An in-depth, comprehensive book from one of the best catching instructors in baseball. Illustrated with nearly 400 photos many of Major League catchers the book covers everything coaches and catchers at every level need to know in regard to stances, receiving, blocking, and throwing, with innovative drills for each skill, plus sophisticated pitch calling and game management material. And the book isn t just for catchers it is an excellent resource for anyone in baseball, from coaches to pitchers to other position players interested in bettering their overall game. -- Amazon.
A great overview for novices and a precise reference guide for devoted fans! Admit it: Even if you’re a die-hard fan of our national pastime, sometimes an umpire’s call can be baffling. And for newer fans, Major League Baseball’s nuanced rules—developed and revised over many decades—can be downright perplexing. Now updated throughout with the latest changes, including specifications about the universal designated hitter and limits on defensive shifts, the Baseball Field Guide lays out every rule in plain English. You’ll learn to answer all these questions and more: Do you know the twenty-two ways a pitcher can be charged with a balk? Can you list all seven ways a batter can safely get to first base? Obstruction or interference—who’s at fault when things get rough? What are the rules that apply before and after a game? What happens when spectators are the ones who misbehave? How well do you understand the infamous Infield Fly Rule (and why does it exist)? This is the clearest explanation anywhere of the rules of baseball. Designed for quick and intuitive searches, this entertaining reference will help you understand every aspect of the game and add to your enjoyment of the sport.
CATCHING-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers is the most comprehensive book ever written for baseball catchers. It contains tips, drills, and proper mechanics that will help every catcher or coach better understand the most difficult position on the field. This book contains information on EVERY aspect of catching that Coach Barksdale has learned through his years of experience from coaching nationally ranked NCAA teams, and playing at almost every level from Little League to professional baseball. A few of the topics covered in CATCHING-101 are: Receiving Blocking Catching Pop Flies Throwing Fielding Bunts Plays at Home Plate Drills Pitchouts Pass Balls/Wild Pitches Giving Signals And More! If you have been searching for a source with lots of high quality information about catching, this is the book for you! CATCHING-101 was written by Coach Xan Barksdale who is currently an NCAA Division I baseball coach and an ex-professional baseball player. Coach Barksdale played in the Atlanta Braves organization and has been a featured speaker at the prestigious ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) national convention.
With the aim of providing anyone interested in baseball scorekeeping everything he or she needs to perform the task, this book contains a thorough and comprehensive manual on keeping a scorecard, together with a detailed analysis of each of the numerous, and often complex, official rules governing scorekeeping in baseball (many of which were revised or modified in 2007), as well as scorekeeping issues outside of MLB's rulebook. Myriad examples are given (many drawn from significant and well-known major league games throughout the history of baseball as well as a number of examples drawn from popular culture) of how baseball's scorekeeping rules are applied and dealt with in both routine situations as well as the most difficult and convoluted scenarios. Revised and updated to reflect recent changes to the MLB rulebook, this book is very readable and perfectly accessible to a broad audience.
Updated for 2012, this leading annual provides in-depth analysis and statistics of 900 players, offers a detailed amateur draft report card, a list of the top 100 prospects, and a ranking of the Major League Baseball player development programs.
From Mark McGwire's comeback to "Neion" Deion Sanders' double life, this indispensable handbook for all types of fans, including rotisserie and fantasy league players, offers the most complete information available on all the teams--with a special introduction to MLB's newest teams, the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins.
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.
In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peack performance at every level of the game.
We all know that money won is twice as sweet as money earned, and there are plenty of books that will help you if you want to mortgage the house to take on the $30-$60 table at the Mirage or the Taj Mahal; but most of us are looking for a friendlier species of the game, a chance to test our luck in the enjoyable company of friends, and, if we are favored with good fortune and they are not, to really, really rub their noses in it. Dealer's Choice is the ultimate guide to the world of low stakes poker, where fun and bragging rights count as least as much as the final tally. Starting with the elementary principles every beginner will need to know before swimming with the sharks-betting, bluffing, and the hierarchy of hand values-Dealer's Choice also includes invaluable tips on how to host the perfect poker evening (the relative merits of chips versus coins, what food to serve) as well as fascinating sidebars (great poker hands in cinema, trivia, unspoken laws of the game) and hilarious profiles of archetypal poker characters-the kinds of oddball one is bound to encounter sooner or later across the green felt. Every conceivable variety of poker is discussed in each of its variants, from established favorites like Baseball and Follow the Queen to truly esoteric mutations of the authors' own invention such as Frankenstein, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Hamlet (i.e., Jacks are low, Queens are wild, Kings dead). Renowned illustrator Phil Foglio has enlivened the text with spectacular line drawings. With worldwide interest in poker at unprecedented peak, Dealer's Choice gives casual players the chance to re-create, right in their living rooms, the excitement of the World Series of Poker... except without the five million dollar jackpot-but pizza and beer aren't bad either.
This indispensable guide for all baseball fans is packed with scouting reports and player, manager, rookie profiles with more than 350 photos. It includes stats by the barrel along with schedules and rosters--plus features on Ken Griffey, Mike Piazza and Tony Gwynne.
