Switch-Hitter is the story of an ambidextrous female tennis player who plays the game with two forehands but quits after the untimely death of her father, a baseball switch-hitter who was her only coach. Enticed back into the game, she joins forces with an older Bahamian tennis coach who ends up moving in with her family. It is a feel-good American story about the obstacles encountered on the way to the top of the sport. In spite of issues including teenage pregnancy, racism, and geopolitical turmoil, will Sheila, our switch-hitter, fulfil her dream of being the first ambidextrous tennis player to win a major championship?
Can hot gay porn flow from the pens of lesbian writers? Can a gay man write convincingly of female sexuality? Can art remake same-sex desire? Switch Hitters answers an emphatic "yes!" to all these questions, celebrating a truly queer approach to sexuality, where hot sex is more important than gender labels.
Written by three esteemed baseball statisticians, "The Book" continues where the legendary Bill James?'s "Baseball Abstracts" and Palmer and Thorn?'s "The Hidden Game of Baseball" left off more than twenty years ago. Continuing in the grand tradition of sabermetrics, the authors provide a revolutionary way to think about baseball with principles that can be applied at every level, from high school to the major leagues.Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, and Andrew Dolphin cover topics such as batting and pitching matchups, platooning, the benefits and risks of intentional walks and sacrifices, the legitimacy of alleged ?clutch? hitters, and many of baseball?'s other theories on hitting, fielding, pitching, and even baserunning. They analyze when a strategy is a good idea and when it?'s a bad idea, and how to more closely watch the ?inside? game of baseball.Whenever you hear an announcer talk about the ?unwritten rule? or say that so-and-so is going ?by the book? in bringing in a situational substitute, "The Book" reviews the facts and determines what the real case is. If you want to know what the folks in baseball should be doing, find out in "The Book,"
Local sports heroes make great stories. Reedy Conner always aspired to be like Chuck Lohr. Chuck was the best softball player that ever roamed East Park. He made the impossible look ordinary. ChuckA[a¬a[s softball career was cut short by a freak injury while sliding in to home plate. Through a series of breaks and connections he became the coach of ReedyA[a¬a[s young Franklin Playground team. The field they played on uniquely favored left handers. Reedy got a hit almost every at bat because of this. His team started out with him as the only leftie. One teammate and his father saw an opportunity here. They decided to learn how to A[a¬Aswitch hit.A[a¬A They convinced the whole team and it worked to perfection! In only their second season, they were playing for the Connellsville Playground Championship. Join along with them in their adventure. Get to know the characters. Laugh and cry as their lives unfold before you.
Most baseball fans realize that left handed hitters have certain advantages over right handers - a shorter running distance to first base, facing mostly right handed pitching, etc. What most fans don't realize however, are the incredible advantages uncovered by Ted Frank that not even the so called experts have discovered. This fasinating book shows why some of the Greats of the game were not so great, and why even in today's age of specialization there are left handed hitters who clearly shouldn't be starting over their right handed counterparts. In his detailed statistical analysis, Ted shares "The Big Secret" never before revealed: and discusses the clear advantages left handed hitters enjoy on what really isn't a level playing field. Baseball the unfair sport is a must read for all true fans of the game.
Die-hard fanatics will enjoy this comprehensive collection of groundbreaking baseball strategies, analyses, statistics, and studies "Picking up where Michael Lewis left off in Moneyball, he addresses the central questions of risk, reward, and value--on the field and off--and reveals what it takes to win." -John Thorn, editor of Total Baseball This unique approach to understanding the "tried and true" methodologies of the game of baseball examines conventional elements like the steal, hit and run, and line-up construction. The Book on The Book offers an exciting critique of baseball by placing an actual dollar value on player performance and rating managers based on their on-field moves to determine who are the smartest tacticians. No corner of the ballpark is left unturned as author Bill Felber explores the various methods of team-building, on-field values of players, the role and influence of the general manager in team success, and the importance of park effects. In the vein of the late Leonard Koppett and Bill James, Felber uses mathematical and statistical principles to evaluate the wisdom of standard baseball strategies. Illustrations and a refreshingly engaging style make The Book on The Book the new textbook of baseball analysis.
