On deck and ready for your reading lineup, New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Brian Lies’s ode to “batty” baseball fans. You think humans are the only ones who enjoy America’s national pastime? Grab your bat—the other kind—and your mitt, because it’s a whole new ballgame when evening falls and bats come fluttering from the rafters to watch their all-stars compete. Get set to be transported to the right-side-up and upside-down world of bats at play, as imagined and illustrated by bestselling author-illustrator Brian Lies. Hurry up! Come one—come all! We’re off to watch the bats play ball!
The Precolumbian ballgame, played on a masonry court, has long intrigued scholars because of the magnificence of its archaeological remains. From its lowland Maya origins it spread throughout the Aztec empire, where the game was so popular that sixteen thousand rubber balls were imported annually into Tenochtitlan. It endured for two thousand years, spreading as far as to what is now southern Arizona. This new collection of essays brings together research from field archaeology, mythology, and Maya hieroglyphic studies to illuminate this important yet puzzling aspect of Native American culture. The authors demonstrate that the game was more than a spectator sport; serving social, political, mythological, and cosmological functions, it celebrated both fertility and the afterlife, war and peace, and became an evolving institution functioning in part to resolve conflict within and between groups. The contributors provide complete coverage of the archaeological, sociopolitical, iconographic, and ideological aspects of the game, and offer new information on the distribution of ballcourts, new interpretations of mural art, and newly perceived relations of the game with material in the Popol Vuh. With its scholarly attention to a subject that will fascinate even general readers, The Mesoamerican Ballgame is a major contribution to the study of the mental life and outlook of New World peoples.
A grandmother takes her two granddaughters to a ballgame. Includes music and text to the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (words by Jack Norworth; music by Albert von Tilzer).
When we think of baseball, we think of sunny days and leisurely outings at the ballpark--rarely do thoughts of death come to mind. Yet during the game's history, hundreds of players, coaches and spectators have died while playing or watching the National Pastime. In its second edition, this ground-breaking study provides the known details for 150 years of game-related deaths, identifies contributing factors and discusses resulting changes to game rules, protective equipment, crowd control and stadium structures and grounds. Topics covered include pitched and batted-ball fatalities, weather and field condition accidents, structural failures, fatalities from violent or risky behavior and deaths from natural causes.
No parent is ever ready for a terminal diagnosis of their child. No mother should see the day where turning off your son's ventilator is the only option to end his pain. And no grandfather should see the day when your grandchild is scheduled to die in his mother's arms. But on September 10, 2005, this was the harsh reality facing our family, and this was the day we’d never forget. I am no pastor; nor a preacher. I am no miracle worker, nor a missionary. I am a struggling husband, a decent father, a survivor of brutal child abuse, and from the miraculous survival and extraordinary life of a Progeria child, I am a believer saved by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ. In A Short Season: Faith, Family, and a Boy's Love for Baseball, Dave Bohner, the story’s narrator and Grandfather to Josiah, and Jake Gronsky, former professional baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals organization, tell the powerful story of Josiah Viera’s fight for life that not only sparked a family's journey towards healing but inspired a generation of baseball players from one of the most historic organizations in Major League Baseball. A Short Season is a story of hope; a story of acceptance; and a story of faith based on the idea that sometimes a person’s only journey to peace is first trekked through pain. A Short Season is a family’s journey through sorrow and joy, it is a baseball team’s inspiration, and it is the story of one exceptional child’s ray of hope that changed all of their lives forever.
It makes sense: Kids, balls, bouncing, laughter, and fun all go together. And in Having a Ball: Stability Ball Games, author John Byl shows you how to get kids bouncing, laughing, moving, and having great fun--all as they improve their fitness skills. Having a Ball features -73 stability ball games, with variations, that teach balance and coordination; -a great variety of challenges, races, relays, and team games for all participants; -a game finder that helps you quickly find the right activity for your group; and -games that work for youth in fitness centers, schools, park departments--wherever it is you work with kids. The book is organized into seven chapters based on the nature of the activities and the number of players involved. There are games for partners working together to complete a challenge; for individuals, pairs, or groups to complete tasks as quickly as possible; and relays involving teams of three or four players each. There are also chase games, games for larger groups, and activities that pit two teams against each other. Each game lists an objective and notes the equipment, number of players, and setup required. Instructions take you sequentially through explaining the game to your players. The games come with variations, and you and your players are encouraged to add to those variations to make the games work best for your particular situation. Whether you're using these games in a fitness center, recreation program, or school, they'll be a hit with kids because the games are a blast--and using nontraditional equipment helps to level the playing field so everyone gets to participate equally.
Renowned NFL analysts' tips to make football more accessible, colorful, and compelling than ever before More and more football fans are watching the NFL each week, but many of them don't know exactly what they should be watching. What does the offense's formation tell you about the play that's about to be run? When a quarterback throws a pass toward the sideline and the wide receiver cuts inside, which player is to blame? Why does a defensive end look like a Hall of Famer one week and a candidate for the practice squad the next? These questions and more are addressed in Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0, a book that takes readers deep inside the perpetual chess match between offense and defense. This book provides clear and simple explanations to the intricacies and nuances that affect the outcomes of every NFL game. This updated edition contains recent innovations from the 2015 NFL season.
