Learn the secrets of pitching success from the most dominating and electrifying hurler in the game: Randy Johnson. Randy Johnson, the most overpowering pitcher since Sandy Koufax, has devised a teaching system that reveals the intelligent, methodical approach to pitching that has produced five Cy Young awards, nine strikeout titles, and a co-MVP Award in the 2001 World Series. The secret behind all of Randy’s Hall of Fame credentials has been his ability to transform raw power into controlled precision. In Randy Johnson’s Power Pitching, Randy teaches: •The fundamentals of pitching •Control, control, control—how to benefit from patience and precision •The importance of proper mechanics •Physical conditioning drills for injury prevention and high-performance pitching •The mental side of pitching •How to make the most of your natural talent Fully illustrated with previously unpublished photographs from Randy’s personal archive and enlivened with his reminiscences of a life in baseball, this is today’s most essential instructional guide for players and coaches at every level.
Elite baseball pitchers are elite for a reason. They seem to have it all: a variety of pitches that no one can lay a bat to; cool heads and confidence in their "stuff" when they get in a jam; and the kind of dexterity that makes difficult plays seem easy. Is elite status revealed through statistics? Though the author of this book considers statistics of both the traditional and sabermetric sort, he argues that the greats are proved not by broad statistical comparison with all other pitchers, but by their record against one another. In a thoughtful discussion of the evidence of head-to-head matchups, he finds the nine pitchers who make up the true elite: Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Grover Alexander, Lefty Grove, Warren Spahn, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, and Greg Maddux. For each pitcher the book provides biographical information, career highlights, and a list of the feats that put him in the record books.
Great baseball pitchers possess more than sound mechanics, a blazing fastball, and a good arm. They know how to "pitch"--What ball to throw, when to throw it and where to aim it. This book takes you inside the art and science of pitching. It covers topics ranging from pre game warm-ups to cultivating the pitcher/catcher relationship.
Baseball's best writer offers an extraordinarily candid and thorough exploration of the inner craft of pitching from one of the game's best, David Cone. There is no big league pitcher who is more respected for his skill than David Cone. In his stellar career Cone has won multiple championships andcountless professional accolades. Along the way, the perennial all-star has had to adjust to five different ballclubs, recover from a career-threatening arm aneurysm, cope with the lofty expectations that are standard for the games highest paid players, and overcome a humbling three-month, eight-game losing streak in the summer of 2000. Cone granted exclusive and unlimited access to baseballs most respected writer Roger Angell of the New Yorker. The result is just what baseball fans everywhere would expect from Angell: an extraordinary inside account of a superstar.
The definitive work on the language of baseball—one of the “Five Best Baseball Books” (Wall Street Journal). Hailed as “a staggering piece of scholarship” (Wall Street Journal) and “an indispensable guide to the language of baseball” (San Diego Union-Tribune), The Dickson Baseball Dictionary has become an invaluable resource for those who love the game. Drawing on dozens of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century periodicals, as well as contemporary sources, Dickson’s brilliant, illuminating definitions trace the earliest appearances of terms both well known and obscure. This edition includes more than 10,000 terms with 18,000 individual entries, and more than 250 photos. This “impressively comprehensive” (The Nation) book will delight everyone from the youngest fan to the hard-core aficionado.