 race riot in suburban Cicero, where a white mob abetted by local police attacked a building that had rented to Black tenants. Don Zminda's account looks at these interconnected events alongside the little-known chronicle of Chicago's slow track to integrating major league baseball. By the early 1950s, the Cubs and White Sox organizations had become rich in Black and Afro-Latino stars and talented prospects. Unlike Mi簽oso and Banks, however, most of these minor leaguers never advanced to the majors or, if they did, it was for little more than a cup of coffee. Zminda also profiles these players, from Charles Pope, the Cubs' first Black signee, to larger-than-life fireballer Blood Burns. Essential and dramatic, Justice Batted Last uses the lives and careers of two Chicago legends to tell a story of integration on and off the diamond.
Talking Baseball with Major League Stars
Talking Baseball with Major League Stars explores a wide range of entertaining, timely, and illuminating topics about Major League Baseball-including cheating, intimidation, racism, and the players' biggest fears--through the words of the ballplayer themselves.
Shattering the Glass
American women's basketball has reached new peaks of interest and popularity, thanks to spellbinding athletes, exhilarating games, and a vibrant, empowered vision of womanhood. Shattering the Glass stands as the definitive history of the sport. Combining extensive historical research with dozens of oral history interviews, Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford bring life and depth to stories of the many generations of female athletes who have fought for liberation on and off the court.In this new and substantially expanded edition, Grundy and Shackelford provide a fresh view of the sport that extends to the present. They chart the expanding visibility of college programs, the growing dynamism of the WNBA, and players' courageous leadership on social issues such as sexuality and race, drawing on the actions and reflections of stars such as Seimone Augustus, Kim Mulkey, Brittney Griner, Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt, Breanna Stewart, Dawn Staley, and Caitlin Clark. The result is a compelling story of women's empowerment through sport over the past century.
Mets Stories I Only Tell My Friends
Art Shamsky, 1969 New York Met and noted author, shares with readers stories and anecdotes from his 50-year association with the New York Mets. Through stories of varying lengths, readers will be privy to behind-the-scenes and first-hand accounts of the New York Mets from lovable losers to impossible winners in 1969, and beyond, including stories about today's players. We witness the leadership of Tom Seaver, the steady hand of manager Gil Hodges, what it was like to share right field with charismatic Ron Swoboda, what it was like to grace a magazine cover with 1960s supermodel Lauren Hutton, in addition to a wealth of stories about the Mets, the organization, and its star players over the past half century.
Why We Love Baseball
NEW YORK TIMES bestseller Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year National Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year An NPR "Book of the Day" #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball's history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays's catch, Babe Ruth's called shot, and Kirk Gibson's limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player--these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth. Posnanski's previous book, The Baseball 100, portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers' duels to breaking the sport's color line in the '40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski's illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love--and thought we knew. Why We Love Baseball is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.
More Amazing Mets Trivia
Born out of expansion in 1962, the New York Mets have more than filled the void left by the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. They have provided baseball fans in New York and around the baseball world with more than sixty years of memories including Casey Stengel's lovable losers, the improbable 1969 miracle, another world championship in 1986, and National League pennants in 1973, 2000, and 2015, with many unforgettable moments through the years. Building on the success of Amazing Mets Trivia, published in 2003, More Amazing Mets Trivia tests the memories of Mets fans of all ages with almost five hundred new questions about such Mets stars as Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones, Willie Mays, Rusty Staub, Dave Kingman, Lee Mazzilli, Darryl Strawberry, Doc Gooden, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, David Wright, Jacob de Grom, Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and many others.
A Time for Reflection
A fascinating look back at the incredible lives and careers of baseball Hall of Famers Willie McCovey and Billy Williams.Professional baseball has featured a bevy of superstars over the past century and a half, but only a few of them have impacted their sport and cities as deeply as Willie McCovey and Billy Williams. Born just a handful of miles apart in 1938, they grew up in and around one of the sport's true cradles, Mobile, Alabama, on their way to producing two iconic careers in Major League Baseball. In A Time for Reflection: The Parallel Legacies of Baseball Icons Willie McCovey and Billy Williams, Jason Cannon examines these two legends of the game. Overcoming the heinous racism of the Jim Crow South as part of the second generation of African American major leaguers who followed in the footsteps of Jackie Robinson, they became two of baseball's all-time greatest players. Off the field, they took impactful stands for racial progress that continue to resonate today. Their personal resolve, leadership in the clubhouse, and dedication to their baseball communities endeared them to teammates and fans alike.Featuring original interviews with family members, friends, teammates, and Williams himself, A Time for Reflection brings to life their monumental accomplishments on the diamond, while also detailing how McCovey and Williams grew into pillars of San Francisco and Chicago and inspired future generations of ballplayers.
