It was the summer of 1975. In one of the best baseball games ever played, Carlton Fisk had just hit a home run to win game six of the World Series for the Boston Red Sox. At the same time, and a half a world away, North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and finally ended the Vietnam War. It was a summer in which America's favorite past time and America's history were inextricably linked. There are more summers like that of 1975. In The Seasons, bestselling author Bill Gilbert explores them and the heart and mind of a nation's people. Featuring reflections from Dom DiMaggio, Duke Snider, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Brooks Robinson and more, The Seasons tells the incredible story of how America's favorite sport merged forever with America's social history; its greatest achievements, as well as some of its darkest hours. From the 1940s to the present, these unforgettable years include: -- 1951 -- During Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world, " others are ringing out in Korea -- 1961 -- Roger Mari and Mickey Mantle chase Babe Ruth's record as overnight the Communists in East Germany build the Berlin Wall -- 1969 -- The Year of the Amazin' Mets and the first walk on the moon -- 2001 -- As Barry Bonds chases the home run record of Mark McGwire and Hank Aaron, the worst terrorist attack on American soil is being carried out while hijacked airliners crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Baseball is the only major team sport that doesn't feature a clock, and there's a familiar saying among fans that as long as outs remain, the game can, theoretically, go on forever. Every now and again, it nearly does, as author Phil Lowry demonstrates. The product of more than four decades of research, this book catalogs baseball games from around the world and throughout history that lasted 20 or more innings, stretched five or more hours, or ended after 1:00 am. Lowry also examines probability models to predict how often games of unusual length will occur.
Madness and murder rip through the suspense novel by the bestselling author Catherine Coulter. FBI Agent Dillion Savich is on a challenging case involving the kidnapping of two teenage boys when trouble boils up in his personal life. His younger sister Lily has crashed her car into a redwood in California's Hemlock Bay. Is it another suicide attempt, the second since the loss of her young daughter some seven months before? Savich and Sherlock discover that four of Lily's paintings, left to her by their very famous grandmother, artist Sarah Elliot, now worth millions, are at the heart of an intricate conspiracy. Lily and art broker Simon Russo are thrust into ever widening circles of danger that radiate from a notorious collector's locked room. Dillion Savich and his sister Lily both have to face their worst fears to survive.
More than any other sport, baseball has developed its own niche in America's culture and psyche. Some researchers spend years on detailed statistical analyses of minute parts of the game, while others wax poetic about its players and plays. Many trace the beginnings of the civil rights movement in part to the Major Leagues' decision to integrate, and the words and phrases of the game (for example, pinch-hitter and out in left field) have become common in our everyday language. From AARON, HENRY onward, this book covers all of what might be called the cultural aspects of baseball (as opposed to the number-rich statistical information so widely available elsewhere). Biographical sketches of all Hall of Fame players, owners, executives and umpires, as well as many of the sportswriters and broadcasters who have won the Spink and Frick awards, join entries for teams, owners, commissioners and league presidents. Advertising, agents, drafts, illegal substances, minor leagues, oldest players, perfect games, retired uniform numbers, superstitions, tripleheaders, and youngest players are among the thousands of entries herein. Most entries open with a topical quote and conclude with a brief bibliography of sources for further research. The whole work is exhaustively indexed and includes 119 photographs.
The Detroit Tigers, an umpire, a pitcher, and a mistake—one of the “classic, human, baseball stories” (Ken Burns, creator of the PBS mini-series Baseball). The perfect game is one of the rarest accomplishments in sports. In nearly four hundred thousand contests in over 130 years, it has happened only twenty times. On June 2, 2010, Armando Galarraga threw baseball’s twenty-first. Except that’s not how it entered the record books. That’s because Jim Joyce, voted the best umpire in the game in 2010 and 2011, missed the call on the final out. But rather than throwing a tantrum, Galarraga simply turned and smiled, went back to the mound, and finished the game. “Nobody’s perfect,” he said later in the locker room. “You might think everything that could have been said, replayed, and revealed about that night has already been uttered, logged, and exposed. You would, however, be as wrong as the unfortunate Mr. Joyce” (The Detroit News). In Nobody’s Perfect, Galarraga and Joyce come together to tell the personal story of a remarkable game that will live forever in baseball lore, and to trace their fascinating lives in sports. The result is “a masterpiece”, an absorbing insider’s look at two careers in baseball, a tremendous achievement, and an enduring moment of pure grace and sportsmanship (The Huffington Post).
The Hitting Coach for the New York Yankees, Kevin Long trains power-hitters in the fine art of hitting a baseball well—a talent the legendary Ted Williams once called, “the most difficult skill in sport.” In Cage Rat, the man who helps sharpen the mechanics of such superstars as Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Alex Rodriguez shares the expertise he honed over his more than two decades in the game as both player and coach. With an introduction by Alex Rodriguez and an Afterword by Robinson Cano, Cage Rat is an indispensable guide to hitting, filled with practical advice, fascinating behind-the-scenes action, and an enduring, inspiring love for the Great American Pastime.