Photographs of professional players in action as well as step-by-step guides to drills for performing specific positions combine to provide advice and instruction designed to help improve how the game is played.
It is widely, and wrongly, assumed that books are never so valuable as when they lie unopened before us, waiting to be read. Good books bear multiple readings, and not merely because our memories fail us; the desire to repeat a good reading experience can be its own powerful motivation. And for bibliophiles, books can also be works of art, physical objects with an aesthetic value all their own. This guide for the book-loving baseball fan is written by one of the most knowledgeable collectors in the country, author and editor Mike Shannon. Beginning with a history of baseball books and collecting, it also identifies the most sought-after titles and explains how to find them, what to pay, and how to maintain their condition.
This annotated bibliography covers approximately 400 novels published from 1838 through 2007. A substantial introduction to the history and development of the genre precedes the chronologically arranged entries, which provide bibliographic details and extensive annotations on plot, themes, and compositional strengths and weaknesses. Mainstream novels by writers such as Hemingway, Wolfe, Roth, and DeLillo are included. Appendices provide historical overviews for the primary baseball subgenres, including mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction; lists for novels that foreground issues of race or ethnicity (or both, as in Winegardner's Vera Cruz Blues), gender (Gilbert's A League of Their Own), and class (Hay's The Dixie Association); and the author's rankings of great baseball novels overall and by subgenre.
Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.
From the genesis of baseball in the 1840s, when so-called "kranks" cheered the teams of their choice, fans have been an ever-present component of the sport. As the number of fans has increased over the years, their influence has increased proportionally. Following the evolution of the game and its fans over more than a century, this book examines the role fans have played in the formation of modern baseball and the part the sport has played in the lives of its devotees. How have fans influenced, reacted to, or been affected by baseball's changes through history? How do fans determine player popularity? Are there famous fans--and how do they manifest that interest? How has the evolution of baseball in the media, including newspapers, radio, and television, affected the fan base? The answers to these questions and more give a lively feel to this baseball history from a fan's perspective. The final chapter sums up the fan's importance to the sport of baseball.
No sports fans are more in touch with the history and ephemera of their game than baseball fans. Hitting the sweet spot of our national pastime, The Baseball Fans Bucket List presents a list of 162 absolute must things to do, see, get, and experience before you kick the bucket. Entries range from visiting Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ (site of the first pro baseball game), to starting a baseball card collection; experiencing Opening Day; attending your favorite teams Fantasy Camp; reading classic books like Ball Four, and much more! Each entry includes interesting facts, entertaining trivia, and practical information about the activity, item, or travel destination. Also included is a complete checklist so the reader can keep a running tally of their Bucket-List achievements. With todays tabloid stories of steroid abuse and off-the-field shenanigans encroaching on baseballs idyllic charm, this unique guidebook encourages readers to celebrate all thats good about being a fan.
No sport's fans are more in touch with the history and ephemera of their game than baseball fans. Hitting the sweet spot of our national pastime, The Baseball Fan's Bucket List presents a list of 162 ''absolute must'' things to do, see, get, and experience before you kick the bucket. Entries range from visiting Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ (site of the first pro baseball game), to starting a baseball card collection; experiencing Opening Day; attending your favorite team's Fantasy Camp; reading classic books like Ball Four, and much more! Each entry includes interesting facts, entertaining trivia, and practical information about the activity, item, or travel destination. Also included is a complete checklist so the reader can keep a running tally of their Bucket-List achievements. With today's tabloid stories of steroid abuse and off-the-field shenanigans encroaching on baseball's idyllic charm, this unique guidebook encourages readers to celebrate all that's good about being a fan.
THE ULTIMATE BASEBALL BOOK has more than lived up to its name. Spanning the complete history of the sport from the fledgling leagues in the late 1870s to the powerhouses of the 1990s and revealing in the process what a remarkable effect baseball has had on our collective experience, this is THE book for any and all baseball fans, certain to grace coffee and bedside tables alike. Designed with that wonderful nostalgia that the sport itself so often evokes, THE ULTIMATE BASEBALL BOOK combines timeless images with a sweeping narrative history as well as essays on various idols and icons by such heavy hitters as Red Smith, Wilfrid Sheed, Roy Blount, Jr., Tom Wicker, and Geoge Will. This new edition covers baseball through the nineties, the decade when home run records fell and the sport reclaimed its hold on America, and celebrates the national game in ultimate style.
This newest edition to the long-running Everything Kids’ Baseball series updated with current information on the 2018 and 2019 baseball seasons, refreshed bios, and an expanded look at fantasy baseball is “everything you want in a kid’s book” (Associated Press). Now you can introduce young fans to the fun, action, and excitement of America’s favorite pastime with this all-inclusive, updated edition of The Everything Kids’ Baseball Book. Featuring dozens of puzzles and games, this edition has up-to-date stats for all of your favorite players and teams. Get to know the best star players today, learn the rules and history of the game, and start to develop your own baseball skills—from t-ball to the World Series—with this comprehensive guide to the entertaining world of baseball. Covering everything you need to know, this book is sure to be a grand slam for kids and parents alike!
Ever since there has been a professional game, baseball fans have enjoyed debating comparisons of one player to another--both contemporaries and players across various eras in the sport's history. The Baseball Same Game adds to those debates. However, rather than focus on the traditional "Who's better?" arguments (such as "Mantle or Mays?" or "Ruth or Aaron?") The Baseball Same Game takes on the particular cases of "Which players were the same?" Unique baseball metrics--apart from those common and conventional baseball statistics that one would typically see on the back of a player's bubble gum card--are used to analyze career performance. And, The Baseball Same Game gives consideration to relativity when comparing statistics of baseball players from different eras in the game. Which baseball all-time greats were the same in terms of their relative performance? Who are the recently retired players that match-up to the stars of baseball's past? What players not in the Baseball Hall of Fame measure up to those already in the Hall? The Baseball Same Game provides these answers and more.