Larceny and Old Leather

Larceny and Old Leather

Author: Eldon L. Ham

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2005-08-01

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0897335333

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Every baseball player from little league to the big leagues knows it is illegal to steal signs, yet every major league team assigns someone to do just that. Baseball thrives on trickery and deception. But as our oldest major team sport, its larcenous legacy goes much deeper than the field of play. In LARCENY AND OLD LEATHER: THE MISCHIEVOUS LEGACY OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, Eldon Ham—sports lawyer, professor, and author—traces the game’s lesser-known, roguish past. His wry chapters, filled with anecdotes and statistics, expose both the hidden and the obvious cheating occurring throughout baseball’s history, from corked bats and spitballs to betting and media hyperbole. Here is a book for both seasoned baseball fans and neophytes who’d like to get a look at the game that evolved into an industry. Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa, Pete Rose, and many other lesser known players make their appearance in this fascinating history, as Ham seeks not only to chronicle the legacy of deception inherent within the game, but also to explore why it is, and how it is, that this deception is exactly what makes baseball the most endearing of American games.


Building the Brewers

Building the Brewers

Author: Chris Zantow

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-11-14

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1476672636

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

 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.


League Park

League Park

Author: Ken Krsolovic

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2013-03-05

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0786493283

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is a comprehensive history of League Park, primary home field for Major League Baseball in Cleveland from 1891 to 1946, but with a significant history that includes the National Football League, Negro League baseball, college football and boxing, and an uncanny multitude of amazing events and people. This chronicle allows for these grounds to take their place among the more heralded parks of baseball's past and present. The site has survived to this day as a baseball grounds; a groundbreaking for renovations took place in October 2012.


The 25 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time

The 25 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time

Author: Elliott Kalb

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-02-11

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1626366780

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In every sport, in every country around the world, there are fans on the losing side who know that something other than skill and luck beat their favorite team or player. Sometimes they’re actually right. That’s why sports lovers will devour this inside look at the 25 biggest myths and scandals in professional and collegiate athletics. Elliott Kalb examines each potential outrage in detail, supporting and debunking popular beliefs along the way. In some cases, proof does exist that the “fix” was in—like the 1919 World Series thrown by the Chicago “Black” Sox players or the conspiracy to keep African Americans out of Major League Baseball until 1947. In others, there remain only whispers of wrongdoing and suspicious circumstances, including the Jets’ win in Super Bowl III and Muhammad Ali’s first-round knockout of Sonny Liston. This is sure to capture the imagination of anyone who has ever wondered what really happened behind the scenes.


The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time

The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time

Author: Elliott Kalb

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1626369917

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Separating fact from myth, Kalb attempts to determine which of these long-held conspiracy theories hold water, and which ones fall flat under scrutiny. Ranking the conspiracies from 1 to 30 and the likelihood of each conspiracy from 1 to 5, Kalb boldly asks: Did baseball avoid integration in the 1930s and 1940s with an unwritten agreement? Was Super Bowl III a fixed game? Did Sonny Liston throw both of his fights vs. Muhammad Ali? Was the NBA’s first-ever draft lottery fixed? Why did Michael Jordan really retire from basketball the first time? Are some NASCAR race outcomes too good to be true? Did the New England Patriots cheat their way to a dynasty? What really happened at the 1921 Kentucky Derby? Why weren’t any Japanese players signed to major league contracts from 1965-1995? And much more!


Baseball Meets the Law

Baseball Meets the Law

Author: Ed Edmonds

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1476664382

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Baseball and law have intersected since the primordial days. In 1791, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance prohibited ball playing near the town's meeting house. Ball games on Sundays were barred by a Pennsylvania statute in 1794. In 2015, a federal court held that baseball's exemption from antitrust laws applied to franchise relocations. Another court overturned the conviction of Barry Bonds for obstruction of justice. A third denied a request by rooftop entrepreneurs to enjoin the construction of a massive video screen at Wrigley Field. This exhaustive chronology traces the effects the law has had on the national pastime, both pro and con, on and off the field, from the use of copyright to protect not only equipment but also "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to frequent litigation between players and owners over contracts and the reserve clause. The stories of lawyers like Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Branch Rickey are entertainingly instructive.


All the Babe's Men

All the Babe's Men

Author: Eldon L. Ham

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2013-03-31

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1597979384

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Why are Americans obsessed with the home run in sports, business, and even life? What made the steroid era inevitable? Revisiting the great home run seasons of Babe Ruth through those of Barry Bonds, All the Babe's Men answers these and other provocative questions. Baseball, and particularly the long ball itself, evolved via accident, necessity, and occasional subterfuge. During the dead-ball era, pitching ruled the game, and home run totals hovered in the single digits. Then a ban on the spitball and the compression of stadium dimensions set the stage for new sluggers to emerge, culminating in Ruth's historic sixty-homer season in 1927. The players, owners, and fans became hooked on the homer, but our addiction took us to excess. As the home run became the ultimate goal for hitters, players went to new lengths to increase their power and ability to swing for the fences. By the time Barry Bonds set a new single-season record in 2001, Americans had to face the fact that their national pastime had become corrupted from within. Through a play-by-play analysis of the game's historic long-ball seasons, its superstars, and the contemporary legal nightmares and tainted records, All the Babe's Men divulges how America evolved into a home run society where baseball is king.