America's Ballparks
Nothing stirs the soul of a baseball fan like the crack of a bat against a ball . . . or the sight of a fielder leaping high into the air to snatch that ball out of play. What would these fans be without their favorite sport, and what would baseball be without those high-tiered, impossibly beautiful temples to the sport called ballparks? North Americans have treasured some wonderful venues from bygone eras, but sadly lost so many as well. Within the pages of this book readers can revel in the new builds--the retro-modern fields inspired by Baltimore's Camden Yards, while looking fondly back at the older, more traditional ballparks often referred to as Jewel Boxes. In America's Ballparks all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums are covered in detail, along with a brief history of their teams and background on any previous ballparks in which they played. Special features throughout the book include: - the design evolution and anatomy of ballparks - the home fields of the Negro Leagues - the top venues of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. - There is even a section that examines the long partnership between baseball and corporate branding. - Each ballpark entry provides cumulative team stats, as well as lists of stadium firsts and club achievements.
The Last One Out of Town Turn Out the Lights
The Last One Out Of Town Turn Out The Lights tells the inspiring untold story of how a soul-crushing school district consolidation changes the fate and fortunes of two rural Maine high schools. That controversial school merger allows Foxcroft Academy to finally establish a winning basketball team and claim its one and only Gold Ball, the trophy of the Maine High School Basketball Championship. Bitter feelings and personal struggles are revealed, as are stories of admiration and light-hearted moments. Through a turbulent time in America, this book examines the impact of a winning high-school basketball team on two rival schools and their towns. The book marks the 50th anniversary season of Foxcroft Academy's lone state basketball championship in the school's 200-year history. It weaves unpopular decisions to cut popular players from the team, fights with hated rivals, and a phantom foul that should never have been called and that lead to the kind of championship season that all small towns, coaches, players, and fans across the country covet, embrace, and treasure for a lifetime.
Baseball Prospectus 2025
The 2025 edition of The New York Times Bestselling Guide. PLAY BALL! The 30th edition of this industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important statistics, player predictions and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, along with significant improvements to several statistics that were created by, and are exclusive to, Baseball Prospectus, and an expanded focus on international players and teams. Baseball Prospectus 2025 provides fantasy players and insiders alike with prescient PECOTA projections, which The New York Times called "the 羹berforecast of every player's performance." With more than 50 Baseball Prospectus alumni currently working for major-league baseball teams, nearly every organization has sought the advice of current or former BP analysts, and readers of Baseball Prospectus 2025 will understand why!
Selling Baseball
A fascinating look back on baseball's humble beginnings and its transformation into the national pastime, told through the lives of two men who dominated the game.The nineteenth century was a time of rapid growth and development for the game of "base ball," and players George Wright and Albert Spalding were right in the thick of it. These two young men, the first superstars of the professional game, won the hearts of a country in search of a unifying spirit after a devastating civil war.Selling Baseball: How Superstars George Wright and Albert Spalding Impacted Sports in America breathes fresh energy into baseball's beginnings with this captivating tale of two vibrant personalities whose friendly rivalry was integral to the rise of the professional game. While they came from starkly different backgrounds--Albert was a young, gangly pitcher from the country's rural heartland and George the consummate athlete from the New York City area--their captivating performances on the field, along with their promotion of the game and of sports equipment, fed the public's insatiable appetite for leisure-time pursuits and helped grow professional baseball to unprecedented heights.George Wright and Albert Spalding's stories are masterfully woven together to paint a sweeping picture of the early days of professional baseball, the evolution of sports as a business, and the advancement of sports equipment and the sporting goods industry. Their rise as players and businessmen mirrored the rise of a nation that would lead the world in the coming century.
Ring the Bell
Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, "It's not the destination, it's the journey." He must've been a Phillies fan. The Philadelphia Phillies, a franchise nearly 150 years old, has only reached its grand destination twice (World Series wins in 1980, 2008), but it harbors the most fervent fan base in baseball. How? Well, Olive Garden famously said, "When you're here, you're family." The Phillies, warts and all, have been an inextricable part of the city, and the lives of the fans who cheered them on. The team's story is part of our story. This book is an encyclopedia of sorts, but it's more of a family history. We won't get too deep into the really old stuff-- Let's face it... while I'm sure the 1915 World Series loss was painful, no one's calling local sports talk radio to curse the name of Eppa Rickey. We'll mostly delve into the memories that formed this generation's deep bond with its ball club; the kinds of happenings, good and bad, that somehow manifested an unrivaled home field advantage. At any game, in any city, a stadium media crew can ask its fans to scream as loudly as possible... but they can't make them care. The Phillies have the best home edge in baseball because, through it all, the fans never stopped caring. This book will cover the moments and emotions of being a Phillies fan, from every perspective-- the players, coaches, front office, fans, etc. Phillies fandom is a family, and this is our collective story.
