In baseball, injuries to players fall into two main categories: overuse and traumatic. Over 162 games, repetitive pitching and batting motions and the stress of base running can damage joints, bones, and soft tissues, making overuse injuries the most common. Traumatic injuries like beanings, sliding injuries, and concussions, while less frequent, add to the DL list each year. This work explores the various types of injuries in baseball and provides case studies of individual player injuries to demonstrate the cause of injuries, the different treatment options, and the effect of injuries on a player's career. Throughout, discussions show the link between injuries and innovations in the game, like the batting helmet and padded outfield walls, and innovations in medicine, such as Tommy John surgery.
Comparing major league players has always been a popular topic among baseball fans. Debating the strengths and weaknesses of such greats as Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, or Tom Seaver and Greg Maddux continues to stir up controversy among fans eager to champion their heroes. In Baseball’s Top 10, Bob Kuenster has compiled a ranking of the game’s best players by position, highlighting the achievements of nearly 300 individuals. In addition to the top 10, Kuenster includes Honorable Mentions—players who were considered but didn’t make the final list—and Dishonorable Mentions—players who were left off the rankings due to alleged steroid and performance enhancing drug use. Drawing upon original interviews conducted by the author, this ranking reveals the best players in major league history as seen through the eyes of former players, managers, and announcers. Player entries include biographical information, individual achievements, stats, and quotes. Organized by position—first base, second base, third base, shortstop, left field, center field, right field, catcher, designated hitters, multi-position players, right-handed starting pitchers, left-handed starting pitchers, and closers—280 outstanding players made the cut as the most elite pitchers, hitters, and fielders in MLB history. Baseball’s Top 10 features interviews with some of baseball’s greatest personalities—including players who have since passed, such as Al Lopez, Bob Feller, Stan Musial, Lou Boudreau, Andy Pafko, Ron Santo, Harry Caray and Harry Kalas. With over 50 photographs and a comprehensive list of suggested titles for further reading, this book is sure to interest baseball fans and historians who love to debate the many outstanding players who have appeared in the major leagues.
This book comprehensively reviews soft tissue, bone, ligament, and nerve injury of the hand and wrist unique to baseball. Organized into three sections, the book begins with a discussion on fractures of the hand and wrist, including the distal radius, scaphoid, and phalanges. Following this, section two examines ligament injuries from the wrist to the thumb. Section three then concludes the book with an analysis of tendon and nerve injuries. Chapters include high-quality images and tables to supplement expertly written text. Unique and thorough, Hand and Wrist Injuries in Baseball is an invaluable resource for orthopedics surgeons and sports medicine specialists, as well as primary care physicians, emergency room physicians, pediatricians, athletic trainers, and therapists.
Edd Roush was once ejected from a game for falling asleep in the outfield. Dan Friend played left field while dressed in a bathrobe. Outfielder Len Koenecke was killed attempting history’s first skyjacking. Pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich swapped not only their wives but also their children, station wagons, and pets. Baseball history is brimming with the weird, the bizarre, and the hard to believe. Baseball's Most Wanted™chronicles 700 of the most outlandish players, managers, and owners throughout baseball history. Its seventy lists describe in humorous detail baseball’s top-ten inept players, strange plays, bad practical jokes, bizarre nicknames, murderers, politicians, Don Juans, unusual contracts, notable nicknames, curses, worst trades, freak injuries, unsolved mysteries, least-known records, and more. Many of these anecdotes have been published here for the first time.
You're a man. You love facts. Facts amuse you. The more trivial the better. The most important things in the world - sport, cars, gadgets, beer, meat - come together in this unbeatable collection of lists to feed your manly desire for knowledge and trivia. Discover vital facts and stats on the world's fastest cars, deadliest weapons, shortest football players and strongest drinks, and then wow everyone you know with your findings.
