Showing titles in Baseball & Softball

When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries. Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four.

Pop and Will talk about the Jets and Yankees every week (among other things).

The perfect gift for the diehard fan, an enviable treasure for yourself, The Ultimate Yankee Book is the most current and comprehensive source of trivia, people, and stories from the team's creation in 1901 to today. Harvey Frommer, the celebrated baseball historian and author of eight books about the Yankees, including The New York Yankee Encyclopedia and Remembering Yankee Stadium, has outdone himself this time around.  

The official daily MLB podcast from Baseball Nation Network. Every morning, we break down everything that happened across Major League Baseball — and why it matters. Each episode delivers a fast, smart, baseball-first briefing: last night's scores and standout performances, the storylines shaping the day, a "Did You Know?" deep cut from baseball history, and a look ahead at what's coming tonight. What Happened. Why It Matters. What's Next. New episodes drop daily at 4 AM ET.

When Sports Illustrated was launched in 1954, baseball was, indisputable, the national pastime, its stars America's epic heroes, its rivalries the era's mythology. As baseballs fortunes rose and fell over the next 50 years - and then rose again to new heights, drawing more than 65 million fans to ballparks in 2004 - the game never failed to produce great drama and inspired storytelling.

The Kansas City Monarchs, the Chicago American Giants, the St. Louis Stars, the Birmingham Black Barons, the Homestead Grays, and the Indianapolis Clowns; for over 50 years, they were the Yankees, Cardinals, and Red Sox of black baseball in America. And for over a decade beginning in the late 1940s, umpire Bob Motley called balls and strikes for many of their games, working alongside such legends as Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year “An instant sports classic.” —New York Post * “Stellar.” —The Wall Street Journal * “A true masterwork…880 pages of sheer baseball bliss.” —BookPage (starred review) * “This is a...

The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions - for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music - O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.

From the unapologetic bad boy of professional golf comes a rip-roaring account of his rollercoaster life and career From his battles with alcoholism and gambling addiction to marital problems (his fourth and current wife is facing money-laundering charges) and a highly publicized breakdown...

In The Ballpark and Beyond, Radom takes listeners on a captivating journey across 150 years of baseball history, weaving together little-known anecdotes, aesthetic curiosities, and the human drama that makes the sport timeless. Here are the tales of ornate nineteenth-century stadiums that looked like castles, the rowdy Baltimore Orioles who pioneered “inside baseball,” and the quirky pillbox caps and mascots that defined whole eras.

Loose Balls is, after all these years, the definitive and most widely respected history of the ABA. It's a wild ride through some of the wackiest, funniest, strangest times ever to hit pro sports -- told entirely through the (often incredible) words of those who played, wrote and connived their way through the league's nine seasons.

A succinct history of baseball, newly revised and updated. In this third edition of his lively history of America's game, widely recognized as the best of its kind, Benjamin G. Rader expands his scope, covering record crowds and record income, construction of new ballparks, a change in the strike zone, a surge in recruiting Japanese players, and an emerging cadre of explosive long-ball hitters. The book is published by The University of Illinois Press.

Every time you watch baseball, you’re watching more than just a game - you’re participating in the latest chapter of a compelling story. What began as the earliest bat-and-ball games became the favorite American pastime of the first 19th-century baseball games. Knowing how baseball came to be what it is today will add levels of enjoyment, respect, and appreciation to any game you watch.

Let me tell the story of how I fell in love with a woman who had no idea that we were even dating. The ridiculousness started when she stole my beer, and trust me, my grumpy self doesn’t normally share. But somehow, Avery Wilson is the exception to every one of my many rules. Unfortunately, I’m not hers. Not only is she the daughter of the Rev’s coach who hates me, she’s also sworn off dating for the year.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER From The New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today...

Considered one of the best baseball novels of all time, this black comedy about a discontented businessman's obsession with a fantasy baseball league of his own creation is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" meets William Gaddis meets John Updike's Rabbit, Run. Somewhere in a "major-league" American city, there lives a man named J. Henry Waugh—no-account accountant, barfly, and country music fan.

From World Sports Headquarters in historic Bristol, Connecticut, comes the audiobook that's more colorful than Dennis Rodman's hair. For the first time, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick, the tag-team partners of ESPN's award winning Sportscenter, bring what People magazine calls their...

From the #1 NYT bestselling author often called the greatest living sportswriter, a countdown of the 50 greatest and most magical seasons in baseball history. Joe Posnanski is the go-to writer in sports, and Fifty Seasons delivers a joyful, stirring look at baseball moments and miracles that...

An unforgettable novel about childhood, family, conflict and guilt from America's greatest storyteller John Grisham. Thirty years have passed since eleven-year-old Paul Tracy watched his troubled father, Warren, a pitcher for the New York Mets, clash with his childhood hero, the Cubs' golden-boy...