The author follows the exportation of baseball to Asia, revealing its deepening roots in Korea, the Philipines, mainland China, and Taiwan. Winner of the Jerry Malloy Book Prize.
Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book Awards 2022 A close look at how big money and high stakes have transformed youth sports, turning once healthy, fun activities for kids into all-consuming endeavors—putting stress on children and families alike Some 75% of American families want their kids to play sports. Athletics are training grounds for character, friendship, and connection; at their best, sports insulate kids from hardship and prepare them for adult life. But youth sports have changed so dramatically over the last 25 years that they no longer deliver the healthy outcomes everyone wants. Instead, unbeknownst to most parents, kids who play competitive organized sports are more likely to burn out or suffer from overuse injuries than to develop their characters or build healthy habits. What happened to kids' sports? And how can we make them fun again? In Take Back the Game, coach and journalist Linda Flanagan reveals how the youth sports industry capitalizes on parents’ worry about their kids’ futures, selling the idea that more competitive play is essential in the feeding frenzy over access to colleges and universities. Drawing on her experience as a coach and a parent, along with research and expert analysis, Flanagan delves into a national obsession that has: Compelled kids to specialize year-round in one sport. Increased the risk of both physical injury and mental health problems. Encouraged egregious behavior by coaches and parents. Reduced access to sports for low-income families. A provocative and timely entrant into a conversation thousands of parents are having on the sidelines, Take Back the Game uncovers how youth sports became a serious business, the consequences of raising the stakes for kids and parents alike--and the changes we need now.
In Taking in a Game, Joseph A. Reaves examines the development of baseball in Korea, the Philippines, Mainland China, and Taiwan, as well as the more widely known story of baseball in Japan. In this entertaining and informed account, Reaves covers everything from baseball in Qing Dynasty China in the nineteenth century to the 2000 Sydney Olympics bronze-medal match between Japan and Korea. Reaves guides the reader through a history of Asian baseball, the cultures that surround it, and the future of what has become a great Asian game.
Porchlight’s Best Leadership & Strategy Book of The Year An inspiring memoir from the CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods that is “not only entertaining but will be of great value to any entrepreneur” (Phil Knight, New York Times bestselling author of Shoe Dog). It’s How We Play the Game shows how a trailblazing business was created by giving back to the community and by taking principled, and sometimes controversial, stands—including against the type of weapons that are too often used in mass shootings and other tragedies. Ed Stack’s memoir tells the story of a complicated founder and an ambitious son—one who transformed a business by making it about more than business, conceiving it as a force for good in the communities it serves. In 1948, Ed Stack’s father started Dick’s Bait and Tackle in Binghamton, New York. Ed Stack bought the business from his father in 1984, and grew it into the largest sporting goods retailer in the country, with 800 locations and close to $9 billion in sales. The transformation Ed wrought wasn’t easy: economic headwinds nearly toppled the chain twice. But DICK’s support for embattled youth sports programs earned the stores surprising loyalty, and the company won even more attention when, in the wake of yet another school shooting—at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—it chose to become the first major retailer to pull all semi-automatic weapons from its shelves, raise the age of gun purchase to twenty-one, and, most strikingly, destroy the assault-style-type rifles then in its inventory. With vital lessons for anyone running a business and eye-opening reflections about what a company owes the people it serves, It’s How We Play the Game is “a compelling narrative…In a genre that can frequently be staid, Mr. Stack’s corporate biography is deeply personal…[Features] surprising openness [and] interesting and humorous anecdotes” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
Winning at competitive games requires a results-oriented mindset that many players are simply not willing to adopt. This book walks players through the entire process: how to choose a game and learn basic proficiency, how to break through the mental barriers that hold most players back, and how to handle the issues that top players face. It also includes a complete analysis of Sun Tzu's book The Art of War and its applications to games of today. These foundational concepts apply to virtually all competitive games, and even have some application to "real life." Trade paperback. 142 pages.