The Wreck of the Neva: The Horrifying Fate of a Convict Ship and the Women Aboard

The Wreck of the Neva: The Horrifying Fate of a Convict Ship and the Women Aboard

Author: Cal McCarthy

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2013-04-10

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 178117198X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The 'Neva' sailed from Cork on 8 January 1835, destined for the prisons of Botany Bay. There were 240 people on board, most of them either female convicts or the wives of already deported convicts, and their children. On 13 May 1835 the ship hit a reef just north of King's Island in Australia and sank with the loss of 224 lives - one of the worst shipwrecks in maritime history. The authors have comprehensively researched sources in Ireland, Australia and the UK to reconstruct in fascinating detail the stories of these women. Most perished beneath the ocean waves, but for others the journey from their poverty stricken and criminal pasts continued towards hope of freedom and prosperity on the far side of the world. At a time when Australia is once again becoming a new home for a generation of migrating Irish, it is appropriate that the formative historical links between the two countries be remembered.


Stealing America's Future

Stealing America's Future

Author: William Steiner

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Published: 2010-04

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1608444244

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Stealing America's Future makes a comparison of today's America to late 19th Century Europe using two rare books, The Conventional Lies of our Civilization by Nordau, describing Europe's elitist leadership, and The Soviets at Work by Lenin, outlining the Russian Revolution as it took place. Not a part of the discussion of history, both provide frightening detail about the nuances of the geopolitics of Europe, circa 1900, that relate to today's America. Using heartwarming family stories, humorous anecdotes, incisive criticism, and cold factual analysis, it describes how progressive liberalism, with its attempts at social engineering and excessive permissiveness, has brought social and economic disaster to America. David Letterman relating to Sarah Palin "I fear he sees her as more man than he will ever be and more woman than he will ever get." Bill Maher relating to Michelle Obama ..".my only conclusion about Maher is that he is just another angry little bully who is fearful of powerful women..." Is it time to separate the North American Continent into a federation of smaller component nations better reflecting the economics and ethos of these individual component nations, yet having our common defense as the only connection or do we need to get back to the Constitution our founders gave to us? Raised in a poor farm family in Pawnee County, Nebraska, Dr. Steiner had the ethics of hard work and family values as his primary guide post to succeed. Working his way through college and graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1973, he located his dental practice in an economically impacted area of Omaha, Nebraska where he also worked in a public health clinic, developing insights with regard to what motivates people. He is a pilot and an accomplished martial artist, attaining several black belts. He was featured in a Sun-Up Interview by the Omaha World Herald's, Robert McMorris, and was also featured in an interview by William Rush in the League of Human Dignity paper, where Sensei Steiner outlined his martial arts training strategies for handicapped persons. He was called by Charles Kuralt to panel a discussion of the Gulf Crisis for CBS News before the Gulf War.


Stealing Summer

Stealing Summer

Author: Lexi Blake

Publisher: DLZ Entertainment LLC

Published: 2020-07-14

Total Pages: 573

ISBN-13: 1942297408

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From New York Times and USA Today bestseller Lexi Blake comes a new epic-length story in her Thieves/Hunterworld… A daughter lost Summer has spent her whole life wondering about the family she left behind. On the night she came into being she only had a few moments with them. In that brief time, she reached out to her father, looking deep into his soul, and gifted him the will to go on. But now she is the one in need. Once a child made of pure magic, she is forced to live as a mortal. Her power caused great harm, and she has sworn never to let it happen again. With her friends beside her, she tries her best to help those she can. If that requires her to do a little thievery, well, she is her mother’s daughter, after all. Everything changes when a woman falls from the sky and Summer meets the handsome vampire named Marcus Vorenus. Just as her past begins to catch up with her, she might have finally met her future. A mother discovered Kelsey Owens went searching for Dev and Marcus but all she found was a trap. She was pulled through a magical painting and thrown smack into the middle of a battle on a foreign plane of existence. Luckily she’s good in a fight. Saving the woman targeted by the horde of brutal soldiers, Kelsey is shocked by her resemblance to her queen. As Kelsey investigates the mystery surrounding Summer Donovan-Quinn, she also hunts for a way back to the husbands and son she just claimed. A queen exiled Zoey Donovan-Quinn is not happy. The wizard Myrddin is back, her marriage is troubled, and she is sure those two problems are connected. But nothing is more worrying than Dev’s sudden disappearance. When she and Daniel go looking for him, they are drawn into a world thought lost to the Earth plane. Danger awaits them there, but so does the daughter they thought they would never see again. She hopes they survive their reunion. Three heroines. One mystery. And an ending that will change the Thieves world forever…