Over baseball history, which park has been the best for run scoring? (1) Which player would lose the most home runs after adjustments for ballpark effect? (2) Which player claims four of the top five places for best individual seasons ever played, based on all-around offensive performance? (3) (See answers, below). These are only three of the intriguing questions Michael Schell addresses in Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers, a lively examination of the game of baseball using the most sophisticated statistical tools available. The book provides an in-depth evaluation of every major offensive event in baseball history, and identifies the players with the 100 best seasons and most productive careers. For the first time ever, ballpark effects across baseball history are presented for doubles, triples, right- and left-handed home-run hitting, and strikeouts. The book culminates with a ranking of the game's best all-around batters. Using a brisk conversational style, Schell brings to the plate the two most important credentials essential to producing a book of this kind: an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and a professional background in statistics. Building on the traditions of renowned baseball historians Pete Palmer and Bill James, he has analyzed the most important factors impacting the sport, including the relative difficulty of hitting in different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool from which players are drawn, player aging, and changes in the game that have raised or lowered major-league batting averages. Schell's book finally levels the playing field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions, and downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. It also provides rankings based on players' positions. For example, Derek Jeter ranks 295th out of 1,140 on the best batters list, but jumps to 103rd in the position-adjusted list, reflecting his offensive prowess among shortstops. Replete with dozens of never-before reported stories and statistics, Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers will forever shape the way baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national pastime. Answers: 1. Coors Field 2. Mel Ott 3. Barry Bonds, 2001–2004 seasons
Sports Medicine of Baseball includes all-encompassing coverage of the evaluation and treatment of common problems encountered in baseball players at all levels of competition. A large portion of the book focuses on shoulder and elbow problems, given the high number of shoulder and elbow injuries that affect baseball players. The text will also cover lower extremity injuries, spine conditions, and common medical problems that may be encountered. Of special interest to athletic trainers, topics such as different training regimens for in-season versus off-season workouts and tailoring throwing programs for relievers and starters is given particular attention.
From its colorful beginnings more than a century ago, baseball's annual Most Valuable Player Award has become the most prestigious (and contentious) individual honor in the sport. No accolade means more to players, fans or the media. No other award can claim a voting history so rich in alleged snubs, grudges, conspiracies and incompetence. Examining the most controversial ballots, this book attempts to settle some arguments and answer some compelling questions: Which of the so-called "worst MVPs" holds up to modern statistical analysis? Who cast the single worst vote in MVP history? Does racial bias influence the vote? Who really deserved the award in a given year?
Tony Gwynn is the greatest hitter in the history of baseball. That's the conclusion of this engaging and provocative analysis of baseball's all-time best hitters. Michael Schell challenges the traditional list of all-time hitters, which places Ty Cobb first, Gwynn 16th, and includes just 8 players whose prime came after 1960. Schell argues that the raw batting averages used as the list's basis should be adjusted to take into account that hitters played in different eras, with different rules, and in different ballparks. He makes those adjustments and produces a new list of the best 100 hitters that will spark debate among baseball fans and statisticians everywhere. Schell combines the two qualifications essential for a book like this. He is a professional statistician--applying his skills to cancer research--and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball. He has wondered how to rank hitters since he was a boy growing up as a passionate Cincinnati Reds fan. Over the years, he has analyzed the most important factors, including the relative difficulty of hitting in different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool that players are drawn from, and changes in the game that raised or lowered major-league batting averages (the introduction of the designated hitter and changes in the height and location of the pitcher's mound, for example). Schell's study finally levels the playing field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions and downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. His final ranking of players differs dramatically from the traditional list. Gwynn, for example, bumps Cobb to 2nd place, Rod Carew rises from 28th to 3rd, Babe Ruth drops from 9th to 16th, and Willie Mays comes from off the list to rank 13th. Schell's list also gives relatively more credit to modern players, containing 39 whose best days were after 1960. Using a fun, conversational style, the book presents a feast of stories and statistics about players, ballparks, and teams--all arranged so that calculations can be skipped by general readers but consulted by statisticians eager to follow Schell's methods or introduce their students to such basic concepts as mean, histogram, standard deviation, p-value, and regression. Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters will shake up how baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national pastime.