THIS NATIONAL BESTSELLER IS NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK! UPDATED TO INCLUDE CROSBY'S RECORD-BREAKING 2006-2007 SEASON! When the Pittsburgh Penguins won the right to select first overall in the 2005 NHL draft, there was no doubt who they would pick - Sidney Crosby, the most celebrated junior hockey player since Mario Lemieux. Sidney Crosby was first to win Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in the Canadian junior ranks, and first to win consecutive Player of the Year awards At age 16, he became the youngest Canadian player to score in the World Junior Hockey Championships. At 17, he recorded an astonishing 168 points in 62 games, leading his Rimouski team to the Memorial Cup. And in 2005, while not yet 18, Crosby landed a lucrative contract with Reebok, placing him in the same athletic stratosphere as Wayne Gretzky and Tiger Woods. But how did a kid from Nova Scotia come to stand alone on draft day as the NHL's undisputed No. 1 pick? And how did a budding teenage superstar cope with the growing pressures of being dubbed "the next Wayne Gretzky"? In this exciting hockey biography, award-winning sports journalist Gare Joyce retraces the incredible journey of hockey's wunderkind from age-group hockey in Nova Scotia to draft day with Mario Lemieux and his Pittsburgh Penguins. From Halifax to the Czech Republic, Minnesota to Quebec City and all places in between, Joyce explores the making of hockey's brightest star and all the obstacles this amazing young man overcame in pursuit of his dreams. In 2003, Wayne Gretzky was asked if there was one player out there who might one day break his records. He responded "Yes, Sidney Crosby. He's the best player I've seen since Mario (Lemieux)." Gare Joyce's riveting biography of hockey's 18-year-old sensation, retraces Crosby's incredible journey from the lacing up of his first pair of skates to his outstanding first season in the League. Joyce explores the making of a superstar and all of the obstacles this amazing athlete overcame in pursuit of his dreams.
A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.
Batter up with a Sesame Street version of a beloved baseball song—with stkckers, baseball trading cards, and a team poster! It's the seventh-inning stretch as Elmo and his friends watch the Sesame Street Sluggers play baseball. As Elmo takes the mic, the crowd joins in to sing a very special—and very funny—Sesame Street version of the beloved song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." When it starts to rain, new verses are added to keep the crowd singing. Girls and boys ages 3 to 7 can read and sing along with Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Oscar, Zoe, and Abby Cadabby as they wait for the game to begin again. This paperback storybook scores extra hits with press-out baseball trading cards, stickers, and a fold-out Sluggers team poster!
Cheering fans! The race for home plate! Double plays! Triple plays! All-American Little League baseball! Nicholas loves to play it. His dad loves to coach it. What they don't love is getting clobbered every year by the Dodgers. This year, its payback time, The Eastfield Braves are going to get even--because this year they have a secret weapon: Thurman Miller! Thirteen-year-old Thurman--a miniature Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Godzilla all rolled into one--can pitch like lightening and hit a ball so hard it goes into orbit! So look out, Dodgers! Nick and his dad are determined the Braves will win. After all, with Thurman on their team, they can't lose.
The definitive introduction to game theory This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the principal ideas and applications of game theory, in a style that combines rigor with accessibility. Steven Tadelis begins with a concise description of rational decision making, and goes on to discuss strategic and extensive form games with complete information, Bayesian games, and extensive form games with imperfect information. He covers a host of topics, including multistage and repeated games, bargaining theory, auctions, rent-seeking games, mechanism design, signaling games, reputation building, and information transmission games. Unlike other books on game theory, this one begins with the idea of rationality and explores its implications for multiperson decision problems through concepts like dominated strategies and rationalizability. Only then does it present the subject of Nash equilibrium and its derivatives. Game Theory is the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Throughout, concepts and methods are explained using real-world examples backed by precise analytic material. The book features many important applications to economics and political science, as well as numerous exercises that focus on how to formalize informal situations and then analyze them. Introduces the core ideas and applications of game theory Covers static and dynamic games, with complete and incomplete information Features a variety of examples, applications, and exercises Topics include repeated games, bargaining, auctions, signaling, reputation, and information transmission Ideal for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students Complete solutions available to teachers and selected solutions available to students