Baseball Hacks isn't your typical baseball book--it's a book about how to watch, research, and understand baseball. It's an instruction manual for the free baseball databases. It's a cookbook for baseball research. Every part of this book is designed to teach baseball fans how to do something. In short, it's a how-to book--one that will increase your enjoyment and knowledge of the game. So much of the way baseball is played today hinges upon interpreting statistical data. Players are acquired based on their performance in statistical categories that ownership deems most important. Managers make in-game decisions based not on instincts, but on probability - how a particular batter might fare against left-handedpitching, for instance. The goal of this unique book is to show fans all the baseball-related stuff that they can do for free (or close to free). Just as open source projects have made great software freely available, collaborative projects such as Retrosheet and Baseball DataBank have made great data freely available. You can use these data sources to research your favorite players, win your fantasy league, or appreciate the game of baseball even more than you do now. Baseball Hacks shows how easy it is to get data, process it, and use it to truly understand baseball. The book lists a number of sources for current and historical baseball data, and explains how to load it into a database for analysis. It then introduces several powerful statistical tools for understanding data and forecasting results. For the uninitiated baseball fan, author Joseph Adler walks readers through the core statistical categories for hitters (batting average, on-base percentage, etc.), pitchers (earned run average, strikeout-to-walk ratio, etc.), and fielders (putouts, errors, etc.). He then extrapolates upon these numbers to examine more advanced data groups like career averages, team stats, season-by-season comparisons, and more. Whether you're a mathematician, scientist, or season-ticket holder to your favorite team, Baseball Hacks is sure to have something for you. Advance praise for Baseball Hacks: "Baseball Hacks is the best book ever written for understanding and practicing baseball analytics. A must-read for baseball professionals and enthusiasts alike." -- Ari Kaplan, database consultant to the Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Baltimore Orioles "The game was born in the 19th century, but the passion for its analysis continues to grow into the 21st. In Baseball Hacks, Joe Adler not only demonstrates thatthe latest data-mining technologies have useful application to the study of baseball statistics, he also teaches the reader how to do the analysis himself, arming the dedicated baseball fan with tools to take his understanding of the game to a higher level." -- Mark E. Johnson, Ph.D., Founder, SportMetrika, Inc. and Baseball Analyst for the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals
Completely updated and expanded through the 2019 baseball season! In a game that has been our national pastime since the 1850s, there have been countless changes, additions and adaptations to the rules of baseball. But while the sport has altered considerably in recent years, its essence is still deeply rooted in its early history. Completely revised and updated through the 2019 baseball season, David Nemec has brought back into print his renowned book The Official Rules of Baseball Illustrated. Along with providing a thorough investigation into the rules of the game and how they came to be, Nemec explains the reasoning behind many of the modifications, both large and small, and in so doing furnishes numerous examples of the specific instances that led to a particular rule being created afresh, rewritten or excised from the rule book entirely. Whether we’re talking about the uproarious “Pine Tar Game,” harrowing home plate collisions, or the constant fine tuning through the years to maintain an equilibrium between hitting and pitching, fans of all ages are given a comprehensive handbook of the pivotal incidents that shaped the game as we know it today. But The Official Rules of Baseball Illustrated is much more than a textbook on the rules. It is rich with illustrative anecdotes throughout the game’s long history that feature many of baseball’s most famous players, umpires and teams as well as some of its most unsung. With photographs that help bring to life some of the movers and shakers in the ways the game has evolved over time, all fans of the sport will welcome adding this book to their libraries. As The Glory of Their Times author Lawrence S. Ritter said, “This is one of the most entertaining baseball books I have read in a very long time. Any baseball fan, young or old, will find it fun...”
Baserunning provides the instruction, techniques, and drills for developing essential skills, such as leading, base stealing, tagging up, and sliding. This comprehensive guide provides players and coaches with the secrets and strategies for all baserunning situations.
